At 6:00 a.m. on election day 2018 in Maricopa County, an election official reported that one of the polling locations used by the county was foreclosed overnight and locked with the voting equipment inside. Voters were advised to go to an emergency voting center. At 6:30 a.m., five of the 503 polling location had technology-related problems. At 7:00 a.m., long lines were reported before the polls opened. At 9:00 a.m., the locked polling location was accessible, and at 10:40 a.m., the building was accessible for voters. At 11:48 a.m., long lines were reported at Arizona State University (ASU). At 2:30 p.m., a man entered a polling location with a BB gun on his hip and was arrested. At 6:00 p.m., there was an estimated three hour wait at ASUâno problems were reported, just more people than expected. An order to extend polling hours was denied by the Maricopa County Superior Court. To combat the lines at ASU, voting booths were set up outside. Officials described the midterm election in Maricopa County as typical, with ordinary issues that crop up.
In many ways, this description of events encapsulates the nature of election administration. The field is rife with challenges that require immediate remedy. Before, during and after Election Day, administrators plan for and adjust to unexpected challenges and irregularities. In any given election cycle, there can be any number of unexpected challenges that arise. National, state, and local election officials have to defend their actions to the public and elected officials.
The American election administration landscape has changed dramatically since the passage of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002, and the voting experience has improved in many ways. When registering to vote or casting ballots, voters in many states have a plethora of options that vary across the states, including online registration, automatic voter registration when obtaining a driversâ license, early voting, no-fault absentee voting , and expanded opportunities to vote by mail or vote centers. Mechanical equipment has been replaced with electronic voting systems, and in many places paper books of voter rolls have been replaced with electronic poll books to facilitate the use of registration data in the voting process. Local and state election offices are increasingly sophisticated in the use of election data for process improvement. Voters with disabilities are now guaranteed access to equipment and processes that allow them to vote privately and independently, and polling locations are accessible to all voters.
The work of election officials today is both more complicated and more important than ever before. The heartbeat of the American election systems that operate in more than (roughly) 8000 election jurisdictions around the country rests on process improvement and technological modernization, the details of which remain, for the most part, behind the scenes.1 Not surprising, it has been increasingly apparent in recent years that the policy conversations, media reports, and research conducted about election administration do not always align with the complexities on the ground. This has downsides. As election administration practices continue to advance, public confidence in the electoral process has been severely challenged. At the most fundamental level, prominent media outlets widely and frequently report competing claims from candidates, elected officials, and advocacy groups that elections are rigged, that voter fraud abounds, that equipment and databases have been manipulated, and that voter participation is suppressed in record numbers by administrative or political decisions. Elections are the way we measure American democracyâaccess, participation, equity, transparency, accountabilityâand the future efforts of election administrators are essential if we are to continue to uphold these values and maintain confidence in our public institutions.
The Future of Election Administration tackles the critical dimensions of elections from the perspectives of some of the countryâs most forward-thinking practitioner, policy, advocacy, and research experts and leaders in these areas today. The theoretical framework of the book is grounded in the systems perspective of elections (Hale et al. 2015), which establishes election operations within the context of complex, interdependent organizational arrangements. We identify the most critical current and upcoming aspects of election administration systems, and these experts and leaders lend their experiences, understanding, and analysis about what is happening now and what we need to focus on in the future. Our goal is to describe, analyze, and anticipate the key areas of election administration systems on which students, researchers, advocates, policymakers, and practitioners should focus. Along with its companion volume, The Future of Election Administration: Cases and Conversations, this book adds to an emerging body of literature that is part of the election sciences community with an emphasis on analyses of practical aspects of administration.
The Auburn University Election Administration Symposium Series
This project is the culmination of nearly five years of dialogue that began with a series of conversations between public administration and political science faculty at Auburn University and election officials around the country (including the leadership of the Election Center, the national professional association for election officials) about how to gather these perspectives and present them collectively to critical audiences. The most obvious of these audiences of course includes election administration professionals in the field and the researchers who study it. But we also hope to reach the policy arena, where local county and township commissions, state legislatures, and policy advisors at all levels of government propose ideas and make decisions that affect election operations, as well as the media who cover this critical aspect of American democratic functioning.
The Auburn Symposium on Election Administration was conceived as the vehicle to convene an initial set of conversations between leading academics, practitioners, and advocacy groups in the field. The first gathering was held at Auburn University on September 14â15, 2015. Titled The Evolution of Election Administration Since the Voting Rights Act : 1965â2015, the symposium brought together a diverse set of more than 60 voices through plenary sessions, panels, and informal gatherings to examine how the field has developed over the past-half century, the challenges that remain, and future trends. The Auburn University symposium series expanded in 2017, and faculty hosted Inclusion and Integrity in Election Administration on October 15â17, which featured the US Election Assistance Commissioners and data-driven conversations around the Election Assistance Commissionâs Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS) and featured the Election Assistance Commission members. The goals of Inclusion and Integrity were to foster conversation about critical issues that impact American democratic institutions, support the development of common language across diverse professional communities engaged in the practice of election administration, and promote dialogue between those who conduct elections and those who study the way elections operate. Drawing more than 200 participants over 2 days, Inclusion and Integrity advanced the conversation with cutting-edge (and controversial) topics including the lack of diversity in the election workforce, the difficulties in untangling financial aspects of election operations, and presentations by representatives of leading equipment and service providers in the field about security concerns and the future of voting equipment. Through 64 separate panels and plenaries, participants discussed data and measurement issues around national surveys, voter access and participation, diversity, voting system vendor concerns, election professionalism, technology and security, costs and resources, measuring success, and emerging research in the field.
The Future of Election Administration and its companion case study volume result directly from the 2017 symposium; together they bring forward the voices and dialogue of election officials, advocates, and scholars at the event and the continuing conversations that were fostered there. These contributions hold great promise for the future of American election administration. The Auburn Symposium on Election Administration convenes again in the fall of 2019, wher...