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2019 Election Updates

Louisiana: Things did not go as smoothly as folks would have hoped during Louisiana’s 2019 general election. In St. George Parish, ballot confusion prompted calls to the registrar’s office. A computer glitch led to late results in St. Tammany Parish. A computer problem held up the inclusion of absentee ballots in Lafayette Parish. And officials are set to recount 1,500 paper ballots in a state senate race. Franklin Foil, whose eight-vote lead over fellow Republican Steve Carter in a state Senate race evaporated after an apparent double-counting of ballots was discovered Saturday night, formally asked for a recount in the race Tuesday in hopes of breaking the current tie and avoiding a historic three-way runoff.

Election News This Week

Last week the Wisconsin Elections Commission sent letters to approximately 234,000 voters that the commission believes have moved. The letters told the recipients to update their voter registrations with their new addresses if they have moved or to notify the commission if they have not moved. If the voters do not act, their voter registrations will be suspended after April 2021, according to the commission. However a group of residents, represented by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty have now filed a complaint with the election commission demanding that if the commission does not get a response from the voters within the next month, that the registrations be canceled. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the commission’s executive director, Meagan Wolfe, disputed the complaint’s claim that the commission must remove voters from the rolls within 30 days of sending them a letter based on data from ERIC. “I think it’s really important to note that the ERIC process, there are no statutes that govern that process as far as how that (voter) list maintenance happens,” Wolfe told reporters. “State law requires that the State of Wisconsin join ERIC, but it does not specify how this maintenance is conducted.”

No postage necessary. Oregon election officials recently announced that it will once again send out prepaid postage return envelopes to Oregonians who are automatically registered to vote at the DMV. According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, earlier this year the Legislature cut $75,000 from the budget for automatic voter registration—about the amount of what it costs to send the forms to newly registered voters that allows them to choose a political party. Voting rights groups warned that if voters potentially had to pay 55 cents in postage to return a form to register within a party, that could run afoul of federal law. They noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that states can’t charge a processing fee for registering, including in party primaries.

Never under estimate people’s passion about voting. The Will County, Illinois clerk’s office recently had to call the sheriff’s office after a voter called the clerk’s office to complain about his polling place being changed. According to ABC 7. Leonard Feiner, 69, of Mokena, is charged with disorderly conduct after he called the clerk’s office about 8:30 a.m. and told an employee he was upset that his polling place had been changed, the sheriff’s office said. The employee tried to calm him down for about 15 minutes but Feiner became more agitated and allegedly made a threatening statement.

Oops! After Douglas City, Michigan Clerk Pam Aalderink provided to the wrong filing deadline to the three candidates running and therefore their names will not appear on the ballot and voters will have to write-in their choices. All three candidates are running unopposed. According to 13 On Your Side, since the deadline was missed, under the law, Aalderink says the city is not allowed to publish a list of candidates. Instead, each person has to promote their own candidacy using things like yard signs and social media.  Aalderink says she was out of town at a conference on July 23 when the official deadline passed. The Allegan County clerk and state elections officials are aware of the mistake.

Guam has joined the growing number of states and the District of Columbia that employs automatic voter registration. Implementation of the new system has meant sending out letters to voters to transfer them from one voting district to another because the commission now has their correct home addresses through the territories DMV.

Personnel News: Dale Sibley has been sworn in as Caddo Parish, Louisiana registrar of voters. Jennifer Ekblad is the new Coronado City, California clerk. Jeff Winmill (D) has announced he will run for Washington secretary of state in 2020. Karen Hebb has been appointed director of elections in Henderson County, North Carolina. Trena Velez has stepped down as the Buncombe, North Carolina elections director. Susan Jarrell is retiring after 22 years as the Surry County, North Carolina board of elections director. She will be replaced by Michella Jones Huff.

