What Happens to Election Returns and Records after the Contest Is Over?

Melissa Marschall

Associate Professor, Political Science

Rice University

Overview1. Focus on local governments

1. & elections—Why?

1. What is the ‘stuff’ of elections?• Election• Candidacy, campaign, & campaign finance• Voter registration

2. Record retention, management & dissemination• Who decides what to keep, how long to keep it and how to archive?• Access and “archiveness” of election stuff?

3. Local Elections in America Project (LEAP)

Why Focus on Local Governments and Elections?

1. Nearly all elections in America are for Local rather than state or federal offices.

• 99.9% of all Governments in the US are local

• More than ½ million public officials hold local elective offices

1. Election administration is done by Local governments

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Number of Local Governments by Type, 1952-2007

2007 2002 1992 1982 1972 1962 1952

General Purpose (All) 39,044 38,967 38,978 38,851 38,552 38,184 37,061

County 3,033 3,034 3,043 3,041 3,044 3,043 3,052

Municipal 19,492 19,429 19,279 19,076 18,517 17,997 16,807

Town/Township 16,519 16,504 16,656 16,734 16,991 17,144 17,202

Special Purpose (All) 50,432 48,558 45,977 42,929 39,666 53,001 79,695

School District 13,051 13,506 14,422 14,851 15,781 34,678 67,355

Special District 37,381 35,052 31,555 28,078 23,885 18,323 12,340

Total Local Governments 89,476 87,525 84,955 81,780 78,218 91,185 116,756

Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2002, 2007).

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100-523

Number of local govts per county

45-99

30-44

15-29

Distribution of Local Officials by Govt Type & Office, 1992

All Govts County City Town/Twnshp

School Dist

SpecialDist

Total local elected officials

Officials per government

Pct all local elected officials

Pct in legislatures

Pct in other bodies

Pct in exec/admin/judicial positions

493,830

5.81

100

70

9

21

58,818

19.33

12

29

18

52

135,531

7.03

27

79

3

18

126,958

7.62

26

41

20

39

88,434

6.13

18

95

4.7

0.3

84,089

2.66

17

98

n/a

n/a

Source: U.S. Census Bureau (1995).

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Election Administration by Local Governments • Administration of elections more decentralized in the US than any

other country.

• Counties & municipalities mainly responsible for the conduct of elections. • Oversee voter registration, design ballots, purchase voting machines, train

polling officials.

• Secretary of state is technically responsible for elections in most states• Little or no budget for elections• Little power over election administration

• Help America Vote Act or HAVA (2002) —1st federal law to govern the administration of elections.

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A Sample of the “Stuff” of ElectionsRecord Title Record Description

Ballots Official ballot showing candidates and measures, including ballots that are unused, voted, absentee, defective, spoiled, replacement, provisional or mailed and returned by the post office as undeliverable.

Ballot voting records Absentee ballot requests and applications, cancellation of absentee ballot requests, notices of denial of cancellation requests, lists of corrected ballots sent, untimely and rejected ballots, jacket envelopes, carrier envelopes, early voting and absentee rosters, statements of challenge to early and absentee voters, notices of non-acceptance of early voting and absentee ballots, orders for the appointment of signature verification committees, late absentee ballot applications, disabled voter applications and affidavits, applications to vote restricted ballot, restricted ballot rosters.

Election contracts Contracts, leases, or agreements for election services or the use of voting machines, including written approvals from the Secretary of State, if such approval is required.

Election officer records

Orders of appointment of election judges, including memoranda of emergency appointments, if applicable. List of election judges or other officers, statements of compensation due to election officers.

Precinct boundary records

Notices of changes to precinct boundaries, maps of precinct boundary changes.

Precinct election records

Signature rosters, combination forms, provisional ballot lists, provisional ballot affidavit envelopes, summaries of provisional ballots cast, certificates of appointment of watchers, precinct returns, ballot registers/tally lists, voted, spoiled, defective, unused, undistributed, and specimen ballots, record of incorrect ballots destroyed, redistributed ballot receipts, ballot distribution record, unofficial tabulation of ballot results, official tabulation of precinct results, voting machine inspection and testing records, notices of voting machine inspections, voting machine opening and closing certificates, paper ballot write-in affidavits, voting machine printouts, ballot box seal record, ballot box certificates and seals, ballot box receipts, certificates of successful and records of unsuccessful tests of automatic tabulating equipment, testing ballots, and requests for and retractions of, if applicable, extension of security period on voting machines.

Campaign finance reports and filings

Campaign contribution and expenditure statements (including annual reports of unexpended contributions), designation of campaign treasurers (including notices of termination).

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Record Title Record Description

Candidacy applications and certifications

Applications and any accompanying petitions for place on ballot, including any rejection notices and withdrawal of petition signature requests, certifications of candidates, declarations of intent to run as an independent candidate, declarations of write-in candidates, withdrawal of candidacy requests

Challenges to registration records

Records relating to challenges by the voter registration or another registered voter to the registration of a voter and similar records relating to the challenge by a voter to cancellation of registration by the voter registrar, notices of challenge, requests for and notices of hearing, affidavits of argument or evidence, statements of challenge, and copies of petitions for review in cases appealed to a district courts, written determinations of challenges.

