Early Voting


Criticism of GAB's Option C Capital Times editorial Letter to CT editor Michael Macdonald's Early voting page Reed College Early Voting Info Center U of Chicago survey NYT Oct 30 early voting article and editorial Wisconsin Legislature How a Bill Becomes Law	Fair Elections Wisconsin's Principles for Legislation for Early Voting 1. Must facilitate the use of voter-marked paper ballots. Voter-marked paper ballots are used by over 90% of Wisconsin voters. The GAB should actively seek methods to overcome any logistical problems for voter-marked ballots for early voting. Five suggestions were submitted in an April memo. 2. Avoid increased inconvenience for Election Day voters. On Election Day, will voters have to be checked against the early voting list in addition to the regular poll list? This will slow the processing and penalize Election Day voters. 3. Non-partisan election administration. Option A would result in greatly increased duties for county clerks. The partisanship of county clerks was cited as a significant defect in Wisconsin by the highly respected 2007 report, “From Registration to Recounts”, by professors at the Moritz School of Law (page 125). Clerks elected in our November partisan elections may owe their job to their party, and may use their position as a springboard to higher partisan office. The election of county clerks should be moved to the spring non-partisan elections 4. Be realistic and cautious about introducing electronic poll books for Election Day. Electronic pollbooks may work well at early voting sites, but it may be unrealistic to expand their use to polling places. The cost will be extreme, they may drive away many experienced pollworkers, and we may lose the security of the current double entry system. If electronic pollbooks are not well planned or properly funded, the results can be “disastrous”, as the Denver Post labeled their 2006 election, when check-in was very slow, and extremely long lines resulted. 5. Provisional or challenged ballot for voters on Election Day who have been recorded as early voters, but claim they have not voted. Inevitably, mistakes will be made, and some voters will be incorrectly recorded as early voters. The report makes no mention of how this will be handled. 6. Method of resolving the above provisional or challenged ballots. The currently used absentee request form gives us a solid method of determining whether an individual voted in advance. The proposal would delete the absentee ballot request form. 7. Method for advance voters to know that their ballot has been counted. In our present system, when the sealed absentee certificate envelope (with the ballot inside) arrives at the polling place, a serial number is assigned and written by the voter’s name in the poll book. This is evidence for the absentee voter to know that their ballot arrived. Under option C, we will know that some ballots arrived at the polling place, but there will be no evidence that an individual’s ballot arrived at the polling place. 8. Substantial level of security – no significant downgrade. All the options have significant potential for security lapses. Before legislation is approved, the sponsors of the proposal have the obligation to demonstrate that effective security procedures can be developed for both large and small municipalities. Option C is particularly flawed, since batches of voted ballots will not be tabulated for days or weeks. 9. No reduction in the opportunity to vote. Currently, Wisconsin voters can use in-peons absentee voting up until 5 p.m. on the day before the election. 10. by an independent body of vote counts, reconciliation of numbers of ballots, transaction logs, and other procedures. GAB early voting report Principles Executive Summary Full Report Listening Sessions On page 6, the report states, "It is the G.A.B.’s position that using DRE systems with a paper audit trail is the best practice because the DRE systems can hold an unlimited number of ballot styles and there is no need for a printed ballot." Will we be able to use hand-marked paper ballots for early voting? See April 20th memo from Malischke & Witzel-Behl on facilitating early voting. Minnesota's early voting bill H.F. 1113, which specifies all voter-marked paper ballots on line 6.11 Weekend or Holiday Voting Here are ideas that have surfaced for improving access to the polls by making election day a holiday. Senator Herb Kohl's 2005 bill to move election day to a weekend. Introduced again in 2008 as S.2638. Kohl's column in April 2008. He will introduce it again in 2009. Press release Fair Elections Wisconsin letter to Senator Kohl suggesting a Wisconsin pilot of weekend voting. Statewide school holiday letter, by Paul Malischke Madison school district holiday for students, by Paul Malischke Veterans day coincide with election day, by Carter-Ford report, 2001 Holiday for state workers on Election Day, by Rep. Josh Zepnick. Non-support letter by League of Women Voters of Wisconsin Contact Paul Malischke about items to be added, broken links, if the status is not up to date, or with your comments. Last updated Saturday, November 14, 2009 Consumer alert: This page may reflect the bias of the author J

U of Chicago survey

NYT Oct 30 early voting article and editorial

Wisconsin Legislature

How a Bill Becomes Law

Fair Elections Wisconsin's

Principles for Legislation for Early Voting

1. Must facilitate the use of voter-marked paper ballots.

Voter-marked paper ballots are used by over 90% of Wisconsin voters. The GAB should actively seek methods to overcome any logistical problems for voter-marked ballots for early voting. Five suggestions were submitted in an April memo.

