On November 5, Richard Smolka died at the age of 81 at his home in Mesa, Arizona. He founded Election Administration Reports in 1971 and was editor for over 40 years. It continues to be published, every two weeks, and is a print publication, not on the internet.
He had been an elections observer and consultant for voting procedures in 25 countries, especially countries that were just starting to hold free elections. He was very helpful to me, and his newsletter’s long existence as a print publication was an inspiration for me to found Ballot Access News. He and I sat together in the press section of the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000, when the Court held oral arguments in California Democratic Party v Jones, a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court reversed all the lower court judges who had heard the case earlier, and ruled in favor of associational rights for political parties. Immediately after the hearing, Smolka correctly predicted that the Court would rule in favor of the political parties who had filed the case. He also predicted in mid-2000 that the upcoming presidential election would result in one presidential candidate winning an electoral college majority while placing second in the popular vote. He said that in a speech to a convention of election officials, and history proved that prediction right as well, even though such a thing hadn’t happened since 1888.