Carter / Baker report has been commissioned!

Well, I finally scored a report with a national commission. The director of the Carter/Baker commission has asked me to write a report on early voting and ballot integrity in Oregon. I had a more ambitious project in mind, comparing the procedures used to maintain ballot integrity in 20 counties that have experienced rapid growth in absentee balloting in the past decade, but funding issues limits this for the time being.

The project at is stands is going to compare vote-by-mail procedures in three counties in Oregon, one urban (certainly Multnomah), one suburban (possibly Washington or Clackamas) and one rural, in an attempt to see if ballot administration issues vary by some broad county characteristics.

We also hope to collect information on undeliverable ballots (remember that all ballots arrive via USPS) and rejected signatures in all counties in Oregon. If we are able to collect this information, and attach it to county statistics, it provides further leverage on the question of ballot administration and county type.

So a lot of work to be completed in just three weeks!