The Voting News

Appeals court upholds key voting rights provision | Associated Press

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 19:41:02 +0000

A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, rejecting an Alabama county’s challenge to the landmark civil rights law. The provision requires state, county and local governments with a history of discrimination to obtain advance approval from the Justice Department, or from a federal court in Washington, for any changes to election procedures. It now applies to all or parts of 16 states. In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said that Congress developed extensive evidence of continuing racial discrimination just six years ago and reached a reasonable conclusion when it reauthorized section 5 of the law at that time. The appellate ruling could clear the way for the case to be appealed to the Supreme Court where Chief Justice John Roberts suggested in a 2009 opinion that the court’s conservative majority might be receptive to a challenge to section 5.

Judge David Tatel wrote for the Court of Appeals majority that the court owes deference to Congress’ judgment on the matter.
“Congress documented hundreds of instances in which the attorney general, acting pursuant to section 5, objected to proposed voting changes that he found would have a discriminatory purpose or effect,” Tatel wrote. Tatel said that in reauthorizing the law in 2006, Congress found serious and widespread intentional discrimination. The attorney general blocked discriminatory voting changes on 626 occasions, while state and local units of government withdrew over 800 proposed voting changes in response to Justice Department inquiries, Tatel said in summarizing the evidence Congress compiled.

Full Article: The Associated Press: Appeals court upholds key voting rights provision.

Can Montana brief end Citizens United? | Politico.com

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 19:37:59 +0000

Montana’s attorney general is due to file a brief Friday in the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to uphold the state’s Corrupt Practices Act. This 1906 law prohibits corporations from making expenditures on behalf of candidates in Montana elections. The Supreme Court’s response could have repercussions far beyond Montana — the case may well determine how much states can regulate money in politics after Citizens United. The state high court cited Montana’s long history of corruption, when corporations often spent unlimited sums to steal elections, as the reason to narrow Citizens United and uphold the law. The Supreme Court should heed the Montana attorney general’s argument. More important, this case could offer the high court a viable means to revisit its Citizens United decision. This 2010 ruling, extended by lower federal courts, has spawned the super PACs now threatening to bring Wild West corruption to federal elections.

Months away from November, numerous corporations have each donated more than $1 million to super PACs dedicated to electing specific candidates. They’re not doing it for altruistic reasons. Super PACs that receive — and spend — unlimited donations from parties seeking specific government actions threaten to bring about a new Gilded Age.

Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, for example, pledged to spend up to $100 million to determine who controls federal agencies now pursuing three investigations against his company. Harold Simmons, who stands to reap extraordinary profits if nuclear waste rules are relaxed, has given super PACs $16 million — including at least $700,000 to the super PAC functioning as an arm of Mitt Romney’s campaign. Those now challenging the Montana law say it cannot be reconciled with Citizens United. They’ve asked the court to take the extraordinary step of throwing out the Montana law without even allowing briefing and oral argument.

Full Article: Can Montana brief end Citizens United? – POLITICO.com….

Voter fraud hard to prove; fears spark legislation | WRAL.com

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 19:33:59 +0000

It sounds like a simple enough idea: take the list of people who have been excused from jury duty because they were listed as “non-citizens” and compare those names to the voter rolls. The matches could be non-U.S. citizens registered to vote in our elections. That was the method conservative provocateur James O’Keefe used in a video that went viral this week when he claimed to find non-U.S. citizens registered to vote in North Carolina. A local group called the Voter Integrity Project of North Carolina also used it to identify 553 registered Wake County voters who could be non-citizens. Those reports have added fuel to a contentious debate over whether North Carolina should require voters to show ID when they go to vote. Currently, poll workers are only allowed to ask a voter to state their name and address in most situations. But there is a problem with the method that provided the foundation of those reports. Comparing juror and voter information leads mostly to false or misleading matches. When WRAL News conducted a similar analysis earlier this year, every potentially fraudulent voter identified was a U.S. citizen.

The liberal group Think Progress has reported that the two non-citizens targeted in the O’Keefe video are actually naturalized U.S. citizens. Election officials have debunked another part of his report that purported to show a dead person voting. That is not to say there aren’t problems in the voting system. In 2011, the North Carolina State Board of Elections identified 12 non-citizens who had improperly voted in a North Carolina election. That’s 12 out of 6.3 million registered voters.

As the General Assembly returned to Raleigh this week, they are once again weighing calls for better ballot security against the possibility that voter ID measures could disenfranchise some voters.

Full Article: Voter fraud hard to prove; fears spark legislation :: WRAL.com….

Lawsuit filed in West Virginia ballot stuffing case | Charleston Daily Mail

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:00:07 +0000

A candidate on the losing end of a ballot-stuffing scheme in Lincoln County is now suing a half dozen current and former county officials in federal court for $57,000, plus unspecific punitive damages. The lawsuit also sheds new light on Lincoln County’s 2010 Democratic primary, which is the subject of an ongoing federal investigation. Former county commission candidate Phoebe Harless said the officials – including all three sitting county commissioners – and a former felon deprived her of her civil rights by stacking the deck against her candidacy. Nitro attorney Harvey Peyton filed the lawsuit late last week in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. It names the commissioners, the commission’s secretary, the former sheriff, the former county clerk, a government insurance risk pool and Wandell “Rocky” Adkins.

In 2006, Adkins was sentenced to four months in a federal halfway house for his involvement in another scheme in the 2004 Democratic primary. That time around, Adkins helped buy votes. Harless alleges Adkins was involved in the 2010 effort to rig the election. Adkins could not be reached for comment Thursday evening.

The lawsuit said Adkins, Sheriff Jerry Bowman, County Clerk Donald Whitten and County Commissioner Thomas Ramey all visited the homes of a select group of Lincoln County voters to have them sign up for absentee ballots even though they weren’t eligible. It turns out the absentee ballots resulted in what federal prosecutors have called a ballot-stuffing scheme and that the vast majority of those votes benefited one political faction.

Full Article: Lawsuit filed in ballot stuffing – News – Charleston Daily Mail – West Virginia News and Sports -.

Longest election in Hamilton County OH history finally decided | Cincinnati.com

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:45:35 +0000

Tracie Hunter is a week or so away from becoming Hamilton County’s newest juvenile court judge after a recount Thursday confirmed she won the 2010 election. The final count put Hunter, a Democrat, 74 votes ahead of Republican John Williams in an election that is believed to be the longest in county history. Hunter trailed Williams by 23 votes after the election on Nov. 2, 2010, but a court order to count about 300 contested provisional ballots gave her the victory. “It has been a long struggle,” said Hunter’s lawyer, Jennifer Branch. “But it was worth the effort because we Americans believe every vote should count.”

