election law

Kasich's signing of election law 'repeal' doesn't end debate | Cincinnati.com

May 172012

Ohio’s march toward what’s expected to be a nationally watched 2012 election took an apparently unprecedented step Tuesday, one that could put election officials into court before a ballot is cast. The potential scenario emerged Tuesday when Gov. John Kasich signed a law that repeals a controversial election bill passed in 2011 by the GOP-dominated General Assembly. The 2011 bill, which created voting restrictions that Democrats and some good-government groups decried, was to go before voters in November. The gambit, apparently the first time that Ohio legislators have ever effectively killed a referendum destined for voters, sets up a possible lawsuit over a question that could impact this fall’s election: May state legislators repeal a bill that has not yet taken effect and that is up for referendum? Democrats argue the answer is no. Read More »

Loophole in Clean Election law allows private funds | The Portland Press Herald

May 152012

For more than a decade, critics have complained of a loophole in Maine’s Clean Election law. Candidates who pay for their campaigns using taxpayers’ funds — and thus avoid accusations of being beholden to special interests — can and do raise thousands of dollars in private donations for their personal political action committees, or “leadership PACs.” The problem isn’t going away, with substantial sums being raised months ahead of State House primaries. From January to March of this year, 11 legislators who ran or are currently running as Clean Election candidates raised a combined $21,860 from lobbyists, corporations and individual supporters, according to disclosures filed April 20 with the state ethics commission. For a sense of scale, each Clean Election House candidate will run their general election campaign on a state payment of $3,937, a state Senate candidate, $18,124. Read More »

Senate rejects Adel’s attempt to fix botched special election | Des Moines Register

May 092012

The Iowa Senate today defeated a bill that would have fixed a botched special election that has left a proposed $4 million aquatic center in limbo for months. It also raises the question as to whether the city will need to halt collecting the 1-cent local option sales tax, which has been in place since July 1, 2011. “There may be other financing options that we’ll at least put on the table,” said Adel Mayor Jim Peters just moments after the defeat. The issue centers on an August 2010 special election where Adel residents approved the sales tax to pay for the new aquatic center. City officials have collected the nearly $400,000 annual tax for more than a year but learned in February that the vote was improperly performed. State law requires that unless the town represents 50 percent of a county’s population, then the vote must be broader and include the other areas of the county even though it would only apply to a specific jurisdiction like Adel. Read More »

Fix the election glitch in South Carolina election law | Rock Hill Herald

May 092012

There is something fundamentally wrong with any law that disqualifies 180 candidates from running for office because of a paperwork technicality. That, of course, was not the intention when South Carolina lawmakers enacted the law requiring disclosure of monetary dealings by candidates. But last week the state was rocked when the S.C. Supreme Court ruled that any candidates for the June 6 primaries who did not file a hard copy of their statements of economic interest when filing for office is off the ballot. The ruling, which represents a to-the-letter interpretation of a law by the court, affects about 180 city, county and state candidates. Most thought they were complying with the law as long as they filed the statement sometime before the April 15 deadline that applies to incumbents. In fact, they were required to file both the economic statement and a statement of intention to run at the same time on or before the March 30 deadline for challengers. While scores of challengers were disqualified, including six in York County, no incumbents were kicked off the ballot. Incumbents automatically file economic statements as a requirement for holding office. Read More »

Senate passes bill that would repeal election reform | The-Daily-Record.com

Apr 062012

The Ohio Senate OK’d legislation Wednesday that would repeal controversial GOP-backed election reform that is the subject of a November ballot issue. The final vote on Senate Bill 295 was a party-line 23-10, with Democrats vehemently opposed. ”You have messed up election laws and where people and how people vote this entire general assembly,” said Sen. Mike Skindell, a Democrat from the Cleveland area. “And this is a prime example of your disaster in election laws in this state. You are undermining the will of the people. You’re trying to subvert the referendum process….” The legislation heads to the Ohio House, where some Republican leaders have voiced concern about the constitutionality of a repeal. Republican House Speaker Bill Batchelder, from Medina, told reporters Wednesday that there was no precedent for such a move, though he would support a repeal. Read More »

