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I. In Focus This Week

“The List” 2011

You’ve waited all year for it, so without further ado, here is electionlineWeekly’s annual list of what’s in and what’s out in election administration. Happy New Year from all of us at Pew Center on the States’ Election Initiatives.

OUT: Lever voting machines in New York
IN: Optical scan voting machines (finally)

OUT: Secretaries of State, Charlie Daniels (Ark.), Bernie Beuscher (Colo.), Susan Bysiewicz (Conn.), Todd Rokita (Ind.), Michael Mauro (Iowa), Chris Briggs (Kansas), Terri Lynn Land (Mich.), Mary Herrera (N.M.), Jennifer Brunner (Ohio), Chris Nelson (S.D.), and Deb Markowitz (Vt.)
IN: Secretaries of State; Mark Martin (Ark.), Scott Gessler (Colo.), Denise Merrill (Conn.), Charlie White (Ind.), Matt Schultz (Iowa), Kris Kobach (Kansas), Ruth Johnson (Mich.), Dianna Duran (N.M.), Jon Husted (Ohio), Jason Gant (S.D.) and Jim Condos (Vt.)

OUT: Instant-runoff voting in Aspen, Colo.
IN: Instant-runoff voting in Berkeley, Oakland and San Leandro

OUT: Voter ID legislation in the 2009 Texas Legislature
IN: Pre-filed voter ID legislation in the 2011 Texas Legislature

OUT: Non-citizen voting in Portland, Maine
IN: Thinking about non-citizen voting in Hyattsville, Md. and Brookline, Mass.

OUT: Kat Zambon, associate Pew Election Initiatives
IN: Kat Zambon, senior communications officer, American Association for the Advancement of Science

OUT: Action on federal military and overseas voting legislation
IN: Action on state military and overseas voting legislation

OUT: Fighting about the constitutionality of photo ID
IN: Fighting about the cost of making required IDs free to all

OUT: Election reform as a political issue
IN: Election administration as a fiscal issue

OUT: EAC Commissioner Gracia Hillman
IN: Questions about the EAC's future?

OUT: “Will it increase turnout”?
IN: “Can we afford it?”

OUT: Convenience
IN: Cost-Effectiveness

OUT: Election Night as the end of the campaign
IN: Election Night as the start of the count

OUT: Stray marks as evidence of voter intent
IN: Stray spelling as evidence of voter intent

OUT:  Complaining about the cost of special elections
IN: Deciding to forgo special elections to save money

OUT: Complaining about the cost of elections
IN: Deciding to reduce the number of polling places to save money

OUT: State legislators as outsiders to election reform
IN: Former state legislators as Secretaries of State

OUT: Redistricting as game of musical chairs for politicians
IN: Redistricting as game of “52 pickup” for election officials

OUT: Misplacing 195,000 ballots for weeks in New York City
IN: Spending days looking for one ballot in Otter Tail County, MN

OUT: Nostalgia for lever machines
IN: Nostalgia for touch-screens?

OUT: “Percentage of precincts reporting”
IN: “Percentage of expected vote”

OUT: Regular ballots in Bridgeport, CT
IN: Photocopied ballots in Bridgeport, CT

OUT: Voter registration deadlines, excuse-required absentee voting, and Sequoia voting technology in Washington D.C.
IN: Same-day voter registration, no-excuse absentee voting, no-excuse in-person early voting, early voting centers, electronic poll books, and ES&S voting technology in Washington D.C.

OUT: Nick Handy, retiring Washington State’s election director
IN: Katie Blinn and Shane Hamlin, acting co-directors

II. Election Reform News This Week

• Iowa won't have to repay the federal government any money in connection with $2.5 million in questionable spending of voting funds, even though a final audit report shows rules were broken. For three years, state elections officials have been dealing with audits that flagged misspending during Democrat Chet Culver's watch as Iowa's top elections official in 2005. Satisfied with efforts to fix most of the problems, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission decided this week the final amount Iowa owed the federal government was $221,000. But the state won't have to write a check for that repayment; Secretary of State Michael Mauro told the Des Moines Register this week. Federal officials agreed to give the state a credit for expenses that were eligible for federal voting funds, but that Mauro chose to cover with state money knowing questionable spending would likely need to be repaid.

