Preemption of Local Election Administration – White Paper by Richard Briffault
Since the perpetuation of the false narrative of fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election, conservative states have increasingly proposed and passed laws to weaken and manipulate our electoral processes with explicitly partisan intent. From making it more difficult to vote to increasing state oversight and ability to overturn election results, these laws threaten our system of fair and free elections and threaten our democracy.
Preemption is one of the main tools that these laws are using to erode fair and free elections at the local level. Generally, local election officials have the authority to set up the structure for fair and accessible elections–coordinating polling place locations, registering voters, and tabulating vote counts–but states have been usurping this authority.
As our rights and our democracy is under attack, all communities need access to fair and free elections. Local election officials need the discretion to structure elections that voters can access and that partisan state legislatures cannot manipulate after the fact.
As part of the Local Solutions Support Center’s ongoing efforts to help local leaders understand and deploy their authority to address their communities’ needs, we have published this white paper from Columbia Law Professor Richard Briffault outlining what local election administration involves and how preemption of this authority threatens democracy.