November
2001 EMT
Election Reform
Background:LWVUS made Election Reform the top priority this year
and assumed a leadership role in the national Election Reform movement.
Some of the LWVUS education efforts included: “Focus on the Voter,” a
series of three symposiums at the National Press Club, and the National
Voter 2001 publications:Election Reform (March), Clean Money (April),
and Redistricting (October). Link
to Resource List of various other organizations.
The Sacramento League members
interested in election reform issues formed the LWVS Election Reform
Task Force and studied the election reform issues to update Sacramento
League members about the major issues through unit discussion and a
panel presentation at the “A Woman’s Day“ workshop.
Major areas that will be discussed in this Every Member Tool are:
Why Election
Reform Is Needed:
The 2000 Election alerted the public to what the League had known, namely
that the election system needed major reforms. Some of the election
problems include: access to the polls, incorrect voter registration
lists, inadequate financing for election administration, campaign financing,
antiquated voting machines, confusing ballots, lack of well-trained
poll workers,and the lack of consistent standards for counting ballots
and conducting ballot recounts. Law suits have been filed, legislation
proposed, and commissions formed to study and make recommendations for
change.
However, election officials explained that the election process problems
the world saw in November were the “blemishes of a process that has
for decades been overlooked and undervalued, over-tasked and under-funded,
and whose complexities have been underestimated and misunderstood by
those for whom the system is designed.” (Election Center)
The decline in voter turn-out before Election 2000 was already a major
concern. Overall voter turnout in 2000 increased 2% to 51.2% but dropped
30% for those in the 18 to 24 age group.
The September 11 national tragedy that has led to war changed the country
and the political agenda. Supporters of election and campaign finance
reform realize that reform issues will be on hold.
Role of the Voter:
The American citizens right to vote is the fundamental right that defines
our democracy. The strength of the democracy is dependent on the informed
and active participation of citizens.
Voting rights are protected by the law including: The National Voting
Rights Act, The Civil Rights Act, The National Voter Registration Act
(Motor Voter) and the Federal Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and
Handicapped Act .
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ensures that racial and language minority
citizens have the same opportunity as other Americans to participate
in the nation’s political life. The Civil Rights Act of 1965 ensures
equal access to all people including polling places. And the National
Voter Registration Act of 1993 (Motor Voter) allows all eligible citizens
to apply to register to vote at the Department of Motor Vehicles, Public
Assistance and other government agencies or through the mail...all designed
to encourage voter participation. The Federal Voting Accessibility Act
of 1985 improves access for elderly and disabled individuals to registration
and polling facilities.
Voting is the civic responsibility of every eligible citizen. Voter
participation in all elections is the key to preserving the nation’s
freedoms. Election 2000 stimulated interest of many non-voters in the
election process, for the first time, although the emphasis was on controversy
and voting problems.
The voter’s rights and responsibilities are inseparable. While voters
have the right to a straightforward fair election system from voter
registration to voting (on Election Day or by absentee ballot) and having
their votes counted accurately to reflect their intent, the voter is
also responsible for personally being informed and prepared to exercise
his vote through confirming registeration, being educated the candidates
and issues; and using the voting equipment correctly to ensure his vote
can be counted. If able, the voter is encouraged to assist with the
election process, by volunteering to work as a poll worker; assisting
others to go to the polls and getting out the vote.
The voter is the key to ensuring the government is "of the people, for
the people, and by the people." Not voting is NOT an option as every
vote makes a difference and can influence the direction of government.
Inside the Election Process:
During elections the public’s attention focuses on the politics of the
electionand the operational aspects are taken for granted: ie. the registering
of voters, preparing ballots and ballot information booklets, organizing
polling sites and voting equipment, providing poll workers, determining
voter eligibility and counting and recounting of ballots. But the scrutiny
of the Florida election problems gave new emphasis to the election process,
although the complexity may not be fully understood, accord ing to the
Election Center.