The long fight over the outcome of the race became an early battle between Democrats and Republicans in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election, as both sides fought to shape voting rules and policies. Democrats favored counting the provisional ballots, arguing they should not have been set aside when voters went to the correct polling places but cast ballots at the wrong precinct tables. They said those ballots should be counted because poll workers mistakenly directed voters to the wrong tables. Republicans said Ohio law bars counting ballots cast in the wrong place and the votes should be rejected.

Full Article: Longest election in county history finally decided | Cincinnati.com… | cincinnati.com….

Omaha precinct changes called ‘disaster’ | Omaha.com

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:30:39 +0000

Douglas County Election Commissioner Dave Phipps still has a lot of work to do to satisfy north Omaha leaders. He plans to solicit feedback about voting in the primary and draw new precinct maps before the November general election. Phipps said that he heard a normal amount of voter complaints compared with past elections and that people often are confused when polling places change. Black leaders in north Omaha had a different reaction. “This was a disaster,” City Councilman Ben Gray said of Tuesday’s primary election. Gray and others on Thursday called for Phipps’ countywide consolidation of polling places to be rolled back in northeast Omaha. They said some voters decided not to vote because of the confusion about polling places.

Phipps announced in March the closing of nearly half the polling places in the county, which he said would save about $115,000 in most elections. The plan provoked protests from several people, who said it would prevent the poor and elderly from voting. Gov. Dave Heineman, who appointed Phipps in 2005, said last month that some polling places would reopen before the general election. Phipps said he hopes to have a new precinct map ready by July.

The group of north Omaha leaders said they plan to keep working for easier access to voting, citing the 1960s-era struggle for civil and voting rights. “We’re expecting change, and we’re demanding change,” said the Rev. Cedric Perkins of Pilgrim Baptist Church.

Full Article: Precinct changes called ‘disaster’ – Omaha.com….

Disabled California Voters Asked to Assess Polling Place Accessibility | KCET

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:15:19 +0000

From now until June 29, disabled voters in California will have the opportunity, by filling out a first-of-its-kind online survey, to weigh in on whether and how well county elections officials are providing for them at the polls. Results from the survey, which was created by the Secretary of State’s office, are supposed to help determine whether elections staff need more training and whether there is a need for modified services or enhanced outreach programs for voters with disabilities.

“While California elections officials offer many resources to voters with disabilities, I want to know if these voters are aware of all the options and services available to them, as well as whether they are encountering unnecessary challenges when voting,” Secretary of State Debra Bowen said in a statement released Wednesday. You can take the survey here.

Full Article: Disabled Voters Asked to Assess Polling Place Accessibility | Voting | Ballot Brief | KCET.

Algeria elections look good abroad, bad at home | Associated Press

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:00:06 +0000

Algeria overturned the Arab Spring’s revolutionary narrative with elections that bolstered the longtime ruling party and dashed Islamists’ hopes of gaining power. The vote did something else, too: It burnished Algeria’s democratic image with Western allies who rely on it to fight terrorism and supply natural gas. Few people turned out to vote in last week’s elections, and the result did little to boost Algerian rulers’ legitimacy at home. But analysts say Algeria needed to hold elections to show it was at least somewhat democratic in the midst of a region-wide push for greater freedoms. ”Algeria has satisfactory relations with Washington and Paris,” said Hugh Roberts, an expert on the country at Boston’s Tufts University. “It needs to do well enough (with reform) not to embarrass its Western partners, and that’s what it’s done.”

In contrast to the uprisings and game-changing elections that have taken place elsewhere in North Africa over the past year, the political system in Algeria has been remarkably stable, if not stagnant. The regularly scheduled parliamentary elections produced a win for the ruling party, the National Liberation Front that won independence from the French in 1962, giving it the most seats since Algeria began experimenting with multiparty politics in 1990.

The results have prompted outraged cries of fraud from opposition groups across the Algerian political spectrum, including Islamists parties, which did uniformly poorly. And that further lowers popular confidence in a political system wracked by apathy.

Full Article: The Associated Press: Algeria elections look good abroad, bad at home.

Fraud accusations mount for voter registration company in Sacramento County | The Sacramento Bee

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:43:54 +0000

A woman suspected of voter registration fraud in Sacramento County has been the subject of complaints in other campaigns as well. The registrar of voters in El Dorado County sent a warning to Monica Harris last year after problems with registrations collected at Folsom Lake College. During a signature drive in Sacramento last year – which was ultimately thrown out because of an unusually high number of rejected signatures – members of the Sacramento Central Labor Council also lodged complaints against Harris. Sacramento County Registrar of Voters Jill LaVine recently announced that she had turned over thousands of suspect registration cards turned in by Harris’ company to the California secretary of state’s office. In some cases, LaVine has received complaints from people who unknowingly had their party registration switched to Republican.

Assemblyman Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, said he plans to introduce legislation today that would ban the payment system he thinks is responsible for registration fraud. Pan, along with voter registrars statewide, has criticized the process of paying people for each registration card they submit for a specific party – a practice often called the “bounty system.” The Republican Party of Sacramento County paid Harris’ company $5 for each person who joined the party.

Full Article: Fraud accusations mount for voter registration company in Sacramento County – Elections – The Sacramento Bee.

Angolan election commission head removed | News24

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:32:02 +0000

An Angolan court on Thursday reversed the appointment of the election commission head, linked to the ruling party, because she did not qualify for the post, opposition parties said. The parties had petitioned the court on Suzana Ingles’ appointment as head of the National Electoral Commission (CNE). ”The Supreme Court found that our complaint was justified and that the nomination of Suzana Inglese was illegal,” main opposition Unita MP Clarisse Kaputu told AFP. ”In fact Ms Ingles is not a judge while it’s one of the conditions as required by law to take over leadership of the CNE,” she said.

Unita launched the complaint together with the Party for Social Renovation (PRS) when Ingles, a lawyer, was appointed CNE chairperson in January ahead of new elections in September. She is seen to be close to Jose Dos Santos, Africa’s longest-ruling leader at 33 years in power.

Full Article: Angolan election commission head removed | News24.

Still No Answers in Texas Voter ID Case | Texas Weekly

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:15:34 +0000

Whether or not the state’s voter ID bill will be in place for the November general election is still a mystery. That’s because the U.S. Department of Justice — which is being sued by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office after it declined to approve the measure — is accusing the state of stalling the delivery of key data the federal government says is necessary for the trial. Late last month, DOJ asked the district court in Washington D.C. that will hear the care to postpone the trial, which is scheduled to commence July 9. The feds have argued that Abbott’s office is reluctant to turn over information because it knows it will hurt its case. Abbott has argued that the request is nothing more than political theater.

