Election Updates: Improving the EAC's surveys

Another follow up on Mike and Thad's blog posting down at CalTech.

In
Election Updates: Improving the EAC's surveys, Mike discusses a new and improved data collection initiative that is underway at the EAC. I cannot voice my support more strongly.

The EAC Election Day survey is an wonderful tool. I have already used it to help advise election administrators in Cook County, IL and Louisiana, both of whom wanted information about prior early and absentee voting efforts. We learned an awful lot from the first election day survey, and the EAC seems very interested in learning how to improve their data collection efforts in 2006 and beyond.


The EAC has a vital role to play as a centralized repository of information on best practices, data on election administration, and advocate for more efficient and equitable election procedures in the United States.

I have also been impressed with how rapidly the EAC has been able to build an administrative apparatus. This agency is only a few years old, is underfunded (in the opinion of most in the election reform community), yet is under tremendous public scrutiny. In the face of all of this, they have managed to initiate a number of invaluable research initiatives and issue a series of reports. And I have found the EAC very receptive to partnerships with the many outside organizations who are interested in these questions--there is no turf battles that I have witnessed.

I hope in the next few years, as the budget noose continues to tighten, Congress doesn't lose sight of how important legitimate, accurate, and efficient elections are to our democratic system.