Archive for February 2018

Wyoming Secretary of State Ed Murray resigned last Friday in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against him. It’s a story with dimensions far beyond the elections world, but a vacancy in the state’s top elections job – for any reason – is not something that Wyoming welcomes in a statewide election year.

Orange County’s innovative Election Academy is the subject of this week’s electionlineWeekly. It’s a great way to bring key community members into the election process in a way that benefits everyone.

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy announced yesterday that he is issuing an executive order to study the issue of vote-by-mail. Early voting will also be on the table, though both proposals will face partisan opposition in the legislature.

New legislation in Kansas is pitting election commissioners in the state’s four largest counties against elected county officials in a fight over who has the power to set election budgets.

The ongoing struggle over the future of ranked choice voting in Maine (RCV) took another turn this week as voters apparently submitted enough signatures to not only put the question of RCV back in play but also to authorize its use in the June 2018 primary.

Empty checkboxes are creating some unexpected work for local election officials in Texas in the upcoming gubernatorial primary. It’s just the latest reminder that while candidates and election officials occupy roughly the same space in the lead-up to an election, their priorities and incentives are very different and can create surprises – and extra work and costs – for election officials.

Recounts have been a popular topic lately, both with close races in Virginia and the recent EAC blog series – and electionlineWeekly joins the fun with a guest post from Ada County (Boise), ID on “Five Rules for a Successful Recount”. It’s valuable advice in what’s likely to be a hard-fought election year; it makes sense for election officials to think about what they’ll do if and when the recount circus comes to town.

This week, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon announced that $7 million in technology grants will be made available on a matching basis to counties to purchase new election equipment.