Archive for February 2018

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.

I’m traveling this weekend so the blog will take a short break until Tuesday, February 20.

Election officials often complain about the cost of special elections – especially when they’re not covered by policymakers – but recently some governors have been criticized for their decisions to cite cost as a reason to delay or skip them altogether.

The Department of Homeland Security and NBC News are sparring over a recent report about election hacking in 2016, with the network labeling it “breaking news” and DHS saying it’s not only misleading but old news from last summer.