Pollster Rob Griffin called for more standardization of the election process at the local level on Monday, saying that continued missteps could lead voters to lose trust in the electoral process.
“It’s probably important that we start to decouple how elections are run from local governments,” Griffin, research director at the Public Religion Research Institute, told Hill.TV’s Joe Concha on “What America’s Thinking.” “There just has to be some more standardization.”
“Things like ballot design, this is so boring, and yet…look what kind of effect it has,” he continued. “So if there are best practices out there, that’s something we really need to circle in on.”
“Here’s what happens every election when we have something like this. What you are destroying at base is people’s faith in the electoral system. That is happening across the electoral spectrum,” he said.
“Every single time that we have some huge fight over recounts or over ballot design anything like that, it’s important that people feel confident in what they’re doing at the ballot box is actually being counted, and that their voices are being heard,” he said.
Griffin’s comments come as the controversy over the electoral process unfolds in Florida’s Senate race.
GOP Senate candidate and Gov. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) has alleged voting fraud in Broward and Palm Beach counties, saying election officials acted improperly during vote counts.
Scott filed a pair of emergency injunctions on Sunday requesting that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and county sheriffs impound ballots and voting machines in the county when they’re not in use.
A Broward County circuit judge denied the injunctions on Monday.
— Julia Manchester
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