County Commission | The Magazine April 2018 | Page 34

FROM THE COVER
After the controversial 2000 presidential election, Congress passed the Help
America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002. Among other things, it required states to
establish centralized statewide voter registration databases, consolidating the voter
lists of its various counties and jurisdictions. This gave state offices a duty that
many did not previously have. HAVA also provided funds for replacing voting equipment and improving
election administration. States were charged with developing state plans for disbursing these funds, and
to this day are more involved with procuring voting equipment than they had been before HAVA.
Two federal laws involving military and overseas voters, the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens
Absentee Voting Act of 1986 and the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE) of 2009,
also gave state offices additional responsibilities in aiding registration and voting for overseas citizens.
As a result of these laws, and especially since 2002, additional election-related duties and
responsibilities have fallen to state election offices. The role that state offices play in election
administration has expanded, as has the state’s share of costs in some cases.
Even so, the structure of election administration in the states today is still largely decentralized and
contains a great deal of variation, although far less so than it was a century ago.
— “The Price of Democracy: Splitting the Bill for Elections,”
National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)
smoothly these days. And the 2002 Help America Vote
Act (HAVA) prompted reforms across the country.
HAVA realigned somewhat