Several weeks ago, the legislature passed a wide ranging package of election reforms that were greeted with praise by
reform groups,
the Governor,
the press and
themselves. The bills, signed into law by the Governor are effective immediately, meaning the impact of this legislation will be felt by candidates having to begin the petition process as early as this month to have a place on the June Primary ballot. As County Officials and Boards of Election begin to prepare for implementation, the stark realities of the impacts of the package
begin to emerge.
The biggest question for counties dealing with implementation involves money; how will they pay for the costs associated with staffing the early voting poll sites, production of electronic poll books, and other such costs? During debate of the proposals on the Senate and Assembly floor, the majority conferences suggested that money could or would be included in the budget. When the Executive Budget was issued with no funding for early voting, County officials began to get nervous. When asked about the lack of funding, the Governor suggested that the savings from consolidating state and federal primaries would be more than enough to make up for the implementation of early voting. Election officials, however, contend costs associated with the package of election reforms exceed the savings that will be realized through primary consolidation.
Aside from cost concerns, other issues are emerging as well. In many counties, poll sites are in locations like churches, schools, community halls that make themselves available on Election Day, but, may not be available for the two weeks preceding Election Day as would be required by early voting. Poll books in this state exist to ensure that each voter is afforded one vote and as a means to maintain election integrity. Most counties have more than 80 different poll books that would need to be physically present at the poll sites and updated nightly to reflect the day’s activities to ensure fraud cannot occur. That would likely require overnight shifts of election workers to update the poll books each night. To avoid these issues, electronic poll books could be implemented, but would require significant infrastructure and monetary investment to complete.
These are just a few of the early concerns with implementation and it will be interesting to see if more concerns emerge or if measures are taken by the legislature or Governor to ensure counties are prepared and funded for the dramatic changes to the election process.
