Taking the Politics Out of Elections

California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley's resignation was depressing. By the time he made his announcement on Friday, multiple criminal and legislative investigations were underway, looking into charges that he rewarded the son of a campaign supporter with a job, that he spent federal money (earmarked to help California run its elections) for partisan political purposes and that he created a hostile work environment.

But Shelley's departure may also offer an unexpected opportunity, if Californians have the good sense to take it -- a chance to diminish the role of partisanship in our election system and to make the system better, stronger and fairer.

Under the law, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is entitled to appoint someone to fill the rest of Shelley's term, subject to the normal confirmation process in the Democrat-controlled Legislature. Schwarzenegger naturally would like to give this plum job -- which includes overseeing state elections, special elections and ballot measures and certifying presidential election results -- to a fellow Republican. (Shelley is a Democrat.) That would give the GOP a leg up on campaign-related decisions as election season approaches and would give the party an acting secretary of state who could run for the office again as an incumbent in 2006. Democrats have tried to pressure Schwarzenegger not to make a partisan appointment -- and Republicans have, in turn, accused them of playing politics.

But neither side, frankly, is in the right. A better path for the governor and the Legislature would be to take politics out of California's election administration entirely. After all, it is a peculiar American phenomenon that the chief elections officer in many states is chosen through a partisan election.

Such partisanship raises, at the very least, the appearance of a conflict of interest. Think of the controversies surrounding Katharine Harris, the Republican secretary of state who also was George W. Bush's Florida co-chair during the 2000 presidential election debacle. This past election season, there were also controversies over discretionary decisions made by secretaries of state and other partisan election officials in Missouri, Ohio and New Mexico -- all battleground states whose votes were crucial in determining the outcome of the presidential race.