While waiting for the polls to close, now is a good time to reflect on some good concepts that are examples of things that have gone right in some areas of the country this election and others are cures to what has gone wrong so far this year in election administration.  Of course, the big problem is that our decentralized system means that we have fifty-one different sets of state laws and over 3000 local election authorities who exercise the discretion granted by those laws in very different ways.

Good Concept Number 1 — Early voting periods.  This is not a new idea, but some states and localities are still resistant to the idea.  But with the overwhelming early vote this year, the news media is light on complaints about locations where there are exceedingly long wait times.

Good Concept Number 2 — At least one day during the early voting period when there is an early voting center open for the entire day (all twenty-four hours).  While most people work jobs where being open on the weekends or during normal business hours will make it easy to vote, there are some who have weird hours and weird shifts.  Having at least one day when you can vote at all hours (as was done in Harris County) will allow these people to vote in person. Continue Reading...