Helping America Vote
Helping America Vote

Author: Martha Kropf

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-06-17

Total Pages: 167

ISBN-13: 1135203857

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A repeat of the Florida debacle in the 2000 presidential election is the fear of every election administrator. Despite the relatively complication-free 2008 election, we are working with fairly new federal legislation designed to ease election administration problems. The implementation of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) raises the question, how effective have reforms been? Could another Florida happen? Helping America Vote is focused on the conflict between values of access and integrity in U.S. election administration. Kropf and Kimball examine both what was included in HAVA and what was not. Widespread agreement that voting equipment was a problem made technology the centerpiece of the legislation, and it has remedied a number of pressing concerns. But there is still reason to be concerned about key aspects of electronic voting, ballot design, and the politics of partisan administrators. It takes a legitimacy crisis for serious election reforms to happen at the federal level, and seemingly, the crisis has passed. However, the risk is still very much present for the electoral process to fail. What are the implications for democracy when we attempt reform?

Helping America Vote
Helping America Vote

Author: Martha Kropf

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-06-17

Total Pages: 169

ISBN-13: 1135203865

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Helping America Vote is focused on the conflict between values of access and integrity in U.S. election administration, examining both what was included in the Help America Vote Act, and what was not. Widespread agreement that voting equipment was a problem made technology the centerpiece of the legislation, but, there is still reason to be concerned about key aspects of electronic voting, ballot design, and the politics of partisan administrators.

The Help America Vote ACT and Election Administration
The Help America Vote ACT and Election Administration

Author: Congressional Research Congressional Research Service

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2014-12-05

Total Pages: 24

ISBN-13: 9781505450675

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The deadlocked November 2000 presidential election focused national attention on previously obscure details of election administration. Even before the U.S. Supreme Court had resolved the election in December, numerous bills to address the failings of the election system were introduced in Congress and state legislatures. The response at the federal level was the Help America Vote Act (HAVA; P.L. 107-252), enacted in 2002. HAVA created the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), established a set of election administration requirements, and provided federal funding, but did not supplant state and local control over election administration. Several issues have arisen or persisted in the years since HAVA was enacted. This report provides background information about HAVA and its provisions, the EAC, funding for the agency and for state programs to improve elections, and a number of enduring election administration issues. Some observers have criticized the EAC for being too obtrusive, or for being slow, ineffectual, or even unnecessary. Others believe that the agency is an important resource for improving the administration of elections and has been hampered by budgetary constraints and difficulties in the nomination process for commissioners. The agency has been without commissioners since 2011, although nominations to fill the four commissioner seats have been sent to the Senate. HAVA promoted the use of electronic voting systems to address problems associated with lever and punchcard systems and to facilitate voting by persons with disabilities. However, the electronic systems, especially those that recorded votes directly into a computer's memory, raised concerns about security and reliability. In response, many states enacted requirements for voter-verifiable paper ballot records. HAVA's limited voter-identification provisions, agreed to after considerable debate, did not resolve the controversy over whether more stringent identification requirements are needed to prevent voter fraud, or whether such requirements would create an unacceptable risk of disenfranchising legitimate voters. Finally, while HAVA's voter-registration requirement may have improved that process, some have subsequently argued that more automated registration systems are needed to make further improvements.

Securing the Vote
Securing the Vote

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2018-09-30

Total Pages: 181

ISBN-13: 030947647X

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During the 2016 presidential election, America's election infrastructure was targeted by actors sponsored by the Russian government. Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy examines the challenges arising out of the 2016 federal election, assesses current technology and standards for voting, and recommends steps that the federal government, state and local governments, election administrators, and vendors of voting technology should take to improve the security of election infrastructure. In doing so, the report provides a vision of voting that is more secure, accessible, reliable, and verifiable.

Institutions and the Right to Vote in America
Institutions and the Right to Vote in America

Author: Martha E. Kropf

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-05-18

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 1137301716

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This book explores how the United States institutions of democracy have affected a citizen’s ability to participate in politics. The 2000 election and the ensuing decade of research demonstrated that that the institutions of elections vitally affect participation. This book examines turnout and vote choice, as well as elections as an institution, administration of elections and the intermediaries that affect a citizen’s ability to cast a vote as intended. Kropf traces the institutions of franchise from the Constitutional Convention through the 2012 election and the general themes of how institutions have changed increasing, democratization and production federal growth over time in the United States.

Accessible Elections
Accessible Elections

Author: Michael Ritter

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020-09-17

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 019753726X

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Recent years have witnessed widespread changes in state voting and registration laws. These include same day registration, automatic voter registration, early voting, mail voting, and no-excuse absentee voting where people mail in their ballots. Most research on these voting reforms has downplayed their effects, showing that they generally benefit educated, older, and more affluent people. This book shows the positive effects that these reforms have on overall voter turnout, and among voters of disadvantaged groups. Specifically, it emphasizes the ways that state governments are making it easier to participate in elections in an effort to strengthen democratic government. In Accessible Elections, Michael Ritter and Caroline J. Tolbert explore the wide variation from state to state in convenience voting methods and provide new empirical analysis of the beneficial effects of these policies, not only in boosting participation rates overall, but in increasing voter turnout for disadvantaged groups. The authors measure both convenience methods and implementation of the laws, and explore how elections are conducted across the fifty states, where average turnout has varied more than 25 percentage points over the past four decades. The authors also draw on national voter files with millions of cases and vote histories of the same individuals over time in order to show the real effects of election reform and to make a case for how state governments can modernize their electoral practices, increase voter turnout, and make the experience of voting more accessible and equitable. Ritter and Tolbert assert that in the wake of covid-19 and efforts to maintain social distancing, early voting and absentee/mail voting are of particular importance to avoid election-day crowds and ensure equitable elections in states with large populations. With important implications for the 2020 general election and beyond, Accessible Elections underscores how state governments can modernize their electoral procedures to increase voter turnout, address inequalities, and influence campaign and party mobilization strategies.

The Help America Vote Act
The Help America Vote Act

Author: Federal Judicial Federal Judicial Center

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2017-01-01

Total Pages: 122

ISBN-13: 9781541389250

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The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) was Congress's reaction to issues that arose during the 2000 presidential election and the ensuing controversial Florida recount. President George W. Bush signed HAVA into law on October 29, 2002. HAVA includes standards for provisional ballots, which help prevent the consequences of erroneous purges of voter registration rolls. Instead of turning away eligible voters, polls permit those whose registrations are in question to cast provisional ballots that are counted if it turns out that they were eligible to vote. HAVA also sets minimum standards for voting equipment used in federal elections.