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The Bipartisan Policy Center has just issued a new report that examines the “new realities” of vote by mail and makes recommendations about how everyone involved can and should respond. It includes recommendations for voters, election officials, legislators – and even the Postal Service itself! – about how to ensure that vote by mail ballots find their way to voters and back again to be counted.

One of the most eagerly-anticipated projects in elections took another step forward last week as Los Angeles County, CA unveiled the prototype of the new voting system developed through its Voting System Assessment Project (VSAP). This project will genuinely transform the field of elections, not just in the final product but in the effort to look at the entire election process to determine the best approach – and then design a system that fits those specifications.

Have a safe and happy holiday … see you tomorrow!

Yesterday – June 30 – marked the end of an era in Wisconsin as Kevin Kennedy stepped down from his post at the Government Accountability Board. Fortunately, electionline’s Mindy Moretti conducted one of her well-known “exit interviews” for this week’s newsletter.

Yesterday, Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied a request for a preliminary injunction in the case challenging the decision to add proof-of-citizenship instructions for three states (Alabama, Georgia and Kansas) to the federal voter registration form.

Very often, problems arise in elections because ballots don’t get enough scrutiny – in preparation, layout or when in the voter’s hands. That’s not the case in Minnesota’s Crow Wing County (Brainerd), where a small change to the county’s ballots (adding a QR code) led to a challenge at a recent meeting.

No blog today – on the road with a newly-minted high school graduate visiting his new college’s orientation program … back tomorrow!

Today’s news brings a story of what happens when voting technology is no longer needed or suited for the job – which in Lackawanna County, PA means taking 500 touchscreen machines to an electronic recycling center.

One of the lesser-known but important parts of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) was the provision in Section 261 for states to receive funding to help with improving access to the polls for people with disabilities. But recently, states have encountered frustrations with the program because of a sudden change in the reporting system for the funds. electionlineWeekly’s Mindy Moretti has the story.

Oregon has been a pioneer on numerous fronts in election administration – the first all vote-by-mail state, and more recently the first to embrace automatic voter registration – but a recent story in the Bend Bulletin shows that even pioneers must deal with ballots that don’t count. Focusing data collection on the source of errors and tailoring outreach accordingly (like California has) can help.