Counties hitting home stretch for presidential general election

Key Takeaways

As the demands build up in the weeks approaching a presidential election, county election workers will take a break anywhere they can get it. 

They got one in Georgia, when, three weeks ahead of Election Day, a Fulton County judge invalidated a state Board of Elections rule that would have required poll workers to perform an additional hand count of ballots at the end of voting. It was a rule that Joseph Kirk, president of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials, thought was unnecessary.

Kirk, the elections supervisor in Bartow County, Ga., said there were already processes in place in his county and the other 159 counties in the state. 

“My staff uses a flashlight and just looks in the box to make sure they came out of there,” he said. “This [was] at best redundant and at worst [gave] very, very tired senior citizens a chance to make a mistake.”

Kirk noted that in Bartow County, poll workers make manual counts as ballots are cast.

“If there was an issue, we’d know about it immediately,” he said.

His 200 poll workers, already putting in 14-hour-days, will no longer have to extend their workdays. 

“We do audits of every single race I conduct. We go through every ballot cast, one at a time, in teams, confirming they were tabulated properly,” he said, noting that the Board of Elections’ rule ran contrary to the Legislature’s desire for fast reporting of results.

“We don’t have an operation to get the results back first, then close everything down; a few counties do, but not very many,” he said. 

Taking initiative 

Voters in several states will consider ballot measures that could affect county government operations, none perhaps as dramatically as in North Dakota. 

Measure 4 would eliminate property taxes except to pay for bond debts, radically restructuring the funding mechanism counties have relied upon for decades, to the tune of $1.3 billion annually. A similar measure failed in 2012. 

“We object to it, obviously,” said Aaron Birst, executive director of the North Dakota Association of Counties. “There’s no plan to replace the funding.”

Options, like adding state taxes, would still require the cooperation of the Legislature, a position no county would want, he added.

“It’s something that hasn’t been done anywhere,” Birst said. “You could put to the voters a sales tax increase, but sales tax doesn’t work well in rural communities where there’s no economic development.”

In New Mexico, an initiative could give county boards of commissioners the power to set the salaries for county officers, an authority that currently rests with the Legislature. 

Political candidates in Illinois could be subject to civil penalties if they attempt to interfere with an election worker’s official duties, if Advisory Question 1 passes.

In California, the Justice for Renters Act would keep the state from limiting local governments’ ability to impose rent control. 

Arizona voters could allow property owners to apply for tax refunds if their municipality fails to enforce existing regulations prohibiting illegal camping, loitering, panhandling or other public nuisances.

County veterans on the ballot

The second straight presidential race will include a candidate with county government experience. Vice President Kamala Harris (D) served as San Francisco County, Calif.’s district attorney from 2004-2011, after serving as an assistant district attorney there from 1998-200 and as an assistant district attorney in Alameda County, Calif. from 1990-1994.

Nine current or former county officials are running for statewide office as governor or U.S. senator this year.

Washington will see a head-to-head matchup in the governor’s race between King County veterans: State Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) and former U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert (R). Ferguson served on the King County Council from 2004-2013, including as chair of the Council from 2009-2013. Reichert, who served seven terms in the House, was a King County sheriff’s deputy from 1972-1997 before County Executive Ron Sims appointed him sheriff in 1997, where he served until 2005. 

Two incumbents are running for reelection — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R), who served as a Sanpete County commissioner from 2009-2013, and Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R), who started his career in county law enforcement as a Hickory County deputy from 1981-1983 before working as a criminal investigator for Polk County 1983-1993 until his election to Polk County sheriff from 1993-2004.

In Delaware, current New Castle County Executive Matthew Meyer (D) is running for the open governor’s office. 

Four former county officials are running for the U.S. Senate, two incumbents and two for open seats. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) served as Hennepin County attorney from 1999-2007 and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) served as a Dane County supervisor from 1987-1994. 

Maryland’s Senate race will include second-term Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D), who previously served as the county state’s attorney 2011-2019. 

In Indiana, Rep. Jim Banks (R) served on the Whitley County Council from 2008-2010.