California Recall Will be a Nightmare Says Election Administration Expert Thad E. Hall

8/21/2003

From: Christy Hicks of The Century Foundation, 212-452-7723 or email: hicks@tcf.org

NEW YORK, Aug. 21 -- Thad Hall, a program officer with The Century Foundation, said today that the punch card voting system is only one of many reasons that the California recall election should be delayed; he believes that the 80-day time frame for putting together the recall election is bound to result in problems on election day, problems that will only be exacerbated by the 135 candidates that are going to be on the ballot.

"Putting together an election in 80 days is a monumental task. In a normal election, Los Angeles County would have 5,000 poll sites -- roughly as many poll sites as their are Starbucks in the United States -- and would hire 25,000 poll workers," he said. "For the recall election, they will consolidate the election and only have approximately 1,800 poll sites."

What makes matters worse, he said, is that the county does not own the poll sites. "They will have to identify and cajole 1,800 different entities to allow them to set up a polling place. And if history is any guide, several locations will cancel before Election Day, forcing the County registrar to scramble to find a new site that is suitable."

He also notes that even if voters manage to find their polling places, finding their candidate may be even more challenging. "With so many candidates on the ballot, and the use of ballot rotation, which will make the candidate order change across state Assembly districts, voters will find it frustrating to find any candidate easily on the ballot. And with state law requiring the words 'vote for one' to appear on each page listing candidates, the six to eight page listing of gubernatorial candidates will likely lead to many voters voting multiple times in the race, invalidating their ballot."

Hall warns that the unsolvable ballot design problems, the return of the punch card voting systems, and the long list of candidates is likely to create havoc at the polls and there is little that state or local election officials can do to solve the problem.

"No businessperson in their right mind would sit down and decide in 80 days to open 1,800 locations and hire more than 10,000 people, but we expect California's election officials to pull it off without a hitch," he said.

Hall has a Ph.D. in political science and public policy from the University of Georgia. He served on the professional staff of the National Commission on Federal Election Reform, where he wrote an analysis of the administration of the 2001 Los Angeles mayoral election -- LA Story: The 2001 Mayoral Election -- that was published by The Century Foundation. He has written about voting and election administration for both academic and popular audiences. His book Point, Click, and Vote, with Michael Alvarez, is forthcoming from the Brookings Institution Press.

Hall is available for interviews, commentary, and backgrounders. He can be reached at 202-368-7784. For more information, contact Christy Hicks or Laurie Ahlrich at 212-452-7722 or 917-544-2949.

The Century Foundation is a research foundation that undertakes timely, critical, and analytical studies of major economic, political, and social institutions and issues. Nonprofit and nonpartisan, TCF was founded in 1919 and endowed by Edward A. Filene.