“They initially requested a later trial date, knowing full well that such a late trial would foreclose any possibility of Texas implementing SB 14 in time for this year’s general election,” the AG’s response reads. “Having lost the initial battle in this Court over the trial date, their fallback strategy is transparent: bombard the State with massive discovery requests.” In an order dated May 1, the court did not sound too receptive to the Obama administration’s request. “At this juncture, the Court is disinclined to grant the motions and is committed, if at all possible, to decide this case in time for the law, if pre-cleared, to be effective for the November 2012 elections,” the court wrote.

Full Article: Still No Answers in Voter ID Case | Texas Weekly | Vol: 29 Issue: 18.

House Democrats push to make voting easier | TheHill.com

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:13:39 +0000

House Democratic leaders on Thursday introduced legislation to streamline Americans’ trips to the polls. The bill is a response to a slew of recent state legislation – some proposed, some already law – setting stricter standards for voters to register or cast a ballot. Supporters of those state efforts — including new picture ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements – say they’re necessary to weed out ineligible voters and maintain the integrity of elections. But critics contend they’re designed to suppress eligible voters, particularly minorities and low-income Americans who tend to vote Democratic.

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a hero of the civil rights movement who marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King, said the state laws threaten to return the country to the same era of discrimination he fought against.
“In this age of technology, our country is moving backward, not forward,” Lewis said Thursday as he introduced the bill in the Capitol. “People died for the right to vote, and some of them were people I knew. I hope and pray we do not return to the days of overt discrimination before we decide to do something about it.”

Other Democrats piled on. Rep. James Clyburn (S.C.), the assistant Democratic leader and another veteran of the civil rights struggle, said the new state restrictions would “roll back our hard fought access to the ballot boxes.” Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), the Democratic whip, said the reforms are “exactly the wrong way to go.” And Rep. Charlie Gonzalez (D-Texas), chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said the rules “are usually targeted” to exclude minorities. ”We know who the victims are,” Gonzalez said.

Full Article: House Democrats push to make voting easier – TheHill.com….

Congressional Democrats Push Voter Empowerment Act | Roll Call News

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:16:34 +0000

House Democrats on Thursday unveiled new voting rights legislation designed to modernize voter registration while cracking down on practices that could discourage certain populations from voting. The Voter Empowerment Act appears to be a direct counter to a growing movement within the GOP at the state and national level to require voters to present a photo ID when voting. “The ability to vote should be easy, accessible and simple. Yet there are practices and laws in place that make it harder to vote today than it was even one year ago. … We should be moving toward a more inclusive democracy, not one that locks people out,” said Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), one of the bill’s sponsors and a 1960s civil rights icon.

Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) agreed, saying, “Just six months from a presidential election and amid an unprecedented drive to impose new restrictions on who can vote in states across the country, Democrats will fight for the right to vote and for the integrity of our electoral system. This bill is a major step towards greater accountability and broader access.”

The bill includes a number of provisions designed to modernize the voting process, such as authorizing online registration and allowing same-day registration. The bill also includes language barring the practice of “voter caging” — a tactic that involves challenging voter registrations if mail sent to their official addresses is returned — and strengthens prohibitions against voter intimidation.

Full Article: Democrats Push Voting Rights Bill : Roll Call News.

Americans Elect Ends Online Primary After No Candidates Qualify To Run | ABC News

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:15:22 +0000

Americans Elect, the group that aimed to nominate a third presidential candidate through an online primary, ended its nomination process today after no prospective candidates met their minimum requirements. To run in its online primary a candidate had to get 10,000 “clicks” of support (1,000 in at least 10 states). Buddy Roemer was the closest to reaching that goal, but he got less than 6,300 “supporters. As of this week, no candidate achieved the national support threshold required to enter the Americans Elect Online Convention in June,” the group said in a statement. “The primary process for the Americans Elect nomination has come to an end.”

The group has spent two years and millions of dollars collecting signatures to get a spot on the ballot in all 50 states in November’s general election and creating a secure online nominating convention. They succeeded in getting on the presidential ballot in 29 states, including California, which required a whopping 1.6 million petition signatures. While the group failed to entice a qualified candidate, its creators maintain that it “has achieved its operational goals.”

“We are continuing the Americans Elect mission of creating more choice in our political system, giving candidates unaffiliated with the nominating process of either major party an authentic way to run for office and giving the American people a greater voice in our political process.”

Full Article: ‘Americans Elect’ Ends Online Primary After No Candidates Qualify To Run – ABC News.

Magnate Steps Into 2012 Fray on Wild Pitch – Joe Ricketts Rejects Plan to Finance Anti-Obama Ads | NYTimes.com

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:14:32 +0000

Joe Ricketts, an up-by-the-bootstraps billionaire whose varied holdings include a name-brand brokerage firm in Omaha, a baseball team in Chicago, herds of bison in Wyoming and a start-up news Web site in New York, wanted to be a player in the 2012 election. On Thursday he was, though not in the way he had intended. Word that Mr. Ricketts had considered bankrolling a $10 million advertising campaign linking President Obama to the incendiary race-infused statements of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., brought waves of denunciation from Mitt Romney, the Obama campaign and much of the rest of the political world. Highlighting the perils of mixing partisan politics and corporate citizenship, the reverberations also swept through the Ricketts family’s business empire.

Liberal groups encouraged like-minded investors to drop their accounts with TD Ameritrade, the brokerage firm Mr. Ricketts founded. His family’s plan to seek public financing for improvements to Wrigley Field, home of their baseball team, the Chicago Cubs, ran into new political opposition. And he was forced to write a letter to reporters at his New York news organization, DNAinfo.com…, assuring them he believed that “my personal politics should have absolutely no impact on your work.”

By early afternoon, Mr. Ricketts had announced that he had rejected the ad campaign as out of keeping with his own political style, a day after his aides indicated that it was still under consideration.

Full Article: Joe Ricketts Rejects Plan to Finance Anti-Obama Ads – NYTimes.com….

John Edwards trial: What will verdict mean for campaign finance? | CSMonitor.com

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:13:36 +0000

In the end, it seems, the John Edwards trial became only a circus sideshow in America’s convulsive efforts to define the limits of campaign finance. The defense rested abruptly Wednesday without Mr. Edwards taking the stand, marking the end of a courtroom drama that had plenty of drama but little of what the prosecution had promised, analysts and observers say. Before the trial began, prosecuting attorney Lanny Breuer said the federal government won’t “permit candidates for high office to abuse their special ability to access the coffers of their political supporters to circumvent our election laws.” … To some, the prosecution has overreached in an attempt to net a big fish. Yet the broader context of the trial has also played no small part in stripping it of deeper meaning for the political world. Indeed, given the US Supreme Court’s landmark Citizens United ruling in 2010, a candidate in a similar situation today would likely be able move such money to its target in an alternate, and legal, way.

