Release: The Carter Center today issued “Ensuring Voter Access while Protecting Election Integrity,” an analysis of key arguments underlying recent legislative efforts to modify existing electoral laws in states across the U.S., many of which use unsubstantiated claims of massive election fraud … Continue reading
Category Archives: election administration
Release: A new California Voter Foundation report sheds light on the threats and attacks U.S. election officials have endured in the wake of the 2020 election.“Documenting and Addressing Harassment of Election Officials” features findings gathered through interviews with eleven election … Continue reading
AJC: Don’t trust the results of the election? For the first time, Georgia voters can check ballots for themselves.Digital images of ballots are now public records in Georgia, available for anyone to see upon request and payment of a fee … Continue reading
Houston Chronicle: Texas Secretary of State Ruth Hughs announced her resignation Friday after Republicans in the Senate declined to confirm her appointment by Gov. Greg Abbott.While Republicans have not publicly expressed any lack of faith in Hughs, Democrats point to … Continue reading
Pittsburgh: The Fayette County District Attorney’s office is requesting the execution of a search warrant on the county bureau of elections to investigate ballot issues during Tuesday’s primary.There are multiple investigations underway after ballot issues in Fayette County. Commissioners said … Continue reading
Paul Gronke, Paul Manson, Jay Lee, and Heather Creek at Electionline: Who are the professionals doing the day-to-day work of running American elections? As we touched on in a preceding post, local election officials are not a population that mirrors the … Continue reading
NYT: As Republican lawmakers in major battleground states seek to make voting harder and more confusing through a web of new election laws, they are simultaneously making a concerted legislative push to grant more autonomy and access to partisan poll … Continue reading
New Brennan Center analysis. … Continue reading
The Atlantic: If president Joe Biden wants to vote by mail next year in Delaware, he’ll have to provide a valid reason for why he can’t make the two-hour drive from the White House back to his polling place in Wilmington. … Continue reading
NPR: Three weeks after it was signed into law, local election officials in Georgia are still trying to understand all the implications of the state’s controversial election overhaul.In a series of interviews, election officials said that while the Republican-led measure has some … Continue reading
Tampa Bay Times: DeSantis’ own John Hancock has undergone a transformation during his time in government, as demonstrated by 16 of his signatures compiled by the Tampa Bay Times from publicly available sources between 2008 and now. Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature variations … Continue reading
This is a big problem (and not just in CA): Now, months before a likely recall election followed by the 2022 campaign season where political maps will be redrawn and voters will need help navigating the changes, California finds itself in the … Continue reading
Release: Today, the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Task Force on Elections released its latest series of recommendations focused on improving the whole of the American election ecosystem.Entitled Improving the Voting Experience After 2020, these 12 recommendations highlight the tangible steps states and … Continue reading
Must-read Larry Norden: In the past 12 months, American election officials have been heralded for their courage and commitment in carrying out the most logistically challenging election in modern times—with record turnout, no less. They have also been attacked as … Continue reading
Larry Diamond, Kevin Johnson, and Miles Rapoport oped. … Continue reading
New report from Alex Halderman for the Michigan SOS. Detroit News: Michigan expert debunks infamous report on Antrim County election as ‘meaningless’ … Continue reading
NYT: Democrats in Congress are quietly splintering over how to handle the expansive voting rights bill that they have made a centerpiece of their ambitious legislative agenda, potentially jeopardizing their chances of countering a Republican drive to restrict ballot access in states … Continue reading
Larry Garber and Kevin Johnson: Georgia, having just emerged from close presidential and Senate elections, is ground zero in the voting rights debate. Last week Gov. Brian Kemp signed an election law overhaul passed by his fellow Republicans in charge … Continue reading
New Amy Gardner for WaPo: State Republicans have taken steps this year that could give them more power to sway the certification of election results, efforts that voting advocates decried as a blatant attempt to circumvent the popular vote, as … Continue reading
NYT: In the turbulent aftermath of the 2020 presidential contest, election officials in Georgia, from the secretary of state’s office down to county boards, found themselves in a wholly unexpected position: They had to act as one of the last … Continue reading
Can’t wait to read this from Nate Persily and Charles Stewart (forthcoming in the Journal of Democracy). Abstract: The 2020 election was both a miracle and a tragedy. In the midst of a pandemic, election administrators pulled off a safe, … Continue reading
USLW: Last-minute changes to proposed federal standards for new voting machines could expose the equipment to cyberattacks, according to some members of Congress and security professionals.The Election Assistance Commission, slated to authorize new voting system guidelines on Feb. 10, amended … Continue reading
Final report from the National Task Force on Election Crises. Executive summary: The 2020 election was defined by paradox and contradiction. Thanks to millions of poll workers, election officials, and citizens who stepped up to make our democracy work, the … Continue reading