2. Avoid increased inconvenience for Election Day voters.

On Election Day, will voters have to be checked against the early voting list in addition to the regular poll list? This will slow the processing and penalize Election Day voters.

3. Non-partisan election administration.

Option A would result in greatly increased duties for county clerks. The partisanship of county clerks was cited as a significant defect in Wisconsin by the highly respected 2007 report, “From Registration to Recounts”, by professors at the Moritz School of Law (page 125). Clerks elected in our November partisan elections may owe their job to their party, and may use their position as a springboard to higher partisan office. The election of county clerks should be moved to the spring non-partisan elections

4. Be realistic and cautious about introducing electronic poll books for Election Day.

Electronic pollbooks may work well at early voting sites, but it may be unrealistic to expand their use to polling places. The cost will be extreme, they may drive away many experienced pollworkers, and we may lose the security of the current double entry system. If electronic pollbooks are not well planned or properly funded, the results can be “disastrous”, as the Denver Post labeled their 2006 election, when check-in was very slow, and extremely long lines resulted.

5. Provisional or challenged ballot for voters on Election Day who have been recorded as early voters, but claim they have not voted.

Inevitably, mistakes will be made, and some voters will be incorrectly recorded as early voters. The report makes no mention of how this will be handled.

6. Method of resolving the above provisional or challenged ballots.

The currently used absentee request form gives us a solid method of determining whether an individual voted in advance. The proposal would delete the absentee ballot request form.

7. Method for advance voters to know that their ballot has been counted.

In our present system, when the sealed absentee certificate envelope (with the ballot inside) arrives at the polling place, a serial number is assigned and written by the voter’s name in the poll book. This is evidence for the absentee voter to know that their ballot arrived. Under option C, we will know that some ballots arrived at the polling place, but there will be no evidence that an individual’s ballot arrived at the polling place.

8. Substantial level of security – no significant downgrade.

All the options have significant potential for security lapses. Before legislation is approved, the sponsors of the proposal have the obligation to demonstrate that effective security procedures can be developed for both large and small municipalities. Option C is particularly flawed, since batches of voted ballots will not be tabulated for days or weeks.

9. No reduction in the opportunity to vote.

Currently, Wisconsin voters can use in-peons absentee voting up until 5 p.m. on the day before the election.

10. by an independent body of vote counts, reconciliation of numbers of ballots, transaction logs, and other procedures.

GAB early voting report Principles Executive Summary Full Report Listening Sessions

On page 6, the report states, "It is the G.A.B.’s position that using DRE systems with a paper audit trail is the best practice because the DRE systems can hold an unlimited number of ballot styles and there is no need for a printed ballot."

Will we be able to use hand-marked paper ballots for early voting? See April 20th memo from Malischke & Witzel-Behl on facilitating early voting.

Minnesota's early voting bill H.F. 1113, which specifies all voter-marked paper ballots on line 6.11

Weekend or Holiday Voting

Here are ideas that have surfaced for improving access to the polls by making election day a holiday.

Senator Herb Kohl's 2005 bill to move election day to a weekend. Introduced again in 2008 as S.2638. Kohl's column in April 2008. He will introduce it again in 2009. Press release

Fair Elections Wisconsin letter to Senator Kohl suggesting a Wisconsin pilot of weekend voting.

Statewide school holiday letter, by Paul Malischke

Madison school district holiday for students, by Paul Malischke

Veterans day coincide with election day, by Carter-Ford report, 2001

Holiday for state workers on Election Day, by Rep. Josh Zepnick. Non-support letter by League of Women Voters of Wisconsin

Contact Paul Malischke about items to be added, broken links, if the status is not up to date, or with your comments. Last updated Saturday, November 14, 2009

Consumer alert: This page may reflect the bias of the author J