Archive for 2012

An October 2011 GAO report concludes vote-by-mail wouldn’t generate enough revenue to help the U.S. Postal Service. Interesting – but it begs the question of what the nation’s election officials (who rely heavily on election mail) would do without a fully-functioning Postal Service.

South Carolina’s January 21 presidential primary spawned lots of storylines, but this morning let’s take note of one that hasn’t emerged (at least not yet) – stories of problems with the voting process.

The emerging story about who really “won” the GOP Iowa caucuses raises the question of when – and why – and election can be considered “over.” While election results aren’t instantaneous, timeliness of official returns is likely to become more important as demand intensifies for news of an election’s outcome on the contests and questions of the day.

A recent USA Today article on early and absentee voting includes some helpful reminders about what make those procedures special – and what impact they could have on elections in 2012.

ElectionDiary – a blog by Kansas election professional Brian Newby – is an exciting new addition to the world of election administration. Its debut is just timely enough to ease the sting of the demise of @EACGov, the Twitter stream that has fallen silent with the departure Jeannie Layson, the agency’s queen of social media.

A new article suggests that using e-mail to direct voters to online registration forms may not yield the expected benefit because of the “cost of convenience.” This post looks at that study – and its conclusions about what states and localities can do to use technology to boost participation.

A new story about potential dead voters in South Carolina is likely to set tongues wagging given that state’s pending lawsuit over voter ID. But Loyola’s Justin Levitt thinks we should first let the data finish what it has to say.

A new article by Berkeley’s Phillip Stark and David Wagner proposes a new approach to voting technology – one which could make the increasingly problematic testing and certification process unnecessary in the wake of a new, evidence-based regime.

The Overseas Vote Foundation will be hosting its Sixth Annual Summit on January 27 in Washington, DC – it’s a must-see for anyone interested in military and overseas voting.

New data highlighted in a recent Pew Dispatch suggests that less-populous counties are more likely to have higher per-voter costs simply because they have fewer voters.