Legislative Updates

California: Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has vetoed SB212 that would have allowed counties and cities statewide to move to a ranked choice voting system. Newsom was a county supervisor in San Francisco when ranked choice voting was approved and he did not support that move. “Ranked choice is an experiment that has been tried in several charter cities in California,” Newsom said in his veto message Sunday. “Where it has been implemented, I am concerned that it has often led to voter confusion and that the promise that ranked-choice voting leads to greater democracy is not necessarily fulfilled.”

Maine: The Portland City Council will hold a public hearing next month on a proposed charter amendment to extend ranked-choice voting to all city and school board elections. That discussion could lead to a citywide referendum in March.

Legal Updates

Kentucky: The Kentucky Democratic Party sued the State Board of Elections, claiming it unlawfully placed 175,000 registered voters on an “inactive” list that might infringe on their right to vote. “After weeks of conversations with the State Board of Elections staff that raised more questions than it provided answers, we determined that we had no choice but to file this lawsuit in order to protect Kentucky voters from facing unfair burdens at the polls,” Kentucky Democratic Party Chairman Ben Self said in a statement. A judge has temporarily reinstated the voters.

West Virginia: An October 28 court date has been set in the ongoing dispute over whether the Harpers Ferry board of canvassers should have counted provisional ballots in an election held earlier this year.

Tech Thursday

National Tech: Reuters has an article about the expanded use of Amazon World Services by state and local election officials.

Oregon: Last week, officials announced that Jackson County and Umatilla County will join a growing list of jurisdictions that will allow members of the military and their dependents living overseas to cast their ballots via smartphone. Approximately 463 voters from both counties have the option to use the system, which has been endorsed by the secretary of state’s office.

Opinions This Week

National Opinions: Felon voting rights | Facebook | Voter ID

California: Voting system | Voter registration

Connecticut: Automatic voter registration

District of Columbia: Ranked choice voting

Florida: Amendment 4, II, III

Georgia: Ex-felon voting rights | Voting machines

Indiana: Election reform

Iowa: Voter ID

Louisiana: Turnout

Maryland: College students

Minnesota: E-poll books

Mississippi: Voter fraud

Missouri: Voter ID

New York: Noncitizen voting | Ranked choice voting, II | Early voting

Ohio: List maintenance, II

Oklahoma: Automatic voter registration

Pennsylvania: Election security | Election Day holiday

South Carolina: Paper ballots

Texas: Early voting | Student voting rights | Vote centers

Virginia: Voter registration

2019 Clearie Awards

EAC Opens Submission Period in Fourth Annual Clearie Awards 
Celebrating Best Practices in Election Administration

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is seeking submissions for its fourth annual national Clearinghouse Awards. Dubbed the “Clearies” for short, the awards provide election offices an opportunity to share their innovative efforts and celebrate successes. The Clearies play an important role in furthering the EAC’s responsibilities under the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). Under that Act, the EAC serves as a clearinghouse for election administration information.

The Commission will present awards in the categories of outstanding innovations in elections, improving voting accessibility for voters with disabilities, and recruiting, training and retaining election workers. It will also award a special award in 2019 recognizing the most original and creative “I Voted” sticker submitted for consideration. Entries from all sizes of jurisdictions, both large and small, are encouraged to submit their work. All entries must be received by Monday, November 25, 2019. The 2018 winners of the Clearie awards can be found here.

“The EAC Clearie Awards celebrate the innovative and creative approaches that election officials use each day in their work to serve voters,” said EAC Chairwoman Christy McCormick. “These awards are a testament to their work and dedication and highlight best practices that other election administrators can emulate.”  

This year’s entries will be judged using the following criteria:

Innovation

Sustainability

Outreach efforts

Cost-effectiveness

Replicability

Creating positive Results

Election officials utilize innovative and resourceful initiatives on Election Day. We want to hear about these outstanding best practices in EAC’s 2019 competition. By incorporating Election Day into the submission deadline, we are able to capture activities implemented throughout the 2018 and 2019 elections.

