Friday, November 6, 2015 3 comments

The Future

Oh, what to do, what to do....

I have plenty to do, preparing to assume the responsibilities of the Executive Director of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and wrapping up my responsibilities at the election office.

More, that's the question with this blog.

This blog has been an unofficial voice--an administrator's personal voice, not associated with any official site.

It can't really continue in its current form.  The EAC website contains a blog with posts from the Commissioners.

Yet, this site has a brand, with nearly 100,000 unique visits since its inception.

And, it serves a purpose, especially in a presidential election year when overall interest in elections is at its highest.  Election administration issues will see their most widespread attention then.

I've given thought to curating the site, making it a place where several election administrators post regularly.  That would make it have more frequent content, and it truly would have the diary aspect.

Readership may increase.  The profession, and our common issues, may gain more visibility.

If you are an election administrator and this interests you, please let me know.  If a panel of, say, 10 administrators regularly updated, we'd have a daily update, probably, and that would be very diary-esque.

It might even elevate the site to place where it becomes The Huffington Post of Elections or, at least, a link on such a site.

I have loved doing Election Diary.  It started leading into the 2012 Presidential Election.  Maybe, as we head into 2016, it becomes a "if you love somebody, set them free" kind of thing.

I'm envisioning a little gallery of photos-but-not-photos, in that Wall Street Journal sketchy kind of way, of administrators across the country who contribute when they want to, and the collection becomes our own version of the CNN across-the-country view of what's going on.

Thus....what to do, what to do.

In the meantime, dear reader, if you return here only to see this post for a while know that the pause is intentional.


Monday, November 2, 2015 2 comments

Voters on Parade

We have a couple of elections in the works, but we don't have one tomorrow.

If this were 2017, the first year spring elections move to the fall, we would have an election tomorrow.  Many in the country will vote tomorrow and we actually have received several advance ballot applications for the election that isn't.

That's a bit of an awkward call, or at least it may feel awkward on the receiving end, but they present a terrific election worker recruitment opportunity--"You are so engaged!  We need you!"

Kansas City, Missouri, is one such area that has an election tomorrow.  As suburban neighbors, we often get potential voters who assume that we have an election at the same time.

Kansas City, though, has been through a huge, well, curveball for tomorrow.

With the Royals winning the World Series, the victory parade has been scheduled for noon-2 tomorrow.

Just when you think the world knows there is an election.....

In Kansas, there is a law prohibiting someone from impeding a voter on the way to vote.

"No officer, this is a parade...."

Hmm.  I can see the wheels turning with disruptors.

I can't imagine a parade going through Johnson County on election day.  I've had voters call to complain when a traffic accident temporarily closed a lane of traffic--that we should have had a contingency plan for any voter in those situations.

(We do, by the way, in that they could cast a provisional ballot anywhere, although we'd prefer they vote at their location).

Schools likely will be more empty tomorrow, throughout the metropolitan area.

Again, if this were 2017, and the schools had been closed for voting as we are advocating, everybody would be winning.

Maybe, in fact, that's what we should do--explain that it is likely there will be an annual World Series event on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.  History has shown that.

I, for one, am choosing to believe this Royals victory parade will be an annual event.

From now in Kansas, so will November elections.

For now, please share some warm vibes to the Kansas City Election Board as you add "World Series Parade" to the new Sporting News classic "Knotty Problems in Elections (Caused by Baseball)."
 
;