As it is, prosecutors are seeking convictions on six felony counts. Defense lawyers say that, even if Edwards knew about the transaction, it was far from a clear campaign cash violation and doesn’t rise to the level of a felony. How the jury views those points will matter greatly to Edwards. Closing arguments are set to begin Thursday. But the Citizens United ruling has made the trial seem like a window onto a bygone era.

In the Citizens United case, the Supreme Court ruled that groups that are not connected with candidates can solicit and use campaign dollars for campaign activity, so long as it is not coordinated by a candidate. The ruling opened the floodgates for so-called “super political-action committees,” which raise and spend millions of dollars to advocate on behalf of an issue or a candidate, though they are not actually affiliated with the candidate’s campaign. In the Edwards trial, the defense has argued that Edwards didn’t actually coordinate the money transfers from millionairess Bunny Mellon to an account that Edwards’s mistress, Rielle Hunter, could use as a former campaign aide shuttled her around the country. This, to some experts, sounds like activity that would now be legal under super PACs.

Full Article: John Edwards trial: What will verdict mean for campaign finance? (+video) – CSMonitor.com….

James O’Keefe’s voter fraud prank fail | Oliver Burkeman/guardian.co.uk

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:12:11 +0000

I suffer fairly severely from what psychologists call “empathic embarrassment”: I find it agonising to the point of physical discomfort to watch other people making fools of themselves. Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat often had me writhing and cringing on behalf of his victims – even, troublingly, when his victims were spouting horrible bigotry. I’m really not proud of this. It’s an annoying problem. And lately, it’s been particularly disconcerting to find that the person prompting me to cover my face with my hands is the notorious “conservative provocateur” James O’Keefe III. O’Keefe, of course, is the rightwing prankster who helped bring down Acorn and was then convicted in connection with a sting at the offices of Louisana Senator Mary Landrieu. But with the significant exception of the ambush of Acorn, there’s something epic – almost worthy of awed respect, if it didn’t make me cringe so much – about how astonishingly inept he is at “punking” the liberals he despises.

It’s obvious that O’Keefe’s apparent attempt in 2010 to “seduce” CNN journalist Abby Boudreau by luring her onto a boat decked out with sex props was deeply unpleasant. But the unpleasantness shouldn’t completely obscure how brain-bendingly illogical it was, too. The idea, according to an internal document from O’Keefe’s Project Veritas, was to show: ”[T]hat the tables have turned on CNN. Using hot blondes to seduce interviewees to get screwed on television, you are faux seducing her in order to screw her on television.” Imagine, if you will, a hypothetical alternative universe in which this plan wasn’t remotely misogynistic or sleazy. It still doesn’t work, does it?

O’Keefe’s latest efforts concern the phantom menace of voter fraud. During last week’s North Carolina primary, he confronted two North Carolinians whom he accused of having registered to vote despite not being citizens. If you followed O’Keefe’s exploits in New Hampshire – where he tried to expose the scandal of dead people voting, but picked a non-dead voter by accident – you can probably guess the results of his North Carolina caper. That’s right: one’s certainly a citizen, and the other probably is, too.

Full Article: James O’Keefe’s voter fraud prank fail | Oliver Burkeman | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

State Steps Up Effort Against Illegal Voters | NYTimes.com

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:11:13 +0000

In an attempt to clear the voter rolls of noncitizens, a move that had set off criticism and a threatened lawsuit, Florida election officials decided on Thursday to use information from a federal database to check a list of 182,000 voters who they suspect are not citizens, officials said. Since last year, the Florida Division of Elections had sought access to the immigration database, which is maintained by the Department of Homeland Security, but the department said there were legal and technical difficulties in sharing the information. On Thursday, the elections division asked the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, which oversees driver’s licenses and originally compiled the list of 182,000 names, to use its access to the federal database to update its records and cross-check the names. … The state’s attempt to scrub registration rolls of illegal voters had come under fire because of the timing — less than seven months before a presidential election — and because the state itself could not guarantee the accuracy of its rolls.

The move comes amid other efforts by Florida’s Republican-led Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott to tighten voter registration and reduce the number of early voting days, to combat potential voter fraud. Those measures, which were approved in 2011, have been challenged in court. Florida has more than 11 million registered voters.

The Division of Elections began the review of voters in April 2011 when it learned it had access to the driver’s license database and its citizenship information, Mr. Cate said. Since 2010, Floridians have been required to provide proof of citizenship or legal status when they apply for a driver’s license. But problems arose because some people become citizens after receiving a license. The agency’s database does not reflect those kinds of changes until a person tries to renew a driver’s license. The push to crack down on the way Floridians vote, and how they register to vote, is viewed by some as an effort to single out Democratic voters, many of them black and Hispanic. Florida has been accused in past elections of unfairly trying to remove from the rolls former felons who are eligible to vote.

Full Article: Florida Tries to Clear Illegal Voters From Rolls – NYTimes.com….

Election chiefs skeptical of voter purge | Palm Beach Post

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:10:53 +0000

Florida’s local election supervisors on Wednesday sounded skeptical, and even distrustful, of a push by the state to remove thousands of potential non-U.S. citizens from the voting rolls just months before the critical 2012 elections. The supervisors, meeting at their annual summer conference, peppered state election officials with questions about the list of more than 2,600 people who have been identified as being in Florida legally but ineligible to vote. That list was sent to supervisors recently, but state officials have also said there may be as many as 182,000 registered voters who may not be citizens. State election officials want the state’s 67 county election offices to reach out to those on the list, determine their citizenship status and remove them from the rolls if they are not U.S. citizens. But election supervisors – including Democrats and Republicans – asked a range of questions about the level of proof that state election officials had regarding the citizenship status of voters which was culled by comparing voter registration lists to a state driver’s license database. They said they wanted more information before they purge someone from the voting rolls.

“I’m feeling really uncomfortable about this,” Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes told officials with the state’s Division of Elections. Brian Corley, the Pasco County elections supervisor, questioned the timing of the push, noting that election officials were first given a list of potential ineligible voters from the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles roughly a year ago.

Corley pointed out how two voters on the department’s list given to him wound up being born in Ohio and Massachusetts. One of the names wound up on the list of non-U.S. citizens because the driver’s license number used to check citizenship had one number wrong on it. ”We want our voter rolls to be accurate, obviously no one wants someone to vote who isn’t a citizen,” Corley said. “But at the same time we are the ones fielding phone calls from voters saying ‘Why are you questioning my citizenship?”

Full Article: Fla. election chiefs skeptical of voter purge.

