Kevin Johnson in Governing:

….State and federal laws, codes of conduct, and judicial training provide substantial guidance on recusal, and court systems are ready to provide needed replacements.

But what about a secretary of state overseeing his own race for governor, or a county clerk running for the state legislature? Shouldn’t they also recuse from decisions that could impact their own races? The answer is … no one really knows. Few states have laws for such circumstances, and none has a roster of qualified replacements to take over a recusing official’s responsibilities. Polls show that most voters support restrictions on such conflicts of interest. Election officials say they want to do the right thing but lack guidelines explaining what the right thing is.

A new report by our organization, the Election Reformers Network, aims to meet that need.