America’s County Governments: A Primer on County-Level Election Administration

The United States has a decentralized system of election administration, where states and local governments share the responsibility of overseeing election administration.1 The organization of local election systems can vary such that states allow several local offices or authorities to supervise election administration.2 In certain states, election administration responsibilities are divided between a local election […]

State of Reform: An analysis of the impact and progress of four key political reforms

This “State of Reform” white paper provides a landscape analysis of four structural political reforms, when and where they have been enacted, and the financial costs and electoral results of recent legislative and ballot campaigns.

How to Retain Election Officials and Secure Future Elections

The 2020 presidential election was called the most secure in U.S. history, largely due to efforts to protect the nation’s different physical and cyber infrastructure. This was a triumph considering the physical, cyber, and even human assets that make up the election infrastructure have been and continue to be susceptible to threats. In 2020, many […]

United States of America, General Elections, 3 November 2020: Final Report

The Statement of Preliminary Findings and Conclusions issued by the IEOM on 4 November concluded that the elections “were competitive and well managed despite legal uncertainties and logistical challenges. In a highly polarized political environment, acrimonious campaign rhetoric fuelled tensions. Measures intended to secure the elections during the pandemic triggered protracted litigation driven by partisan […]

Logical Election Policy

The Logical Election Policy report is a roadmap for legislators—particularly at the state level—to understand their policy options and highlight the upstream and downstream effects of policy reforms. The recommendations include: ways to meet voter expectations for more modern, integrated, and secure voter rolls; updated and more efficient methods of casting ballots; and better ways […]

Stewards of Democracy: The Views of American Local Election Officials

Stewards of Democracy: The Views of American Local Election Officials covers the 2018 survey results of more than 1,000 elections officials nationwide regarding their opinions about election administration, access, integrity, and reform. The goal of the survey, conducted in partnership with Reed College, is to help understand the issues local election officials face and elevate […]

Elections Administration Research Database

The Elections Administration Research Database contains elections administration reports published between 2000 and the present. The reports span a range of topics from election costs to voter ID to online voter registration and reflect a variety of perspectives, ranging from election administrators to nonprofit organizations to academic researchers. Each report has been coded by subject, […]

Los Angeles County Voting Solutions for All People (VSAP) project

The Voting Solutions for All People (VSAP) was developed by the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (RR/CC) in 2009 to address an aging voting system and an increasingly large and complex electorate. The project seeks a collaborative approach to voting system design that will put voters at the center and maximize stakeholder participation.