Proposed recall election law likely won't be misused | al.com

Apr 022012

With the Alabama Senate considering a recall law for all officials throughout the state, voters could look north to the recall fights in Wisconsin and express some concern whether the state would become a brutal, political, three-ring circus. However, because of the way the potential Alabama law is structured, the likelihood of misuse is small. Alabama would be the 19th state to allow for recalls for state-level officials (an additional state, Illinois, allows it just for the governor). Alabama is already one of the 36 states that allow some municipalities to provide for a recall of local officials. Among those 18 states with the recall for state-level officials, there is a deep and very meaningful divide. Eleven of them have what is called a “political recall” — meaning they can recall an official for any reason whatsoever. The famous recalls in U.S. history, such as the ones in Wisconsin and the recall of California Gov. Gray Davis in 2003, were not for any charges of incompetence or ethical violations reason. They were solely for political reasons. Read More »

Senate repeals election law despite ballot issue | The Columbus Dispatch

Mar 312012

After a heated debate, the Ohio Senate yesterday voted to repeal House Bill 194, the election-law overhaul passed last year that Democrats and progressive groups are challenging on the November ballot. Democrats objected to the repeal after unsuccessfully trying to amend the bill so that in-person early voting could take place on the weekend and Monday before Election Day. Democrats and some voter-rights groups have argued that voting should be allowed in the days leading up to the election because that follows the law that was in place before the passage of House Bill 194. But Republicans passed a similar early-voting provision in a separate bill, House Bill 224, last year after passing House Bill 194. They have argued that even if House Bill 194 was repealed by voters in November, early voting would still be banned on those three days before the election. Sen. Michael Skindell, D-Lakewood, disagreed, saying that if House Bill 194 went down, the early-voting provision of House Bill 224 also would fall. Read More »

Senator says 'step back' and 'reassess' Ohio election law bill | The-Daily-Record.com

Feb 172012

A Senate committee began hearings Wednesday on legislation to repeal controversial GOP-backed election law changes, a move that would stop a referendum from appearing on the November ballot. Proponents want lawmakers to give Democrats who gathered enough signatures to place House Bill 194 before voters what they want — a full repeal, with a new election reform package negotiated between Republicans and the minority party. ”We should step back and reassess the situation,” Sen. Bill Coley, a Republican from southwestern Ohio, told members of the Senate’s Government Oversight and Reform Committee. “Clearly, some issues should be revisited.” Read More »

Two fears drive fight on photo ID | StarTribune.com

Feb 132012

A high-stakes political struggle over requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls is erupting in Minnesota, conjuring up emotional precedents from the notorious Jim Crow poll taxes to the old Chicago admonition to “vote early and often.” The determined Republican drive to pass a photo ID constitutional amendment as a needed deterrent to fraud — and the equally strong DFL effort to oppose it as a partisan ploy to suppress votes — has turned the ordinary driver’s license into a symbol of our national divide. ”It’s like we’re back in slavery, only it’s all of us this time,” said Antoinette Oloko, an African-American woman at one of several protests against photo ID and news conferences at the Capitol in recent days. ”We’ve had cases of ineligible voters, convicted felons, voting when they shouldn’t be,” said Dan McGrath of the pro-ID group Minnesota Majority, who has collected pictures of voters’ given “addresses” that turn out to be empty lots. Read More »

Election law may be repealed | Cincinnati.com

Feb 102012

Senate President Tom Niehaus announced Thursday that majority Republicans introduced legislation to repeal the divisive elections overhaul bill that is scheduled for a referendum vote in November, Gongwer News Service reports. Sen. Bill Coley (R-Middletown) is the sponsor of the bill (SB295). Republicans hope “to take a step back and revisit the debate in hopes of reaching a more bipartisan consensus,” Niehaus, R-New Richmond, said in a statement. Read More »

Senate Republicans plan to repeal controversial elections law | cleveland.com

Feb 102012

Ohio Senate Republicans on Thursday set into motion a plan to repeal a controversial election law and replace it with new changes that would take effect before the November election. But the House Speaker isn’t yet on board with the plan, and a group of voting rights advocates have vowed to seek a referendum — with the backing of President Barack Obama’s campaign — if Ohio lawmakers pass a new elections law. A bill was introduced Thursday to repeal House Bill 194 — the election law overhaul package GOP lawmakers passed last year that restricted opportunities for early voting and made other changes that opponents said amounted to voter suppression. Read More »