All submissions should be sent to the EAC via an email to clearinghouse@eac.gov. Nominators should use the following subject lines based on entry category: Election Worker Competition, Accessibility Competition, Outstanding Innovations Competition, or Sticker Competition.

All entries must include a summary of the election program nominated. Entrants may attach relevant documents, images and links that can be used to assess the entry. Submissions should also include contact information for the person submitting the program for consideration. Each entry must be submitted in a separate email.

For more information about this year’s competition, please contact Patrick Leahy at pleahy@eac.gov.

Request for Information

IT-ISAC Elections Industry Special Interest Group Request for Formation

On August 15, 2019, the IT-ISAC Elections Industry Special Interest Group released a paper that detailed the commitment of voting systems manufacturers to the development and implementation of corporate Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure (CVD) Programs.

The white paper also noted the value of Crowd-Sourced CVD programs and discussed potential challenges in applying such programs to the elections industry and noted that the SIG would create a Request for Information to solicit feedback on how crowd-sourced CVD programs could be implemented in the elections industry.

The IT-ISAC Elections Industry Special Interest Group seeks public input, comments and suggestions on the following challenges:

• How to manage a crowd-sourced CVD program on systems that are designed to be closed, isolated, and disconnected from the Internet including stand-alone embedded systems?
• How to ensure that those engaging in a crowd-sourced CVD program are not nefarious actors seeking sensitive information that can then be used in attacks against the elections’ infrastructure?
• How best to ensure the confidentiality of the researcher findings so that vulnerability announcements are disclosed simultaneously with a fix or mitigation for the vulnerability

Comments and input should please be sent to cvd@it-isac.org by October 21, 2019

Upcoming Events

NCSL Redistricting Seminar — It’s almost time to redraw districts—and it’s definitely time to plan for it. When it comes to redistricting, the learning curve is steep. Let the National Conference of State Legislatures help you and your team prepare for this complex, once-a-decade task. Where: Columbus, Ohio. When: October 24-27.

IGO 2020 Mid-Winter Conference — The International Association of Government Officials will hold its 2020 Mid-Winter Conference in Isle of Palms, South Carolina in January of 2020. Check back here for more details as they become available.  Where: Isle of Palms, South Carolina. When: Jan. 20-24.

NASED Winter 2020 — Twice a year, the National Association of State Election Directors members gather to discuss the latest developments in election administration.  Members of the public are welcome to attend at the non-member registration rate. Check back here for more information about the Winter 2020 Conference. Where: Washington, DC. When: January 30-February 2. 

NASS Winter 2020 — The National Association of Secretaries of State will hold their Winter 2020 conference at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, D.C.’s West End. Check back here for more information about the Winter 2020 conference when it becomes available. Where: Washington, D.C. When: January 30-February 2.

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.org.  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.

