Election Law @ Moritz

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Commentary

Bipartisanship in Election Administration: Is There Enough?


Nathan CemenskaJuly 29 (Nathan Cemenska)

A fundamental assumption underlying the setup of many of our elections institutions is that we cannot necessarily trust administrators to do a good job in one-party environments. Rather, it is better to require that at least one important player in each entity be from each of the largest political parties. This reduces the risk of hanky-panky, and also reduces the risk of mistakes made by people who try to do their best, but who might fail because they do not appreciate the viewpoint of the other side. I do not think we should automatically conclude that every level of election administration must be permeated with bipartisanship, and even think that requiring this could in many cases lead to deadlock, partisan grandstanding, and endless, fruitless debate. Nevertheless, requiring bipartisanship in our elections institutions is a good rule of thumb, and one that we should not deviate from without having specific reasons. Moritz has completed some research on 16 states that suggests that America is following this rule of thumb in some areas, but not in others.

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Daniel P. Tokaji
Equal Vote is the nationally-acclaimed blog by Daniel P. Tokaji that focuses on election reform, the Voting Rights Act and the Help America Vote Act.

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