Voter registration applications and associated documents

Voter registration application and records that Election Code requires be maintained in association with application files: authorizations to vote by affidavit, requests for replacement certificates, notices of change in registration information, returned renewal certificates, abstracts of death, probate, mental incompetency, felony conviction, and disqualification of an election contest, lists of persons disqualified from jury service because of lack of citizenship, and written notices to voter of investigation of registration status, written response from voters, proofs of citizenship provided by voters, and memoranda of oral responses. Notices of change of residence of voters from other voter registrars, notices of applications for limited ballot from early voting clerks in other counties, notices of voter registration cancellation and reinstatement, sworn statements of death.

Voter registration certificates

Duplicate initial registration certificates, corrected registration certificates issued by voter registrar, lists of returned certificates, original registration record sheets or cards.

Voter registration lists and related documentation

Master voter registration list of all registered voters in a county, change lists or similar documentation providing an audit trail, used to correct or update master voter registration list, supplemental, corrected, or revised original list of registered voters provided to authorities for use in countywide elections, registration omission lists.

Preclearance records All preclearance submission documentation including, but not limited to, change in election precincts, polling places, and voting procedures.

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Record Retention & Management• Most states have Record Retention Schedules

• State statutes also provide guidelines

• Discretion at local level

• Considerable variation across states

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What gets retained & for how long by Local governments?

  Election Certificates/Returns

Precinct election returns

Canvass/ Tally sheets/ Tabulations

Official (Sample) Ballots

California 4 years 6 months Permanent Permanent

Colorado Permanent 6 months 6 months Permanent

Florida Permanent 1 year Permanent Unknown

Maine 2 years 2 years 2 years 2 months

Massachusetts 1 year? Unknown 3 years/30 days* Unknown

Mississippi 5 years 2 years 2 years Unknown

New Jersey 5 years Unknown 5 years Permanent

North Carolina Permanent Permanent 2 months Permanent

Texas Permanent 22 months 22 months Unknown

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How to decide what gets retained and for how long?1. Administrative value

• Helps the office perform essential functions now or in the future. Custodian should ask, “At what point in time will this record cease to be of potential administrative value? Is this administrative value found in any other records which will be retained?”

2. Legal value • It documents a legal right or obligation of a citizen, of the office or of the

municipality. Official should ask, “At what point in time will this record, or records series, cease to document any enforceable legal rights? Are these rights documented by any other records which will be retained?”

3. Fiscal Value 1. It uniquely documents or verifies spending or receipt of public monies. Official

should ask, “At what point in time will this record, or records series, no longer be needed to document the transfer or payment or encumbrance or other action pertaining to the sending or receipt of public monies? Is that information documented in another record which may be more appropriate to keep?”

• Historical Value • The application of this value is fundamentally a search in the records series for

possible cultural values to posterity. Does the records series provide valuable information on persons, events, or subjects? Does the series provide valuable information on the key operations of a significant municipal office?

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Examples of Election Ephemera Archives• UCLA Online Campaign Literature Archive—A Century of

Los Angeles Elections• http://digital.library.ucla.edu/campaign/

• Get out the Vote—Campaigning for the US Presidency Exhibition• http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/vote/index.html

• Finding aid for the presidential campaign ephemera (USC Archival Collection• http://www.usc.edu/libraries/finding_aids/records/finding_aid.php?f

a=0107

• This small collection consists primarily of fliers, buttons, posters, clippings, and other ephemeral materials from numerous presidential campaigns.

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Archiving & Dissemination of Election Returns• Most comprehensive & centralized: Louisiana

• http://www.sos.la.gov/

• State of the art, but uneven by county: Florida• http://election.dos.state.fl.us/ • http://election.dos.state.fl.us/SOE/countyInfo.asp?county=BAY• http://election.dos.state.fl.us/SOE/countyInfo.asp?county=GIL

• Majority states completely decentralized with no state standards of reporting

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Local Elections in America Project (LEAP)• NSF Cyberinfrastructure CF21 Venture Fund, SES, and

Rice’s K2I ERIT program (Marschall & Shah, Co-PIs)

• Developing a path-breaking solution to the problem of collecting, digitizing and disseminating data on local elections

• A DATABASE that: • Collects past, current and future data on Local elections• Provides connectivity to other data using fips codes• Includes a web-based user interface• Allows searching, reporting, GIS capabilities, online forms

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Evolved Sampling Frame and Strategy

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Coverage (40 States to Date)• Original Sample 877 out of 1,241 (71%)

• All cities ≥ 25,000 population

• Total cities 5,400 (minimum) out of 19,317• For a few states, we have all places in the state.• For some counties, we have all places in the county.

• County, State, School Board and Federal Elections data for many places

• Significant variation in time-frame (1920s to present)

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Conclusions & Implications

• Elections are complex, frequent, expensive • Each one produces MANY records and documents• Record retention, management & dissemination have

improved (with help from HAVA) but still have a long way to go.• Comparability across places & time (within and across states)• Access and usability of data (format, documentation)

• Implications of LEAP:• Raises questions about authenticity • Provides a model of how to archive records more efficiently,

effectively • Significantly improve access and use by researchers, educators, &

practitioners