Our friends at the Election Reformers Network published an important op-ed this morning which lays out a set of best practices for rebuilding America's faith in democracy. Key among them: eliminating partisanship at the state election administration level, and asking Secretaries of State to take seriously their responsibility to call balls and strikes:
For this year's very precarious election, and in the context of such levels of distrust, we need our secretaries of state to overcome the flaws of their position and proactively demonstrate a commitment to impartiality — acting as umpires, not players — as many already are doing. Longer-term, we should fix the problem of partisanship in election administration, just as anti-gerrymandering reforms are making some inroads into partisanship in redistricting.
We could not agree more with this utterly non-partisan and fundamental principle of democracy.