This post originally appeared on foreignpolicy.com. With an incumbent president attacking the electoral process as rigged and refusing to commit to accepting the results, the Nov. 3 U.S. elections increasingly resemble those in struggling democracies and autocratic countries. I speak from experience, having led or managed some 40 election observation efforts in 22 countries over…
Opinion by Kevin Johnson & Yuval Levin Next week citizens in Massachusetts and Alaska will decide whether to adopt ranked choice voting (RCV), the voting innovation now in use in Maine and several U.S. cities and counties. Conventional wisdom might suggests that it’s mostly progressives that favor this change, but in fact support for RCV…
This blog post originally appeared on The Fulcrum’s Election Dissection. Last week, when President Trump complained about Attorney General William Barr’s failure to bring charges against his political opponents, the Justice Department lifted restrictions on election-related federal prosecutions. Let’s hope these developments do not presage a new kind of October surprise. Justice Department policy until…
This blog post originally appeared on The Fulcrum’s Election Dissection. John Adams issued a mantra amidst the American Revolution: “Ours is a country of laws not men.” In today’s time of turmoil, as President Trump questions the integrity of the upcoming election, the words of the second president should give us some solace. During the…
This op-ed originally appeared in GOVERNING. Election specialists and national security experts have been gaming out scenarios for this November, assessing how candidates, supporters and media will respond if voting results are delayed or disputed. The 40 secretaries of state who are chief election officials also play important roles in these scenarios. Local-level officials handle ballot-counting and…
Originally published in The Washington Post | July 10, 2020 Across the country, election officials are living with a palpable sense of dread. Their worry is less about who will win or lose on Election Day than about how our vast, diverse system of voting will function amid a pandemic. Evidence from some primaries this…
Originally published in The Fulcrum | July 10, 2020 The Supreme Court has disarmed one time bomb ticking away in our presidential election system — the risk of “faithless” electors throwing an election to an undeserving candidate. Other critical problems remain, which the decision can play a part in helping us address. The court’s conclusion…
Published in The Fulcrum, April 14, 2020 Regrettably, the bipartisan cooperation that enabled last month’s $2.2 trillion economic stimulus package fell short when it came to addressing concerns about coronavirus and elections. Congress did allocate $400 million for state election preparation, but proposals to require more voting by mail and early in-person voting met with…
COVID-19 creates unique hurdles for the United States’ electoral system. Whatever responses are developed, including expanding voting by mail, we should be careful that untested procedures, or signature verification issues, or other unexpected problems don’t become 2020’s hanging chad. A critical way to reduce risk is to make better use of the 77-day time period…
Written by Edward R. McMahon, ERN Board Vice Chair A wide variety of election management models, all of which are supposed to ensure legitimate elections, exist throughout the democratic world. It is normal that countries will choose different ways of conducting elections, as countries are in a sense, like snowflakes – no two ones are…
