Federalism and Election Law: Implementation Issues in Rural America

Abstract:     
With the passage of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002, federal guidelines established the need for more coordination between states and local election administrators. We examine the implementation of HAVA in rural election districts, where a lack of resources increases the district’s cost of becoming compliant with the federal law. Using case studies of Maryland, New York, and Virginia, we analyze how centralization of state election authority can affect the equality of resources between rural and urban districts. We find that the centralization of election administration alone cannot account for the experience of rural districts implementing HAVA. These findings have important implications for future research and policymaking in the area of election reform.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 35

working papers series