Kobach asks federal judges to redraw Kansas districts | KansasCity.com

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:09:47 +0000

Of the 50 states, Kansas now stands as the only one that has yet to draw new congressional boundaries. And it’s one of a handful of states that have yet to draw new state Senate and House districts, threatening to further delay candidate filing deadlines for the 2012 elections — and possibly even the Aug. 7 primary. Secretary of State Kris Kobach on Wednesday said lawmakers’ slow pace in redistricting is creating a “constitutional crisis,” and he asked a federal judge to intervene because lawmakers can’t get the job done. “I don’t want to go to court,” Kobach said at a news conference. “I don’t want to play any role in drawing these district lines. I am simply saying, ‘Please do your job. Take this out of my hands.’ ”

Kobach’s filing came in response to a lawsuit filed earlier in federal court by an Olathe precinct committee member seeking a resolution to the legislative redistricting logjam. Officials already have pushed back the filing deadline for state candidates from June 1 to June 11, far later than Missouri’s March 27 deadline.

Meanwhile, Kobach and other state officials are warning that Kansas’ primary may also have to be delayed if lawmakers can’t resolve the impasse. The state already stands dangerously close to missing a June 23 federal deadline for mailing ballots to military personnel and overseas citizens.

Full Article: Kobach asks federal judges to redraw Kansas districts – KansasCity.com….

Voter ID bill signed, awaits feds’ scrutiny | Houston Chronicle

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:08:22 +0000

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant on Thursday signed a bill requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, but it’s unclear whether it will become law. Because of Mississippi’s history of racial discrimination, the state is required to get federal approval for any change in election laws or procedures. The U.S. Justice Department in recent months has rejected voter ID laws from Texas and South Carolina. The state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is asking the department to reject Mississippi’s proposed law, saying it could disproportionately create hardships for poor, elderly or minority voters who might be less likely to have a photo ID.

Legislative debates about voter ID have been sharply divided along racial lines for years. No black officials attended the bill signing ceremony in the governor’s Capitol office. Bryant was surrounded by several fellow Republicans and some tea party members.

“The legislation makes it easy to obtain a photo ID and put it in the hands of all voters,” Bryant said. “Our hope is to increase participation in the voting process. There is no one within this building that I have ever encountered that says, ‘I hope we can reduce the number of voters that are going to the polls.’ Just quite the opposite. We try and believe that it is our job to encourage this process but also bring about integrity.”

Full Article: Miss. voter ID bill signed, awaits feds’ scrutiny – Houston Chronicle.

Voter ID battle will be costly | SunHerald.com

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:07:06 +0000

Since when did Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann become the state’s chief legal officer? Last time I checked, Atty. Gen. Jim Hood was, under the 1890 state constitution, judicially established as the state’s chief legal officer. Totally ignoring that fact, the politically-ambitious Delbert is telling the media he’s the state’s champion to confront the monstrous U.S. Department of Justice and keep it from blocking the state from imposing a new law requiring Mississippians to show an approved ID in order to vote. “He (Hosemann) wants to be driving the train on the voter ID issue,” says NAACP attorney Carroll Rhodes, “while driving it off the tracks.” Rhodes on behalf of the NAACP will oppose whichever legal move the state makes to put its new voting limitation into effect.

Congress in 1965 adopted a federal law requiring states with a long record of enforcing legal barriers to keep black citizens from voting to get pre-clearance from DOJ or by the Federal court of the District of Columbia before any voting law change. Mississippi headed the list of historically discriminating states. Obviously when GOPers came into power they quickly forgot lessons from the state’s history of being the birthplace of the notorious post-Civil War “black code,” which for decades not only kept blacks from voting but also from holding public office.
Now, under the guise of the ballot initiative adopted last November they seek to install a voter ID scheme that has all of the markings of a poll tax, while concealing their fundamental agenda to disenfranchise minorities, elderly and poor who tend to vote Democratic.

Full Article: Voter ID battle will be costly – Bill Minor – SunHerald.com….

No new candidates allowed; primary ballots set | TheState.com

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:06:22 +0000

The South Carolina Election Commission told the state Republican Party on Thursday that it effectively can’t put a challenger to Gov. Nikki Haley’s chief legislative opponent back on the June primary ballot. The commission said in an email Thursday the state GOP can’t recertify state Senate candidate Katrina Shealy, two weeks after decertifying her and other contenders. It noted the state Supreme Court set a noon May 4 deadline for the GOP and Democratic parties to submit their lists of candidates who properly filed financial forms, and that ruling must be heeded. Shealy was among some 200 candidates for offices statewide decertified for not filing correctly. ”To accept candidates after that would be in violation of that order,” election commission spokesman Chris Whitmire told The Associated Press. “The June primary ballots are set. Ballots have been printed. Voting machines have been prepared, and voters are voting.”

The GOP executive committee voted Wednesday to put Katrina Shealy back on the ballot. The vote followed a speech by Haley, a Shealy supporter, and led to a reprimand Thursday of a Democratic operative for his Twitter take on the action. ”I want to have fresh faces, fresh voices in that building over there,” Haley told the committee, as reported by The State newspaper. “If you want to fix it, you can.” Shealy, a former chairwoman of the Lexington County GOP, wants to again challenge Sen. Jake Knotts, a fellow Republican and political thorn in Haley’s side who represents her home county. Knotts defeated Shealy and a second primary challenger in 2008, with Knotts winning 45 percent of the vote to Shealy’s 41 percent.

Nearly 200 candidates were booted from the ballot after justices ruled state law requires those seeking office to file a “statement of economic interest” at the same time they filed their candidacy. The form is meant to show voters any potential conflicts of interest, with information including any income from government entities. Incumbents must file the form online annually by April 15.

Full Article: No new candidates allowed; SC sets primary ballots – State & Regional – TheState.com….

Senate approves bill to clear future election chaos | MidlandsConnect.com

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:05:55 +0000

The South Carolina Senate approved a bill Wednesday that could head off the election chaos that is currently swirling throughout South Carolina. Earlier this month, a state Supreme Court ruling resulted in almost 200 candidates being tossed off June’s primary ballots after the court determined the political hopefuls did not properly file financial forms when filing to run for office. The Senate measure approved unanimously Wednesday would remove the Democratic and Republican parties from the filing process and synchronize the deadlines for incumbents and challengers to turn in financial paperwork. It does not apply retroactively, so it will not help candidates taken off ballots by the Supreme Court’s ruling.

“There’s plenty of blame to go around,” said disqualified House District 54 candidate Mike Ryhal. “What would be nice is people step up to the plate and say we made a mess of this and we acknowledge that instead of saying it’s too bad these people aren’t on the ballot. Well it’s too bad they’re still in their positions.”

