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The ongoing battles in Kansas over proof-of-citizenship requirements have not only left voters unsure about their status, they’ve also left local election officials scrambling to prepare for multiple eventualities as the state primary and fall general elections approach. While that’s a typical response for local election officials in situations like these, a little more clarity in advance of Election Day would be nice.

Back in 2014, Massachusetts enacted a wide-ranging reform bill that included early voting – with the reforms to take effect for the 2016 election. Now, towns are preparing for early voting with a combination of anticipation and trepidation, some of which is typical and some of which relates to Massachusetts’ slow embrace of new election laws and procedures – which makes this big change seem even bigger.

Ohio’s Governor has vetoed a bill that would have required anyone seeking a state court-ordered polling hours extension to post a cash bond. While proponents see the bond as a means to limit frivolous requests, opponents see it as a “poll tax” – and now the Governor and Secretary of State have vowed to work on new language that manage extension requests without a bond.

The Center for Technology and Civic Life has a new Election Toolkit, developed in consultation with election officials and other design partners, that can help election offices find new and different ways to engage voters on social media and elsewhere. It’s an incredibly valuable resource to a field that is going to need all the tools it can use in this high-profile presidential election year.

Election design has grown rapidly in recent years – both in what it has to offer and how many election officials are paying attention. A new profile of Oxide Design’s Drew Davies illuminates how knowing the basics of design – and how to apply them to election administration, whether it’s ballots, forms or polling place layouts – is a vital 21st Century skill for election officials nationwide.

On Monday, Ohio’s Governor signed legislation to add the Buckeye State to the list of states that will offer online voter registration to their eligible residents. Yesterday, Ohio took another step to modernize its voter registration process by joining the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) – an effort which, unlike OVR, will take effect this year.

For someone who almost always closes his posts with “stay tuned,” I’m not as good as I’d like to be on followup … to that end, here’s an update on three recent stories – OVR in Ohio, proof-of-citizenship in Kansas, and the library in Maryland’s Wicomico County – that deserve just a little more followup than a link on Twitter. All three of these stories illuminate how conflicts between different players in the election administration process can affect and shape election policy.

With tomorrow’s District of Columbia’s primary marking the end of the presidential preference season, my friend and colleague Mindy Moretti visited the D.C. Jail to see how inmates are given the opportunity to cast ballots. It’s a fascinating story … and shows how the District Board of Elections takes the time to ensure that every eligible voter who wants to can cast a ballot.

Bill Lewers, author of The Gatekeepers of Democracy – a first-of-its-kind novel about pollworkers – recently took some time to answer a few more questions about the inspiration and process for his book … and shared some war stories about his own experiences working Election Day in Fairfax County, VA.

Tuesday was a big day in California as Golden State voters went to the polls – but there was extra excitement (not the good kind) in Siskiyou County on the Oregon border, where the county sheriff engaged in a series of pre-Election Day actions that he said were intended to prevent voter fraud but were widely criticized as voter intimidation of the county’s Hmong population.