Helping America Vote? Election Administration, Partisanship, and Provisional Voting in the 2004 Election

Abstract

State and local election officials play an important role in implementing election laws and administrative rules. There is some suspicion that election officials may tilt rules and procedures to help a favored party, prompting recent proposals for nonpartisan election administration in the United States. We examine the impact of state and local election officials on provisional voting in the 2004 presidential election, the first national election in which provisional voting was required by federal law. We find suggestive evidence of partisanship in the selection of state rules governing the counting of provisional ballots. We also find conditional partisan effects in the casting and counting of provisional ballots. In 2004, provisional ballots were more likely to be cast and counted in heavily partisan jurisdictions administered by an election authority of the same party. Additionally, other state-level administrative features (prior experience with provisional voting, a statewide registration database, and rules for counting provisional votes cast in the wrong precinct) strongly affected provisional voting in 2004. Election administration in the United States should be subjected to more scrutiny.

Selection Method, Partisanship, and the Administration of Elections

“…4 Stuart (2004) finds that Republican election registrars in Florida were more likely than their Democratic counterparts to purge voter rolls of the names of suspected felons provided by the state. The partisanship of LEOs also shaped how the HAVA's provisional balloting rules were implemented, with officials often applying rules in ways thought to help their parties at the polls (Kimball, Kropf, & Battles, 2006).…”

The Quantities and Qualities of Poll Workers

“…This shortcoming reflects principal-agent problems caused by partybased selection, insufficient screening mechanisms that only sometimes involve interviews or questionnaires, 29 and incomplete training to ensure uniform administration. Kimball et al (2006) observe that more provisional ballots are cast and counted in jurisdictions where the party vote share is in concordance with the party of the local election administrator. 30 A non-partisan selection system focused on skill rather than political connections might well produce a better crop of front line workers.…”

“…Kimball et al (2006) observe that more provisional ballots are cast and counted in jurisdictions where the party vote share is in concordance with the party of the local election administrator. 30 A non-partisan selection system focused on skill rather than political connections might well produce a better crop of front line workers.…”

Elections and the Regression Discontinuity Design: Lessons from Close U.S. House Races, 1942–2008

“…Last-minute votes can be scrounged up by distributing extra "street money" to ward healers (Beam 2006). Partisan local election officials can exercise discretion over whether to count provisional ballots and other ambiguous votes (Kimball, Kropf, and Battles 2006). At the margins, such actions may systematically push favored candidates over the edge to victory.…”