The election process is complex and requires a competent staff dedicated
to ensuring the integrity of the election. Unfortunately such expertise
is not available to all election offices. The U.S. elections are decentralized
with 3,123 separate and independent election offices administered by
local government offices, ie. counties, boroughs, parishes and cities.
These offices are generally headed by appointed Registrars of Voters
or elected Clerks as full or part-time positions. There are fifty separate
state elections totals (official results forwarded by the Secretary
of State) and sometimes as many as one hundred local district elections.
Sacramento has 119 districts for separate elective offices.
The local election office is responsible for the administeriation of
all elections. The multitude of steps range from voter registration
to the sending of the final election results to The Secretary of State
for official election certification. Two exceptions are the states of
Hawaii, and Oklahoma that administer elections through the Office of
the Lt. Governor. In the critical counting of votes, some must be counted
after election day and separately, such as absentee, overseas and military
ballots while Provisional and Fail Safe ballots must be checked to determine
voter eligibility before the ballots are counted.
Poll workers are the backbone of Election Day staff as they administer
the election at polling places throughout the community (up to 1000
people are assigned to each polling site in Sacramento). The Election
Office depends on citizens to volunteer to perform this valuable civic
duty, for a nominal pay of $35 to $100/ day for twelve hours of service.
Sacramento County employs about 5,000 poll workers for up to 1450 polling
places.
The voter turnout for Sacramento County 2000 Electon was 74% of the
the 611,014 eligible voters. The Sacramento Election Office ranked eighth
nationwide by the Cal Tech/ MIT Survey for outstanding election performance
in Election 2000.
Ernest Hawkins, Registrar of Voters of Sacramento County and nationally
respected and recognized elections leader, stated at a League meeting
that “no election is perfect.” Close scrutiny, especially of close races,
can reveal some problems in the complex election process. The more than
four million poll workers in 2000 Election increases the potential for
human error. Many election officials question the assumption that simply
changing voting equipment is a panacea for correcting election problems
and prefer to focus more on improving the training of staff, (including
poll workers) and making election standards, procedures consistent nationwide.
Election Standards and Procedures can safeguard against many problems.
Election offices are independent with varying resources and more than
50% of election offices operate without the benefit of established standards
and procedures.
The LWVS Election Reform Task Force has reviewed many proposals and
recommendations that a few issues are listed below.
Reforms 1 & 2 Standard and Procedures Proposals:
These reforms emphasized nationwide elections standards . Another reform
is the proposed national agency to ensure these standards and procedures
are operating in all election offices. But election officials prefer
voluntary enforcement so that elections can be tailored to suit the
special needs of the area instead of solutions imposed solutions from
Washington D.C..
Election Officials have access to expert professional resources, such
as The Election Center in Houston, Texas. Other organizations include
the National Association of County Recorders, Election Officials (NACRC)
that educates officials about election laws, procedures and ethics,
The National Association of Counties (NACo) and National Association
of Secretaries of States (NASS) that also provide education and coordination
about the election process. Their professional expertise gives special
value to their published election reform recommendations as presented
in The Report and Recommendations to Improve America’s Election System
by the National Commission on Election Standards and Reform (NCESR).
Local government has been responsible for both the administration and
total funding of all federal, state and local elections, that is a long-standing
issue and a economic hardship for many struggling communities. For example,
the total cost to Sacramento County was $1.97 million to administer
Election 2000, but the county share was only $298,000. This funding
inequity may explain local election offices limited ability to upgrade
equipment and make other improvements.
Reform 3: Funding
Many funding proposals have been made by national and state legislatures.
California voters will be asked to vote, in the March Primary 2002,
on the Voting Modernization Bond Act to provide $200 Million in matching
funds to upgrade local election equipment.
