Spring Backward, Fall Forward

Election irony met elections of the future in Kansas yesterday.

The Kansas legislature, by one more vote than necessary, passed a measure to move spring elections to the fall of odd years.

I have been a very vocal advocate of this move, demonstrating how the highest April election turnout in the last five years was still lower than the lowest turnout of special elections conducted in any other month.

Also, we're more likely to have schools available as polling places.  This was a major factor in my support of this move.

But passing by one vote?

That's classic.

(Editor's Note--more irony since I'm my own editor--thanks to the League of Women Voters for pointing out it passed by one MORE vote than needed.  I want to represent that accurately and have inserted this little parenthetical addition).

Does your vote matter?  It did here.

Whether or not you agree now, or will agree or disagree later after implementation, the bill technically passed the House by one vote.  It would have been more ironic if one of the votes for was elected by one vote, but such a realization, if that were the case, would cause even me to skip a heartbeat.

I would imagine, though, that at least one representative started as being appointed by precinct committee members to fill a vacancy and then later was elected.

Precinct committee members frequently are elected by a handful of votes and, in Johnson County, we have averaged 2 coin toss decisions for precinct committee ties for the five August primary elections since I've been election commissioner.

We often hear that elections have consequences, and this blog isn't the place to talk about the politics of any consequence from legislation.



I'll wear this
spiffy outfit
to election
worker training
if 5 people
become new
election workers
based on this post.

But there is real consequential value to administrators.

The value to me, non-political, is the use of schools as polling places.  This legislation should make election administration in Johnson County easier and polling places more stable for voters.

Plus, perhaps even greater, the bill allows us to have more high-school student election workers.  We were limited to one per polling place and turned away hundreds in presidential years. 

Now, 1/3 of our workers at the polls can be high-school students.

(Note to you, dear reader, if you aren't an election worker--that means 30 percent of our workers aren't even old enough to vote and these youngsters, who can't vote, are making sure you do.  Any pangs of guilt, thinking about being an election worker--please?--contact our office).

But, this is a great example of the value of what one vote looks like, and what better example than in an election bill.

The practicality of executing the bill will be discussed here if and after the governor signs the bill into law.  

The bill is more than 80 pages, so there are plenty of details to scour, and even the potential for unintended consequences, so I'll be reading it more thoroughly and reporting back.

I Give You MINI ME (OC)

We  just got back from a well-organized conference of state election officials, part of the annual required training by the Secretary of State.

(A side thought--said before and worth pointing out again--I've served under three Secretaries of State, all men with whom I'm extremely proud to be affiliated.  The current Secretary, Kris Kobach, gets his fingernails dirty in the nuts and bolts of elections operations as though he truly is one of us.  It means a lot to all of us in the trenches that he knows how our voter registration system works as well as the drivers and restrainers we face).

Anyway, back to the point, the conference is terrific for state issues.  We received training required by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), but also updates on systems, issues, and legislation.

When I came into office, in 2005, then Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh had coordinated with his peers in nearby states to host a local, nationally oriented conference.  It was called the Midwest Election Officials Conference (MEOC).  It was the second MEOC, after one in 2001.

The conference concept considered that many local election officials can't get to a national conference and hear from thought leaders or those with emerging best practices.  So, he thought, he'd bring the conference to the Midwest, for election officials in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska.

We had a similar conference in 2009.  Every member of our office was allowed to go, and those who went came back with their eyes wider.  Our voters benefited.

But, for a variety of reasons, that was the last conference.  We didn't have one, as the schedule would have gone, in 2013

I've had an interest in revising the concept, at least for the Kansas City area.  I decided I'd create a Mini-MEOC for the Kansas City metro area, interested counties in Kansas, and any others regionally.

I have plenty of election cool kid friends and have asked some if they'd be willing to speak.  The response has been heart-warming and overwhelming with my initial small sample.

(In fact, if you are a cool kid--and if you are reading this you are--and want to speak, please contact me).

I wanted to pull it off last year but those 14 elections in 13 months got in the way.

So, Thursday, at the Kansas clerks' conference, we planted a stake in the ground and announced a date for the conference.  I figured if we did that, it was official.

Well......it was until I changed the date.  We found out about a clerks' conflict.

So, the new dates are Sept. 30-October 2, 2015, in the Kansas City area.

We'll probably piggyback some other meetings earlier in the week, particularly related to our potential new voting system.  We'll have vendors.  We'll have a gathering that Wednesday night, a full day of sessions on Thursday, and a half day on Friday to break so those who do travel can get home.

We had a small smattering of applause when the conference was announced at the clerks' conference this week.  We'll likely work closely with the Kansas County Clerks and Election Officials (KCCEO) organization on the arrangements.

And, now announced in the blog, MEOC is even more officially launched.

Oh, yes, I dropped the "mini."  I feel like an Internet patent troll claiming the conference name as my own, but there is some brand cache to MEOC, and I'm looking forward to building on it.

A Day Like No Other

I spoke to the Rotary Club of Western Johnson County last night and the presentation was like no other.

Specifically, I often explain how many elections we've had (67 in the approximate 10 1/2 years I've been here).

People ask us what we do when we don't have an election and I usually say, "I don't know.  That hasn't happened yet."

But, now, with no election in 2015 on the horizon, we're in uncharted territory.

The city of Shawnee was considering an election for a vacancy, but the decision was made last night to appoint the person, according to the city's charter ordinance.  A school district has a Board member facing a potential recall, but the committee has several steps to clear before that happens.

So, right now, our next election is the spring of 2016.

That's unless there is a change in the timing of spring elections, still possible with a legislative action this year, and I discussed this last night.

Mostly, then, the presentation last night was a tune-up for the things I'll be discussing as we head into the presidential election next year.

We are scouring the county for polling places and new election workers.  I pitched the Adopt-A-Polling Place program that could be a rather large fundraiser for the Rotary.

I also showed a video prepared by a Princeton graduate student that explained the question I'm asked often, "Why can't we vote on the Internet."

I liked the student's video, and commented as much on his YouTube site.  I didn't care for the ending, where he explained that, for now, he's fine waiting in line to vote until security issues are addressed.

I'm not fine with anyone waiting in line to vote.  I know it happens, but my targeted wait is 0 minutes.

That's a topic for another post (and was the topic for earlier ones, too, Dear Reader, if you are so inclined to scan back in time).

I've attached the presentation from last night--that will seem familiar--and inserted the video below.