Bangor Daily News Editorial Board: Secretaries of state should not be in charge of their own elections
This article, which cites ERN research and includes a quote from Executive Director Kevin Johnson, was originally published in The Bangor Daily News.
"According to the nonprofit Election Reformers Network, 15 secretaries of state, both Democrats and Republicans, were on the ballot last Tuesday. Most of them were running for reelection to their current posts. The organization called on those officials to recuse themselves from any recount that might occur in their own race or from certifying themselves as the winner in any close race.
'In recent decades, there has been growing recognition of the potential risks and conflicts of interest inherent in our system of partisan election administration,' Election Reformers Network Executive Director Kevin Johnson said in a Nov. 7 statement. 'But research conducted by ERN found that out of 51 secretaries of state who ran for higher office from 2000 to 2020, only three publicly recused themselves in any manner. And no state requires recusals in these circumstances.'
Without a recusal requirement, we've seen official after official rebuff legitimate requests that they step aside from administering their own election.
A common but insufficient response from officials in this position has been to express confidence in their team of other election administrators. It was insufficient when Kemp gave a version of it in 2018. It was even insufficient in 2012 here in Maine, when then-Secretary of State Charlie Summers said something similar, and said that he took steps to eliminate conflicts of interest, when he was the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate.
Since most secretaries of state seem unwilling election after election to do the obvious thing and officially recuse themselves from overseeing their own elections, state legislatures should take the obvious step of requiring them to do so.
'States should begin to pass laws to require such recusal and to plan to whom officials should recuse,' Johnson, from the reformers network, said last week.
We agree. Officials and candidates from both parties have made this a clear necessity."