Archive for 2018

With election security efforts humming along at the state and local level, Congress could (at long last)  join the work this week with amendments to the Department of Homeland Security re-authorization bill. Here’s hoping this amendment means Congress will (finally!) get off the sidelines and into the election security game.

Two key state election jobs have new occupants this week in the wake of the announcement that Ed Buchanan is the new Secretary of State in Wyoming and Meagan Wolfe is the new election director in Wisconsin. Both of their appointments are an indication that the process in both states is returning to some semblance of normal.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday in Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky, the case challenging the state’s rules against political apparel in polling places as a violation of the First Amendment. SCOTUSBlog’s Amy Howe has the roundup.

Wisconsin state election director Mike Haas stepped down from his post yesterday, seeking to help the state election commission get on a normal footing for the 2018 elections and put an end to a partisan dispute with the state legislature about the agency’s leadership.

The State of Ohio has made the decision to upgrade its voting equipment in advance of the 2020 presidential election. Now comes the hard part: figuring out how to share the cost.

I was surprised (and more than a little discouraged) late last week to see some potentially disappointing news about the future composition of the EAC. But, having taken the weekend to “count to ten,” I have concluded that despite the news, nothing has changed my overall view: optimism.

NCSL’s Wendy Underhill and her colleague Katy Owens Hubler from Democracy Research LLC have a guest piece in the latest electionlineWeekly summarizing their new report The Price of Democracy: Splitting the Bill for Elections. It’s an excellent overview of the issue of election costs, highlighting both its importance and the challenges involved in arriving at a fixed figure.

This past weekend, state election officials were in town for the NASS and NASED winter meetings. Along with the usual discussions, however, there was a new feature: classified security briefings from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other intelligence agencies.

Last week, the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government released an election cybersecurity playbook for state and local election officials. The document is absolutely jam-packed with information and advice on this critical issue – with the most important top-level information included in a list of “10 best practices that apply to all election systems.”

Back in January, I wrote about a proposed new law in Idaho that would eliminate gender information on state voter registration forms. electionline’s Mindy Moretti decided to take that one step further and see what the status of the issue is nationwide – and it’s the subject of her piece in the latest electionlineWeekly.