Full Article: SC Senate approves bill to clear future election chaos : News : MidlandsConnect.com….

Defendants call elections lawsuit frivolous | Virgin Islands Daily News

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:04:43 +0000

Defendants in the V.I. Superior Case filed on behalf of six of the seven members of the St. Croix Board of Elections say they are ready to defend themselves against charges of defamation of character and to deny they created a scandal. The members of the Board of Elections – Rupert Ross Jr., Lisa Harris Moorhead, Dodson James, Anita Davila, Carmen Golden and Raymond Williams – filed suit in V.I. Superior Court against members of the V.I. Action Group, fellow Board of Elections member Adelbert Bryan and others who the board members say are trying to ruin their reputations.

The defendants named in the 16-page complaint are Shalima Edwards, Mary Moorhead, Bodil Simmonds, Pat Oliver, Frances McIntosh, David Benjamin, Delores Finch, Marcy Richardson, Coleen Clarke, Epiphane Joseph, Evelyn Bascombe, Lawrence Liburd, Juliet Liburd, Krista Schuldeman, Phyllis Nielsen, James Wilson, Delores Chrichlow, Marvin Forbes, Wendell Parris and Bryan. The complaint describes them as being a part of the V.I. Action Group, along with former senatorial candidate Michael Springer and St. Thomas-St. John Board of Elections member Lawrence Boschulte.

The complaint charges that the defendants created a scandal and produced and published false, misleading and offensive material about the board members in order to recall them. The defendants said Tuesday that the lawsuit is toothless. Yohana Manning, attorney for the V.I. Action Group, says the group believes that the lawsuit is frivolous and a political maneuver for the plaintiffs to regain public support after the defendants amassed more than 17,000 signatures supporting the recall of six of the seven board members.

Full Article: Defendants call elections lawsuit frivolous – News – Virgin Islands Daily News.

Suppressing the student vote? New residency rules could affect Wisconsin’s recall election | The Daily Page

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:03:22 +0000

The voter ID law passed last spring by the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature was widely criticized for requiring that voters show a driver’s license or other form of photo identification at the polls. These provisions are now under two court injunctions by judges who found that the photo ID requirements likely discriminate against minorities, the poor and the elderly. Meanwhile, it is the bill’s new residency requirements, largely lost in the controversy over photo ID, that are much more likely to keep students away from the polls in the upcoming June 5 recall elections for governor, lieutenant governor and four state Senate seats. Turnout among students, a voting bloc traditionally thought to favor Democrats, was already low in the May 8 recall primary. The new rules require that voters live at an address for 28 days before being eligible to vote. Dorm leases for 6,900 students at UW-Madison end May 20, and many of the other students living off campus will leave for the summer around the same time. Do the math and the dilemma is clear: There is no time to reestablish residency to vote June 5.

“It’s really screwy,” says Andrea Kaminski, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, which filed one of the lawsuits challenging the voter ID law. “The only thing they can do legally if they move is to vote absentee in what is their current district. That is even if they are moving across the hall to a new apartment. It’s really terrible.”

But it turns out the residency rules are so complicated even Kaminski was a bit confused. Students who are moving out of the dorms or an off-campus apartment — and who intend to return to Madison in the fall — can also vote at a Madison polling location June 5 using the address they had as of May 8. That’s just one scenario, though. Students returning home for the summer who still consider their hometown their voting address can vote there June 5.

Full Article: Suppressing the student vote? New residency rules could affect Wisconsin’s recall election – Isthmus | The Daily Page.

Keep calm and carry on voting – Lesotho’s elections look unusually competitive. That could spell trouble | The Economist

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:02:06 +0000

With barely a week to go before parliamentary elections in Lesotho on May 26th, there is no sign in the bustling capital of Maseru of the usual campaign paraphernalia: no posters, no cars emblazoned with party colours, no loudspeakers blaring political slogans, nothing to suggest that this mountain kingdom, surrounded by South Africa, was in the throes of its most hotly contested poll since independence from Britain nearly 50 years ago. This does not mean the Basotho, Lesotho’s 2m inhabitants, are unengaged. But the radio and party rallies are their preferred method of campaigning. Any of the country’s three main parties could win. The closeness of the race has people worried. Elections in Lesotho are generally deemed fair, but they have often been followed by violence. In 1998 Pakalitha Mosisili, leader of the newly elected Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD), had to ask the Southern African Development Community, a 15-member regional club which includes Lesotho, to send in troops to end months of rioting, looting, burning and killing. Many fear that could happen again.

In some ways, this episode was a surprise: the Basotho do not have the reputation of resorting to violence at the drop of a ballot box. Over two-thirds live off the land, tending small herds of cattle, sheep and goats beside patches of maize. The days are hot, the nights cool, the air crystal. Mountain streams provide 90% of the country’s electricity. Lesotho’s adult literacy rate—85%—is among Africa’s highest. It also boasts one of the continent’s better records in its treatment of women.

Still, life for most Basotho is hard. Over half the population lives below the poverty line. Three-quarters of homes lack electricity, a third are without running water or sanitation. Apart from diamonds and textiles, there is no industry. Many leave for South Africa, where wages are over a third higher and jobs easier to find. The economy is largely dependent on their remittances, along with a customs-duty payout from South Africa, and Western aid. Lesotho also has the world’s third-highest rate of HIV/AIDS, affecting one in four adults.

Full Article: Elections in Lesotho: Keep calm and carry on voting | The Economist.

Heated debate ahead of Serbia’s elections | UPI.com

The Voting News — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:01:38 +0000

Serbia’s two presidential candidates took part in a bitter televised debate just ahead of next week’s second round of elections. Incumbent Boris Tadic, who resigned his presidential mandate last month and called for new elections, accused opponent Tomislav Nikolic, of the Serbian Progressive Party, of fabricating an election fraud scandal just after the first round of elections. ”You made the electoral fraud up, and nothing you said is true,” Tadic asserted during Wednesday’s debate. “If it were true, you would have initiated court proceedings either here or you would address the court in Strasbourg, where you have been so many times.”

Nikolic said the Democratic Party spent millions of euros trying to ruin his reputation. “Many votes were stolen, and state authorities do not want to investigate that,” said Nikolic, who called on citizens to “punish Tadic” at the polls May 20.

As the debate went on, both candidates accused each other of having contributed to Kosovo’s secession, Tanjug reported Thursday. ”I have been urging Tadic for over a year now that we achieve consensus so as to make Serbia stronger, and that we also assume part of responsibility for Kosovo,” Nikolic said of the incumbent Tadic. Tadic and Nikolic will go head-to-head in a run-off election on May 20. By law, their campaigns will be silenced midnight Thursday until polls close Sunday.

Full Article: Heated debate ahead of Serbia’s elections – UPI.com….

