Make Elections Great Again: Reclaiming Local Control of Voter Data

It’s a question that deserves a straight answer: why do we need legislation to verify and merge duplicate voter records? We are drowning in legislation already. The idea that we need more laws just to carry out basic election data roll administrative tasks reveals how far we’ve drifted from practical governance.

Once upon a time—not that long ago—there was a standard process for maintaining accurate voter rolls. Our local election offices generate regular reports of potential duplicate voters, typically monthly. These reports were examined carefully, and staff would compare entries, verify the information, and merge records that were confirmed to be duplicates. It was a simple, routine task—one of the many behind-the-scenes efforts that kept our elections fair, functional, and trustworthy.

But something has changed.

Today, the process of managing voter data has become confusing and opaque. Local election officials often have no idea where the data they receive originates. They don’t know who’s touched it, cleaned it, or manipulated it—because they’re no longer in control of it. That responsibility now lies with the State Board of Elections (SBE), which simply feeds information to the local boards. This centralization might seem efficient on paper, but in practice, it creates a disconnect between the people maintaining the rolls and the communities those rolls serve.

Centralized voter registration systems may sound modern and convenient, but they’re ripe for abuse. When you remove local accountability, you create the perfect conditions for mistakes, incompetence—and yes, even fraud—to thrive. Who’s checking? Who’s double-checking? When no one close to the ground is responsible, no one is held accountable.

We need to reverse this trend.

Local boards of elections must regain control over their voter rolls. They know their communities. They are in the best position to identify errors and clean up the data. Restoring their responsibility is the only way to ensure our voter registration systems are accurate, transparent, and defensible.

Unfortunately, the current state of our election system reflects this lack of accountability. It’s not unlike the boarded-up neighborhoods of downtown Baltimore—neglected, decaying, and overrun with problems that no one seems to be fixing. Trash in the streets, drugs in the alleys, and a sense of chaos that leaves ordinary citizens wondering, “Who’s running the show?”

The American election system shouldn’t resemble a failed city. But in many ways, that’s exactly what’s happening. We’ve let bureaucracy and politics overrun what used to be a commonsense process. And instead of empowering those closest to the problem to solve it, we keep piling on new rules and laws, making the system even harder to fix.

It’s time to Make Elections Great Again. Not by passing more laws, but by returning power—and responsibility—back to the local level where it belongs.