Archive for October 2012
On Blackberries and Early Voting: The Tyranny of Rising Expectations
Voters across Ohio will be able to cast early votes the weekend before Election Day, thanks to a Supreme Court order and a Secretary of State directive. Why, then, isn’t everyone happy? Blackberry owners might be able to give you a clue.
Read MoreNew Pew Dispatch Tallies Online Voter Registration Traffic in Six States
Pew’s latest Election Data Dispatch describes the national move toward online voter registration and finds that nearly 300,000 new voters in six states have recently added their names to the rolls using online registration.
Read MoreTwo More "Big-Little" Issues for Election Officials in Ohio Provisional Ballots Case
The latest federal appeals court decision on Ohio provisional ballots raises two “big-little” issues for election officials facing the “right church, wrong pew” issue in 2012 and beyond.
Read MoreNew Report Says 2012 Presidential Primary Turnout Down; Should Election Geeks Worry?
A new Bipartisan Policy Center report suggests that voter turnout was down during the 2012 presidential primaries. That’s obviously a problem for America; is it a problem for America’s election officials?
Read MoreThere is No Small Stuff (cont.): Chisnell on Allen County, Ohio Ballot Design
Allen County (Lima), Ohio’s saga of ballot design and printing – shared by CivicDesigning’s Dana Chisnell – is a snapshot of the kind of things that have to happen in order for elections to come together.
Read MoreOne Person's Delay, Another's Due Process: Ohio Early Voting Case Reaches Supreme Court
Ohio’s Secretary of State has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay a ruling allowing early voting the weekend before Election Day. Not everyone likes the action – and I don’t like pre-election uncertainty – but the case has to be allowed to reach a full conclusion.
Read MoreAbsentee, Mail Ballots Pose Different, But Not Necessarily New Challenges for Election Administration
A recent New York Times piece on absentee voting and vote-by-mail identifies real challenges associated with the shift away from polling places. I’m not sure those challenges are unique – nor that voters can be persuaded to return.
Read MoreHoney, I Shrunk The Precinct: Louisiana Deals With Voting Machine Shortage as "Micro-Precincts" Proliferate
Louisiana has always been a little bit different. Now, following local redistricting, some precincts are so small that they have as few as one voter – and are stretching voting machine inventories painfully thin.
Read MoreElection Day, Election Changes and "Cicada Voters"
Believe it or not, not everyone – let alone every voter – keeps track of the myriad changes in elections. Figuring out how to help “cicada voters” who’ve forgotten the details while leading their lives is an important task in the run-up to Election Day.
Read MorePennsylvania Court Puts ID Back Into Voter ID
Yesterday’s voter ID decision in Pennsylvania is important because it looks past theoretical (and political) debates about voter ID to address the real (and manageable) problem of getting ID to eligible voters who don’t have it.
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