The Third Party Fantasy | NYTimes.com

The Voting News — Thu, 17 May 2012 05:20:39 +0000

“Third parties are like bees,” the intellectual historian Richard Hofstadter wrote in 1955. “Once they have stung, they die.” It’s an aphorism that aptly describes the anti-slavery and anti-immigrant parties of the mid-nineteenth century, the Populists and Progressives who ushered out the Gilded Age, as well as more recent third-party standard bearers, from George Wallace to Ross Perot. All of these movements and figures influenced American politics dramatically, before fading away and leaving the basic two-party duopoly intact. Of late, though, our potential third parties have been skipping the stinging part and going straight to the dying. This was true of Unity ’08, the much-ballyhooed attempt by former Democratic and Republican politicos to put up an independent alternative to Barack Obama and John McCain. Despite enjoying a wave of free publicity and boasting Sam Waterston of “Law & Order” as their spokesman, the Unityers never even came close to conjuring up a plausible candidate or platform, and their movement fizzled out amid attempts to entice an unwilling Michael Bloomberg into the lists.

Now the same endgame seems to have arrived for Americans Elect, a well-funded attempt to use the power of the Internet to run an Olympia Snowesque or Evan Bayhish centrist against Obama and Mitt Romney. After months of hype, the group made the embarrassing admission on Tuesday that “as of today, no candidate has reached the national support threshold required” to compete for the virtual party’s nomination. This was a cumbersome way of acknowledging that almost no actual Americans were interested in what Americans Elect was offering them.

Full Article: The Third Party Fantasy – NYTimes.com….

Is Campaign Disclosure Heading Back to the Supreme Court? – Don’t expect to see Karl Rove’s Rolodex just yet | Rick Hasen/Slate Magazine

The Voting News — Thu, 17 May 2012 05:19:51 +0000

The news this week that a federal appeals court has refused to block a lower court ruling requiring the disclosure of more funders of campaign ads has campaign finance reformers tasting their first victory in a long time. “It’s the first major breakthrough in overcoming the massive amounts of secret contributions that are flowing into federal elections,” Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21 told the Los Angeles Times. But don’t expect to see Karl Rove’s Rolodex just yet. Crossroads GPS and other groups have found that raising money from donors who don’t want to be disclosed is good for business, and they’ve got a few ways to keep the unlimited money poured into campaigns secret yet. And before you get too excited it’s worth considering that the Supreme Court could well help them keep their secrets in 2012, even though the court has so far been a big supporter of disclosure laws.

Since 1974, federal campaign finance law has required the disclosure of campaign donors and spenders. Opponents of disclosure have long argued that at least some disclosure is unconstitutional under the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech and association, because compelling someone to reveal the names of those funding political speech will chill vigorous participation in politics. As I’ve explained, the Supreme Court rejected that constitutional challenge in the 1976 campaign finance case, Buckley v. Valeo. Confronted in that instance with a law that required disclosure of even very small contributions, the court held that the disclosure laws were justified by three important government interests: First, disclosure laws can prevent corruption and the appearance of corruption. Second, disclosure laws provide valuable information to voters. (A busy public relies on disclosure information more than ever.) Third, disclosure laws help enforce other campaign finance laws, like the ban on foreign money in elections. But the court has repeatedly said that if someone could demonstrate a real threat of harassment, they could be exempt from the disclosure laws.

Despite the court blessing of disclosure, donors have found more and more workarounds. A Center for Responsive Politics study found that in 2010 the percentage of “spending coming from groups that did not disclose their donors rose from 1 percent to 47 percent since the 2006 midterm elections,” and that “501(c) non-profit spending increased from 0 percent of total spending by outside groups in 2006 to 42 percent in 2010.” It’s only getting worse in 2012. Karl Rove’s secret donor group, Crossroads GPS, has been raising more money than his donor-disclosed Super-PAC, American Crossroads.

The problem with our disclosure laws is political, not constitutional. Congress has not seen fit to fix the holes in the campaign finance laws, and the Federal Election Commission’s rules allowed for much money to be left undisclosed. It got even worse recently when three Republican commissioners on the FEC, who have been blocking whatever campaign finance laws they could, interpreted the rules to require even less disclosure. In the current lawsuit, brought by Rep. Chris van Hollen, D-Md., and good government groups, a federal district court threw out the new FEC’s rules, with the upshot being that any individual, group, or association that runs “electioneering communications” must disclose their donors. Electioneering communications are TV or radio ads mentioning the name of a candidate for federal office and broadcast within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of the general election. So any group running these ads would have to disclose the donors who gave money to the group for any purpose. If the groups prefer not to disclose all of their donors, they could set up a separate fund just to pay for these communications. The appeals court dismissed concerns about the burdens of disclosure, and refused to stay the lower court’s ruling.

Full Article: Don’t get too excited about promises of imminent campaign finance disclosure. – Slate Magazine.

Court Supports Electioneering Ad Disclosures | Roll Call

The Voting News — Thu, 17 May 2012 05:18:58 +0000

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) has won another victory in his legal battle to force the Federal Election Commission to write stricter disclosure rules for certain types of political ads. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected a request by two conservative groups that it stay a March federal district court ruling that sided with Van Hollen. Van Hollen sued the FEC last year, arguing that its disclosure regulations for “electioneering communications” were too narrow and contrary to the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. The appeals court ruling, which came late on Monday, raises the prospect that politically active trade associations and nonprofits will have to more fully report who funds the ads they run on the eve of an election.

The ruling doesn’t apply to campaign ads, which explicitly call for a candidate’s election or defeat, but to what’s known as electioneering communications — ads that picture or name a candidate 30 days before a primary or 60 days before a general election.

In 2010, an array of outside groups spent some $80 million on electioneering communications, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Such expenditures are expected to soar this year with the proliferation of politically active nonprofits in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling that freed up corporate and union political spending.

Full Article: Court Supports Electioneering Ad Disclosures : Roll Call Politics.

Sen. McCain huddles with Democrats on campaign finance reform | TheHill.com

The Voting News — Thu, 17 May 2012 05:17:10 +0000

Sen. John McCain is talking with Democrats about a joint effort to require outside groups that have spent millions of dollars on this year’s elections to disclose their donors. McCain (R-Ariz.), once Congress’s leading champion of campaign finance reform, has kept a low profile on the issue in recent years. He raised the ire of many Republicans a decade ago for pushing comprehensive reform, and many Republicans still held it against him during his 2008 presidential campaign. Good-government advocates who worked with McCain in the 1990s and early 2000s had begun to think he’d given up on the issue. But McCain said Tuesday he could join Democrats once again to form a bipartisan coalition, even though it would annoy the Republican leadership. “I’ve been having discussions with Sen. [Sheldon] Whitehouse [D-R.I.] and a couple others on the issue,” McCain told The Hill.

