The Birth and Rebirth of Election Administration

Tokaji, Daniel P.

doi:10.1089/elj.2006.6011

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 6 publications

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“…A wide range of evidence indicates that the attitudes of local government officials influence how they enforce the law (e.g., Farris and Holman 2015). The ''hyperdecentralization'' of election administration is frequently noted as an obstacle to reform (e.g., Tokaji 2007). Local officials' views toward election reforms help determine whether they embrace or resist those reforms (Moynihan and Silva 2008;Burden et al 2012).…”

Section: Why the Opinions Of Local Election Officials Mattermentioning

confidence: 99%

Ranked Choice Voting in Maine from the Perspective of Local Election Officials

Anthony

Fried

Glover

et al. 2021

Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy

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In 2018, Maine became the first American state to use ranked choice voting in statewide and congressional elections. In a decentralized system of election administration local officials play an important role implementing new voting rules. We examine the implementation of ranked choice voting based on a survey of municipal clerks and interviews with several election officials in Maine. We test hypotheses derived from policy implementation theory in assessing election officials' evaluations of ranked choice voting. We find that most municipal clerks in our sample are not enthusiastic about implementing ranked choice voting and do not want to continue its use in Maine. In addition, there are strong partisan divisions, with Democratic clerks offering much more positive assessments of ranked choice voting than Republican clerks. We also find differences in voter education efforts across jurisdictions. The findings raise concerns about the implementation of ranked choice voting in Maine.

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