Election Administration

Election administration is the process of planning, organizing, and overseeing elections. It includes voter registration, ballot design and distribution, vote casting (including voting technology), vote counting and certification, and election security. Election administration is critical to ensuring that elections are conducted fairly, efficiently, and securely. It can influence how many people vote, how easy it is to commit fraud, and whether people have confidence in the integrity and results of elections.

One key issue is the partisan control of election administration. Many of the local officials responsible for administering elections are selected through a partisan election or political appointment by a legislature or governor. This raises the concern that they will use their power to advantage their party, eroding public trust. Instead, officials should be seen as impartial and objective intermediaries of election information and the electoral process. This requires the nonpartisan and transparent administration of elections.

In recent years, nonpartisan election officials have come under attack, sometimes facing personal threats and harassment. Some have been pressured to change election processes and results. These efforts are dangerous to democracy. They also make it difficult to recruit nonpartisan poll workers who can ensure that elections are administered fairly, safely, and with integrity.

Another key issue is adequate funding. It takes significant resources to maintain voter rolls, sufficiently staff polling places, train election workers, ensure worker safety, and update voting and ballot-counting equipment. However, election spending is near the bottom of spending for public services. Local governments spend about the same amount to maintain parking facilities. There should be ample and consistent funding for election administration to ensure elections are secure, accessible, and legitimate.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to improve efficiency in election administration. It may be faster and better than humans at completing certain tasks, such as verifying absentee ballot signatures and translating election materials into multiple languages. Nevertheless, safeguards to ensure accuracy, reliability, and fairness are needed (see also Artificial Intelligence). In addition, it is important to protect against manipulated content, such as deepfakes. Deepfakes have already been used to potentially suppress voting. Ideally, this would entail banning content that could deceive voters with respect to critical election information, such as candidate positions and voting procedures. However, at the same time, nondeceptive uses of AI that count as protected speech, such as satire, should still be allowed.