Due to the decentralized nature of the US political system, the United States does not know of a central body that oversees the conduct of the electoral process across the country, as each state oversees the organization and financing of the electoral process in it, and the local constituencies in the state counties organize the election process and vote controls and determine its various stages and dates. Each of the 50 states and Washington, DC, hold elections under various administrative and logistical procedures.
The founding fathers of the United States designed to organize the election process in this local way, so that federal office holders would not be allowed to change election rules to keep themselves in power.
The role of states and their foreign ministers
In each state, its foreign minister undertakes several tasks, the most important of which is supervising elections and organizing the state’s relationship with other states. With the passage of time, the tasks multiplied and varied from state to state, as the minister became chiefly responsible for the elections, state voting procedures, and other tasks.
State secretaries of state seek to ensure early on that voters will be aware of deadlines for registering themselves in election schedules, polling dates, and other election day information.
However, the most important thing that election officials do in the various states is related to the process of making sure that everyone eligible to vote is on the registration lists.
Financially, these elections cost some constituencies millions of dollars. The states bear the burden of financing the elections and receive little support from the central government.
The states differ in the degree to which they facilitate the conduct of elections, especially with regard to exercising the right to vote for minorities and those who have recently acquired US citizenship.
The state of California, for example, provides ballot papers in several languages, including Arabic, in addition to other languages such as Armenian, Korean, Persian, Spanish, Syriac and Tagalog.
Under a law passed by Congress in 1975 to amend legislation to exercise the right to vote, the competent authorities must provide language assistance if there are more than 10,000 citizens or 5% of the citizens of voting age who belong to a minority who speak one language and do not speak English well.
Given the local nature of the electoral process, there are thousands of electoral administrators and staff responsible for organizing and managing the elections, including counting, counting and validating results.
These employees also certify the eligibility of candidates, register voters' lists, choose voting devices, design ballot papers, and organize and employ a large temporary workforce to contribute to the management of the voting process.
The impact of the spread of Corona and the
states are anticipating the application of health precautions to face fears of the transmission of Corona virus infection among voters, as they conducted many primaries, as an experiment, and provided many lessons that will be applied next November.
Some states are considering mailing ballot papers, and election officials are purchasing supplies, including millions of packages. The state of Oregon has completely relied on mail-in ballots since November 2000.
In order to grant freedom to vote for the largest possible number of voters, the electoral system proposed several alternatives to facilitate the voting process, including absentee voting (which is for the voter to submit a formal request to provide him with an absentee ballot card, which will be sent to him to fill it out and send it to the Electoral Council of his area of residence via Mail or others as permitted by state laws).
But if postal ballot papers become widely used, as expected due to Corona, the counting and sorting processes will be much slower than normal ballots.
The role of the federal government
The "Electoral Assistance Committee" and the "Federal Elections Commission" carry out tasks related to some organized procedures, assistance in conducting election campaigns and the voting process itself.
The Ministry of Justice manages and implements some basic election laws, so that they are not violated by the states. The Department of Homeland Security also plays a role in protecting the electoral process from any external cyber attacks, supported by many other security agencies.
Federal roles include activities such as:
- Provides Census Bureau data for the states to facilitate redistricting.
- Since 2002, some funding has been provided to states to upgrade the equipment and devices used in voting operations.
- Facilitate the voluntary exchange of information and best practices between states.
- Organizing campaign financing in the presidential elections.
- Prohibition of discrimination between voters on the basis of color, race, or language in elections.
- Assist states in countering any threats beyond their own capabilities.
Foreign observation
Hundreds and sometimes thousands of foreign observers participate in monitoring the US elections, and representatives of several international organizations, such as the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and many non-governmental organizations, have been monitoring elections at polling stations since 2004.