Archive for June 2015

Arkansas’ Secretary of State announced that the state has awarded a new voting equipment contract to ES&S despite no clear funding source – and the fact that the company’s proposal was as much as $10 million higher than its competitors.

A roundup of three stories from around the nation – a missing zero, a disgraced constable and a disagreement over money – reminds us that there is no small stuff in elections.
[Happy Monday.]

Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner faced county election officials at a statewide meeting not long after his unsuccessful efforts to stop online voter registration – which they overwhelmingly supported. Suffice it to say the relationship needs a lot of work.

California’s Secretary of State and his allies in the Legislature are proposing a bill to adopt Colorado’s “ballot delivery” model. It’s a fascinating prospect that will challenge policymakers to confront if and how the system scales to California – and other states.

Rick Hasen’s Slate piece on Hillary Clinton’s election policy speech generated some pushback – and while I’ll agree to disagree on the role of partisanship, the attacks on the PCEA as “weak tea” that “vanished without a single trace” are WRONG – and silly.

Rick Hasen has a new piece at Slate which criticizes the Clinton campaign for its aggressive attacks (and lawsuits) on the GOP on election reform – while the ideas are good, it frames the debate in such a way that makes it difficult for existing bipartisanship to thrive.

Brian Newby’s new post at ElectionDiary talks about what happens to an election official when a quiet period suddenly isn’t anymore – and how that affects preparations for the “big” presidential election next year. In a word: BUSY.

electionlineWeekly caught up with the hardest working electiongeek in the business, Tammy Patrick, who shared her thoughts on the PCEA, the future of elections – and the best playlist for a busy traveling schedule!

Athens-Clarke County, GA is working its way through a handful of voter registrations that list a mailbox store as a residential address. That story, in my opinion, says more about election administration than the presidential-year rhetoric and litigation getting underway.

Vermont recently became the 14th state to enact same-day registration; however, it is still one of the minority(!) of states yet to enact OVR – which one could argue is now the most effective way to increase the state’s focus on the voter.