In Focus This Week
I. In Focus This Week
Let them vote
Move is on to allow more 16- and 17-year olds vote in local elections
Not too many folks can say they were “the first” in their industry to do something, but Jessie Carpenter, clerk for Takoma Park, Maryland can wear that label with pride.
In 2013, the City of Takoma Park — a Washington, D.C. suburb — gave 16- and 17-year olds the right to vote in local elections and Carpenter was there to conduct the first election.
Since then, Takoma Park has been joined by Hyattsville, Maryland in allowing 16- and 17-year olds to vote, and legislators in San Francisco, Lowell, Massachusetts and the state of Missouri are also considering lowering the voting age.
Back in Takoma Park, Carpenter said the transition was pretty seamless.
Because Maryland allows 16- and 17-year olds to pre-register, when Prince George’s County provides the city with the most updated voter rolls in advance of the election, the county simply includes the pre-registered 16- and 17-year olds on the eligible list and Carpenter goes from there.
In the first election where they were eligible, 59 of the 134 registered 16- and 17-year olds — or 44 percent — turned out to vote.
“Overall voter turnout — for all ages — was just over 10 percent,” Carpenter said. “So you can see that the young people definitely came out in force.”
Carpenter said the young voters who participated seemed genuinely proud to have been able to vote in their hometown.
And Takoma Park hasn’t stopped there. While Marylanders may pre-register to vote beginning at 16, in Takoma Park, voters may begin pre-registering at 15.
“Once our city council enacted the revisions to our City Charter to extend the vote to the younger voters, we promoted the opportunity to vote,” Carpenter said. “We also allowed 15-year olds to register using a city voter registration form so that we could remind them to transition to registration with the State when they became eligible.”
Earlier this year Hyattsville, Maryland became the second municipality not only in the country, but also in Maryland to lower the voting age for local elections to 16.
The city’s first election with the new, lower voting age will be this spring. Hyattsville Clerk Laura Reams doesn’t anticipate the coming election to procedurally be any different from past elections.
“Since the pre-registered 16- and 17-year old voters will be incorporated into the city’s voter rolls, the polling location procedures will be the same for all voters,” Reams said.
Although she has no idea what turnout will be like for this group, so far, she said, reaction to the lower voting age has been positive.
“The city has primarily received very positive feedback on this legislation. The city had a great turn out for the public hearing on lowering the voting age – approximately 80 people, with standing room only in the city’s council chambers – and the comments were overwhelmingly in favor of lowering the voting age for City Elections,” Reams said.
Reams said the city’s board of supervisors of elections has done outreach to the local high schools and is hoping to work with the schools in hosting a voter registration drive before the election.
Both Reams and Carpenter said there have been no added costs to their offices under the new voting age requirements.
Much has been written about Millennial turnout — roughly 21 percent in 2014 — but studies have shown that the earlier people get involved in the process the more likely they are to remain engaged in the process.
That’s why organizations like The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) and FairVote, support lowering the voting age at the local level.
Perhaps engaging the generation that follows the Millennials — the jury is still out on what to call them — early on will increase participation later in life.
Carpenter isn’t sure if there has been an increase in 16- and 17-year olds registering to vote, but she said that is something her office will be tracking as they ramp up for the next election when they can vote, which is later this year.
“Not everyone in Takoma Park supported reducing the voting age,” Carpenter said. “I think that as time goes by and other communities reduce the voting age, it will become normal. What we would like to know is whether the early voting experience helps make lifelong voters of these teens.”
One unforeseen wrinkle has come though. Following the decision to lower the voting age, the Hyattsville officials did clarify the rules about minimum age to serve as mayor on the council. Although 16- and 17-year olds can vote for those seats, they can’t serve in them until they are 18.
The lower voting age movement has met some resistance.
Recently, residents of Brattleboro, Vermont voted down a measure that would have lowered the town’s voting to 16. While voter turnout was only about 14 percent, the measure failed by an almost 2-1 margin.
The town selectboard was divided on the age amendment — there were several other voting amendments on the recent ballot — but David Gartenstein, selectboard chairman told a local paper that the town’s attorney had expressed concerns over the legality of the amendment.
And as we mentioned, cities and towns are the only ones considering lowering the voting either. At least one piece of legislation is pending at the state level.
