Posts by Doug Chapin

Elections aren’t perfect, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try … a topic ElectionDiary’s Brian Newby discusses in a must-read new post. Go check it out.

Domicile is a complicated question in the field of elections – but mobile technology may hold the key to identifying when a voter or candidate claims one address but is actually using another, as Indiana’s Secretary of State may soon learn.

An internal EAC memo formally suspending the activities of two statutory boards created by the Help America Vote Act raises questions about the ability of work to continue under HAVA – and sparks a strong reaction from state election directors and secretaries of state who rely on the boards as avenues for input into federal election policy.

Recent testimony by South Carolina’s state election director (profiled by Pew today) casts doubt on allegations that over 900 dead voters have cast ballots in that state. Whether or not that analysis will have an opportunity to be completed – and whether it will matter in the state’s ongoing battles over election policy, particularly voter ID – remains to be seen.

Last Friday a federal judge ordered that New York hold its Congressional primary on June 26, 2012. While this answers the question about how New York will comply with the MOVE Act, it creates a new (and potentially expensive) problem about what to do about the state’s primary still scheduled for September.

Pew’s new report Democracy from Afar – released today – shows how far – and so fast! – states have moved in the last few years to help military and overseas Americans cast a timely and valid ballot in federal, state and local elections.

Los Angeles County, CA is embarking on an Open Innovation Challenge that could not only help design the County’s next voting system but could show the way to similar changes to the voting process nationwide.

Using election laws to drive turnout is like using a hammer to drive a screw. Don’t do it.

An October 2011 GAO report concludes vote-by-mail wouldn’t generate enough revenue to help the U.S. Postal Service. Interesting – but it begs the question of what the nation’s election officials (who rely heavily on election mail) would do without a fully-functioning Postal Service.

South Carolina’s January 21 presidential primary spawned lots of storylines, but this morning let’s take note of one that hasn’t emerged (at least not yet) – stories of problems with the voting process.