Archive for 2012

Recent stories out of Illinois about misaligned optical scan ballots are a vivid reminder of the tyranny of little things in election administration.

New Florida data cited in the latest Election Data Dispatch from Pew suggests that HAVA’s mandate of one accessible voting machine per polling place isn’t working. It may be time to look for another approach that actually assists disable voters in casting a ballot.

I’m participating today in a roundtable on the clearinghouse function of the EAC. Looking forward to a conversation about the value of data to election administration and the role the federal government can play in making such data available.

Recent developments in the voter ID debate – which are bringing the Voting Rights Act and state constitutions under scrutiny – have the potential to have a much greater impact on American elections than simply whether voters show ID at the polls.

Miss Vermont 2011 Katie Levasseur was central to the effort to give 17-year-olds in Vermont the opportunity to vote – a journey that started as a Statehouse intern and continues to this day. Moreover, she’s living proof that there is no typical election geek.

The St. Charles, MO County Executive recently vetoed a $1.2 million voting machine contract because there was only one bidder – the one bidder certified to bid on the contract. The certification system may need fixing, but better information about who pays what might be even more useful in the short term.

Pam Fessler’s latest NPR story focuses on a Tea Party-supported effort by citizen groups to identify potential irregularities on the voter rolls. While this project will certainly raise fears of voter suppression, it also holds out promise for providing feedback to election officials.

The ongoing debate over voter ID is beginning to produce something new: data. It isn’t yet clear how, if at all, such data will help illuminate the discussion but for now it’s a good sign that evidence will be used at all – if only to keep both sides on the road.

The alphabet soup of elections – my name for the considerable number of organizations aimed at election officials – is now spicier thanks to the emergence of South by Southwest (SXSW) as a destination for the absolute cutting edge of elections and technology.

When is someone behind bars not “imprisoned” and thus ineligible to vote? A new suit claims that a California “realignment” program aimed at reducing the state correctional population means that about 85,000 felons should now be eligible to vote.