In Missouri, Rep. Karla May (D-084) has introduced HJR16 that proposes a constitutional amendment allowing residents of the state who are over the age of 16 to vote. The bill has been read a second time, but no hearings are scheduled and it is not currently on the House calendar.
Our Say
II. Our Say
Our Say is an occasional section giving elections officials, academics, policymakers or elections geeks a chance to have their say on election administration. If you’ve got an opinion about some element of election administration and would like to write about it, please email electionline.
How to move beyond the partisan divide in election reform
By Paul Gronke
Last Thursday, House Bill 2177, the “New Motor Voter Bill,” passed the Oregon Senate following passage on Feb. 20 in the House. Gov. Kate Brown has said she’ll sign the legislation; it was a signature piece of legislation for her while secretary of state and was introduced at her request in each of the last two legislative sessions.
Oregon’s move makes sense given the national movement to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the voter registration system in the United States. Our current voter registration system is costly, inaccurate and antiquated. And there is no doubt that the barriers to registration depress voter turnout by keeping otherwise eligible voters from the polls.
FairVote, a nonpartisan voting reform organization, has identified voter registration as the one of the most significant barriers to voter participation in the country. A 2012 study by the Pew Center on the States found that one in four, or more than 51 million Americans, were not registered. One in eight voter registration records were inaccurate or invalid.
Keeping these records up to date is very costly. A 2008 study in our own state of Oregon found that the government spends $4.11 per active voter to maintain current records and $7.67 to add new records. The total bill to the Oregon taxpayers was nearly $9 million!
With those figures, it sounds like automatic voter registration is a good thing; it creates a voter registration system that is easier for citizens, less expensive for the taxpayers and less prone to inaccuracy. Moreover, voter registration is not enshrined in our Constitution. As Harvard historian Alex Keyssar has shown, it was only implemented in the 19th century as a method to disenfranchise first poor and foreign-born, and later African American citizens.
So why, then, did every single Republican in the Oregon House and Senate oppose the bill, and all but one Democrat (Scappoose’s Sen. Betsy Johnson, who opposed it last time) support the bill? The answer is that election administration and reform — both here in Oregon and nationwide — have become one more front in the all-out legal and political melee that law professor Rick Hasen calls the “Voting Wars.”
How can we move beyond partisan divides that shake public confidence in our elections system, turning close elections into acrimonious disputes, fueled by social media and often resolved in the courtroom? The ongoing national debate over voter identification is instructive. Opponents of voter ID have had difficulty finding evidence of citizens denied the right to vote because they lacked an ID, while supporters of voter ID have been unable to provide any evidence of voter impersonation at the polling place — the only kind of voter fraud that a voter ID would prevent.
The way to thread the political needle on voter ID, as Doug Chapin of the University of Minnesota’s Election Academy points out, seems to be to require IDs but ensure that they are free and easily obtainable. Gov. Brown and legislative leaders in Oregon may take a lead from Gov. Mark Dayton of Minnesota, who, even though he is a Democrat, has pledged not to sign any elections-related legislation that does not have substantial bipartisan support.
There is no chance that Gov. Brown will fail to sign HB2177. When she does, we can be assured of two things in the future:
First, Oregon’s high voter turnout rate as a percentage of registered voters will surely go down since many of the newly registered voters won’t cast a ballot in 2016. And second, if we don’t figure out a way to get partisanship out of election administration, Oregon’s part in the voting wars won’t end anytime soon.
Paul Gronke is a political science professor at Reed College and director of Reed’s Early Voting Information Center.
This op-ed was reprinted from The Oregonian.
Election News This Week
III. Election News This Week
- It always comes down to money. This week, two secretaries of state went to bat for money for elections in their states. In Ohio, Secretary of State Jon Husted announced plans to request $1.2 million in state funds to send absentee ballots to every voter in the state for the 2016 election cycle. The mailings cost $1.5M in 2012 and less than $1M in 2014. In Massachusetts, things got a bit heated when Secretary of State William Galvin addressed Gov. Charlie Baker’s proposed 2016 budget. “As you all know this country is scheduled to elect a new president next year. Apparently the governor only wants 49 states to vote, he doesn’t want this one, because he has drastically underfunded the elections budget,” Galvin said at a meeting with House and Senate budget writers. Galvin requested $8.1M for elections and Baker’s budget only offers $5.7M.
