Preparation Is Key To Election Reform
Rosemary Rodriguez Of The Election Assistance Commission On What Can Go Wrong, What Has Gone Wrong And What Can Be Done To Help
by Kevin Friedl
Thu. Aug 14, 2008
"No system is 100 percent fail-safe, unfortunately. And I know that's what people want. People want certainty. I want certainty."
-- Rosemary Rodriguez
Formed in the wake of the 2000 presidential recount, the Election Assistance Commission was created to help bring about the reforms of the Help America Vote Act and ensure that states were ready to administer trouble-free and transparent elections. As part of its work, the commission tests and certifies new voting machines and monitors the use of more than $3 billion in federal funds provided to the states to replace outdated voting systems.
With this year's vote fast approaching, Chairwoman Rosemary Rodriguez sat down with NationalJournal.com's Kevin Friedl to discuss the upcoming vote, Florida's persistent ballot problems and the prospects of conducting a "perfect" election. Edited excerpts follow. Visit the archives page for more Insider Interviews.
Q: The commission exists in large part because of the many problems that have plagued polling stations and elections in the recent past. With record turnout expected this year and the election less than three months away, is the U.S. ready to vote? Will we be?
Rodriguez: We have an idea of what can go wrong. We have seen a variety of things related mostly, I think, to election management. Do we have enough ballots? Are election administrators prepared in case something goes wrong? Those are the potential vulnerabilities in the system, and so the EAC's working really hard to make sure that everybody's ready and that they've done their worst-case scenario planning and they have all the right people at the table in that planning.
Q: Do you think they're there yet?
Rodriguez: {Laughs} Well, we've asked the local jurisdictions to file their contingency plans with the state. That's one of our best practices. And if the state wants to send them to the EAC, we'll hold them here. But we don't have any yet.... A lot of folks already have contingency plans in place, but some evidence of those plans would probably instill confidence for the voter.
Q: Why haven't more states passed them along to your office?
Rodriguez: It's not required, but it is in our best practices guidelines. To speculate, it might be the local nature of the way elections are conducted. Not every secretary can require their counties, or whatever their makeup is, to furnish them with that kind of information. But I think it's a good idea for legislatures in the future to take a look at.
Q: Are states taking this seriously looking ahead to the election?
Rodriguez: Yes. You've heard about the states, like Florida, that just said, "There's not going to be an opportunity to doubt what happens in the state of Florida. We're going to go with the system that we think bears the most scrutiny." So they've gone from that extreme -- and in New Mexico, the governor just said, replace the whole system -- to states like Ohio and Colorado and California that tested the equipment from scratch, did the complete recertification of their equipment, before they certified it for this election. So there's a variety of things going on in 2008, new systems or newly recertified equipment in a couple of states, that I think is all designed to instill voter confidence.
more/audio at link:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/ii_20080812_4924.php