In her book the Democracy Index, Heather Gerken makes a lengthy argument against partisan election administrators.  A large percentage of the people who run elections in America are elected officials who run under a party label.  In her view, which I’ve critiqued, this is not a good idea.

While I think that her criticism was over the top and largely unsubstantiated, I can understand the reasonable argument that elections are better run without partisan concern.  What I have more trouble understanding is how the most partisan processes in America, Congress and the state legislatures,  largely get a pass from Gerken.  It is those processes that impede election reform far more than election administrators.

I trust the Democratic Cook County Clerk to act in the interest of Cook County voters far more than I trust either the Illinois Legislature or Congress.  Likewise with the other County Clerks around this state.  Gerken makes unfounded claims of partisan bias against election administrators.  I can cite demonstrable bias on the part of legislative bodies.  I have already written about the undervote provision in Illinois election law that is Speaker Michael Madigan’s pet proposal.

This year I went to Springfield to testify on a bill to require voter registration organizations to turn in the forms they collect in a timely manner.  Once again, as it has in every other year that it’s been proposed, the bill was not even called for a vote.

In 2007, Speaker Madigan transparently admitted that he was moving the Illinois primary in an effort to help Barack Obama’s presidential bid.

Of course, the partisanship within the legislative process is exacerbated by a lack of awareness about election administration that leads to burdensome laws that do little to serve voters.  Our County Clerk’s association has tried to get both the State Board of Elections rules or the Illinois Statutes relaxed to allow us to remove a voter based on an obituary (instead of requiring a death certificate).  This is consistent with the National Voter Registration Act and practices in other states.  A host of excuses as to why election administrators shouldn’t be able to rely on an obituary are given.  None are reasonable.  But we remain stuck with an unnecessary burden which is sometimes costly.

The legislature actually gave fixed hours for early voting on weekends.  For example, we are forced to be open from 9am to noon on for two early voting Sundays.  Not 10am to 1pm.  Not noon to 3pm.  The legislature instead decided to mandate three hours that most election officials believe are not good hours for the voters in their counties.

Sometimes the actions of the legislature read like a script from a slapstick comedy as in the provisions for judges to return provisional ballots from the polling place.

(6) After the person has completed marking his or her provisional ballot, he or she shall place the marked ballot inside of the provisional ballot envelope, close and seal the envelope, and return the envelope to an election judge, who shall then deposit the sealed provisional ballot envelope into a securable container separately identified and utilized for containing sealed provisional ballot envelopes. Upon the closing of the polls, the securable container shall be sealed with filament tape provided for that purpose, which shall be wrapped around the box lengthwise and crosswise, at least twice each way, and each of the election judges shall sign the seal.

Don’t you feel safer already?

Election administrators are hardly alone among professions in seeing unnecessary burdens placed upon them by legislative bodies.  I’m sure every profession has similar stories.  What’s interesting is that Gerken glosses over the legislative branch almost entirely and goes straight to the administrators.  The combination of unnecessary and partisan provisions in the Election code deserve more examination if one is truly going to address what Gerken’s book sets out to do: “Why our election system is failing and how to fix it.”

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