No More Partisan Election Officials!

A small fix with big implications

George W. Bush's election "victories"  in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004 were hotly contested and changed the course of history.

They have another common thread: chief state elections officials with a vested interested in helping Bush win.  Such a situation, while legal, represents an conflict of interest that would not be tolerated in many less important situations.  Correcting this loophole in the law seems relatively easy and inexpensive, yet critical to restoring confidence in American elections.  It should enjoy bipartisan support.

In the 2000 election, Secretary of State Katherine Harris simultaneously ran the election while acting as co-chair of the Bush Florida campaign.  Governor Jeb Bush famously promised he would deliver his state for his brother.  A voter-role-purging process directed by Harris and Bush in the run-up to the election erased tens of thousands of legal and likely Democratic voters from the roles in a state where Bush's margin of "victory" was less than 500.  Numerous other irregularities in that election were perhaps a coincidence, but all favored Bush.

In Ohio in 2004, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell was in charge of the election while acting as "honorary co-chair" of the Committee to re-elect George W. Bush.  Blackwell purchased electronic voting machines from the Diebold Corporation, reversing a previous state order to purchase optical scan machines.  The president of Diebold famously wrote in a fund raising letter to Republicans that he was committed to helping Ohio "deliver its electoral votes to the president..." On election day, there were not enough Diebold machines in Democratic-leaning areas, forcing those voters to wait many hours in the cold rain; many gave up.  In Republican-leaning areas, there were more than enough machines. There were numerous other irregularities in the vote on that day; every single one of them favoring Bush.

The problem

In the two aforementioned cases, the highest state officials in charge of elections appeared to use the power of their office to deny citizens the right to vote, to avoid counting votes, and to set the stage for outright fraud.  These are only the most famous cases, and fraud is not limited to any political party.  However, we can be assured of future efforts to tilt the playing field by officials entrusted to conduct our elections as long as perverse incentives remain.  Strong incentives include the ability to earn favors from friends and colleagues, to direct public funds to selected contractors, and to boost their own career in the process.

Currently, it is possible to challenge an elected Secretary of State on the legal basis for their actions, but there is no official prohibition on a chief elections officer's ability to accept positions with campaigns other than their own.  This situation presents an obvious conflict of interest which cannot and should not be ignored.

Solution

The solution is a national movement to ensure that elections officials work for no one but the people, and have no incentive to help any candidate win. 

A simple template for new rules for all key elections officials in all 50 states would include the following provisions:

• A Secretary of State or a Chief Elections Officer shall be a non-partisan position.
• A Secretary of State or a Chief Elections Officer may hold no official position with any campaign but his or her own during his or her entire term in office, and for two years after the term concludes.
• A Secretary of State or a Chief Elections Officer may not contract with any political campaign but his or her own, for any services or consulting, or make any speech or endorsement for any campaign or candidate, during the entire term in office, and for two years after the term concludes.
• A Secretary of State, or  a candidate for Secretary of State, may accept no direct campaign contributions from any political party or fund controlled by a political party during their entire term of office.

HR 101: The Federal Election Integrity Act

Would you allow a coach of one of the Super Bowl teams to also referee the game?  Unlikely, but Rep. Susan Davis (D-San Diego) has drawn that parallel with partisan election officials overseeing races in which they have a stake.  In response, she introduced H.R. 101 in January of 2007, which would prevent would "prohibit chief state election officials from serving on federal campaign committees or engaging in other political activity on behalf of federal candidates in any election over which the official has supervisory authority."  Read the bill text here.  Despite having 14 cosponsors, the bill was never heard.  Contact your representative today to demand the bill be re-introduced in the current Congress.

The Carter-Baker Commission

The Commission on Federal Electoral Reform was chaired by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State and Treasury James Baker.  Its membership included politicians from both political parties, as well as individuals from the private sector.  It released its report in 2005, making 87 recommendations for improving American elections.  

Chapter 6 of the report recommends eliminating partisan management of elections in America.

The Center for Democracy and Election Management at American University

In 2002, Dr. Robert A. Pastor of the American University in Washington DC realized that there was no academic program in the United States  where one could study elections management.  The CDEM was founded to "strengthen democracy through improved electoral performance. CDEM's specific focus is to advance election management through election management training institutes, election observation missions, poll worker training, applied research, and public engagement both in the U.S. and overseas."

The CDEM built upon the recommendations of the Carter-Baker commission to develop a model law that will take state elections management out of partisan hands and into the hands of a Independent Elections Commission.  This proposal is known as the "Non Partisan Model Legislation."

Pastor has observed Elections in many counties, including ones in Mexico about 20 years apart; his conclusion, Mexico does a better job running its elections than does the United States .

Good Government Groups supporting this concept

Common Cause believes that chief election officials should not be permitted to participate in political campaigns.

Related articles

• Raw Story puts it all together
• Wikipedia on Katherine Harris   Ken Blackwell
• Veteran British journalist Greg Palast's elections articles in  The Nation:  2004   2001
• Robert F. Kennedy in Rolling Stone on elections fraud.
• Destruction of records from the 2004 election in Ohio from Alternet
• Ohio election 2004 web site
• Story in the International Herald Tribune

We need representatives in all 50 states to write to their senators and congress people to ask for support for this measure.  Join the team.