What Happens to Election Returns and Records a fter the Contest Is Over?

1. What Happens to Election Returns and Records after the Contest Is Over? Melissa Marschall Associate Professor, Political Science Rice University

2. Overview • Focus on local governments • & elections—Why? • What is the ‘stuff’ of elections? • Election • Candidacy, campaign, & campaign finance • Voter registration • Record retention, management & dissemination • Who decides what to keep, how long to keep it and how to archive? • Access and “archiveness” of election stuff? • Local Elections in America Project (LEAP)

3. 1 Why Focus on Local Governments and Elections? • Nearly all elections in America are for Local rather than state or federal offices. • 99.9% of all Governments in the US are local • More than ½ million public officials hold local elective offices • Election administration is done by Local governments

4. 1 Number of Local Governments by Type, 1952-2007 Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2002, 2007).

5. Number of local govts per county 100-523 30-44 45-99 15-29

6. 1 Distribution of Local Officials by Govt Type & Office, 1992 Source: U.S. Census Bureau (1995).

7. 1 Election Administration by Local Governments • Administration of elections more decentralized in the US than any other country. • Counties & municipalities mainly responsible for the conduct of elections. • Oversee voter registration, design ballots, purchase voting machines, train polling officials. • Secretary of state is technically responsible for elections in most states • Little or no budget for elections • Little power over election administration • Help America Vote Actor HAVA (2002) —1st federal law to govern the administration of elections.

8. 2 A Sample of the “Stuff” of Elections

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11. 3 Record Retention & Management • Most states have Record Retention Schedules • State statutes also provide guidelines • Discretion at local level • Considerable variation across states

12. 3 What gets retained & for how long by Local governments?

13. 3 How to decide what gets retained and for how long? • Administrative value • Helps the office perform essential functions now or in the future. Custodian should ask, “At what point in time will this record cease to be of potential administrative value? Is this administrative value found in any other records which will be retained?” • Legal value • It documents a legal right or obligation of a citizen, of the office or of the municipality. Official should ask, “At what point in time will this record, or records series, cease to document any enforceable legal rights? Are these rights documented by any other records which will be retained?” • Fiscal Value • It uniquely documents or verifies spending or receipt of public monies. Official should ask, “At what point in time will this record, or records series, no longer be needed to document the transfer or payment or encumbrance or other action pertaining to the sending or receipt of public monies? Is that information documented in another record which may be more appropriate to keep?” • Historical Value • The application of this value is fundamentally a search in the records series for possible cultural values to posterity. Does the records series provide valuable information on persons, events, or subjects? Does the series provide valuable information on the key operations of a significant municipal office?

14. 3 Examples of Election Ephemera Archives • UCLA Online Campaign Literature Archive—A Century of Los Angeles Elections • http://digital.library.ucla.edu/campaign/ • Get out the Vote—Campaigning for the US Presidency Exhibition • http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/vote/index.html • Finding aid for the presidential campaign ephemera (USC Archival Collection • http://www.usc.edu/libraries/finding_aids/records/finding_aid.php?fa=0107 • This small collection consists primarily of fliers, buttons, posters, clippings, and other ephemeral materials from numerous presidential campaigns.

15. 3 Archiving & Dissemination of Election Returns • Most comprehensive & centralized: Louisiana • http://www.sos.la.gov/ • State of the art, but uneven by county: Florida • http://election.dos.state.fl.us/ • http://election.dos.state.fl.us/SOE/countyInfo.asp?county=BAY • http://election.dos.state.fl.us/SOE/countyInfo.asp?county=GIL • Majority states completely decentralized with no state standards of reporting

16. 4 Local Elections in America Project (LEAP) • NSF CyberinfrastructureCF21 Venture Fund, SES, and Rice’s K2I ERIT program(Marschall & Shah, Co-PIs) • Developing a path-breaking solution to the problem of collecting, digitizing and disseminating data on local elections • A DATABASEthat: • Collects past, current and future data on Local elections • Provides connectivity to other data using fips codes • Includes a web-based user interface • Allows searching, reporting, GIS capabilities, online forms

17. 4 Evolved Sampling Frame and Strategy

18. Original Sample 877 out of 1,241 (71%) • All cities ≥ 25,000 population • Total cities 5,400 (minimum) out of 19,317 • For a few states, we have all places in the state. • For some counties, we have all places in the county. • County, State, School Board and Federal Elections data for many places • Significant variation in time-frame (1920s to present) 4 Coverage (40 States to Date)

19. Conclusions & Implications • Elections are complex, frequent, expensive • Each one produces MANY records and documents • Record retention, management & dissemination have improved (with help from HAVA) but still have a long way to go. • Comparability across places & time (within and across states) • Access and usability of data (format, documentation) • Implications of LEAP: • Raises questions about authenticity • Provides a model of how to archive records more efficiently, effectively • Significantly improve access and use by researchers, educators, & practitioners