Posts by Doug Chapin

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.

The January 2018 edition of the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Canvass newsletter is out with an overview of election legislation across the nation in 2017. It’s an incredibly valuable service for the election community, giving us all a window into state capitols across the nation.

I’ve written several times over the years about the ongoing drama in North Carolina, where partisan battles over election administration have created uncertainty about who, exactly, is in charge of the state’s voting process. Now, new court rulings have raised the ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ factor in the Tar Heel State.

Virginia’s legislature will form a joint legislative subcommittee to study possible changes to the state’s election system after a hard-fought and occasionally controversial 2017 election cycle.

Merle King is retiring from his post at Kennesaw State’s election center, and he recently sat down (virtually) with electionline’s Mindy Moretti for an “exit interview” for electionlineWeekly.

The future of a new voting model in California’s Nevada County is in doubt after supervisors expressed doubts about the cost and other specifics – surprising the county’s election official, who thought he’d been keeping them in the loop.

The long-running battle between Wisconsin Senate Republicans and the state’s election commission flared again yesterday when the chamber voted – on party lines – to block the confirmation of the state’s election director, setting up yet another fight over the agency’s future.