Election reform proposals duplicate county protocols

Key Takeaways

When President Trump signed an executive order March 31 directing federal agencies to take steps related to voter citizenship verification, mail ballots and enforcement and enforcement of federal election laws, it seemed to Isaac Cramer like a solution in search of a problem.

That’s been a consistent response from county elections officials, who feel the same about the SAVE America Act, which has stalled in Congress. Both address citizenship verification and ballot tracking. And both attempt to federalize a responsibility delegated to the states, which are then handled by counties. 

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“When I was listening to the press conference in the White House while the order was being signed, [I thought] they don't have any idea what any of us do, because everything they're talking about, we do that already,” said Cramer, who is executive director of the Charleston County, S.C. Board of Voter Registration and Elections, as serves as chair of NACo’s Elections Subcommittee . “From a county perspective, we look at this and we're like, this is going to create significant challenges and hurdles to the voting process.”

Counties already verify citizenship through a myriad of confirmations with other government databases, and ballot tracking has reached the level of sophistication where Cramer’s department can watch as absentee ballot requests come in for residents who will be away in each of the 49 other states during the voting period.

“This is not something that someone just woke up in the last couple months and said we need to start tracking ballots,” Cramer said. “It's actually one of the safer methods because we ensure that every ballot that's been set out, every ballot is received and there's a reconciliation process to prevent double voting.” 

The timeframes set by the order may be frozen by a lawsuit by 23 state attorneys general and the Pennsylvania governor, arguing the order unlawfully interferes with state election systems and asking for a preliminary injunction to block the executive order from taking effect while the case is litigated.

The order directs the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to create and send states a list of individuals confirmed to be U.S. citizens who are old enough to vote in the next federal election and reside in that state, and for the U.S. Postal Service to initiate rulemaking within 60 days on new standards for mail ballots, including envelope markings, barcodes and design requirements. DHS has 90 days from the order to complete its database.

“I do think the timing for all of this is very compressed,” said Leslie Reynolds, executive director of the National Association of Secretaries of State. “I think it will be difficult to meet all of the deadlines in here.”

Meanwhile, the SAVE America Act has stalled in the Senate after passing the House, with the potential for being included in a possible third budget reconciliation effort of this Congress. Also focused on confirming citizenship, the bill would require documentary proof of citizenship to be presented to county elections officials in person. For states with robust vote-by-mail systems, complying will be a significant undertaking. Oregon has voted exclusively by mail since 1998, and modern county workforces reflect that workload.

“We have none the infrastructure in place to meet that, let alone of temporary work staff and equipment, buildings and security and technology,” said Chris Walker, Jackson County’s clerk and recorder. “Our full-time staffing would have to double, if not triple, maybe even more. 

“We have 167,000 registered voters. We need, at minimum, probably two years to even form a plan for the acquisition of equipment, contracts, locations, to make verify everyone’s citizenship in person.”

Cramer said the general public lacks clarity about all of the measures county elections offices employ to secure ballots and voter rolls.

“We just want to make sure that voters know they can trust us,” he said. “And any information on changes will come from the election officials and not from a podcast or cable news.”

With the executive order tied up in litigation and the SAVE America Act facing some challenges in the Senate, elections officials across the country are focused on administering the primary and general midterm elections. 

“There is no way, right now, we can employ that any of this, because we already have our designs that have been gone through a million different eyes that also reviewed by the USPS and other entities to ensure that it meets the standards and guidelines, not just for federal requirements of mailing balance, but also accessibility requirements, too,” Cramer said.

But their concerns don’t stop when they’re off the clock.

“When I’m at work, I’m not focusing on what we might have to change if these things pass,” Walker said. “I can’t say the same for the middle of the night when I wake up thinking.”