[EL] State Voter Registration deadlines pre-NVRA

Tue Feb 19 13:35:57 PST 2019

Hi All,

If you're not interested in reading about the Book of the States as a data
source, stop reading here.

I'm putting a writing fragment from around 2004 below my signature.  It
gives advice about how to best use the BOS as a data source--the source I
advised Lia to use without any disclaimer!

Carl

This short note examines some shortfalls to relying solely on the BOS as a
data source.  It contains many errors, sometimes needs more explanation in
its tables and is often vague about when changes in state institutional
structures occur.  I argue that the data in the BOS should be used as the
first source for building a “skeleton” of a data set, but that such data
should be confirmed and in many cases be made more exact.  I give a number
of examples from the BOS to illustrate these points.

List of Some Errors in the BOS
Legislative partisanship.
When legislative sessions were held
SD was reported to have gubernatorial term limits from 1959 to 1972.
WV line item veto said to not be in existence from 193

Imprecision of Dates
Many of the tables in the BOS are not labeled with an exact date.  This
makes creating a pooled time series on the basis of such tables in the BOS
impossible since the exact date of changes is not known.  When term limits
of governors were introduced and go into effect is a good example of this.
I created a data set which codes governors FRAGMENT ENDS: THERE WERE MANY
DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN WHAT FURTHER RESEARCH INDICATED AND WHAT THE BOS SAID.
It makes sense that the BOS would not be too concerned with noting the
exact date of changes because its purpose is to provide politicians, staff
and others with the most up-to-date information possible.  From this
perspective, the tables are as up-to-date as possible, so the exact date is
less important.
Ck old note-are the changes mentioned in the text?

Manner of Updating Tables Resulting in Errors
Another problem with the BOS is the way in which its tables are apparently
sometimes compiled (and we have no way of knowing when they are not
compiled in this way).  Tables are not created from scratch each year.  The
Council of State Governments is alerted of a change in a certain variable
and they make this change to last year’s BOS and then publish the new table
in the next edition.  Several examples of how this reasonable method of
creating tables can go awry follow.
Because of this method of updating tables the BOS incorrectly reported that
West Virginia did not have the line-item veto from the 1939 edition through
the 1968 edition.  Other sources indicate that the West Virginia governor
did have this power during this time (Myers 1964, 284; ).  In the 1937 BOS
it is correctly reported that West Virginia and Arizona had the line-item
veto.  In the 1939 edition, both of these states were incorrectly reported
as not having this device.  In the Supplement to the 1939 BOS the errata in
the forward indicated that it had been incorrectly reported that Arizona
did not have the line-item veto.  The error for West Virginia was not
caught.  For the next thirty years, West Virginia was reported as not
having the line-item veto.  In 1968, the West Virginia constitution was
amended to give the governor what is sometimes referred to as the
blue-pencil; not only can the governor bring a line-item down to zero, but
can incrementally decrease the budget amount to whatever level he or she
prefers.  Accordingly, the BOS started reporting that the West Virginia
governor did have the line item veto with the 1970 edition.  When the 1968
change was made to the West Virginia constitution, the section of the
constitution that contained the line-item veto (Article VII, Section 15)
was removed and a section containing the “blue-pencil” was created ().
This means that any scholar looking at the West Virginia constitution to
confirm the BOS might understandably conclude that the West Virginia
governor obtained the line-item veto in 1968 because post-1968
constitutions report that the relevant section of the constitution was
added in 1968.  This is perhaps why West Virginia Politics reports that the
West Virginia governor obtained the line-item veto in 1968 ().
Another example of this type of error is from the tables of gubernatorial
executive order powers.  The explanation of this is fairly involved, so
read slowly.  Footnotes associated with the table are in alphabetical order
as they first appear as one moves left to right across the page and down.
Every edition, new footnotes are added, and all of the footnotes denoted by
latter letters of the alphabet are advanced in the alphabet.  In the 19xx
edition, footnote “?xxx” was added.  However, the letters of the alphabet
in the footnote key were not advanced.  This means that after the letter
“?xxx” was added, the footnotes in the table do not correspond with the
correct footnote in the text.  In the xxx through xxx editions (CK
20190219: PROBABLY AROUND FOUR EDITIONS), the footnotes were retained in
their incorrect places.  Furthermore, the content of some footnotes is
inappropriate given the column they appear in, which proves that all the
states did not change their executive order powers in the quixotic manner
that would be necessary to explain such a change.  This is more evidence
that the BOS updates its tables in the manner I described above and
showcases the danger of doing so.

Imprecision of Tables
>From the 19xx to 19xx editions, the BOS tables reporting the veto power of
the governor report on two veto devices referred to as the “” and the “.”
Tables that report on the number of vetoes a governor casts in a year are
also problematic.  Do these refer to item vetoes also?
What does “Governor has primary responsibility for creating the budget”
mean exactly?
Reliance on BOS for gubernatorial power indicators.
Reliance on the BOS for appointment power scores has already been addressed
by Dometrius ().

My point is that one should not take the information given in the BOS for
granted and we need to move beyond this source.  One needs to check the
information it gives in order to confirm it and one often needs to consult
state specific sources to find out exactly when a change in some
institution occurred.

