[EL] Counting By-Mail ballots is hard

Thu Mar 19 21:05:44 PDT 2020

To reinforce the Detroit and other stories' ideas that managing large-scale
by-mail ballots is hard:

Today is March 19th, sixteen days after California's primary election. Yet
San Francisco has yet to count over 25% of the ballots cast in the county.
While the time required to process provisional ballots is understandable,
88,000 of the remaining 110,000 ballots left to count in San Francisco are
by-mail ballots. Granted, San Francisco is using new voting equipment this
election -- and I suspect the learning curve with the new equipment is why
the counting delays there are more there than in other California counties
(disclaimer: I am guessing about that as I have no inside knowledge into
SF's operations) -- but what is proposed in this debate is new voting
equipment on a massive, almost national, scale.

California is a state that has had no-excuse by-mail voting for many, many
years, and the state has experience processing 25%, 33% and even 50% of all
ballots cast coming in by mail. The state's election officials are among
the most-experienced and most-expert with by-mail voting in the country.
Yet this undertaking remains a difficult logistical challenge.

I support the massive expansion of by-mail voting for this November
election. But we should not under-estimate how hard that will be to
implement -- and how long it will take to count those votes.

- Doug

Douglas Johnson
Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College

On Thu, Mar 19, 2020 at 8:28 PM Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu> wrote:

>
>
> “Voting by Mail Is the Hot New Idea. Is There Time to Make It Work?”
> <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110125>
>
> Posted on March 19, 2020 8:18 pm <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110125>
> by *Rick Hasen* <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
> NYT reports.
> <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/us/politics/voting-by-mail-coronavirus.html>
>
> [image: Share]
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D110125&title=%E2%80%9CVoting%20by%20Mail%20Is%20the%20Hot%20New%20Idea.%20Is%20There%20Time%20to%20Make%20It%20Work%3F%E2%80%9D>
>
> Posted in absentee ballots <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>, election
> administration <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Must-read from Nate Persily and Charles Stewart: “Ten Recommendations to
> Ensure a Healthy and Trustworthy 2020 Election”
> <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110119>
>
> Posted on March 19, 2020 2:14 pm <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110119>
> by *Rick Hasen* <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
> Over
> <https://www.lawfareblog.com/ten-recommendations-ensure-healthy-and-trustworthy-2020-election> at
> Lawfare:
>
> *This past week has provided ample evidence that states are in need of
> reliable plans to carry out elections without interruption in the face of
> the unfolding medical crisis. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine caused alarm when
> he decided
> <https://www.cleveland.com/open/2020/03/ohio-polls-remain-closed-following-overnight-ruling-from-ohio-supreme-court.html> to
> postpone the presidential primary the day before it was scheduled to occur.
> DeWine’s action may have been justified on public health grounds, but it
> illustrated the confusion that can arise when states are caught between
> opening polling places and endangering the health of citizens. Meanwhile,
> the governor of Arizona and the director of elections for Maricopa
> County fought
> <https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2020/03/13/court-stops-county-recorder-from-sending-ballots-to-all-voters-for-tuesday-election/> over
> whether the county could send out mail-in ballots even to voters who have
> not requested them. Their battle illustrates that without a definitive
> statewide plan, state and local election officials can be locked in
> litigation when they should be cooperating to face serious challenges to
> the continuity of elections.*
>
> *Despite the challenge presented by COVID-19, the 2020 elections must go
> forward. The elections to be held on Nov. 3 are not optional. They cannot
> be postponed, even if dangers to public health remain as great as they are
> likely to get over the next few weeks. The nation must act now to ensure
> that there will be no doubt, regardless of the spread of infection, that
> the elections will be conducted on schedule and that they will be free and
> fair.*
>
> *Doing so requires an effort in election resilience that is unprecedented
> in American history. However, there are some clear paths toward achieving
> the desired result. We offer 10 steps in that direction.*
>
> [image: Share]
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D110119&title=Must-read%20from%20Nate%20Persily%20and%20Charles%20Stewart%3A%20%E2%80%9CTen%20Recommendations%20to%20Ensure%20a%20Healthy%20and%20Trustworthy%202020%20Election%E2%80%9D>
>
> Posted in Uncategorized <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
>
>
>
>
> “Coronavirus threatens the November election, can vote by mail save it?”
> <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110117>
>
> Posted on March 19, 2020 12:20 pm <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110117>
> by *Rick Hasen* <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
> Evan Halper
> <https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-03-19/calls-mount-making-november-mail-in-ballot> for
> the LAT.
>
> [image: Share]
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D110117&title=%E2%80%9CCoronavirus%20threatens%20the%20November%20election%2C%20can%20vote%20by%20mail%20save%20it%3F%E2%80%9D>
>
> Posted in Uncategorized <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> National Vote at Home Issues Its Report on Scaling Up Absentee Balloting
> for November in Light of COVID-19 <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110105>
>
> Posted on March 19, 2020 7:09 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110105>
> by *Rick Hasen* <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
> You can read the report here
> <https://www.voteathome.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/VAHScale_StrategyPlan.pdf>
> .
>
> [image: Share]
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D110105&title=National%20Vote%20at%20Home%20Issues%20Its%20Report%20on%20Scaling%20Up%20Absentee%20Balloting%20for%20November%20in%20Light%20of%20COVID-19>
>
> Posted in election administration <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>
>
>
>
>
> Steven Rosenfeld Looks Under the Hood at Detroit’s Absentee Ballot
> Processing, and It is Not Pretty <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110101>
>
> Posted on March 19, 2020 7:04 am <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=110101>
> by *Rick Hasen* <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
> For those like me who want and expect expanded absentee balloting in
> November, a reminder
> <https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/why-nationwide-voting-by-mail-isnt-a-silver-bullet-in-a-pandemic/> that
> there’s a lot of work to do.
>
> [image: Share]
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D110101&title=Steven%20Rosenfeld%20Looks%20Under%20the%20Hood%20at%20Detroit%E2%80%99s%20Absentee%20Ballot%20Processing%2C%20and%20It%20is%20Not%20Pretty>
>
> Posted in absentee ballots <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=53>, election
> administration <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=18>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Rick Hasen
>
> Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
>
> UC Irvine School of Law
>
> 401 E. Peltason Dr., Suite 1000
>
> Irvine, CA 92697-8000
>
> 949.824.3072 - office
>
> rhasen at law.uci.edu
>
> http://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/hasen/
>
> http://electionlawblog.org
>
>
>
>
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-- 
- Doug

Douglas Johnson
National Demographics Corporation
djohnson at NDCresearch.com
phone 310-200-2058
fax 818-254-1221
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