Assurance Engineer, Free & Fair — Free & Fair (F&F) seeks an experienced assurance engineer—a developer who is thrilled to work on high-assurance open source elections technologies that demonstrate what is possible with modern applied formal methods-based development processes, methodologies, tools, and techniques. Our focus on national critical infrastructure, transparent engineering, and formal assurance makes this opportunity unique. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Data & Analytics Director, Voto Latino — Voto Latino seeks a Data & Analytics Director to build a program to track, support, and optimize our rapidly growing online and offline outreach to young and diverse voters. We know that Latinx voters are poised to be the largest minority voting bloc in 2020, with more than 800,000 Latinx citizens become eligible to vote each year. Voto Latino, building on a track record of organizational successes since 2004, is ready to take on this challenge, with the guidance and support of a great Data & Analytics Director. This position will work across teams — field, political, digital, communications — and act as the central data resource and key strategist for all of Voto Latino’s campaigns and programs. This position will be responsible for building and implementing sophisticated targeting programs nationally for both our growing online and on-the-ground efforts. There will be a strong focus on key states for civic and electoral engagement, working with data vendors, visualizing data and analytics, learning from historic and contemporary data, and managing Voto Latino’s voter outreach data. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Director of Elections, Henderson County, North Carolina— An employee in this class is responsible for planning elections, negotiating and setting up polling places, and training staff and poll workers. Work also includes establishing procedures and methods used in registration; supervising the receiving and processing of voter registrations; filing of candidates for elected office in the County; and providing staff support to the County Board of Elections in coordinating and scheduling meetings, recording minutes, drafting the budget and notifying them of potential voter problems and trends. Independent judgment and initiative, tact and courtesy are required in operating the Elections Office. Work is performed in accordance with the State election laws and policies and procedures established by the State and County Board of Elections. Work is performed under the general supervision of the County Board of Elections and is evaluated through reports, periodic conferences and efficiency of office and elections operations. Salary: $51,558.00 – 96,856.50. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Director of Elections, Northampton County, North Carolina— The Northampton County Board of Elections is accepting applications for a Director in the Elections office to perform administrative and coordinative work in organizing and maintaining voter registrations, County candidates’ filing records, and managing the election process for the County and the Elections Board. Education/Requirements: Graduation from a two-year college with a degree in business or related field and several years of responsible clerical experience dealing with the public, preferable at least a year of experience with the electoral process; or an equivalent combination of education and experience. Must possess a valid North Carolina driver’s license upon hire. Must be willing to work towards certification as a Notary Public and take the N.C. State Board of Elections Treasurer Training within the probationary period (9 months); if classes and/or trainings are available within the allotted time frame. Salary: $35,018 – $61,796. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Director of Elections, Robeson County, North Carolina— Under limited supervision, performs supervisory and administrative work to ensure that the functions of the Board of Elections are carried out properly. Work involves receiving and processing applications for registration; filing for candidates for County and City offices; processing absentee ballots; maintaining voter lists in accordance with State, Federal and County laws, regulations, and policies. Supervises a full and part time staff assigned to the Board of Elections. Employee must exercise independent judgment and initiative in carrying out assignments. Employee must also exercise considerable tact and courtesy in extensive public contact. Reports to County Board of Elections. Deadline: October 29.  Salary: $48,103.02 starting salary. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Director of Elections, Surry County, North Carolina — Surry County is accepting applications for a Director of Elections. This individual is responsible for overseeing, directing and administering the Board of Elections Office. This position requires someone who can thrive in a high-stress, high scrutiny environment. The Director of Elections performs complex technical, supervisory and administrative work directing the registration, voting and election activities for Surry County. The Director of Elections is appointed by the Surry County Board of Elections and approved by the State Board. This position exercises supervision over office staff and precinct election officials, interprets laws, regulations, policies, and procedures and makes appropriate decisions accordingly. Must have the ability to exercise tact and courtesy and to work under pressure and adapt to rapidly changing circumstances. Other duties as required and all duties must be performed in a nonpartisan manner. Salary: $50,544 -$86,004.  Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Director of Policy & Research, New York City Campaign Finance Board —  The New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB), a nonpartisan, independent city agency that enhances the role of New York City residents, seeks a Director of Policy & Research to oversee its intergovernmental outreach and policy and data research work. This position will report to the Deputy Director of Public Affairs. Responsibilities: Directly supervise a team of intergovernmental, policy, and data research staff. Create legislative strategies to advance agency priorities at the city and state level. Oversee outreach to elected officials and their offices to support the agency’s legislative work and government outreach. Oversee policy analysis related to campaign finance and voting in New York City and State. Participate in high-level agency discussions around policy development and spearhead agency legislative recommendations in its regularly published reports. Oversee research projects with internal staff and external researchers, as well as overseeing research content for CFB publications, reports, white papers, and policy briefs. Oversee public opinion research performed on behalf of the agency that informs voter communication and education initiatives. Salary: $90,000-$100,000. Application: For the complete job listing & to apply, click here.

