I'm not sure who exactly is in charge of elections in this country.

[kacekwl]

Secretary of States, governor's, is there an election committee ? Why after over 200 plus years of elections do the same issues the same problems the same "irregularities" continue ? After getting screwed by voting machines, missing ballots, closed polling stations, electoral college shitshow, corrupt judges, voter intimidation and on and on. Does the Democratic Party plan on ever addressing the issue. Hopefully legal cases have been filed, plans to expand voting rights and hours/days are taking place that I don't know about. After 2016 and the latest fiasco in GA. the writing is still on the wall. Hopefully the Democratic voters will finally turn out in mass.

[montanacowboy]

1. Start by blaming CJ Roberts

the republican voter's best friend

Voting Rights Act? We don't need no stinkin Voting Rights Act

[SBoy]

2. The Secretaries of State for each State are in charge of their States' elections

When the Roberts Court dismantled the Voting Rights Act in 2014, it gave Republicans the green light to make voting as difficult as they want them to be. Republicans have said it out loud for over 40 years now, “when voting is easy and voters turnout, we lose.” Trump himself has made the very same point. There are watchdog groups and a myriad of lawsuits across the Country, but until Congress reinstates the Voting Rights Act with the teeth needed, Repugs will make voting as difficult as it possibly can be.

[Igel]

5. Partially.

Take where I live.

There's a Harris County elections board. You want an absentee ballot? You apply to the Harris County board, not a state agency. The state doesn't think you have a valid reason? Harris County makes that decision.

Harris County recruits and trains poll workers. It pays them. It decides where polling places will be and their hours. It decides how many machines will be located there. If there's a problem, it dispatches technicians to troubleshoot.

Harris County gets the list of state candidates from the state, but also from Houston. Same for bond measure information. It assembles the ballot, formats it, and pretty much makes all the decisions. The state has requirements to be met, but there's a lot of discretion from local authorities so the Harris County ballot will, naturally, be different from the Fort Bend County ballot (even though Houston is partly in Harris, partly in Fort Bend).

Is this kind of discretion universal? Probably not.

But it was true in Oregon and in Delaware, New York State and in California--states I've lived in. From what I've read about Georgia in the last few months and Florida in 2000, it's true there, as well.

Some constraints are top-down. So if there's voter ID requirements, that's state. How rigorously to enforce it is local.

So take Atlanta. The absentee-ballot mess is entirely local. That's where applications were made. People's names were lost? Go to the appropriate county, that's where the blame has to be, because the state-level folk simply weren't involved. Poorly trained workers? Sure, the state provides training--to the people, at the time and locations that the local county BOE arranges for. Not enough workers? They weren't trained long enough? They didn't show up for training? Local BOE's accountable for that. Most jurisdictions had few to no serious difficulties. That's also a clue--if the state effs everything up but only some places are screwed, you have to wonder about the BOEs in those places.

The state in Georgia probably could have decided to send out absentee ballots to everybody. But that's not how things usually run. Bailing out the incompetent or inept local BOEs would have been a good thing, but let's not make not doing a bonus mitzvah into some sort of original sin. If the BOE wants a keeper, it means the keeper needs to make sure his/her charges are kept--not something most actually would agree to.

[SoonerPride]

3. Voting Rights Act destruction thanks to SCOTUS

This was predicted and expected.

[kacekwl]

4. Can a new

Voting rights act be introduced ?

[stillcool]

6. States run their own elections..

as they see fit...and people elect those that run their elections. Lots of information here, on each state, what equipment they use, latest news etc.
https://www.verifiedvoting.org/

https://thevotingnews.com/news/