Community Services

Emerging Trends in Election Administration: Lessons from the United States

December 14 - January 14, 2010 | Rachel Smith

Election administration in the United States is in a state of transition, facing new and competing challenges in the profession, increasing federal government oversight, changes to voting systems and voter registration, as well as the popularity of early voting. Each of these changing components brings concerns about the stability of the election system, but also begins to define the future vision for election administration. Change in election administration is reactive. Most recently, the United States experienced some devastating historical election administration events that shocked the public. Between the 2000 Presidential controversy in Florida and the 2004 and 2006 administrative issues in Ohio, the public’s tolerance for mismanaged election procedures is limited. Election administration procedures that do not offer a rapid and uncontroversial result are often criticized as flawed, to which reforms are almost always proposed.