2016

[Image via theodysseyonline]

Once again, electionline.org has compiled its own version of the iconic In and Out List originated by the Washington Post, and as we emerge in the New Year simultaneously looking back at 2015 and ahead to 2016 it’s a great way to take stock of what’s happened – and what’s next:

OUT: Planning for 2016
IN: Surviving 2016

OUT: Vote by mail schemes that don’t support accessible voting
IN: Remote ballot marking that supports accessible voting without compromising voter privacy and security

OUT: Voter profiling
IN: Voter privacy

OUT: Paper precinct registers
IN: Electronic poll books

OUT: Being jealous of the elections commissioner of Yolo County because of the cool name
IN: Being jealous of the elections commissioner of Yolo County because of its all-mail balloting

OUT: Anxiety over the purchase of new equipment
IN: Anxiety about training election officials to use new equipment

OUT: Fall tailgating
IN: Fall satellite voting

OUT: Electioneering
IN:  Social media attacks

OUT: Exit polling
IN: Trending hashtags

OUT: Complaints about parking at polling locations
IN: Complaints about security at polling locations

OUT: Speculation about where voting machines may malfunction
IN: Speculation on how the U.S. Postal Service may malfunction

OUT: Largely paper-based voter registration
IN: Online voter registration

OUT: Online voter registration
IN: Automatic voter registration

OUT: Vacancies
IN: Three commissioners at the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, a new executive director and a new general counsel

OUT: Media contacts who only provide phone numbers
IN: Media contacts who provide emails and phone numbers (please for the love of God be in)

OUT: New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna Duran
IN: Brad Winter

OUT: Wisconsin Government Accountability Board
IN: Ethics Commission and Elections Commission

OUT: Wondering If Wisconsin’s Kevin Kennedy will get to stay on
IN
: Wondering if Kevin will bring his 30 years of experience to your state

OUT: Hoping to get funding for voting machines in 2015
IN: Hoping to get funding for voting machines in 2016

OUT: Disputes about election official qualifications in Connecticut
IN: New training program for election officials in Connecticut

OUT: WinVote in Virginia
IN: A scramble by WinVote jurisdictions in Virginia to buy anything else

OUT: Wyoming state election director Peggy Nighswonger
IN: TBD

OUT: Alaska state election director Gail Fenumiai
IN: Josie Bahnke

OUT: Voting technology standards as typical rulemaking
IN: Working group approach to standard-setting for voting technology

OUT: Worrying if voters will send their mail ballots back in time
IN: Worrying if the USPS will deliver them in time

OUT: Voting technology as an unrecognized “impending crisis”
IN: Voting technology as a well-recognized but largely unaddressed (and unfunded) crisis

OUT: Oregon’s claim to fame as birthplace of all vote-by-mail
IN: Oregon’s claim to fame as birthplace of “new motor voter”

OUT: Wireless and touchscreens
IN: Wires and paper

OUT: Lines at neighborhood polling places
IN: Vote by Mail

OUT: Federal funding
IN: Innovative thinking by election administrators on shoe string budgets

OUT: Decorum
IN: Election geeks in the shower

Clean Elections

And because we think this has been mentioned in every In & Out list since electionline launched in 2002…

OUT: Lever voting machines in New York
IN: Wooden ballot boxes

Thanks as always to electionline’s Mindy Moretti for compiling the list (with help from me, Sean Greene, Rick Hasen, Matt Masterson, Lucy Martin, Kim Alexander, Brian Corley, Pam Smith, Whitney Quesenbery and Dave Bjerke) … Happy New Year to all and let’s be careful out there!

Stay tuned …