- Rutherford County, Tennessee has joined a growing list of counties asking the state to move to a vote center system for upcoming elections. Under the county’s plan about 20 precinct-based polling sites would be eliminated and the 30 remaining polling places would function as vote centers where any registered voter may cast a ballot. The plans, according to the county, would save the county hundreds of thousands of dollars. Other counties pursing the vote center idea are Sumner, Hamilton, Chester and Gibson.
- In the wake of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary, the debate over schools as polling places has increased. With no real alternatives for locations, the Clark County, Ohio board of elections will hire a special duty officer to patrol a local elementary school during the May 5 election.
- Democratic members of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) asking the agency to look into status of voting machine technology the the potential problems outdated machines could cause in future elections.
- Looks like City of Jennings, Missouri will be taking a Mulligan on its April election. With just a month to go before the scheduled spring election, officials at St. Louis County’s board of elections said instead of voting in April, residents in Jennings will have to vote in a special election because the ballot created for Jennings fails to include a race for Riverview Fire District. Because absentee voting is already underway, the entire election will have to be scrapped and a special election will be held most likely sometime in August.
- Personnel News: Rebecca LeMire is stepping down as the Beloit, Wisconsin city clerk. Luke Lee, chairman of the Hawkins County, Tennessee announced that he will not seek reappointment to the commission. Longtime Sarasota County, Florida Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent has announced that she will not seek re-election in 2016. Dent was first elected in 2000. James Clements is the new Culpepper County, Virginia registrar of voters. The Boy Scouts of America have honored William Kocses, warehouse operations manager for the Collier County supervisor of elections office with the Silver Beaver Award. Lin Dyess Stewart has been appointed to serve as the Rapides Parish, Louisiana registrar effective July 1. Stewart replaces Joanell Wilson who is retiring. Interestingly enough, Wilson replaced B.G. Dyess — Stewart’s father — in 1988. Valerie Crafard has been hired as the new Clatsop County, Oregon clerk. It must be a Louisiana thing…Rhonda Rogers has been appointed to serve as the Terrebonne Parish registrar of voters. Rogers replaces her mother Linda Rodrigue who retired in February after 25 years on the job. Ann Matlack has been hired by South Thomaston, Maine to serve as the town’s administrator and registrar of voters. Finally! On March 7th Carlos Cascos, a former Cameron County judge was officially sworn-in as Texas’ 100th secretary of state. In other secretary of state news, Jeanne Atkins has been appointed by Gov. Kate Brown to serve as Oregon’s new secretary of state. Atkins, who retired from a staff job for U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley in January, will complete the remaining 22 months of Brown’s term. Atkins has made it clear that she will not seek the seat in 2016.
- Get Well: Electionline and the elections dog would like to wish a speedy recovery to Weld County, Colorado Clerk Carly Koppes who was recently bitten by a dog. As a two-time dog bite sufferer (not from the elections dog of course), electionline feels your pain (literally) and hopes you get better soon.
Research and Report Summaries
IV. Research and Report Summaries
electionline provides brief summaries of recent research and reports in the field of election administration. The summaries are courtesy of the research staff of The Pew Charitable Trusts Elections Initiatives. Please email links to research to Sean Greene at Pew.
America Goes to the Polls 2014 – Nonprofit VOTE, March 12, 2015: This report examines voter turnout in the November 2014 election and finds:
- 36.6% of eligible citizens voted, the lowest in a midterm since World War II;
- Maine had the highest turnout at 58.5%, followed by Wisconsin at 56.8%, and Colorado at 54.5%; and
- Nevada, Tennessee, New York, Texas, and Indiana had the lowest turnout, all with less than 30% of their eligible voters participating.
Election Survey Report November 4, 2014 General Election – Orange County, California Registrar of Voters, March 2015: The Orange County registrar of voters used 11 surveys to get feedback from poll workers and polling place hosts about Election Day in November 2014. These data help the county measure performance over time and monitor their ongoing efforts to improve election services.
Elections and Polling Place Observations – Ventura County, California Grand Jury, March 5, 2015: The Ventura County, California Grand Jury, as part of its oversight of in the course of overseeing election procedures in the county, conducted unannounced observations in a number of polling places during the November 2014 election. They rated most polling places as being in good shape and having welcoming and knowledgeable poll workers. The most common problems were missing signage outside and inside polling places and confusion related to precincts where multiple precincts were located in one polling place.