The vote recount process requires a clear definition of “what constitutes
a vote” that is consistently used statewide. Florida’s definition varied
from county to county that led to legal issues. Although California
has a clear definition of what constitutes a vote, in the State Election
Guidelines, it has not been codified and there are mixed opinions about
whether this is needed to ensure legal stability.
Reform 4--Legal Issues:
Legal requirements to guarantee fair elections are also being examined
to standardize the election laws statewide. The roles of the state and
federal government in the election process are important to understand
the overview of elections. They provide valuable support services for
Election Day, although their offices do not have a direct role in the
election process and vary from state to state.
The Office of the Secretary of State has an Election Division and as
an elected official the Secretary is the official state election spokesman.
This office provides election support services, ie. statewide voter
registration drives, processing of state candidate data, publishing
of state candidate and issue handbooks, campaign disclosure reporting
(Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) and official certifying
of elections and election equipment.
The federal government has five specialized election related agencies.
The Department of Commerce Census Division provides the census data
every ten years that is the basis for redistricting and the redrawing
of district and precinct lines to ensure equal representation. The Department
of Defense Voting Assistance Program coordinates military and over-seas
voting. The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and Fraud Division
prosecute violations. The Federal ElectionCommission (FEC) enforces
campaign finance disclosure laws.
The voter is expected to understand the election process in terms of
what must be done to cast a ballot correctly so it can be counted. Also,
if able, capable voters are encourged volunteer to work as a poll worker
on Election Day.
Election Reform Proposals and Recommendations
The Florida Vote Recount of Election 2000 propelled legislators and
citizens groups, including the LWVUS, to advocate for the long deferred
election reforms. Legislators, at federal and state levels, proposed
a flurry of nearly 1500 bills to correct various election problems.
And citizens groups, such as the League, and “blue ribbon” commissions
added to legislative proposals and more immediate alternatives.
Increased funding for local election services, particularly updating
of voting equipment, was the focus of many proposals since the Florida
debacle smeared the punch card voting machines and undermined voter
confidence in them. Florida has replaced the punch card ballot with
optical scan voting machines. The California Secretary of State has
decertified punch-card machines in Sacramento County and seven counties
by 2006 because of ACLU- Common Cause Lawsuit that alleges the pre-scored
punch cards discriminate against minority groups because of their higher
error rate that cause them to be discounted. California will be a “chad-free”
state by 2006.
Outside Influences Impact on Elections
Four outside influences that had a significant impact on elections are:
- Campaign Finance or how special
interest money gives contributors undue access and influence on political
officials
- Media or how the exorbitant
cost for advertising and coverage aggravates high cost of campaigns
and limits what voters hear about candidates and issues
- Electoral Collegeor whether
all votes have the same weight in influencing the election outcome
- Redistricting Process
or how to redraw the election district boundaries based on new census
data so each district and precinct has equal population to ensure
equal representation.
Campaign Finance Reform The public cynicism
and anger about possible corruption in the political and election system
and the undue influence and access by wealthy campaign contributors, labor
unions, corporations and lobbyists, in contrast to that of the average
citizen, threatens our democratic form of government and the confidence
of the voter.
Campaign spending was at an all time high for Election 2000. Monies flooded
into the major parties with a growth in the number of committees that
exploited an IRS loophole, (that was finally closed in June 2000) that
allowed unlimited corporate and union gifts ”Soft money” collected by
the parties and spent on sham issue ads dominated the election and prevented
minority parties from gaining a foothold.
The McCain-Feingold bill (S 27) that passed the Senate in April 2001,
offers a major step in reforming the campaign financing system and reducing
the influence of money in the election process. The crux of the bill is
a ban on “soft money” (unlimited contributions to national political parties
for “party-building” activities.)The bill also places restrictions on
outside groups airing “issue ads” that tout or criticize a candidate’s
position on an issue but stop short of telling viewers to vote for or
against that candidate. In the House, reformers are trying to get needed
signatures on a discharge petition to force a rule for fair debate on
the companion Shays-Meehan bill.(HR2356)
The League has been an advocate of campaign finance reform since 1974,
with action at the state and local levels also. The LWVUS position states
“the methods of financing political campaigns should ensure the public’s
right to know, combat corruption and undue influence, enable candidates
to compete more equitably for public office and allow maximum citizen
participation in the political process.”
