Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

During the outbreak, an election timetable change both parties can support

December calendar
Tristiaña Hinton/The Fulcrum
Johnson is executive director of Election Reformers Network, a nonprofit founded by international election specialists now supporting reform in the United States.

Regrettably, the bipartisan cooperation that enabled last month's $2.2 trillion economic stimulus package fell short when it came to addressing concerns about coronavirus and elections.

Congress did allocate $400 million for state election preparation, but proposals to require more voting by mail and early in-person voting met with partisan rancor. And President Trump has now acknowledged the underlying political calculus: Republicans win more often when fewer people vote.

Last week's footage of Wisconsinites risking virus exposure to go to the polls dramatically illustrated the impact of that strategy, and those images perhaps will nudge the GOP position. Trump seems to have moderated somewhat, tweeting that absentee voting "is a great way to vote for seniors, military, and others who can't get to the polls."

Finding common ground on these processes that public health officials uniformly recommend would be a great sign that our leaders can rise above politics in a time of crisis.


But even without such leadership, vote-by-mail and absentee balloting will likely increase significantly for November, with much of that increase coming in states unaccustomed to handing these processes at scale. Election administrators across the country are gearing up for that challenge.

One way Congress can help that shouldn't be divisive is to give the states more time on the backend, for the stages that happen after elections.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

As many have commented, we should not countenance a postponement of Election Day, which is Nov. 3 this year. But we tend to forget important dates after Election Day that have been set by antiquated federal law, not the Constitution, and that Congress can change for the better.

The first important date marks the end of "safe harbor," the period established by federal law during which states are ensured their reported results will not be challenged in Congress. This year that deadline is set as Dec. 8. Six days later, Dec. 14, is when all 538 electors meet in their state capitals to vote. Those votes are not officially tallied by Congress for another three weeks, on Jan. 6, and the inauguration follows Jan. 20

That means 77 days pass between election and inaugural, but states have only 35 of them to process all the ballots and resolve all disputes and recounts — or 41 days if they choose to forgo their safe harbor protections.

What happened in Florida in 2000 made clear that this is too little time in a contested election. That contested presidential result is often thought of as a story about the Supreme Court, but a key factor in the court's decision was limited time. On Dec. 12 that year, the justices ordered an end to recounting in Florida and effectively awarded the election to George W. Bush, the majority concluding a recount that treated all ballots equally could not be completed before the electors met, just six days later.

Had there been more time, that argument would not have held sway, the recount could have continued — and the country would have had far more confidence about who won.

After Florida, election scholars like Ohio State's Dan Tokaji proposed pushing back the safe harbor date and elector meeting date, but the idea did not gain traction. Coronavirus and an upcoming election of great uncertainty give us good reason to revive that proposal.

One prominent organization backing the idea is the Brennan Center for Justice, which proposed pushing both dates back in its comprehensive recent report, "How to Protect the 2020 Elections from Coronavirus."

The specific calendar should be established by Congress, but a schedule that could work well would be for the electors to meet Jan. 2 after a safe harbor deadline on New Year's Eve.

Both parties arguably have equal odds of being on the short end of a closely contested election, so both could benefit from such an extended calendar. Transition preparations would not have to be delayed, and both would-be presidents could begin planning in the case of an uncertain outcome, so there should be no impact on the preparedness of the winner to start governing.

And the extra time would be very helpful to states in managing the substantial increase in vote-by-mail and absentee ballot envelopes — with or without additional spending or mandates from Washington.

Mailed ballots require signature verification, which with enough time and funding can be automated, but this November it will likely be done by hand in many places. States will need new processes, equipment and training to meet these challenges, all of which increases the likelihood of unexpected problems and delay. Signature verification also requires a process for notifying voters whose handwriting is challenged and allowing them time to respond.

It would be a disaster if the outcome of the 2020 election turned on an incomplete recount in a state struggling with unprecedented challenges and a coronavirus-created version of the hanging chad. Congress has at least this one way to avoid that outcome, and it ought to enjoy bipartisan support.

Read More

Independent Voters Gain Ground As New Mexico Opens Primaries
person in blue denim jeans and white sneakers standing on gray concrete floor
Photo by Phil Scroggs on Unsplash

Independent Voters Gain Ground As New Mexico Opens Primaries

With the stroke of a pen, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham enfranchised almost 350,000 independent voters recently by signing a bill for open primaries. Just a few years ago, bills to open the primaries were languishing in the state legislature, as they have historically across the country. But as more and more voters leave both parties and declare their independence, the political system is buckling. And as independents begin to organize and speak out, it’s going to continue to buckle in their direction.

In 2004, there were 120,000 independent voters in New Mexico. A little over 10 years later, when the first open primary bill was introduced, that number had more than doubled. That bill never even got a hearing. But today the number of independents in New Mexico and across the country is too big to ignore. Independents are the largest group of voters in ten states and the second-largest in most others. That’s putting tremendous pressure on a system that wasn’t designed with them in mind.

Keep ReadingShow less
"Voter Here" sign outside of a polling location.

"Voter Here" sign outside of a polling location.

Getty Images, Grace Cary

Stopping the Descent Toward Banana Republic Elections

President Trump’s election-related executive order begins by pointing out practices in Canada, Sweden, Brazil, and elsewhere that outperform the U.S. But it is Trump’s order itself that really demonstrates how far we’ve fallen behind. In none of the countries mentioned, or any other major democracy in the world, would the head of government change election rules by decree, as Trump has tried to do.

Trump is the leader of a political party that will fight for control of Congress in 2026, an election sure to be close, and important to his presidency. The leader of one side in such a competition has no business unilaterally changing its rules—that’s why executive decrees changing elections only happen in tinpot dictatorships, not democracies.

Keep ReadingShow less
"Vote" pin.
Getty Images, William Whitehurst

Most Americans’ Votes Don’t Matter in Deciding Elections

New research from the Unite America Institute confirms a stark reality: Most ballots cast in American elections don’t matter in deciding the outcome. In 2024, just 14% of eligible voters cast a meaningful vote that actually influenced the outcome of a U.S. House race. For state house races, on average across all 50 states, just 13% cast meaningful votes.

“Too many Americans have no real say in their democracy,” said Unite America Executive Director Nick Troiano. “Every voter deserves a ballot that not only counts, but that truly matters. We should demand better than ‘elections in name only.’”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hand Placing Ballot in Box With American Flag
Getty Images, monkeybusinessimages

We Can Fix This: Our Politics Really Can Work – These Stories Show How

As American politics polarizes ever further, voters across the political spectrum agree that our current system is not delivering for the American people. Eighty-five percent of Americans feel most elected officials don’t care what people like them think. Eighty-eight percent of them say our political system is broken.

Whether it’s the quality and safety of their kids’ schools, housing affordability and rising homelessness, scarce and pricey healthcare, or any number of other issues that touch Americans’ everyday lives, the lived experience of polarization comes from such problems—and elected officials’ failure to address them.

Keep ReadingShow less