Legislative Updates
V. Legislative Updates
Alabama: A House committee considered legislation that would move the voter registration deadline from 14 days prior to an election to 30 days this week, but ultimately tabled the bill.
Arizona: The House has approved a bill that will move the state’s primary up by six weeks to the second week of July — July 12 in 2016.
Arkansas: The House has advanced a bill that would allow voters with conceal carry permits to bring their firearms into a polling place with them on election day.
Delaware: Rep. Earl Jacques (D-Glasgow) plans to pre-file legislation that would allow for no-excuse absentee voting in the First State. Similar legislation was offered in 2013, but was not approved.
Hawaii: The Senate has approved SB 622 that would require the state’s chief elections official to undergo a performance evaluation after each general election. The bill now moves to the House.
Kentucky: The Senate Committee on State and Local Government has advanced legislation that would allow in-person absentee voting on the basis of age, disability or illness. Currently voters who meet the criteria are only able to vote-by-mail.
Maryland: The Senate has approved legislation moving the state’s primary in presidential election years to the last Tuesday in April. This will align Maryland with other states in the area, but not its counterparts in the Big 10. The move will also help avoid early voting conflicts with Easter.
North Dakota: By a 28-63 vote, the House defeated a bill that would have allowed North Dakota college students to use their college IDs to vote. The Senate unanimously approved the bill — Senate Bill 2330 —in February.
Oregon: The Oregon Legislature has approved a bill that will create automatic voter registration for any Oregonian getting a driver’s license or non-driver’s ID. The bill will be retroactive and will add nearly 300,000 voters to the rolls almost immediately. Gov. Kate Brown, who had championed the bill as secretary of state will sign the legislation.
Pennsylvania: Sen. Vincent Hughes (D-Philadelphia/Montgomery) has announced plans to introduce legislation to create automatic voter registration in the Keystone State. Under Hughes’ legislation, not only would voters be automatically registered through the Department of Transportation, but also other state agencies.
Texas: More than six lawmakers are sponsoring legislation that would allow local jurisdictions to post public notices — including elections notices — exclusively online instead of in local newspapers. The lawmakers argue that the legislation will save local governments thousands of dollars.
Utah: A House committee has approved legislation that will move the state’s Democratic primary — the GOP has said they will conduct a caucus — to March in 2016.
Also getting approval from the committee is a bill that will allow military voters and those with disabilities to cast their ballot via the Internet.
Washington: The House has approved the HB 1745, otherwise known as the Washington Voting Rights Act. The bill seeks to reform representation of minorities in local elections and opens the possibility of court challenges to cities, counties and school districts to push them to move from at-large elections to district elections. The bill moves next to the Senate where its future remains uncertain.
Legal Updates
VI. Legal Updates
Florida: The ACLU of Florida has filed a federal lawsuit in Jefferson County challenging the county’s counting of inmate population of a state prison when drawing district maps. The suit charges the county of “prison-based gerrymandering” by including the inmates.
New Jersey: The New Jersey Democratic State Committee has filed a lawsuit against a former borough councilman alleging he unlawfully challenged ballots from what he believed were Mayor Matt Doherty’s supporters. Four Belmar voters joined the committee in the complaint who say their vote-by-mail ballots, delivered by messengers, were challenged five days before the November 2014 election.
New York: A group of Hasidic Jews have filed a federal lawsuit against the Sullivan County Board of Elections and its commissioners claiming that their voting rights were denied because of their religion. In January nearly 200 people were removed from the county’s voter rolls because following an investigation, the county determined that the voter did not live at the registered address. The suit claims the many of those who were removed are Hasidic Jews and they were wrongfully removed.