Election law bill passes Indiana Senate by unanimous vote | WLFI

Jan 272012

State Senator Ron Alting (R-Lafayette) authored Senate Bill 233, which unanimously passed the Senate Tuesday by a 50-0 vote. The bill would change a law passed last session, which removed the names of unopposed municipal candidates from the election ballot. The law’s intent was to save money by eliminating the need to print ballots where municipal candidates were unopposed. According to a news release, Alting said the decision to remove names of unopposed candidates was made based on good intentions but created some unexpected consequences. While the deletion of those candidates may have saved some printing costs, it increased voter confusion. Read More »

Publishing of poll results immediately before elections unlikely to be banned in Finland Experts would rather rely on self-regulation by media | Helsingin Sanomat

Jan 212012

In the Tuesday presidential debate arranged by Helsingin Sanomat and the commercial television channel Nelonen, four Presidential candidates out of eight were of the opinion that gallup poll results should not be made public just before the election. The candidates complained that the gallup polls direct people’s voting behaviour and provide contradictory information. Addressing the situation by making changes to the country’s election laws seems unlikely, however, despite the fact that in certain European countries – France, for instance - this had been done. In Finland, too, putting restrictions in place on last-minute polls has been discussed, but such amendment preparations were never launched. Read More »

Looking Ahead to the End of this New Year | Edward B. Foley/ElectionLaw@Moritz

Jan 052012

Will the rules, particularly recent changes in the rules, governing elections make a difference in the outcomes next November? Possibilities include the effect of changes in campaign finance laws or the laws governing voter identification and other aspects of the vote-casting process. But something entirely unexpected may upend the best efforts to predict what will happen in this potentially momentous presidential election year.

At this season’s holiday parties friends would say, referring to the upcoming presidential election, “2012 is going to be a big year.” I would agree politely, as undoubtedly 2012 will be an interesting and important year politically. It cannot help but be, given the pressing economic issues facing the nation, and stalemate in Washington, with each side hoping that the electoral verdict in November will somehow break the deadlock in its favor.

But will 2012 be a big year legally, meaning will election law feature prominently in assessments of the significance of political developments at the end of 2012? In other words, next New Year’s Eve will we look back and say that this or that aspect of the legal regime for conducting our elections affected which candidate or party won an important electoral victory? Read More »

Gingrich faces long odds to compete in Virginia presidential primary | The Washington Post

Dec 272011

In the wake of the Virginia Republican Party’s announcement Saturday morning that Newt Gingrich had not secured the required 10,000 valid signatures to run in the state’s March 6 presidential primary, a campaign spokesman declared that Gingrich is “exploring alternative methods to compete in Virginia — stay tuned.”

On Gingrich’s Facebook page, campaign director Michael Krull noted that he had spoken on Saturday morning about the Virginia setback with Gingrich, who “stated this is not catastrophic,” Krull said. But being left off the ballot in his adopted state on Super Tuesday, when Republican contests in nine other states will be fought in addition to Virginia’s, would be both a potent political and symbolic blow to the candidate who was enjoying a lead over GOP rivals in the Dominion State, according to the Quinnipiac Poll.

With analysts and some party insiders having raised doubts about the depth and skill of Gingrich’s organization, the latest news out of Virginia is certain to exacerbate concerns about the candidate’s long-term viability. Krull was quick to remind skeptics that doom had been forecast for the campaign before, in the wake of a Gingrich staff shake-up. “Remember that it was only a few months ago that pundits and the press declared us dead after the paid consultants left . . . ,” he said. “Some again will state that this is fatal.” Read More »

Election law changes may be confusing absentee voters | OrlandoSentinel.com

Dec 262011

Absentee ballots for the Republican presidential primary will start hitting the mail Tuesday, but thousands of Florida voters who think they’ve signed up to get one may be surprised. Elections supervisors say they fear many voters aren’t aware that a 2010 election law change eliminated a provision that automatically sent an absentee ballot to every voter who had requested one in the previous election. And some blame ignorance of the change for a big drop in applications in advance of the Jan. 31 primary.

