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Convincing the Elected to Reform Elections
By Damon Circosta
Published: Jul. 31, 2009
RALEIGH - Part of the work I do is to advocate for reforms that would improve our election system. It’s interesting work. Not only are questions of election law increasingly complex, but working with elected officials to change the rules that were in place when they got elected makes for an interesting dynamic.
A large component of lobbying is providing our part-time legislators with specific information on the thousands of different issue areas they are engaged in. No legislator can become an expert on every topic, so they rely on the advocates to get them up to speed. Folks who lobby on storm water regulation or health care enter the legislative building with detailed knowledge and expertise. Because most legislators aren’t storm-water engineers or health-policy analysts, the expertise that most lobbyists bring is welcomed with open arms.
This isn’t the case with election advocacy. Nearly every legislator comes to the building having been through at least one -- if not many -- elections. They are intimately familiar with the elective process and a common refrain that election advocates hear is “you might know a thing or two about election law, but you don’t know how it is out there in the real world.”
They have a point. Many of us who advocate for change have never worked a campaign, much less stood for election ourselves. Having worked campaigns from city council to the presidency as well as run for office myself, I am usually forced to bite my tongue.
Nevertheless, we need to be mindful that when it comes to election law, we have a tremendous resource in our elected officials. They will see, first hand, the practical application of any changes that are made. They might not automatically respect election expertise like they would the storm-water engineer, but having 170 experts on election law ensures that election policy is carefully vetted. It might sometimes slow down the process, but no one can say election reform is anything less than methodical.
There is no hoodwinking in election reform. It can be exhausting to negotiate the expertise that elected officials bring to election law. But in the end this process, as difficult as it may be for us in the reform community, means that any election reform we get through will be sound policy.