Opinions This Week
VII. Opinions This Week
National Opinions: Voting rights, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VII, VIII | Redistricting | Voter ID
Alabama: Voting rights | Voter registration
California: Turnout | Pasadena election | Voting Rights Act
Colorado: Election improvements
Connecticut: Registrars
Florida: Duval County | Turnout | Election fixes
Georgia: Primary date
Guam: Election process
Illinois: Election dates | Election judges
Maine: Ranked choice voting
Michigan: Election legislation
Minnesota: Secretary of state
Missouri: Voter ID
New York: Voter suppression
North Dakota: Voter ID
Ohio: Online voter registration, II
Oregon: Voter registration, II, III | Secretary of state
Pennsylvania: Voting age
Tennessee: Vote centers, II
Texas: Voting problems | Cellphones at polling places | Election legislation
Washington: Yakima voting rights | Voting Rights Act
Available Funding
VIII. Available Funding
Knight News Challenge
The Knight Foundation, Democracy Fund, Hewlett Foundation and Rita Allen Foundation are collaborating on the latest Knight News Challenge to answer this question: How might we better inform voters and increase civic participation before, during and after elections.
For this challenge, Knight is looking for ideas and projects that better inform and inspire voters, as well as make the election process more fun and accessible for individuals.
There are no specific projects in mind, and the contest is open to anyone, from journalists, students, civic technologists, and academics, to news organizations, businesses, nonprofits, governments and individuals.
However, the challenge will not fund projects involving voter registration, lobbying or advocating for specific parties, initiatives or candidates.
Winners — there will be more than one — will split more than $3 million.
Submissions must be received by 5 p.m. on March 19. Winners will be announced in June.
Grants for new ERIC members
For states considering membership in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), The Pew Charitable Trusts offers the opportunity to apply for financial assistance to facilitate their participation.
Pew is offering limited financial assistance to states to help defray the expense, such as bulk mail service provider charges and postage, of the initial outreach to eligible but unregistered citizens by mail. Pew aims to maximize the effect of this funding by assisting multiple states.
Applications must be received by 5 p.m. EDT on May 31.
U.S. Election Assistance Commission Grants
EAC Grants Management Division is responsible for distributing, monitoring, providing technical assistance to states and grantees on the use of funds, and reporting on requirements payments and discretionary grants to improve administration of elections for federal office. The office also negotiates indirect cost rates with grantees and resolves audit findings on the use of HAVA funds.
Upcoming Events
IX. Upcoming Events
Please email upcoming events — conferences, symposiums, seminars, webinars, etc. to mmoretti@electionline.brinkdev.com.
Policy & Elections Technology: A Legislative Perspective — NCSL is hosting a national meeting to bring together legislators, legislative staff, election officials, voting technology and computer security experts, legal experts, advocates, federal agency staff and other interested parties to discuss the future of elections technology. Sessions will cover voting technology 101; a report on NCSL’s Elections Technology Project; recommendations from the Presidential Commission on Election Administration; the impact of legislation on voting system design; alternative voting methods and implications for technology; testing and certifying voting systems; the use of technology for post-election audits, recounts and resolving disputes; and what is pushing change in the way ballots are cast. Where: Santa Fe, New Mexico When: June 3 – 5. Contact: Katy Owens Hubler, katy.owens.hubler@ncsl.org, 303-856-1656. For more information and to register, click here.
NASED Summer Meeting— The National Association of State Election Directors will hold it’s 2015 summer meeting in Cleveland, Ohio this year. Registration will open soon. Where: Cleveland, Ohio. When: June 23-25. For more information and to register, click here.
IACREOT Annual Conference — The International Association of Clerks, Recorders, Elections Officials and Treasurers will hold its annual conference in Vail, Colorado this year in June and July. Planning is still in the early stages, but be sure to mark your calendar. Where: Vail, Colorado. When: June 27-July 2. For more information and to register, click here.
NASS 2015 Summer Conference — The National Association of Secretaries of State Annual Summer Conference is set for July this year. Planning is still in the early stages, but be sure to mark your calendar. Where: Portland, Maine. When: July 9-12. For more information and to register, click here.
NACo Annual Conference and Exposition— The 80th Annual Conference and Exposition of the National Association of Counties will be in Mecklenburg County (Charlotte), North Carolina. Registration opens February 9th. Where: Charlotte, North Carolina. When: July 10-13. For more information and to register, click here.
NCSL Legislative Summit 2015 — The National Conference of State Legislators will hold their 2015 Legislative Summit in August. Planning is still in the early stages, but be sure to mark your calendar. Where: Seattle. When: August 3-6. For more information when it becomes available and to register, click here.
Election Center 31st Annual Conference— The Election Center hold its 31st Annual Conference in Houston in August. Planning is still in the early stages, but be sure to mark your calendars now. Where: Houston, Texas. When: August 18-22. For more information and to register, click here.
