Are All Jurisdictions Equal? Size Disparity in Election Administration

Abstract

Abstract

The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) was intended to create more consistency in election administration, but the United States still has a highly decentralized system. Almost 8,000 local jurisdictions have primary responsibility for administering elections, with significant discretion in how they conduct them, and there is a dramatic skew in the size of these jurisdictions. A very small number of heavily populated local jurisdictions serve the vast majority of voters while a large number of lightly populated jurisdictions serve the rest of the electorate. The interaction of local discretion and size disparities leads to very different experiences for election officials and voters in large versus small jurisdictions. Election administrators in large jurisdictions encounter the most difficult problems in conducting elections and in large jurisdictions the need for innovation is acute. At the same time, there is little push for election modernization due to the size disparity, which we discuss in detail. HAVA has not changed this fundamental dynamic, and policy makers and researchers should take size into account when examining the performance of elections and when considering ways to make elections operate more effectively.