McCain said he wants to ensure the legislation is balanced to cover labor union activity as well as spending by corporations and rich individuals. “I want it to be balanced and address the issue of union contributions as well as other outside contributions,” he said. McCain said the legislation drafted by Democrats does not ensure regulatory parity between corporate and union activity. He said the talks have been going on for “a couple of months.”

Full Article: Sen. McCain huddles with Dems on campaign finance reform – TheHill.com….

Americans Elect meets reality: third-party effort may be viable — just not now | Doyle McManus/latimes.com

The Voting News — Thu, 17 May 2012 05:16:07 +0000

What happens if you start a political party and nobody comes? Six months ago, a newfangled third party burst onto the scene, full of hope and promise. It was called Americans Elect, and it sought to give voters a choice many said they were looking for: “centrist” candidates who could break the partisan gridlock paralyzing Washington. In its founders’ heads danced visions of middle-of-the-road candidates who could transform American politics: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Colin Powell, Michael Bloomberg, Jon Huntsman Jr. Wealthy donors invested millions in a fancy website for an Internet primary, signed up 420,000 would-be “delegates” and got on the ballot in 29 states. Newspaper columnists, including me, pondered what effect it might have on the election. Then the grand idea collided with reality.

Americans Elect’s website is still humming, and its lawyers are still working to get the party on the ballot in all 50 states. But it’s missing two essentials: a viable candidate and enthusiastic voters. In an embarrassing setback, not enough voters registered support for any of the fantasy candidates to meet the threshold for nomination. The top vote-getter was Republican candidate Ron Paul, but he says he isn’t interested in a third-party run. Among the few public figures who were willing to play, the top vote-getter was former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer, a Democrat turned Republican; he won the online support of exactly 6,222 people, short of the 10,000 he needed.

It turns out you can’t get many voters excited about a party built by anonymous donors around an abstract concept. Centrist third parties have done respectably in American presidential elections when they were led by charismatic figures; Theodore Roosevelt won 27% of the vote in 1912, and H. Ross Perot won 19% in 1992. But without a charismatic leader, it’s hard to rally people around the banner of moderation.

Full Article: Doyle McManus: Americans Elect third-party effort may be viable — just not now – latimes.com….

Voter ID Laws: Silencing the American People | John W. Whitehead/Huffington Post

The Voting News — Thu, 17 May 2012 05:15:37 +0000

“There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all the Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit the franchise that we see today. Why should we disenfranchise people forever once they’ve paid their price?” – Bill Clinton

Despite the propaganda being advanced by the government, the purpose of voter ID laws is not to eliminate voter fraud and protect the integrity of elections. Rather, their aim is to silence and suppress as many American voters as possible and increase the already widening chasm between the electorate and our government representatives. In fact, voter ID laws are the icing on the cake when it comes to public officials shutting Americans out of the decision-making process, silencing dissent, and making sure that those in power stay in power and have the last word on government policy. In other words, voter ID laws are the final step in securing the American corporate oligarchy, the unchallenged rule by the privileged and few.

Voter ID laws which have swept the nation since 2011 effectively erode our system of representative government by blocking access to the seats of power by those who need it most: the young, the old, women and minorities. For example, Viviette Applewhite, who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement, has cast a ballot in almost every presidential election since she first voted for John F. Kennedy in 1960. However, as a result of Pennsylvania’s new voter ID law, which requires voters to present a photo ID to election officials on Election Day, this may be the first year the 93-year-old is not able to vote because she, like many others, does not have access to the required legal documents necessary in order to acquire a photo ID.

This is not the first time in American history such tactics have been used to suppress the populace. For example, the South after Reconstruction was a textbook example of voter suppression, from poll taxes to grandfather clauses. At the same time in the North, immigrant voters were being suppressed via literacy tests. These were not formal barriers which said “no blacks” or “no immigrants” may vote, but requirements which while ostensibly aimed at preserving the integrity of elections were in reality meant to silence average Americans, much like today’s voter ID laws. During that same time period, the state of New Jersey, which had for 17 years allowed women to vote, pulled the plug on women’s suffrage. In contrast, as Judith Browne-Dianis of the Advancement Project noted, today’s voter ID laws are “the most significant setback to voting rights in this country in a century.”

Full Article: John W. Whitehead: Voter ID Laws: Silencing the American People.

New state law could alter future election dates in city, county | Mohave Daily News

The Voting News — Thu, 17 May 2012 05:14:05 +0000

A bill signed by the Arizona governor that would consolidate elections could impact city and county elections in Mohave County. Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law House bill HB-2826 that would consolidate elections effective in 2014. The goal of the bill was to increase voter turnout and to reduce the cost of an election. Bullhead City will hold elections for four council members with the primary in March 2013 and the runoff election in May 2013. The new council members will serve 31⁄2-year terms with the next primary and general elections for those seats to be held in August and November 2016. After the 2013 election, Bullhead City as well as Kingman and Lake Havasu City will hold elections in the fall along with state and national elections, Bullhead City Clerk Sue Stein said.

In March and May 2011, Mayor Jack Hakim and two city council members were elected, also for 31⁄2-year terms. They will run for re-election in August 2014 with the general election in November 2014. Bullhead City had planned ahead several years ago to switch to holding elections during the fall during even number years, Stein said. In the March 2011 Bullhead City Council election, 2,837 registered voters went to the polls to elect the mayor and two city council members out of 22,484 total voters or a 12 percent turnout.

Hakim and the Bullhead City Council also sent a letter to Brewer opposing HB-2826. One complaint would be that all the candidates from national, state and local elections would be on one ballot creating a longer ballot. That could create “voter fatigue” where voters would lose interest toward the end of the ballot. The new law also takes the control of elections out of the hands of city governments.

Full Article: Mohave Daily News > News > Local > New state law could alter future election dates in city, county.

The Voting News

Appeals court upholds key voting rights provision | Associated Press

Can Montana brief end Citizens United? | Politico.com

Voter fraud hard to prove; fears spark legislation | WRAL.com

Lawsuit filed in West Virginia ballot stuffing case | Charleston Daily Mail

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Defendants call elections lawsuit frivolous | Virgin Islands Daily News

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Suppressing the student vote? New residency rules could affect Wisconsin’s recall election | The Daily Page

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Keep calm and carry on voting – Lesotho’s elections look unusually competitive. That could spell trouble | The Economist

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The Third Party Fantasy | NYTimes.com

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Court Supports Electioneering Ad Disclosures | Roll Call

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Voter ID Laws: Silencing the American People | John W. Whitehead/Huffington Post

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