Doug Chapin has a blog as part of the Program for Excellence in Election Administration.  Given Doug’s knowledge of the field, I think this has to be an addition to the daily RSS feed.

In a recent posting, Chapin blogged about the challenging 2012 presidential primary calendar, and how constant shifting deadlines (and rosters of candidates) create administrative and budgetary challenges for administrators.

I’ll add a little spice to the mix: early voting makes the question of “when exactly is election day again” even more complicated.  With the Federal Voting Assistance Program taking a muscular role in making sure that the MOVE Act is  being fully implemented, Bob Carey is sure to pay close attention to presidential primary ballots.

“Election Day” starts 45 days before the first announced primary.  If, as is being proposed, Florida moves its primary to January 31st, then the first presidential primary ballots will be mailed out on December 17th, and obviously prepared earlier than that.

The number of UOCAVA voters in NH is tiny–4221 in the 2008 EAVS.  But Florida reported 121,395 UOCAVA ballots transmitted in 2008 (largest in the nation).  When *exactly* is Election Day, again, Doug asks?  I have an answer: right around January 1st, 2012, when the first UOCAVA ballots are likely to start to arrive.

Crossposted to earlyvoting.net