The Independent View: The Presidential Commission on Election Administration Report

Today, pursuant to Executive Order 13639, the Presidential Commission on Election Administration has submitted its Report and Recommendations to the President.

The Commission’s key recommendations call for:

• Modernization of the registration process through continued expansion of online voter registration and expanded state collaboration in improving the accuracy of voter lists.

• Measures to improve access to the polls through expansion of the period for voting before the traditional Election Day, and through the selection of suitable, well-equipped polling place facilities.

• The increased use of schools as polling places, since they are the best-equipped facilities in most jurisdictions, with security concerns met by scheduling an in-service training day for students and teachers on Election Day.

• State-of-the-art techniques to assure efficient management of polling places, including tools the Commission is publicizing and recommending for the efficient allocation of polling place resources.

• Reforms of the standard-setting and certification process for new voting technology to address soon-to-be antiquated voting machines and to encourage innovation and the adoption of widely available off-the-shelf technologies.

• Increasing and enhancing training and recruitment of poll workers, in the recognition that volunteer poll workers are voters’ primary source of contact during the actual voting process.

• The commission also called for improving the data collected about election administration and voting machine performance so policymakers can better assess actual election administration performance against ideals.

The bipartisan commission stayed away from the most controversial issue surrounding voting: voter ID law. But many of these recommendations are an important validation of the work of many voting rights advocates. They are also an explicit rebuke to some conservative state governments that have taken steps to reduce voting access by decreasing early voting days and restricting the absentee ballot process.

CLICK HERE to read the report.

CLICK HERE to view the C-SPAN event, Members of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration presented their recommendations on ways to decrease voting delays and make the process more efficient.