• In the waning days of her term, troubles continue to mount for New Mexico Secretary of State Mary Herrera. James Flores, a former spokesman for the secretary of state sued the state's top elections official, accusing his former boss in state court of retaliating against him for speaking with the FBI about alleged corruption at her agency. Flores was one of Herrera's top aides until early September, when he was fired. According to the Santa Fe New Mexican at issue is whether Herrera terminated Flores for speaking with the FBI. Flores said she did, and that Herrera violated the state whistle-blower's act in the process Herrera says she didn't. "He can claim what he wants to claim, but he was fired for being insubordinate," Herrera told said Flores when reached by phone by the newspaper.

• Whether or not the Mountain State will conduct a special election to replace former Gov. Joe Manchin is still up-in-the air, but a citizen’s group has filed suit to have the election conducted. This week acting West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, Speaker of the House Rick Thompson and Secretary of State Natalie Tennant all filed response to the suit. In her legal brief, Tennant said that her office does not have the authority to call a special election and that should one be called state and local officials will need more time to conduct the election than what the original lawsuit allows.

• Alaska Update: More than likely, by the time you read this, the state of Alaska will have finally certified the 2010 Senate election, but that doesn’t mean it’s over for losing candidate Joe Miller. After the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in favor of Murkowski, Miller filed papers in court that he would not object to the certification. On Tuesday, a federal court judge dismissed the suit Miller had filed in federal court and lifted the court’s stay on the certification. The State Division of Elections certified the election on Tuesday shortly after the stay was lifted and Gov. Sean Parnell was expected to officially sign the certification papers at press time. Randy DeSoto, a spokesman for Miller said that Miller is weighing his options about whether to pursue further legal action and would make an announcement about those plans on Friday.
  
  
• Personnel News: Eric Rucker will serve as Kansas deputy secretary of state. Rucker previously had oversight of elections for the state of Kansas in the 1980s. After 26 years as head of the Providence, R.I. board of canvassers and 35 years in total on the job, Laurence K. Flynn retired last week. He oversaw 53 elections including seven presidential. After more than twenty years of service, four presidents and three different voting systems, Mary Fry is retiring from the Coshocton County, Ohio board of elections. Warren Slocum, San Mateo County’s long-time and innovative clerk/assessor/recorder has overseen his final election and will retire in January.

III. Opinions This Week

Arizona: Ballot timeline
California: Instant-runoff voting
Florida: Mail-in ballots
Indiana: Recount commission; Precinct power
New York: Voting process; Election reform
North Carolina: Instant-runoff voting
Ohio: Ballot problems
Rhode Island: Disabled voters
Tennessee: Rutherford County
Texas: Voting problems
Washington: Top-two primary; Presidential primary
Wisconsin: Voter ID; Improving elections

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IV. Job Postings This Week
All job listings must be received by 12 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday for publication in our Thursday newsletter. Job listings are free but may be edited for length. Whenever possible, include Internet information. Please e-mail job postings to mmoretti@electionline.org

Interns, Competence Center for Electronic Voting and Participation, Vienna — recruiting 2 interns or working students who are looking for a 3-6 month internship or working student position in Vienna starting in January 2011. What to expect from us: working in an interdisciplinary environment of business administration and politics; truly international working environment; participating in the establishment of a small think tank; interesting and challenging tasks; participating in the development of democracy and monthly salary (depending on working time) What do we expect from you: very good/good results in your studies; advanced progress in your university career; areas of studies (business, economics, social sciences, communication, applied informatics, public management); good/very good English language skills (written and oral); other languages are not necessary but welcomed (e.g. Spanish); commitment and entrepreneurial thinking; open-minded personality; interest in politics and technology. Application: Please send CV (PDF, 2 pages) and letter of motivation (PDF, 1 page) directly to Manuel Kripp, m.kripp@e-voting.cc. For more information, click here.