US Elections: The work of election commissions

by Stanislaw Andreychuk, leading expert, the regional coordinator of ‘Golos’ in Altai Territory

On 8 November, Presidential Elections are held in the United States, as well as Election to the Congress, the Senate, local elections. The coordinator of ‘Golos’ movement in Altai region Stanislaw Andreychuk is currently present in the United States. Stanislav plans to visit three polling stations on 8 November. Meanwhile, he shared his impressions on the work of election commissions.

So far, I was impressed the most by the work of election commissions. It is simply another universe.

Firstly, I have observed a phenomenal decentralization. In fact, the Presidential Elections are not centralized in the US. Each state follows its own laws; candidates have to go through registration process in each state. On the Election Day, the US holds 51 Presidential Elections, instead of one. Elections are held in 50 states plus the District of Columbia (DC), as the DC residents became eligible to vote in the Presidential Elections only in 1961. The overseas territories such as Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the other are still deprived of this right.

Respectively, there is no such national authority as central election commission. For three days we have been trying to figure out who is officially authorized to announce the final election results at federal level (in our view, there should be a person who signs the final protocol). Even the former chairperson of the state election commission could not answer this question. He was laughing while answering that nobody is interested in this.

There are two federal bodies:

• Federal Election Commission, responsible only for audit of financial statements of political parties (fundraising is generally a different issue).
• US Election Assistance Commission develops different manuals, used only as guidelines.

That is all. There are no more federal election administration agencies.

In each state the election system holds some major differences. In 35 states the local secretary of state is chief election officer, who is elected by popular vote. Some states have state election commissions, which are formed under different rules. In some states, they are elected by popular vote, but more often one or another state agency is authorized to select the members: in the District of Columbia and Virginia – the executive agency, in Maryland – the legislature. The composition of commission may vary in respect to the number and balance of party representation.

At the same time, state commissions are not responsible for electoral process, as they only exercise public oversight functions. Thus, municipal authorities are legally obliged to hold and fund elections, therefore elections are gravely underfunded.

In fact, elections are held in 7,000 counties and cities. The most often political parties are authorized to decide the composition of local commissions (let’s call them TECs). For example, in Missouri it is generally accepted to ensure equal party representation in the commission and select two co-chairmen from each party - the Republicans and the Democrats. It is the county commission which oversees the entire process: the work of district commissions, supply of equipment, ballots, etc. Nevertheless, in some states there are no precinct commissions: in some areas of Washington, Oregon and Colorado a voter can vote only by post. (Postal voting is quite common, for example, voters abroad can only vote by post. Therefore, the election results are finalized only 2 weeks after the Election Day).

Only volunteers work in precinct election commissions and only on the polling day. Special polling stations are established for early voting, but not in all states. Early voting shall be distinguished from the absentee voting, as only voters with a good reason are eligible for the latter. Separate polling stations are established for absentee voting.

Another strange peculiarity - provisional ballots. If you have arrived to a polling station to vote, but forgot your ID (although in some states, no documents are required to be presented), you are issued a ballot, but you do not put it in the counting machine (each polling station is equipped with such machines, manual vote count remains only in a few polling stations in Virginia and New Hampshire). These ballots are deposited to give a voter a few days to come back to the PEC and to confirm his/her identity. Only after the identity verification such ballots are counted in.

On the Election Day, the opening and closing times of polling stations vary in different locations. Therefore, there are no restrictions on the announcement of elections results in some states, while in other states voting is still ongoing, as technically, the US Presidential Election is an internal matter of each state, except the states that are split between two time zones (it seems to be a case here) where such a restriction is applied.

There is no national database of voters or national election results. It does not even exist at the state level. A county or a city publish voting results from each polling station. Therefore, to provide country-wide election statistics is a feat for analysts or researchers.

A sample ballot paper in one of the counties in Maryland. Photo: Stanislaw Andreychuk

It is rather interesting, that after the 2012 Presidential Election the OSCE made recommendations on issues such as prisoner or ex-prisoner voting rights, voter registration, training of commission members, disclosure of financial information, etc. However, it is not so easy to improve the electoral system, as in the US the election laws are adopted at the state level. Therefore, every state has its own system. Moreover, responsibility for holding elections, registration of voters, composition of commissions rests with a county. A federal agency, US Election Assistance Commission, only develops guidelines on electoral process.

See also:

• Early voting in the US: Voters queuing up
• US Elections: What American elections observers are anxious about?