Archive for 2016

Voting technology expert Jeremy Epstein is one of those election geeks who “walks the talk” as a pollworker … he recently shared a short summary of his day at the polls, which is an excellent peek inside the polling place on Election Day and a useful preview of the issues everyone at the polls will face this fall.

Stateline’s Sarah Breitenbach has a fantastic look at the subject of voting technology and the policies, including budgeting, that support it. It’s a great piece that is worth bookmarking both as a survey of where we are but also as an introduction to this crucial issue for the growing number of people who are beginning to pay attention in this presidential election year.

Effective March 1, rental tenants in the City of Minneapolis will get voter registration information from their landlord when moving into a new place. The info, which will be available in a number of different languages in print and online, is designed to close the gap between eligibility and registration for young people, people of color and other groups who move frequently.

It’s Super Tuesday, and the focus shifts briefly from candidates and campaigns to voters and the pollworkers who assist them. In Calhoun County, AL it’s a day for service, socializing – and some good food. It’s a long day (and seems even longer when turnout is low) but today should be a little more eventful.

Last week, two key leaders in the nation’s most populous state – California Secretary of State Alex Padilla and Orange County Registrar Neal Kelley, also president of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials – co-authored an op-ed calling on the Golden State to address the growing need to fund upgrades to the state’s aging voting technology.

The new electionlineWeekly features a primary season curtain-raiser from Mindy Moretti on what to watch as what she calls “the circus” comes to more states just about every Tuesday from now until June.

Tom Hicks is the new Chair of the Election Assistance Commission and, while litigation over proof-of-citizenship has dominated the news lately, he spoke to the Center for Public Integrity about the full range of the agency’s mission.

The presidential nomination campaign is underway and voters have begun to speak. As they do, some candidates don’t hear their names often enough and leave the race. That means many ballots bear the names of candidates who are no longer running … and these “ghost ships” can be a challenge for voters and election officials alike.

Today, the DOJ took the unusual step of consenting to an injunction against the federal government in the ongoing dispute over the addition of state-specific instructions regarding of proof-of-citizenship requirements on the federal registration form. Accompanying that request is a declaration from EAC Director Brian Newby which lays out the process and rationale behind his decision to approve the instructions.

Fairfax County, VA will close schools on March 1, citing the prospect for potentially-overwhelming turnout in that day’s presidential primary. Closing schools for voting has been recommended and is often discussed, both because of turnout and security concerns. Regardless, election offices and school systems must work together to ensure that voters and students don’t get in one another’s way on Election Day.