Maryland professor observes elections up close

The election administration in his Maryland district on the Japanese Shore has been “extraordinarily effectively carried out,” particularly within the context of the European elections he’s seen.

“I can evaluate this with my abroad expertise in each very democratic states and really undemocratic states,” mentioned Becker, an adjunct professor of political science at Salisbury College, who has labored as a Wicomico County election decide since 2014.

He calls the method in Germany “the perfect I’ve seen anyplace,” noting the nation’s automated voter registration system, their use of paper ballots, and the counting performed by laptop.

“Maryland has a reasonably comparable system,” mentioned Becker, including that the one distinction is the German voter registration system is extra superior in preserving the pc information.

The previous State Division official noticed Germany’s 1990 election after the autumn of the Berlin Wall and monitored the method once more within the early 2000s when Angela Merkel was elected Germany’s chancellor.

Becker’s main election expertise over the previous decade, although, has been nearer to Berlin, Maryland than Berlin, Germany. He mentioned what he’s seen regionally serving because the chief election decide in Wicomico County’s Eden are strong procedures carried out by skilled election employees.

Election employees are educated, procedures are effectively defined, and the tools is delivered on time, Becker mentioned. “We will lay out the election polling place in beneath an hour.”

“In Maryland, we at all times have employees on website, we at all times have two or three folks, we at all times have representatives of each political events in order that there’s a verify and steadiness,” he mentioned. “That’s not the case in Belarus.”

As a part of his work with OSCE, Becker mentioned he witnessed poll stuffing within the Japanese European nation, which shares borders with each Russia and Ukraine. Extra votes have been added to clear poll containers, in all probability throughout the lunch hour, mentioned Becker, the OSCE-trained election observer. Belarus has solely had one president in its almost 28-year historical past.

“There have been alternatives for presidency officers to control the poll (in Belarus),” the Salisbury professor mentioned. “Not the case anymore in Ukraine (…) not the case in First District of Maryland, the place I’ve labored.”

Becker noticed each the primary and second rounds within the 2019 election of Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who’s now combating to repel a Russian invasion.

Previous to Ukrainian independence from Russia in 1991, Becker mentioned the nation didn’t have expertise without cost elections, and it takes time for ballot employees to study.

Earlier than the 2019 election of Zelenskyy, he noticed elections within the Ukrainian port metropolis of Odesa earlier within the decade. The newest election was an enchancment from what he’d seen beforehand.

“I might see a gradual development,” mentioned Becker, “the place the ballot employees have been higher, the information have been higher, accounting methods have been higher.”

He observed just one or two weak spots in Ukraine’s elections, the place the switch of ballots from native precincts to regional precincts just isn’t as effectively managed as it’s in the USA.

The final election he labored was not abroad, nevertheless. It was in Wicomico County in 2020.

“The election officers on this district the place I work, Wicomico County, are hardworking, devoted, environment friendly, and efficient,” he mentioned.

Wicomico County’s Election Director Dionne Church mentioned the work of election judges is important, and functions for judges are accepted year-round.