The Media, especially television, should be
the best source for election information; ie. the importance of voting
and candidates and issues data. However, coverage falls short of providing
objective, in-depth candidates and issues information because the airways
have become economically motivated and benefit from expensive partisan
candidate advertisements, albeit 30 second sound bytes and a few controlled
national “debates” by two major presidential candidates. Local election
candidates must rely on Cable Government channels.
The media profits from campaigns increased five-fold between 1980 and
2000 Elections. Television costs are the leading cause of the expensive
candidates’ campaigns that earned $1 Billion in 2000. This inflation added
to the momentum behind campaign finance reform. Campaign Reform seeks
to control this runaway escalation of campaign costs. Bill S-27 includes
a provision for reduced TV ad rates and doubles the limits of their “hard
money” campaign contriubtions.
The FCC government agreement with the television industry specified that
the public airways ,as a public trust, have temporary license to use the
television with certain restrictions that the industry has ignored,particularly
the provision of fair election coverage. The League has supported the
5-30 Plan that requires the media to provide candidates five minutes of
free air time daily during the 30 days prior to the elections. Only one
in 74 stations complied with this standard. An amendment to the McCain
-Feingold Bill requires broadcasters to offer reduced ad rates.
The Electoral College was established by
Article II of the U.S. Constitution. Each state is entitled to a number
of electors based on their combined number of representatives in Congress
that gives small states an advantage. The Electors meet six week after
the General Election to elect the President and Vice President and the
winner must receive a majority vote of 270 votes.
Before Election 2000 some voters were unaware that their vote was actually
for a slate of candiates for the office of elector, nominated by a political
party and pledged to vote for that party’s presidential and vice-presidential
candidates and not the named candidates. In California and 47 other states,
electoral votes are awarded to the slate that receives the most popular
votes. Maine and Nebraska award one electoral vote to the candidate receiving
the most votes in each congressional district and 2 electoral votes to
the candidate receiving the most votes state-wide.
Since Election 2000 was an unusually close election with one candidate
winning the popular vote and the other candidate the electoral vote, there
was much discussion of the need for the Electoral College given modern
communication. Supporters, primarily small states, value the vote advantage
that encourages candidates to campaign in their state; whereas opponents
object to the inequity of votes per person. Since 1970 the League has
advocated for the Direct Election of the President on the premise that
voters today are informed and the “popular vote” is fairest and representative
of the people. The constitutional amendment must be ratified by 38 states
and small states are unwilling to relinquish their electoral control.
Redistricting is the re-drawing of political
boundaries of major election districts to insure equal representation,
or ” one person one vote.” It is done every ten years by the effected
level of government after census totals are released. This can be a controversial
process with parties competing for control of their district. Incumbent
candidates want to preserve their supportive voter base while newcomers,
especially “communities of interest “ who may feel inadequately represented,
strive to remain intact so they can develop needed political leverage.
The Supreme Court ruled in 1986 that any gerrymander of congressional
district lines that purposely dilutes minority voting strength is illegal
(Thronsburg v. Gingles).
Discussion Questions:
- What role do
you think the local League can play in voter education about election
reform and specific election issues in March 2002, ie. Voting Machine
Bond Act.
- How can the League
help to increase voter turn-out?