“It’s dramatically decreased,” said Seminole County Elections Supervisor Michael Ertel. “The reason is, after the 2010 election, almost everybody’s absentee ballot request expired.” Ertel’s office has received only 2,366 requests so far from his county’s heavily Republican electorate, compared with 6,663 absentee ballots cast in the 2008 GOP presidential primary. Similarly, Palm Beach County reported 4,857 requests by mid-week, compared with 9,612 in the 2008 election. Read More »

Supreme Court Will Hear Texas Redistricting Cases | Election Law Blog

Dec 102011

“The Supreme Court, working late on a Friday, agreed to rule on the constitutionality of three redistricting plans for the two houses of the Texas legislature and its U.S. House of Representatives delegation, and put on hold temporarily a U.S. District Court’s interim maps.”

Given what the Court did, with no stated dissents, it is not clear why this had to wait until Friday at 7 pm eastern to issue. More importantly, it is also not clear what is supposed to happen now in Texas. What districts can be used, if the districts crafted by the three-judge court are now “stayed pending further order of this Court?”

The case will be argued on January 9. It is possible the Court will grant an interim order before then addressing which districts should be used. (Perhaps that was the reason for the delay, and it did not come together. Were they cobbling together a plan and/or an order? Were there dissents?) Or the Court may try to rush an opinion soon after argument. Read More »

Kremlin accused of silencing Russia's independent election watchdog | Telegraph

Dec 022011

State prosecutors paid a surprise visit to the Moscow office of Golos (‘Voice’), a Western-sponsored but operationally independent election watchdog, on Thursday and served it with legal papers accusing it of breaking the country’s election law. Demanding that its representatives appear in a Moscow courtroom on Friday morning, prosecutors accused the group of consistently painting a negative picture of an unnamed political party, an overt reference to Mr Putin’s United Russia party.

“It is obvious that the people who organised this campaign against us are the same people who are committing electoral fraud across the country,” Grigory Melkonyants, Golos’ executive director, told The Daily Telegraph. “It is an act of administrative (government pressure). It is a special operation designed to put us out of action and to destroy the only independent election watchdog in Russia.” Read More »

Chautauqua County Election Commissioner Arraigned On Misdemeanors | post-journal.com

Dec 012011

Norman P. Green was arraigned Monday in Chautauqua County Court on two election law misdemeanors. Green is the county’s Democratic election commissioner. The attempt to indict on felony charges failed to pass grand jury.

“I think it shows the system works, as far as grand juries,” said James Subjack, who is representing Green. “We’re looking forward to bringing the facts out to the public and I’m very confident that ultimately the charges will be dismissed either by motion or trial.” County Court Judge John Ward has recused himself from the case, which is now assigned to a Cattaraugus County judge. Read More »

Committee approves elections bill, but with a lot of language removed | Virgin Islands Daily News

Nov 302011

Members of the Senate Rules and Judiciary Committee approved a number of bills Monday, including a measure that makes changes to the territory’s election laws. Two bills failed to move out of committee, one to make government employees buy gas for their government vehicles and one to create a special conference to develop the government’s revenue forecasts.

The elections bill passed Monday is separate from the election reforms recently submitted to the V.I. Legislature by the Joint Board of Elections. The bill considered Monday, sponsored by Sen. Usie Richards, was based on legislation submitted by prior boards of elections. Through amendments passed Monday, much of the bill’s language was removed, leaving only a few items in the measure. Read More »

Opposition Leader Demands Safeguards For Fair Elections | rferl.org

Nov 242011

An Armenian opposition leader has challenged President Serzh Sarkisian to prove his commitment to hold democratic elections by enacting radical changes to the law and not allowing government resources to be used by his ruling Republican Party (HHK), RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reports.

Sarkisian has pledged to “spare no effort” to ensure that parliamentary elections in May are widely recognized as free and fair. Visiting Brussels earlier this month, Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian (no relation) said the vote will be the most democratic in the country’s history. Read More »

ACLU Moves to Intervene In Voting Rights Act Challenge | American Civil Liberties Union

Nov 222011

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Arizona filed a motion in a Washington, D.C. federal court today to intervene in the state of Arizona’s challenge to the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA). The ACLU argues that Section 5 of the Act, which since 1965 has protected racial and language minorities’ access to voting, must remain in place.

“Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is critical for ensuring that states do not pass election laws that negatively affect minority voters,” said Katie O’Connor, staff attorney with the ACLU Voting Rights Project. “We are intervening in this case to make sure that this critical piece of legislation is upheld, so that everyone’s fundamental right to vote is protected.” Read More »

National Coalition Formed To Confront Tough New Voter ID Laws | South Florida Times

Nov 182011

A coalition of nearly 20 organizations, including the NAACP and the National Urban League, announced they have launched a “Stand for Freedom” voting rights campaign and also a major mobilization on Dec. 10 — United Nations Human Rights Day — to protest what they say is an attack on voting rights throughout the country.

The campaign will take aim at election laws which, the coalition says, will suppress the rights of millions of Americans to vote in 2012 and beyond. In dozens of states, new rules will create what the coalition describes as a modern-day poll tax by requiring voters to obtain and present official photo ID in order to cast ballots. In many of those same states, new laws significantly cut early voting and Sunday voting, as well.

US Senate panel to investigate Florida voting laws | MiamiHerald

Nov 172011

A congressional panel has agreed to U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson’s request to investigate new voting laws passed by Florida’s Legislature. Sen. Dick Durbin sent the Florida Democrat a letter Tuesday, saying that he agrees the new laws will disenfranchise a wide swath of Florida’s young, minority, senior, disabled, rural and low-income voters. Durbin chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights.

Durbin says he is planning to hold a field hearing with his subcommittee to take a closer look at new voting laws in Florida and other states. Some of the new voting laws would reduce early voting days, impose new rules on voter registration drives and make it tougher to get citizen initiatives on the ballot. Read More »

Democrats see election laws as revival of poll tax and threat to democratic process | TheHill.com

Nov 162011

A wave of state election laws poses the single greatest threat to democracy and civil rights in generations, a number of House Democratic leaders charged Monday. The lawmakers said the reform laws — including new voter ID and registration requirements — are politically motivated efforts from Republicans to suppress voter turnout, particularly in minority communities that tend to vote Democratic. They compare the new mandates to the poll taxes adopted by Southern states to discourage African-Americans from voting after the Civil War.

“We know that voter suppression has been taking place, is [taking] place and is planned [to affect the next election],” Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), the Democratic whip, said Monday during a Capitol Hill hearing on the new laws. “We are witnessing a concerted effort to place new obstacles in front of minorities, low-income families and young people who seek to exercise their right to vote. Read More »

Opponents of Ohio's election law fall short of needed signatures in ballot repeal effort | The Republic

Nov 162011

Opponents of Ohio’s new election law have fallen short in their effort to get a ballot repeal question before voters next fall, but they have another 10 days to submit more signatures, the state’s top election official said Monday. Among other changes, the election overhaul shortens the swing state’s early voting period.

Secretary of State Jon Husted’s ruling on Monday comes after election officials reviewed the more than 333,000 signatures that opponents submitted in late September to put the law on hold. They need 231,150 valid signatures to get the referendum before voters in 2012. Husted’s office said they had 221,572 — 9,578 signatures shy of that necessary amount. Read More »

President dissolves parliament, calls snap election to create multiparty chamber | The Washington Post

Nov 162011

Kazakhstan’s president issued a decree Wednesday to dissolve parliament and call a snap election that will end the governing party’s monopolistic grip over the legislature. Under a new election law, a minimum of two parties will enter parliament after the Jan. 15 polls, although no robust anti-government forces are believed to stand any real prospect of winning seats.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev said at a government meeting Tuesday that the election should be brought forward — it was originally scheduled for August 2012 — to avoid the campaigning season coinciding with an anticipated global economic downturn. Read More »

After Maine vote on same-day registration, focus shifts to voter identification bill | The Republic

Nov 142011

Now that Maine voters have made clear their support for same-day voter registration, the focus shifts to another hot election-related proposal that will come up during the 2012 legislative session: voter ID.