NACRC Annual Conference— The Annual Conference of the National Association of County Recorders, Election Officials and Clerks is set for Houston in August. Planning is still in the early stages, but be sure to mark your calendar. Where: Houston, Texas. When: August 21-25. For more information and to register, click here.
Job Postings This Week
X. Job Postings This Week
electionlineWeekly publishes election administration job postings each week as a free service to our readers. To have your job listed in the newsletter, please send a copy of the job description, including a web link to mmoretti@electionline.brinkdev.com. Job postings must be received by 5pm on Wednesday in order to appear in the Thursday newsletter. Listings will run for three weeks or till the deadline listed in the posting.
Communications Director, FairVote, Takoma Park, Maryland — position will entail translating FairVote’s rigorous and detailed research into compelling messages and identifying and executing effective strategies for communicating our reform proposals. The Communications Director will be responsible for strategic communications with our supporters, our coalition partners and the media. Overseeing a team of dedicated staff, the Communications Director will ensure that all written and online materials fit within our communications strategy and are held to high standards. Initial responsibilities will focus on fulfilling the requirements of recent grants involving communications and electoral system reform. Our ideal candidate will be ready to join FairVote for the long haul and play a central role in projects designed to achieve our core electoral reform goals over the coming decade. We expect to hear from applicants who are happy in their current work, but ready to embrace this unique opportunity to transform American democracy. Salary: Salary will be commensurate with experience and is expected to start at a minimum of $85,000. We also provide benefits for health care, commuting and retirement. Deadline: Open until filled. For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.
Deputy of Elections, Arapahoe County, Colorado — deputy of elections is a dynamic leader, utilizing data and technology to provide the citizens of Arapahoe County greater access to the ballot. This position will oversee the creation of the annual strategic plan, incorporating national and state best practices, to promote fair, honest, and transparent elections. This position requires extensive knowledge of Colorado election law and the ability to interpret such laws into the practical operations of the division. This position provides oversight to the Elections Operations Manager and the Voter Registration Manager. Salary: $76,706-$116,520 annually. Deadline: March 16. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.
Director, Elections, Pinal County, Arizona — performs work of considerable difficulty planning, directing, coordinating and controlling overall operations of the Elections Department to ensure that goals and objectives are accomplished by performing the following duties personally or through subordinate supervisors; performs related work as required or assigned. This is a Department Head/Administrative Officer position that works under policy direction. Positions at this level manage a major department of the organization. The most critical and time-consuming responsibilities include policy implementation, direction of programs / service delivery, and resources management in a major department or major functional area of the organization. The decisions made affect the goals, services, and objectives of the organization and may involve highly sensitive and political issues affecting the organization as a whole. Work is accomplished within the broadest framework of policy guidance. This position is not covered under the Pinal County Merit System. Incumbents in this position serve at the pleasure of their respective Appointing Authority. The employment relationship of incumbents in this position is “at will” the employee may be terminated at any time, for any reason, with or without cause.Salary: $78,159-$82,124. Deadline: March 20. Application. For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.
Division Manager, Los Angeles County Registrar — position reports directly to the Department Head and directs the Governmental and Legislative Affairs (GLA) Division of the Department of Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (RR/CC). The incumbent exercises a high level of independence and discretion in advising the Executive Management on governmental and legislative affairs, and providing strategic media and communication strategies to enhance public awareness of departmental operations and services. Incumbent must possess highly effective oral and written communication skills to successfully work with the Board of Supervisors Executive Office, County departments, federal and state officials, special interest groups, stakeholders, public, and representatives of the media. Additionally, possession of extensive knowledge in the principles and techniques of mass communication, media relations and social marketing is required to perform the duties of this position. Salary: $8026-$12,149/monthly. Deadline: Open until filled. For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.
Elections Administrator, Grays Harbor County, Washington — the Election Administrator is responsible for all aspects of elections, voter registration, and supervision of other election workers for federal, state, and local elections occurring within Grays Harbor County. Salary: $3,761-$4,560. Deadline: Open until filled. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply click here. For questions or additional information, contact Vern Spatz, auditor.
