Archive for 2018

The Class of 2018 for secretaries of state officially got its last two members last week with the victories of Georgia’s Brad Raffensperger and Louisiana incumbent’s Kyle Ardoin in their respective state runoffs. Both new SoS face challenges in 2019 and beyond, from litigation to voting equipment – and elections in 2019 and 2020.

electionlineWeekly’s Mindy Moretti talked to election cybersecurity experts about what’s next in the field. While it’s certainly true that cyberthreats continue to proliferate, the growing level of attention in the field suggests election officials and policymakers are increasingly in a posture that allows them to confront these challenges head on.

It was a good day for Secretary of State incumbents in New England yesterday, where Maine’s Matt Dunlap and New Hampshire’s Bill Gardner won re-election in their respective legislatures to two-year terms.

In November 2018, Florida voters approved Amendment 4, which promises to restore voting rights to over a million people formerly convicted of felonies, but now there are numerous unanswered questions about how that is supposed to happen – and who (including potentially the Legislature) will decide.

Wisconsin county clerks are unanimously opposing a proposal in the Legislature to move the state’s presidential primary and create a third statewide election in spring 2020. The bill would also limit early voting, which could also add to the cost due to legal challenges.

Porter County, IN’s clerk’s office had numerous indications that the 2018 election was going to be challenging – but no one addressed them sufficiently before Election Day (and Night, and everything afterwards) became a difficult mess. It’s a helpful reminder to pay serious attention to indications of potential problems as they arise.

Believe it or not, the 2020 election cycle is here – and one of the first indications is that the Federal Voting Assistance Program is seeking public comments on two key forms for military and overseas voters: the Federal Post Card Application and the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot. These forms are vitally important to UOCAVA voters; consequently, feedback and comments are crucial so that the forms can be ready when voting for 2020 begins in earnest with the Presidential primary season, which is (gulp) about fourteen months away.

State certification of election results is usually uneventful, but yesterday the North Carolina State Board of Elections took the unusual step of delaying certification – unanimously and on its own initiative – of the 9th Congressional District race pending an apparent investigation into returns in one county. This story is a reminder that every step of the election process – even ones that feel more or less like a formality – is important and worth taking seriously. It could also become yet another election controversy in a state that has already had more than its share in recent years.

At 2:30pm today, the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration will hold a hearing focused on Ben Hovland and Don Palmer, the two new nominees for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. If the two are confirmed by the full Senate, it will restore the EAC to full membership and give it a quorum on a full range of administrative and policy questions just as the 2020 election cycle begins in earnest.

MIT’s Charles Stewart has a new post up at ElectionUpdates that examines public opinion about cybersecurity in the 2018 election – in particular, how respondents’ views changed over time and the impact of partisanship, attention to the news and education. His data suggests attitudes are still fluid due to the newness of the issue – but those attitudes are about get an even bigger test with a presidential election looming.