The bill requiring voters to show photo identification in order to cast ballots comes up after voters rejected by a 3-2 margin Tuesday another move to tighten the state’s election laws. That vote repealed a law requiring voters to register at least two days before an election. In doing so, voters reinstated Maine’s long-standing same-day registration policy. Read More »

History of ‘same-day’ voter registration in Maine | Bangor Daily News

Nov 082011

Maine’s Election Day voter registration law was born quietly with bipartisan support nearly four decades ago, with little debate and overshadowed by much bigger issues of the Watergate era. That’s in contrast to that law’s demise in June, which was marked by shrill partisan debate that set the stage for next Tuesday’s referendum to restore what’s become known as “same-day” registration.

The 1973 session, which turned out to be one of the longest at that time, featured high-profile issues such as the Equal Rights Amendment, property tax relief, abortion rights, reporters’ right to protect sources and even health insurance reform. Same-day registration surfaced silently in the background as part of a routine revamping of the state’s election laws. Debate on the House floor was dry and tame with no hint of partisan differences in the Republican-controlled Legislature, the legislative record shows. The focus was on arcane technicalities rather than the merits of the policy. Read More »

Congressional Democrats seek to curb tough state voter-screening laws | MiamiHerald.com

Nov 052011

Democrats on Thursday ratcheted up efforts to combat new voting laws adopted by 13 states that Democrats contend are deliberate efforts to keep its core voting blocs from casting ballots next year. ”Election legislation and administration appear to be increasingly the product of partisan plays,” says a letter to election officials in all 50 states signed by 196 Democrats in the House of Representatives. “Election officials are seen as partisan combatants, rather than stewards of democracy. … We are asking you, as front line participants, to put partisan considerations aside and serve as advocates for enfranchisement.”

Thirteen states last year approved changes to their election laws and another 24 states are weighing measures that proponents say are needed to protect against voter fraud and to prevent illegal immigrants from casting ballots. Members of the House Democratic leadership, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus unveiled the letter they’re sending to election officials urging them to oppose new voting measures that a recent study said would adversely impact the ability of more than 5 million people to register or vote. Read More »

Push on for same-day voter registration | The MetroWest Daily News

Nov 052011

A local legislator is working with other lawmakers and good government groups to have Massachusetts join eight other states in allowing eligible voters to register on election day. Sen. Jamie Eldridge, D-Acton, Sen. Cynthia Creem, D-Newton, and representatives of MassVote, Common Cause and the League of Women Voters testified in support of election day registration at a hearing of the Joint Committee on Election Laws yesterday.

“It’s estimated that it would increase voter participation by 5 percent,” said Sara Brady, policy director of MassVote. “It means a lot to those people. In 2008 (for the presidential election), more than 10,000 people (in Massachusetts) missed the voter-registration deadline, and those are people who wanted to vote.” Read More »

Early voting's end angers Democrats | Toledo Blade

Nov 042011

County boards of election must stop early in-person voting as of 6 p.m. Friday, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted has advised, prompting Democrats to cry foul. The Rev. Jesse Jackson used a rally Wednesday at the University of Toledo to urge students and others to “occupy” the downtown voter-registration center “all day and night” this weekend. This occurs as a number of counties are reporting higher-than-usual absentee mail-in and early in-person voting for an off-year election, perhaps driven by interest in high-profile ballot issues such as Issue 2, which affects collective bargaining.

The early voting issue was created by a voter referendum effort on a controversial overhaul of state election law, House Bill 194, that had a spillover effect on separate legislation, House Bill 224, containing some similar language. The referendum effort has placed House Bill 194 on hold indefinitely, but the latter law passed unanimously and took effect last week. Read More »

Non-Precinct Place Voting: Trends and Opportunities | Doug Chapin/PEEA

Nov 032011

Pew’s latest Election Data Dispatch looks at the steep upward trend in the numbers of voters who are casting ballots outside the traditional neighborhood polling place. Using data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, the Pew team found that 26.6% of voters in 2010 cast ballots by absentee, vote-by-mail or in-person early voting – up from 19.6% in the 2006 midterm elections.

