Election reform

The NY Times weighs in editorially on election reform goals. And, by and large, they’re things I can support:

It’s patently obvious that presidential elections, at least, should be conducted under uniform rules. Voters in Alaska and Texas should not have different levels of protection when it comes to their right to cast a ballot and have it counted. It’s ridiculous that citizens who vote in one place have to show picture ID while others do not, that a person who accidentally walks into the wrong polling place can cast a provisional ballot that will be counted in one state but thrown out in another. States may have the right to set their own standards for local elections, but picking the president is a national enterprise.

True. Problem is, it’s difficult, confusing, and costly to maintain separate electoral standards between local and state elections. Which means that whatever is pushed out by Washington for federal standards will become the standards, either de facto, or de jure (when someone files a suit about it). That’s not a bad thing, perhaps, but it’s a cost to these suggestions that needs to be borne in mind.

And, of course, a lot of the below is going to cost money. And that will need to come from the federal level as well. And that means the feds will have an even bigger say in how elections are run.

I believe there’s a pesky Constitutional provision about how states get to run elections, though I suspect ways can be found around that.

1. A holiday for voting. It’s wrong for working people to be forced to choose between standing in a long line to vote and being on time for work. Election Day should be a holiday, to underscore the significance of the event, to give all voters time to cast ballots and to free up more qualified people to serve as poll workers.

2. Early voting. In states that permit it, early voting encourages people to turn out by letting them vote at times that are convenient for them. And it gives election officials and outside groups more time to react to voting problems ranging from faulty voting machines to voter intimidation.

If we do #1 we need to do #2, otherwise (as has been worried about) folks will treat #1 as a vacation day and voter turn-out will actually drop.

Now, what I’d like would be some sort of “I voted” receipt or token that folks would need to return to their employer to justify getting the day off …

3. Improved electronic voting. For voters to trust electronic voting, there must be a voter-verified paper record of every vote cast, and mandatory recounts of a reasonable percentage of the votes. The computer code should be provided to election officials, and made public so it can be widely reviewed. There should be spot-checks of the software being used on Election Day, as there are of slot machines in Nevada, to ensure that the software in use matches what is on file with election officials.

Agreed on all counts.

4. Shorter lines at the polls. Forcing voters to wait five hours, as some did this year, is unreasonable, and it disenfranchises those who cannot afford the wait. There should be standards for the number of voting machines and poll workers per 100 voters, to ensure that waiting times are reasonable and uniform from precinct to precinct.

Just send money.

5. Impartial election administrators. Partisan secretaries of state routinely issued rulings this year that favored their parties and themselves. Decisions about who can vote and how votes will be counted should be made by officials who are not running for higher office or supporting any candidates. Voting machine manufacturers and their employees, and companies that handle ballots, should not endorse or contribute to political candidates.

On the surface of it, all reasonable. In practice, a lot trickier. I suppose secretaries of state (or “secretaries of elections”) could be made, themselves, non-partisan elected positions — though in practice, elected non-partisan positions rarely are. And while I can see how you might legally forbid such folk from being active members of political campaign committees, you can’t (practically or constitutionally) forbid them from “supporting any candidates.” I think you would also run into problems, constitutionally, with forbidding voting machine manufacturers, et al., from protected political speech, i.e., “endorsing or contributing to political candidates.”

6. Uniform and inclusive voter registration standards. Registration forms should be simplified, so no one is again disenfranchised for failing to check a superfluous box, as occurred this year in Florida, or for not using heavy enough paper, as occurred in Ohio. The rules should be geared to getting as many qualified voters as possible on the rolls.

Agreed.

7. Accurate and transparent voting roll purges. This year, Florida once again conducted a flawed and apparently partisan purge of its rolls, and went to court to try to keep it secret. There should be clear standards for how purges are done that are made public in advance. Names that are due to be removed should be published, and posted online, well in advance of Election Day.

Agreed. Though expect privacy lawsuits regarding such names being published.

8. Uniform and voter-friendly standards for counting provisional ballots. A large number of provisional ballots cast by registered voters were thrown out this year because they were handed in at the wrong precinct. There should be a uniform national rule that such ballots count.

Certainly we need uniform standards. I find the whole provisional ballot thing a bit pernicious — I understand why it’s becoming more common, but I also think it’s going to lead to more problems in the future. Indeed, if these other suggestions are carried out, provisional ballots should be unnecessary.

That said — um, what’s with not going to the right precinct to vote?

9. Upgraded voting machines and improved ballot design. Incredibly, more than 70 percent of the Ohio vote was cast on the infamous punch card ballots, which produce chads and have a high error rate. States should shift to better machines, ideally optical scans, which combine the efficiency of computers and the reliability of a voter-verified paper record. Election officials should get professional help to design ballots that are intuitive and clear, and minimize voter error.

Optical scans aren’t fool-proof by any means. I agree, though, that we need better — and uniform — standards for voting devices and ballot layout.

10. Fair and uniform voter ID rules. No voter should lose his right to vote because he is required to produce identification he does not have. ID requirements should allow for an expansive array of acceptable identification. The rules should be posted at every polling place, and poll workers should be carefully trained so no one is turned away, as happened repeatedly this year, for not having ID that was not legally required.

Agreed, though the purpose of such voter ID rules — to prevent voter fraud (voting when ineligible, voting multiple times) — should also be encompassed by such processes.

11. An end to minority vote suppression. Protections need to be put in place to prevent Election Day challengers from turning away qualified minority voters or slowing down voting in minority precincts. More must be done to stop the sort of dirty tricks that are aimed at minority voters every year, like fliers distributed in poor neighborhoods warning that people with outstanding traffic tickets are ineligible to vote. Laws barring former felons from voting, which disproportionately disenfranchise minorities, should be rescinded.

If there are sufficiently strong voter ID rules, much of the legitimate justification for challengers will be removed. Dirty tricks should indeed be fought against (though I’m not sure that’s good fodder for federal intervention). Part of what I’d rather see in this context is more vigorous prosecution of electoral law violations that already take place.

As to the felony disenfranchisement — I’m of mixed minds on it (and the disproportionate minority impact is not part of the equation to me).

12. Improved absentee ballot procedures. Voters outside of their states, including military voters, have a right to receive absentee ballots in a timely fashion, which did not always happen this year. Absentee ballots should be widely available for downloading over the Internet. Voters should not be asked, as military voters were this year, to send their ballots by fax lines or e-mail, denying them a secret ballot.

Agreed. The problem becomes how to ensure secrecy of the vote while also ensuring security of the vote, particularly in an absentee process.

(via LawGeek)