Part 1: Stop Increasing the Burdens on Local Election Officials

On a non-partisan basis, election officials are angry for the increasing burdens that are being placed on them.  Typical was the reaction yesterday from local election officials in Virginia:  

Election officials’ complaint is familiar. “We do more and more with less,” said VRAV [Voter Registrars Association of Virginia] President Lisa Wooten. “I would hate to see a terrible election happen to any of us.”

Nationwide Democrats have not only opposed funding the needs of election officials  but instead have advocated expensive and burdensome ideas such as increasing early voting which does nothing to increase turnout (more on that tomorrow).  As RNLA wrote in its response to the Presidential Commission on Election Administration (emphasis added):

If nothing else, the post-mortem of the 2012 General Election revealed the need to focus on the basics of Election Day administration. As the PCEA pointed out repeatedly, the long-lines were typically a result of management problems which can be solved with proper planning and resource allocation and upgrades to our voter registration system. Anything that distracts from the main focus of absentee voting for those who need it, the close of registration books, and the monumental task of preparing for Election Day is simply that, a distraction. Local election officials have finite resources and are already stressed to the breaking point with juggling poll worker training, press inquiries, programming and testing voting equipment, and the other planning that needs to take place on the eve of an election. Being required to administer a robust early voting program is simply going to draw resources and attention away from those preparations.

The time has come to focus on helping election officials and to make their jobs easier.  On a bipartisan basis election officials would agree.