VCC Magazine Winter 2018

V irginia C apitol C onnections , W inter 2018 7 99 Good government requires good elections. Good elections, in turn, require adequate funding, staffing, and attention to the legal environment in which elections operate. The time is now forVirginia policymakers to review these aspects of Virginia’s electoral process. Below are pressing issues that need to be addressed inVirginia: 1. The General Assembly should equalize pay between general registrars and treasurers. The General Registrar/Electoral Board Work Group recommended—based on the workload and similarity of the yearly work cycle of their offices—that registrars’ pay should be at parity with the state’s treasurers. Virginia has long had a well-run and well-maintained election system, and this is due in no small part to the registrars and their staffs. With the coming wave of retirements, as well as changes in the lengths of time younger generations remain in a particular position, Virginia has to have salaries for registrars that will attract and retain qualified personnel. Virginia’s registrars work year-round to ensure that the voter registration records are accurate and up-to-date. There is constant preparation for the next election, as well as reviewing candidate filings, campaign finance paperwork, attendance at meetings critical to ensuring continued compliance with federal, state, and local laws, supervision of staff, preparation of budgets for local government review, and providing voter education to the public. The continued viability of this system depends upon having trained and qualified people in the position of general registrar. There is no good policy reason that the keepers of the Commonwealth’s money should be paid so much more than the keepers of the Commonwealth’s election system – the cornerstone on which all else is built. 2. The General Assembly should review voter registration and election laws with the goal of making them efficient and up-to-date. Virginia has not had a thorough review of election laws since the early 1990s. Since that time the federal government has passed two substantive laws affecting voting and elections. The General Assembly makes changes every year in Title 24.2. In addition, there are portions of Title 24.2 that do not agree with other portions of Title 24.2. Elections have become increasingly politicized, and conflicts in laws are a recipe for lack of confidence in a secure andwell-administered election system. The Virginia Code Commission needs to review Title 24.2 with a view toward recodification. The RegistrarsAssociation and the Electoral Board Association have been in contact with the hard-working staff and members of the Code Commission, and it has been made clear that they do not have the resources to devote to this deep a review of Title 24.2 until after redistricting in 2021. The General Assembly needs to provide the Code Commission with the resources necessary to review Title 24.2 without delay. 3. The General Assembly should establish the Commissioner of Elections as an appointee of a five-member State Board of Elections, with a super majority required for removal, and ensure adequate funding for the Department of Elections. The State Board of Elections and the Department of Elections are established to help coordinate the work of Virginia’s 133 registrars and electoral boards. When the central agency is inadequately funded, this affects the ability of the agency to provide guidance to the registrars and electoral boards. In turn, this increases the risk of non-uniformity, inefficiency, and illegal or incorrect practices that invite litigation. The State Board of Elections should be a five-member board with staggered terms so that there is a constant bench of experience and knowledge about how elections work. Currently, the entire board of three members does not have staggered terms (unlike the local electoral boards, which are staggered), and there is a lack of experience when a new board comes on. Good Government Requires Good Elections By Walt Latham In addition, the Commissioner of Elections should not be a gubernatorial appointee who serves at the pleasure of the Governor. Instead, the Commissioner should be an elections professional whose job is protected from competing political winds. This can be achieved by having the five- member State Board of Elections appoint the Commissioner and have the power to remove the Commissioner, for cause. 4. The General Assembly should study bills to ensure that they are implemented in a cost-effective way that benefits Virginia’s voters. Va. Code 30-19.03 provides, in pertinent part, as follows: Whenever any legislative bill requiring a net additional expenditure by any county, city, or town, or whenever any legislative bill requiring a net reduction of revenues by any county, city, or town, is filed during any session of the General Assembly, the Commission on Local Government shall investigate and prepare an estimate setting forth, to the extent practicable, the additional expenditures or reduction of revenues, if any, to be required of the affected localities in event of enactment of such legislation Every year the General Assembly considers legislation affecting elections or voter registration that will cost localities additional funds, and these bills are not sent to the Commission on Local Government for review. Early voting bills are good examples of the types of bills that it would be prudent for the General Assembly to refer to the Commission on Local Government for analysis because it will increase Virginia localities’ election expenditures. For example, in North Carolina’s 2016 presidential election, over 60% of the total votes cast for president were in-person early votes. In a typical locality in Virginia this would be far above what registrars’ offices are able to accommodate in their current facilities. Accordingly, additional staff and office space, including satellite offices, would be needed in order to ensure that voting is equitable and accessible to all voters and that voting machines and ballots are secure. In addition, theGeneralAssembly can take advantage of innovations in other states to investigate ways to improve the voting experience for Virginia’s voters. Again, early voting is an example of a proposal that Virginia could research before implementing: it is the law inmany states, including every state around Virginia, and the Commonwealth could benefit from a review of the laws and policies pertaining to early voting. Even if it is not the will of the General Assembly to implement early voting yet, it would be prudent to study what other states’ experiences have been in implementing early voting. 5. The General Assembly should direct a review of pay and classification standards for staff in registrars’ offices, as well as a review of minimum office space and office equipment standards. At present there are no pay or classification standards for assistant registrars. For the same reason that the Commonwealth has pay and classification standards for staff in constitutional offices, and because registrars need to be able to uniformly obtain and retain qualified and skilled staff, Virginia needs to have pay and classification standards for assistant registrars. In addition, the Commonwealth needs to devote resources to study the space and equipment requirements for registrars’ offices to ensure access to the public, that election equipment and records are able to be adequately and securely stored, and that there is enough space for the number of staff necessary to perform registration and election tasks during peak periods of activity. When reviewing the resources available to elections professionals, and when reviewing changes to laws and policies applicable to elections, See Good Government , continued on page 9