Posts by Doug Chapin

Yesterday, a Suffolk County (Boston) court ruled that Massachusetts’ 20-day cutoff for voter registration is unconstitutional. While the court did not order a specific remedy – and the State has said it will appeal – the case could end up making big changes in advance of next year’s statewide general election. In addition, the opinion itself is a fascinating look at the nuts and bolts of local election administration.

Late last week, the election community got the latest in what feels like a series of unpleasant surprises: voting assistance officers (VAOs) – the individuals in each military unit with responsibility for helping fellow servicemembers with registering and casting a ballot – are facing extinction due to recent Navy action and a new federal bill.

Starting this fall, the Certificate in Election Administration program has received University approval to launch an undergraduate certificate (alongside our existing graduate program) for anyone seeking to deepen and broaden their understanding of election administration.

Yesterday, the new Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity (PACEI) held its first meeting. I wanted to share three things I heard, and one thing I didn’t, during the meeting because I think they give us an indication of what could be in store.

The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity will conduct its first public meeting today after a federal court denied a request for an injunction for failure to make the meetings public under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).

Yesterday, Colorado announced that it would implement regular risk-limiting audits for its elections, starting this November. The plan could offer a more cost-effective and straightforward way to assess election outcomes – and the state plans to make its tools available to other states who wish to follow suit.

South Carolina’s state election commission disclosed in a recent report on Election Day 2016 that outsiders attempted to access the state’s voter registration system nearly 150,000 times. It’s a reminder that voter data can be at risk from outside threats – and whatever the debates about who should work together and/or be in charge, that work needs to start RIGHT. NOW.

electionlineWeekly’s Mindy Moretti has a must-read piece this week on a troubling new phenomenon: voters asking to cancel their voter registrations because of personal privacy concerns related to the federal request to share voter rolls. It’s a painful reminder that hacking fears can have as much to do with compromise of individuals’ personal information as wider concerns about altered outcomes.

The ongoing battle between North Carolina’s newly-elected Democratic Governor and the GOP-controlled legislature over appointment of election boards has left numerous counties unable to function for lack of quorum. Specifically, policymakers’ inability and/or unwillingness to set aside partisanship is starting to have an effect on the ability to administer elections at the county level.

As you probably already know, cybersecurity is a hot topic in the elections world these days as it has been in many others for a while. What you may not know is that a whole new ecosystem of information sharing has sprung up around cybersecurity – an ecosystem that’s making its way into elections. A new blog post by the EAC’s Mark Listes helps election officials understand the full “alphabet soup” of entities that can be involved.