Bibliography
Myers, J. Howard, eds. 1964.  West Virginia Blue Book: 1964.  Charleston,
WV: Jarrett Printing Company.

On Tue, Feb 19, 2019 at 3:25 PM Hess, Doug <HESSDOUG at grinnell.edu> wrote:

> I’ve a student working on getting all of the Book of States election law
> variables (most recent two decades roughly are in Excel) into one database.
> There seem to be lots of oddities, however. Some states seem to change
> policy every other year a few times. I’ve not had a chance to dig into this
> deeper, but I suspect some mistakes were made in counting by researchers
> (i.e., count any day or just work days) or who knows what.
>
>
>
> Any assistance with this project is welcomed!
>
>
>
> -----------------------
>
> Douglas R Hess
> Assistant Professor
>
> Dept. of Political Science
>
> Grinnell College
>
> 1115 8th Avenue
> Grinnell, IA 50112
>
> phone: 641-269-4383
>
> [Room S2346; 2nd floor of southern wing of new building]
>
> http://www.douglasrhess.com
>
> -----------------------
>
>
>
> *From:* Carl Klarner <carl.klarner at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, February 19, 2019 11:53 AM
> *To:* Thessalia Merivaki <liamerivaki at gmail.com>
> *Cc:* law-election at UCI.edu
> *Subject:* Re: [EL] State Voter Registration deadlines pre-NVRA
>
>
>
> Hi Lia,
>
>
>
> The Book of the States--archives available online for all prior years up
> to 2009--has registration deadlines.
>
>
>
> http://knowledgecenter.csg.org/kc/content/book-states-archive-1935-2009
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__knowledgecenter.csg.org_kc_content_book-2Dstates-2Darchive-2D1935-2D2009&d=DwMFaQ&c=HUrdOLg_tCr0UMeDjWLBOM9lLDRpsndbROGxEKQRFzk&r=xr_OjwGHtP-zw6I-DJj_MQ4cusLbiVT1bScGa0c8ZJo&m=IdvQcEj30f_g82ScTqV_Mnn5wRdCQlzAAgv25bM4JLs&s=A5WKpvF2HkCobJ4tjSdgog2xszZNwg7LQdwZ2ipIHdM&e=>
>
>
>
> Page 261 of the 1990 edition has voter registration closing dates.
>
>
>
> Page 40 of the 1970 edition has cool stuff about registration rules,
> although closing dates aren't reported in that edition.
>
>
>
> Carl
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 19, 2019 at 12:30 PM Thessalia Merivaki <liamerivaki at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
>
>
> I am trying to find sources for states' voter registration deadlines
> (number of days before a general election) before the adoption of the
> National Voter registration Act.
>
>
>
> Any insight will be greatly appreciated.
>
>
>
> Thank you!
>
>
>
> Lia
>
>
>
> --
>
>
>
> *Thessalia Merivaki, PhD*
>
> *Assistant Professor in American Politics*
> 189 Bowen Hall
> Mississippi State, MS 39762
>
> P: 662.325.4160
>
> C: 352.871.5260
>
>
>
> lia.merivaki at pspa.msstate.edu
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.opa.msstate.edu_identity_assets.php-23&d=DwMFaQ&c=HUrdOLg_tCr0UMeDjWLBOM9lLDRpsndbROGxEKQRFzk&r=xr_OjwGHtP-zw6I-DJj_MQ4cusLbiVT1bScGa0c8ZJo&m=IdvQcEj30f_g82ScTqV_Mnn5wRdCQlzAAgv25bM4JLs&s=XWB7TU8yvsvgYqRzVcg4OgEOrkuK1iIhqLLhXJSdLyw&e=>
> *www.msstate.edu*
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.msstate.edu_&d=DwMFaQ&c=HUrdOLg_tCr0UMeDjWLBOM9lLDRpsndbROGxEKQRFzk&r=xr_OjwGHtP-zw6I-DJj_MQ4cusLbiVT1bScGa0c8ZJo&m=IdvQcEj30f_g82ScTqV_Mnn5wRdCQlzAAgv25bM4JLs&s=MYFE2cCrX_4472FP6_Krx-7SfkWzh9Q5Pkhovke2FA0&e=>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
>
> --
>
> Dr. Carl Klarner
> Klarnerpolitics.org
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__Klarnerpolitics.org&d=DwQFaQ&c=HUrdOLg_tCr0UMeDjWLBOM9lLDRpsndbROGxEKQRFzk&r=xr_OjwGHtP-zw6I-DJj_MQ4cusLbiVT1bScGa0c8ZJo&m=IdvQcEj30f_g82ScTqV_Mnn5wRdCQlzAAgv25bM4JLs&s=CEiuVYIdJWVoHALJpAiKVYoPPIMQVa4rwVWMxS79TOw&e=>
> Former Associate Professor of Political Science
> Academic & Consultant
> Carl.Klarner at gmail.com
> Cell: 812-514-9060
>

-- 
Dr. Carl Klarner
Klarnerpolitics.org
Former Associate Professor of Political Science
Academic & Consultant
Carl.Klarner at gmail.com
Cell: 812-514-9060
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