Episode 25 - with Election Supervisor Leslie Swann

Locally Grown with Jim Fini

Those of you who have been listening to me for a while, know that I am a big proponent of de-centralized power. My book, Locally Grown: The Art of Sustainable Government, is all about that. The Constitution enshrines this decentralized power model by giving most power to the states and the people, though we have strayed frighteningly far from that model now. One of those important state powers is to make and enforce election laws. The result is a hodgepodge of different rules that can vary widely across states. Some states require government-issued ID to vote while others view ID as racist or discriminatory. It's hard to believe there is such wide disagreement on something like this. Some states, like Georgia, have runoff elections if no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, a situation we just witnessed a few weeks ago. A run off election on Jan 5 will decide two Senate seats and thus the balance of power for the country. Like free speech, non-uniform voting rules are not always pretty but the last thing we should be doing is trying to federally regulate any more of our key liberties. Still, some state voting rules are better than others if transparency and integrity of elections is the goal. Today my guests are Leslie Swann, the Supervisor of Elections for Indian River County Florida and her assistant Shane Bias. It's clear to me after this discussion that our processes are best practice should be a model for other states and counties.