ELECTION ACCURACY The Sum of Many Choices: 12 steps officials can take to minimize errors and maximize confidence--with negligible partisan impact.

• Author: Underhill, Wendy
• Position: ELECTIONS AND REDISTRICTING

"Every aviator knows that if mechanics are inaccurate, aircraft crash," Charles Lindbergh said.

This might be a corollary: If elections are inaccurate, democracy crashes.

Fortunately, just as airplane mechanics have procedures and checklists, so do election officials. "We can't afford to fail on Election Day because we can't come back on Wednesday," says J.C. Love III, the probate judge and chief election official in Montgomery County, Ala.

Yet as any election official will acknowledge, elections can always be improved. Legislators can help by continuing to make policy and procedural choices that favor accuracy. The key word there is "choices," plural. Election accuracy is the outcome of many policies starting well before Election Day and running through vote certification, all aimed at minimizing errors and maximizing confidence, transparency and, well, accuracy.

Here are 12 common (though not universal) steps to take to maintain and increase election accuracy--with negligible partisan impact.

1 Ensure Precise Voter Assignment

Election officials assign new voters to precincts based on where they live. This assignment determines which districts voters are in (from congressional and legislative districts right down to the much smaller school board and special districts), and that determines which races voters see on their ballots. "(Voter assignment is) a thankless task, but it's got to be perfect," says Clay Helms, Alabama's state election director. "It's a problem when a state senator goes to the polls and can't vote for themselves because of an error in assignment."

Right after redistricting, when district boundaries change, voter assignment is harder than ever. Experts say that as many as 12% of voters may be assigned inaccurately, and occasionally those errors affect election results. Using geographic information systems can take some of the labor out of the process and increase accuracy. North Carolina, for example, conducts GIS "audits" of its voter rolls so counties can make fixes if needed.

2 Keep Voter Registration Lists Current

Current, clean voter rolls are the foundation of a strong election, and each state has a well-defined process for removing voter records from its registration database, in accordance with federal and state laws. States can check voter registration lists against other in-state data sources (prison records, death records, DMV records) and national sources (national change of address records, secure interstate...