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HELPING AMERICA VOTE

A repeat of the Florida debacle in the 2000 presidential election is the fear of every election administrator. Despite the relatively complication-free 2008 and 2010 elections, we are working with fairly new federal legislation designed to ease election administration problems. The implementation of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) raises the question, how effective have reforms been? Could another Florida happen?

Helping America Vote is focused on the conflict between values of access and integrity in U.S. election administration. Kropf and Kimball examine both what was included in HAVA and what was not. Widespread agreement that voting equipment was a problem made technology the centerpiece of the legislation, and it has remedied a number of pressing concerns. But there is still reason to be concerned about key aspects of electronic voting, ballot design, and the politics of partisan administrators. It takes a legitimacy crisis for serious election reforms to happen at the federal level, and seemingly, the crisis has passed. However, the risk is still very much present for the electoral process to fail. What are the implications for democracy when we attempt reform?

Martha Kropf is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.

David C. Kimball is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Controversies in Electoral Democracy
and Representation

Matthew J. Streb, Series Editor

The Routledge series Controversies in Electoral Democracy and Representation presents cutting-edge scholarship and innovative thinking on a broad range of issues relating to democratic practice and theory. An electoral democracy, to be effective, must show a strong relationship between representation and a fair, open election process. Designed to foster debate and challenge assumptions about how elections and democratic representation should work, titles in the series present a strong but fair argument on topics related to elections, voting behavior, party and media involvement, representation, and democratic theory.

Titles in the series:

Rethinking American Electoral	The Imperfect Primary: Oddities,
Democracy	Biases, and Strengths of U.S.
Matthew J. Streb	Presidential Nomination Politics
Barbara Norrander
Redistricting and Representation:
Why Competitive Elections Are	Rethinking American Electoral
Bad for America	Democracy, 2nd Edition
Thomas L. Brunell	Matthew J. Streb
Fault Lines: Why the Republicans	Helping America Vote: The Limits of
Lost Congress	Election Reform
Edited by Jeffery J. Mondak and	Martha Kropf and David C. Kimball
Dona-Gene Mitchell
Third Party Blues: The Truth and
In Defense of Judicial Elections	Consequences of Two-Party
Chris W. Bonneau and	Dominance
Melinda Gann Hall	Scot Schraufnagel
Congressional Representation and	Forthcoming:
Constituents: The Case for Increasing	In Defense of Politicians
the U.S. House of Representatives	Stephen K. Medvic
Brian Frederick

HELPING AMERICA
VOTE

The Limits of Election Reform

Martha Kropf

University of North Carolina-Charlotte

David C. Kimball

University of Missouri-St. Louis

First published 2012

by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Simultaneously published in the UK

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2012 Taylor & Francis

The rights of Martha E. Kropf and David C. Kimball to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Kropf, Martha E.

Helping America vote : the limits of election reform / Martha Kropf,

David C. Kimball.

p. cm.

Includes index.

1. ElectionsUnited States. 2. ElectionsUnited StatesManagement.

3. Election lawUnited States. 4. United States. Help America Vote

Act of 2002. I. Kimball, David C., 1966- II. Title.

JK1976.K76 2011

324.6'30973dc23

2011026284

ISBN13: 978-0-415-80407-3 (hbk)

ISBN 13: 978-0-415-80408-0 (pbk)

ISBN13: 978-0-203-87031-0 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo

by Cenveo publisher services

Printed and bound in the United States of America on acid-free paper by

Walsworth Publishing Company, Marceline, MO

To John Szmer, Gwendolyn and Zachary Szmer
Dr. Donald and Gwendolyn Kropf
Martha Kropf

To Laura Arnold, Carol Kimball, Andy, Will and Mary Kimball

David C. Kimball

CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figures

Tables

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Since this is a book about election administration, we are especially grateful to the many election officials who have spoken to us or helped us gather more data about elections. We are also grateful to Lindsay Battles, Jessica Curtis, Cassie Gross, Jeremiah Olson, and Matthew Owings for research assistance. We would also like to thank Dr. John Szmer for his ideas and encouragement.

Thanks to the Election Assistance Commission for its Election Day Survey, a welcome source of information about elections in the United States.

We thank the University of Missouri Research Board and the National Science Foundation for supporting some of the research that appears in these pages. We alone are responsible for the interpretations in this book.

Finally, we would like to thank the people at Routledge for encouraging us to complete this book, and for their patience with us. Matt Streb, Michael Kerns, and Mary Altman bore the bulk of this work. We are grateful to Mike Alvarez for reviewing the proposal. His comments led to several changes.

M. K.
D.C.K.

1

INTRODUCTION

The Context of Election Reform

Minnesota's 2008 senate race between incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman and Democratic candidate Al Franken was anything but a

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