The Carter Center has announced a new elections standards portal: http://electionstandards.cartercenter.org/
According to their announcement:
“The site provides an overview of our work and role in building consensus on an obligations-based approach to election observation and support that is rooted in international human rights law. It also gives direct access to our expanding set of tools, statements and reports.”
Image courtesy of the Pew Elections Initiative
Pew’s Election Snapshot of California (see also here for a PDF) links to a nice graphic showing the dramatic rise in absentee voting in California.
A very interesting panel coming up at the APSA meetings in Chicago is shown below. My only worry is that Rick Hasen has already posted his paper on SSRN. Doesn’t Rick realize that APSA papers are not supposed to be written prior to a week before the conference?
Looks like a great panel, and I’ll definitely be there.
| Law and Political Process Study Group Panel 1 The Future of the Voting Rights Act After the Shelby County Case |
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| Date: | Thursday, Aug 29, 2013, 2:00 PM-3:45 PM | |||||||||||||||
| Location: | Room assignments are pending. Check back soon for room assignments. Only those registered for the meeting can view room assignments. Subject to change. Check the Final Program at the conference. | |||||||||||||||
| Chair(s): | Bruce E. Cain Stanford University, be.cain48@gmail.com |
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| Discussant(s): | Luis Ricardo Fraga University of Washington, lrfraga@uw.edu Guy-Uriel Charles Duke University School of Law, charles@law.duke.edu |
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The bill text is contained here: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2013/HB0521.html
Hat tip to the Sunlight Foundation’s “Scout” system that I have signed up for and alerted me to this bill.
The text of a bill being shopped for co-sponsorship by Rep. Jeff Stone is available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mLjnrnzcwYTxmG5gREKaFLD0sazb58DwZ4UgJjypIAk/edit
It’s not clear to me what the impact will be of the proposed changes to early voting. It appears that Madison and Milwaukee kept their early voting locations open longer hours and on holidays, while other counties did not. I’m generally not a fan of shortening early voting hours without a good rationale, but there is a reasonable argument to be made for standardized days statewide. The typical response, which also has some credence, is that different counties have different populations and different situations. I’d mostly prefer a floor on availability (a mandated level of equity if you will) while allowing counties the option to provide more times and places.
The proposal disallows early voting on the Saturday and Sunday before an election, a mistake in my judgment. A GAO report, among other sources, shows the positive impact on turnout and convenience of weekend voting, and eleven states seem to manage just fine with early voting ending on Monday while five more end it the last Saturday before Election Day.
Following Doug Chapin’s lead, re-disseminating Gary Bartlett’s wonderful parting comments in electionline weekly after his replacement after 20 years as Director of the North Carolina Board of Elections.
Gary has accomplished many things in two decades, but for scholars, NC has long been known as among the best states in terms of data availability and dissemination. I hope the new Board continues along this track.
Hat tip to Rick Hasen for this story, Rep. Candice Miller, chair of Government Operations, who says the Federal government has no role in fixing problems with our voting system: http://www.dailytribune.com/article/20130226/NEWS01/130229602/miller-blasts-obama-s-plan-for-election-standards
A recently released GAO report titled “Voters with Disabilities: Challenges to Voter Accessibility” should be of interest to the election community and to the new Presidential commission.
While challenges remain, there is no way to read this report in my opinion other than as good news. HAVA and state and local responses to polling place problems identified in the debate over HAVA have clearly improved accessibility at the polls. From the summary:
Much of the data in the report is contained in two previous studies conducted during the 2008 election. It’s unfortunate that Congressional funding of elections-related research seems to be drying up. How useful would it have been to replicate the GAO’s random selection and observation of 730 polling places in 2008? That’s a election-science dream.