Elections Specialist, Douglas County, Colorado — This position is focused on routine customer service and general office/clerical support including data entry, communications, and processing mail. This is a support role capable of performing a variety of tasks, with problem solving abilities, managing multiple competing responsibilities and prioritizing to maintain a continuous flow of election office operations. This is a visible and crucial position requiring exceptional computer, customer service, and communication skills.  This position may require technical work in a lead role capable of performing a variety of complex tasks, with solving problem abilities, managing multiple competing tasks and prioritizing to maintain a continuous flow of operations and temporary support. This position may be classified as an Elections Specialist I or II dependent upon the skills of the candidate and the department’s business needs. Salary: $2,842.00 – $4,017.00 Monthly. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Embedded Systems Engineer, Free & Fair— Free & Fair (F&F) seeks an experienced embedded systems engineer—a developer and engineer who is thrilled to work on a high-assurance open source elections technologies that demonstrate what is possible with modern development processes, methodologies, tools, and techniques. Our focus on national critical infrastructure, transparent engineering, and formal assurance makes this opportunity unique. One component of the BESSPIN Voting System is a custom-built, open source, open hardware platform for demonstrating secure hardware. It includes low- and mid-range FPGAs running softcore RISC-V CPUs, simple I/O devices, and an RTOS. This platform is called CASCADES (Configurable, Affordable System-on-Chip for Analysis and Demonstration of Election Security) and is a CrowdSupply project. A prototype for CASCADES is the Smart Ballot Box that we brought to DEF CON 2019. We call this role an embedded systems engineer, since much of the development that we do spans hardware, firmware, and software design and development. Moreover, we use a mixture of low-level and high-level languages, COTS and novel (FPGA-based) development platforms, and traditional and novel operating systems. We hope that potential applicants do not put themselves in an unnecessarily small box. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Program Director, National Voter Registration Day — We are seeking a Program Director to organize and rally key national partners around one of the most prominent and important civic holidays in the nation – National Voter Registration Day – held on the fourth Tuesday of every September. In 2020, we aim to break past years’ records and register over one million voters with the help of over 50 major national partners and 4,500 field partners. To do this we require a creative and entrepreneurial Program Director with sincere people skills and a passion for civic engagement and democracy. Salary: $68,000 and $76,000. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Project Manager, Hart InterCivic— Project Managers at Hart InterCivic are highly motivated “self-starters” who are enthusiastic about providing exceptional customer service. Working with other members of the Professional Services and Operations teams, the Project Manager directs activity, solves problems, and develops lasting and strong relationships with our customers. Hart InterCivic’s unique and industry known culture of innovation, transparency, and customer-centric focus creates an environment where team members will continually grow and be challenged to develop their careers. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Product Manager, Hart InterCivic — as Product Manager, you will join a team that is charged with product planning, design, and execution throughout the lifecycle of Hart’s products, in support of the company’s overall strategy and goals. This includes: gathering, validating, and prioritizing internal and external customer needs; documenting and communicating product and technical requirements; gathering market and competitive intelligence; supporting the certification, sales, and marketing teams. The Product Manager must possess a unique blend of business and technical savvy – with experience in elections technology or other government-oriented products preferred.  To succeed in this role, the ideal candidate must spend time in the market to understand its unique attributes; demonstrate competence with specialized hardware and software; and find innovative solutions for the broader market. The Product Manager plays a key role in helping others to understand the product positioning, key benefits, and target customer, as well as providing advanced subject matter expertise in using the company’s products. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Rigorous Systems/Software Engineer, Free & Fair — Free & Fair (F&F) seeks several experienced systems/software engineers—developers who are thrilled to work on high-assurance open source elections technologies that demonstrate what is possible with modern development processes, methodologies, tools, and techniques. Our focus on national critical infrastructure, transparent engineering, and formal assurance makes this opportunity unique. We call this role either/both system engineers or software engineers, since much of the development that we do spans hardware, firmware, and software design and development. Moreover, we use a mixture of low-level and high-level languages, COTS and novel (FPGA-based) development platforms, and traditional and novel operating systems. We hope that potential applicants do not put themselves in an unnecessarily small box. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Software Sales Specialist, VOTEC— VOTEC’s Sales Specialist is responsible for creating news sales with prospects and existing clients in targeted areas in the US. We are looking for an election professional comfortable using insight and consultative selling techniques to create interest that offers unique solutions on their operations, which link back to VOTEC’s solutions. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