Executive Assistant, Los Angeles County Registrar — performs special assignment and liaison work for the Department Head. The one position allocated to this class in a department typically reports to a Department Head of a medium to large-sized County department or a department that provides direct services to the Board of Supervisors. The position is responsible for providing a wide range of staff support services on the more complex departmental management issues and operational needs, including conducting special administrative and research studies affecting departmental operations and acting as liaison and coordinator for the director within the department and between the various commissions, boards, committees and public and private entities. Incumbents must possess a thorough knowledge of departmental operations sufficient to analyze, evaluate, and develop procedures and methods affecting the commitment of departmental resources; effective communicating skills, including written and oral; and the ability to deal effectively with various officials of other agencies, County departments, and Board Offices who work with the department. Salary: $7,185-$9,425/monthly. Deadline: Open until filled. For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.
Outreach Director, FairVote, Takoma Park, Maryland — Overseeing a team of dedicated staff, the Outreach Director will be responsible for expanding and supporting our network of reform partners nationally and in states and cities. Nationally, we are building a reform coalition of elected officials, organizations, media outlets and influential individuals ready to support federal legislation to establish ranked choice voting for U.S. House and Senate elections and multi-winner House districts. We are working with allies in states and cities in support of advancing and implementing ranked choice voting (both in multi-winner and single-winner elections) and other fair representation voting systems, including as remedies in Voting Rights Act cases. We also provide support to those seeking to improve participation through ideas such as the National Popular Vote plan for president, 100% voter registration, and public interest voting equipment. The Outreach Director’s initial responsibilities will focus on supporting reform partners involved in state and local campaigns for ranked choice voting, launching our congressional reform plan for fair representation voting, ensuring our Policy Guide 2015 proposals reach their intended audiences, and providing guidance to colleagues working on our Promote Our Vote and Representation 2020 projects. Our ideal candidate will be ready to join FairVote for the long haul and play a central role in projects designed to achieve our core electoral reform goals over the coming decade. We expect to hear from applicants who are happy in their current work, but ready to embrace this unique opportunity to transform American democracy. Salary: Salary will be commensurate with experience and is expected to start at a minimum of $85,000. We also provide benefits for health care, commuting, retirement and moving. Deadline: Open until filled. For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.
Policy Specialist, National Conference of State Legislatures, Denver — policy specialist will work on NCSL’s elections team, a part of NCSL’s Legislative Management program. A policy specialist requires skills in research, analysis, and program planning gained through progressively more complex and more in-depth work over several years. The work is performed independently within established program guidelines or project specifications; major work products are reviewed by more senior professionals or program managers/directors for quality, policy considerations, form, and substance. The policy specialist will develop expertise on elections-related technology and election administration. The work includes research, writing, speaking, maintaining internal and external documents and resources, developing connections with state legislators and legislative staff as well as meeting planning. Travel will be minimal. Salary: $4,033+/month DOE. Deadline: March 12. For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.
Voting Rights Coordinator, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Los Angeles — Advancing Justice-LA seeks an independent Voting Rights Coordinator for 6 months to lead efforts to ensure that minority and limited English speaking voters have full access to voting as required by the Voting Rights Act. The Coordinator will work under the direction of a Senior Attorney to engage community members in the electoral process and monitor election sites in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego Counties.Salary: $16-$17.50 per hour with parking, paid holidays, and vacation and sick time. Application: For the complete listing and to apply, click here.
Marketplace
XI. Marketplace
electionline provides no guarantees as to the quality of the items being sold and the accuracy of the information provided about the sale items in the Marketplace. Ads are provided directly by sellers and are not verified by electionline. If you have an ad for Marketplace, please email it to mmoretti@electionline.brinkdev.com
Voting equipment
Arizona’s Yavapai County recently acquired new voting equipment, and is looking for buyers interested in purchasing equipment from their previous Diebold system. Items available for purchase include (price per each, not including shipping): TSx Packages ($50.00), Accu-Vote Precinct Packages ($35.00), Accu-Vote Central Count Packages ($175.00), Accu-Vote Central Count Scanners ($45.00), Accu-Feed Systems ($100.00), 128K Accu-Vote Memory cards ($25.00), 32K Accu-Vote Memory cards ($25.00), and TSx PCMCIA Memory cards ($25.00). Equipment is being sold as-is on a first come, first served basis until all items have been liquidated. Interested parties may send a request for more information to: web.elections@yavapai.us. Please be sure to include in your email: Contact Name, State, County, and phone number.