- How can the
League help to recruit poll workers for Election Day
Resource List
League of Women Voters
- LWVUS
www.lwv.org
The Focus on the Voter Symposiums: National Press Club 2001
The National Voters:
- LWVC
www.ca.lwv.org
Choosing the President (1992) LWVCEF
Guide to California Government (1992) LWVCEF
Sacramento County
Elections Office: Registrar of Voters
www.co.sacramento.ca.us/elections
916- 875-6451
- Precinct Officers
Instruction Manual- General Election November 2000
- Guide to Accessible
Polling Places
California
Secretary of State
www.ss.ca.gov
916-653-6814
- Election Reforms-
10 Points- 12/2000
- ACLU-Common
Cause Lawsuit-2001
- Decertifying
Voting Punch Card Voting Machines- 10/2001
- State of the
State Report
- California Internet
Task Force: Recommendations for a phased-in approach to internet voting
while security and fraud issues are resolved.
National
United States Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR)
www.usccr.gov Report
Election 2000-
Independent, bipartisan agency established by Congress to investigate
citizen complaints of being deprived of their right to vote. USCCR studies
discrimination or denial of of equal protection laws. Florida 2000 Election
allegations and reports can be found on web site.
National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)
www.ncsl.org
Bipartisan organization that serves lawmakers and public of the fifty
states. Its website includes the Election Reform Task Force service, a
comprehensive legislative database for finding election reform bills in
each state, news on election reform and a list of federal election reform
proposals.
Election Center
National Task Force on Election Reform: Review and Recommendations by
the Nation’s Elections Administrators: Aug 2001
www.electioncenter.org
281-293-0101
Organization of election and registration officials that educates and
advocates high standards of conduct for election officials.
National Association of Counties (NACo)
www.naco.org
Provides extensive service and public affairs assistance to its members
and serves as liaison with other levels of government and advocate for
counties to help meet challenges they face.
Election 2000 Performance
Evaluation of Election Offices:
Cal Tech/ MIT
www.vote.caltech.edu
National survey of performance of election offices with recommendations
to improve registration systems and upgrade voting machines.
National Commission
on Federal Election Reform:
Miller Center of Public Affairs,University of Virginia
www.reformelection.org
Carter/Ford: Honorary Co-chairs
Proposals for election reform to ensure a more effective and fair process
in future elections.
National Assn of Secretaries of State (NASS)
www.nass.org
Information exchange and advocacy association that encourages cooperation
with links by state and has prepared an Election Reform Recommendations
Report
National Conference
of State Legislatures (NCSL)
www.ncsl.org
bipartisan organization that serves lawmaker and staffs of the 50 states.
Website contains current news reports and its Election Reform Task Force
includes a comprehensive legislative database of election reform bills
in each state, news on election reform and list of federal election
reform proposals.
International Assn. of Clerks, Recorders, Election Officials and Treasurers
(IACREOT)
www.iacreot.com
Provides election reform recommendations that emphasize special needs
of military and overseas voters, the absentee ballot, and special provisions
for voters with disabilities.
Public Campaign
www.publiccampaign.org
Aims to reduce the role of special interest money in America’s elections.
List of 20 Things Citizens Can Do To Clean Up Electionsis posted
on their website.
Project Vote Smart
www.vote-smart.org
888-Vote-Smart
Provides comprehensive candidate information including their campaign
finances and voting records on issues, ie. election reform.
National Organization on Disability (NOD)
www.nod.org
Promotes full and equal participation of the 54 million men, women and
children with disabilities. NOD is dedicated to incorporating people
with disability into national election reform and insuring their special
needs are considered with new voting equipment and information and accessbility
issues
Alliance for Better Campaigns
www.bettercampaigns.org
Provides election education publications that focus on the role of media
in elections. Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Walter Cronkite head this
effort. The Political Standard, a quarterly publications is valuable
resource.” The Gouging America,” links high cost of campaigns to media
demands.
Pew Center on the States
Stateline
www.stateline.org
Publication of the a research project administer by the U of Richmond
and funded by Pew Charitable Trusts that tracks information on current
issues in a number of large states and includes election reform activity
in various states.
There are many other website and print media books and articles about
Election Reform that reflect widespread activity on this complex issue.
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