Quite a lot, according to the study recently released by the Kennedy School’s David King, who undertook the study at the behest of Mayor Menino after the 2006 debacle with a number of Boston precincts running out of ballots. You can read the whole report here (pdf). Here’s the introduction:
The City of Boston ran out of ballots in 38 of 254 voting precincts on Election Day, November 7, 2006. Mayor Thomas Menino requested a thorough review of the Election Department, and this report is part of that review. I received complete access to officials and documents in the course of this review.
Over the past five months, I met regularly with Boston Election Department staff, and the Department rapidly implemented several reforms. For example,
- In November 2006, Election Commissioner Geraldine Cuddyer instituted weekly team meetings to improve communication within the Department.
- In January 2007, and upon the request of the Election Advisory Committee, Mayor Menino introduced legislation asking the State of Massachusetts to allow for “Early Voting,” by which citizens could vote in person up to two weeks before Election Day. If the State allows this change, it will be easier for shift-workers to vote at their convenience, and the normal rush of voters to the polls on Election Day will be reduced.
- Also in January, the Election Department began requisitioning new secure ballot containers with the extra capacity needed to handle multiple-page ballots.
- In February, the Mayor committed to revitalizing the annual City List process.
- In March, the Election Department was encouraged to hire three new employees for then-vacant positions, and those three positions have now been posted.
- Also in March, the Election Department began construction at the Frontage Road warehouse to handle storage of soon-to-be-delivered “handicap accessible” machines that are required by the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).
Still, a great deal of work needs to be done, requiring a Departmental reorganization and sustained investment in personnel and training.
The City has the capacity, and presumably the will, to transform the Boston Election Department into a national model for mobilizing new voters, removing physical and language barriers to voting and running fair and efficient elections. Through analysis of voting records, election laws, and 59 extensive interviews with community leaders and City employees, a consistent picture of the Department emerged.
Fundamental problems with the Boston Election Department do not stem from the personnel who are there but from the people who are not there. The Department is understaffed, yet responsibilities have grown considerably since the 2002 passage of HAVA. The Boston Election Department has not adjusted to keep pace. There is no effective system for internal training. There is no common library where up-to-date reference materials about election laws are maintained. The computer systems are antiquated and poorly maintained, and even the phone system is out-of-date.
Often criticized by community activists, the Boston Election Department has, for years, operated in a defensive and reactive way. Large budget cuts between 2000 and 2003 accompanied the replacement of bulky “lever” voting machines, but budget cuts continued even as post-HAVA state aid failed to materialize. By November 2006, the Department operated with a skeleton crew while implementing a U.S. Justice Department agreement aimed at removing language barriers for Chinese- and Vietnamese-speaking voters.
The Boston Election Department does not have the personnel, training, or funding consistently to oversee smoothly run elections and to produce an annual City List of residents.
There have, however, been some recent successes since 2005, often mentioned by interviewees outside of the Department: Language and physical access to the voting process have improved, and an Election Advisory Committee – mandated by the agreement with the Justice Department – has proved crucial to the operations of the Department. Commissioner Geraldine Cuddyer should be commended for the Department’s work on language and physical access issues.
The whole thing is worth a read. If elections don’t work, the whole democracy thing kind of falls apart.