NYT’s The UpShot reports. … Continue reading
AJC: The man who oversees Georgia’s voting system, Gabriel Sterling, negotiated a $200,000 per year contract for himself last year, quit his state government job and has worked as an independent contractor ever since.Under the arrangement, Sterling’s pay increased from … Continue reading
Detroit News: An audit of Antrim County election results Thursday gave President Donald Trump a net gain of 12 votes from the certified results in the northern Michigan county. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s total decreased by one vote, from 5,960 to … Continue reading
This is so full of useful information: The Survey of the Performance of American Elections (SPAE) provides information about how Americans experience to voting in the most recent federal election. Conducted in every presidential election since 2008, the SPAE is … Continue reading
Great lineup on a very urgent topic. … Continue reading
Detroit Free Press: The state of Michigan is preparing to intervene in a lawsuit alleging fraud in Antrim County as the small GOP stronghold in northern Michigan is emerging as a last hope for allies of President Donald Trump seeking to cast … Continue reading
The Star-Tribune reports. … Continue reading
Quite a read. … Continue reading
Syracuse.com: The undecided House race between Rep. Anthony Brindisi and Claudia Tenney has exposed deep flaws in New York’s election system that undermine public faith in the state’s electoral process, voting rights advocates say.Those advocates say they will push for a series of state … Continue reading
Josh Gerstein for Politico: A judge assigned to a Republican-led lawsuit alleging widespread fraud in the presidential election in Georgia issued an order late Sunday night blocking plans to wipe or reset voting machines used in three counties in the … Continue reading
Watch the video. … Continue reading
Iowa City Press-Citizen: Three county recount boards are defying a recent legal opinion from the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office and using a machine to aid the recount of ballots in the ultra-close 2nd District congressional race.Recount boards in Scott, Johnson and Clinton … Continue reading
Syracuse.com: The fate of 39 absentee ballots in the election between Rep. Anthony Brindisi and Claudia Tenney is up in the air after election officials admitted in court today that they lost sticky notes attached to some of the ballots.Oneida County’s election commissioners told … Continue reading
Ned Foley: For the past several months, Election Law at Ohio State and SCOTUSblog have teamed up to track significant election-related lawsuits with the potential to reach the Supreme Court and affect the presidential election. Now, two weeks after Election Day, litigation over the … Continue reading
NYT: Christopher Krebs is a 43-year-old former Microsoft executive who had the unenviable government job of protecting the nation’s election machinery from manipulation by Russia or other foreign hackers. It turns out, though, that some of the most dangerous interference … Continue reading
Bridge MI: As chairman of Michigan’s 8th Congressional District Republican Committee, Norm Shinkle actively worked to re-elect President Donald Trump. Now, he’s poised to play a key role in deciding whether to certify Michigan election results that Trump is publicly disputing … Continue reading
AJC: By ordering a statewide hand recount of every ballot in the presidential race, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger combined different parts of recount and audit procedures.His decision will result in a time-consuming, labor-intensive process that’s never been attempted before. Raffensperger said it will … Continue reading
Deep dive in the Detroit Free Press: Chris Thomas, a former long-time director of elections for the Michigan Secretary of State, addressed the concerns of Republican challengers and debunked rumors of foulplay that circulated on social media.Thomas, who has worked for both Democratic and Republican … Continue reading
Nate Persily and Charles Stewart with a smart retrospective in the WSJ. … Continue reading
Hamm v. Boockvar, a state court case attacking some PA Secretary of State curing procedures. Hearing on Wednesday. Keep your eye on this one, and the other suit I wrote about earlier today. … Continue reading
Nevada Independent: The Nevada Supreme Court has denied an emergency request by President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and the state Republican Party to immediately order Clark County election officials to stop processing mail ballots.The appeal, filed Tuesday in the state … Continue reading
AJC: Fulton County’s absentee-by-mail processing operation at State Farm Arena was delayed four hours today after a water pipe burst in a room with ballots.No ballots were harmed thanks to the slant of the room, voting officials told the elections … Continue reading
NBC News rounds up the reports. … Continue reading
ABC News: In Philadelphia, officials are estimating they could have to process more than 350,000 returned absentee ballots from the over 425,000 requested by voters.Beginning at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, officials will begin processing the ballots, organized by precinct, and … Continue reading
Justin here. I’m tracking the litigation over election issues related to COVID-19 … and the list of cases just hit 325. (The Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project also has a really useful sortable database of these cases, with more info. And … Continue reading
NYT reports. … Continue reading
NYT: Election officials across the country are already stretched thin this year, dealing with a record number of mail-in ballots and other effects of the coronavirus pandemic. On top of that, many are battling another scourge: misinformation. Fueled by inaccurate comments from … Continue reading