State Election Director, North Dakota Secretary of State — A primary purpose of this position is to ensure the elections administered across the state are executed in compliance with laws and rules, and in a manner that is responsive to the public’s needs. In addition to directing the staff and operations of the Elections Unit, this position is responsible for supervision and oversight of the staff and activities of the Information Management and Public Information units. Direct and supervise staff of assigned units. Oversee the staff hiring, performance and evaluation processes within the assigned units. Evaluate and increase the performance and efficiency of the assigned units. Provide support and oversight to the state’s local election officials cooperatively and individually in their administration of elections to ensure that the standards of the Secretary of State and law are met. Oversee the development of conferences, trainings, and educational materials for election officials as required by both statute and the direction of the Secretary of State. Provide oversight of projects and initiatives within the assigned units. Develop, implement, evaluate, and revise policies, procedures, processes, workflows, and electronic systems to administer statutory requirements and maintain public accessibility related to the assigned units. Ensure that responsibilities of the units are executed in compliance with state laws, rules, policies, and procedures in a manner responsive to the public and the needs of the office. Perform activities related to the legislative process including drafting bills, testimony, and fiscal notes; tracking bills; attending legislative hearings; and testifying at legislative hearings. Participate as a member of the office’s leadership team. Salary: $5,500 – $6,400/month + benefits including fully paid family health insurance. Deadline: November 4. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

Training Associate, Center for Technology and Civic Life — When you think about elections, you might think about popular candidates, “I voted” stickers, and all sorts of paperwork and deadlines. But behind the scenes are thousands of election officials in state and local governments who are working hard to make sure ballots are counted and voices are heard. To serve every community and make democracy work, these officials need 21st-century tools and training. And you can help them get it! As the CTCL Government Services Training Associate, you will develop and deliver training courses that advance the tech and communication skills of election officials. If you care about democracy, if you believe in the importance of public service, and if you love to exceed expectations, this is the job for you. Responsibilities: Curriculum development – Create course participant guides, slide presentations, and evaluations that address the professional development needs of election officials; Training – Deliver training — both synchronously and asynchronously — in a way that is engaging, informative, and advances the adoption of best practices; Research and evaluation – Identify training needs of election officials through industry research like reports and case studies, and assess effectiveness of courses through participant surveys before and after training. Salary: $45,000 – $50,000 per year. Deadline: Oct. 31. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

UI/UX Engineer, Free & Fair — Free & Fair (F&F) seeks an experienced UI/UX engineer—someone who practices user-centric design, finds usable security a fascinating area of R&D, someone who appreciates usable and accessible technologies, and a developer and engineer who is thrilled to work on high-assurance open source elections technologies that demonstrate what is possible with modern development processes, methodologies, tools, and techniques. Our focus on national critical infrastructure, transparent engineering, and formal assurance makes this opportunity unique. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

VP of Engineering, Free & Fair— Free & Fair (F&F) seeks an experienced systems engineering development leader—an executive who can step in and build a dynamic, distributed engineering team, deliver solutions to the market, and execute challenging development activities focused on national critical infrastructure. The VP of Engineering at F&F will be responsible for executing on the Company’s overall technology vision and driving its development execution. This person will recruit world-class talent, manage and evolve development processes and methodologies, and foster an organizational structure to help our high-performing development team deliver applications to the market. This person will keep abreast of and influence research and technology trends, standards, and stakeholders. This person will have the ability to bridge technology with business acumen, will bring experience in developing state-of-the-art customer-facing applications, and will develop and sustain a culture of passion, hard work, and innovation. Application: For the complete job listing and to apply, click here.

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