I recently had the opportunity to contribute a piece to the Election Law Journal discussing the impact of this growing shift by voters to non-precinct place voting (NPPV). In doing so, I made the following observations about the nature of the changes that accompany a growth in NPPV: Read More »

The Effects of Egypt's Election Law | The Middle East Channel

Nov 032011

Egyptians have finally begun to learn the rules that will govern their first post-revolutionary parliamentary elections, scheduled to begin on November 28. The election law announced by the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces (SCAF) is remarkably complicated, generating great confusion both inside and outside of Egypt. Those poorly understood rules will play an important role in shaping the results — and are already pushing the Egyptian party scene into a polarized competition between Islamist and secular blocs, with independents somewhere in the middle with no clear political or economic agenda.

The electoral system that the SCAF has chosen for the forthcoming election is a departure from Egypt’s historical practice. Egyptian elections have typically been governed by a majoritarian system in smaller constituencies (222 in total). Such a system traditionally made voting a choice between individual candidates rather than parties’ programs, which put a premium on coming from a strong local tribe or from a wealthy background. The small size of constituencies made this possible because it increased the electoral weight of extended families and tribes, especially in rural constituencies. Read More »

A guide to Egypt’s first post-revolution elections | IRIN Middle East

Nov 022011

Millions of Egyptians will head to the polls on 28 November in the first parliamentary vote after a popular uprising ended Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule. The elections end decades of what was effectively one-party rule and will establish a parliament to lead the drafting of a new constitution within a year. If approved in a subsequent referendum, this constitution will shape Egypt’s future.

But few Egyptians understand the complex election system or know what the parties represent. “The election system is really confusing,” Saed Abdel Hafez, chairman of the local NGO, Forum for Development and Human Rights Dialogue, told IRIN. “Because people do not understand the system, they will most likely vote for the people or the powers they used to vote for in the past. This means that the next parliament will not reflect the new political realities created by the revolution.” Read More »

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election law

Kasich's signing of election law 'repeal' doesn't end debate | Cincinnati.com

Loophole in Clean Election law allows private funds | The Portland Press Herald

Senate rejects Adel’s attempt to fix botched special election | Des Moines Register

Fix the election glitch in South Carolina election law | Rock Hill Herald

Senate passes bill that would repeal election reform | The-Daily-Record.com

Proposed recall election law likely won't be misused | al.com

Senate repeals election law despite ballot issue | The Columbus Dispatch

Senator says 'step back' and 'reassess' Ohio election law bill | The-Daily-Record.com

Two fears drive fight on photo ID | StarTribune.com

Election law may be repealed | Cincinnati.com

Senate Republicans plan to repeal controversial elections law | cleveland.com

Election law bill passes Indiana Senate by unanimous vote | WLFI

Publishing of poll results immediately before elections unlikely to be banned in Finland Experts would rather rely on self-regulation by media | Helsingin Sanomat

Looking Ahead to the End of this New Year | Edward B. Foley/ElectionLaw@Moritz

Gingrich faces long odds to compete in Virginia presidential primary | The Washington Post

Election law changes may be confusing absentee voters | OrlandoSentinel.com

Supreme Court Will Hear Texas Redistricting Cases | Election Law Blog

Kremlin accused of silencing Russia's independent election watchdog | Telegraph

Chautauqua County Election Commissioner Arraigned On Misdemeanors | post-journal.com

Committee approves elections bill, but with a lot of language removed | Virgin Islands Daily News

Opposition Leader Demands Safeguards For Fair Elections | rferl.org

ACLU Moves to Intervene In Voting Rights Act Challenge | American Civil Liberties Union

National Coalition Formed To Confront Tough New Voter ID Laws | South Florida Times

US Senate panel to investigate Florida voting laws | MiamiHerald

Democrats see election laws as revival of poll tax and threat to democratic process | TheHill.com

Opponents of Ohio's election law fall short of needed signatures in ballot repeal effort | The Republic

President dissolves parliament, calls snap election to create multiparty chamber | The Washington Post

After Maine vote on same-day registration, focus shifts to voter identification bill | The Republic

History of ‘same-day’ voter registration in Maine | Bangor Daily News

Congressional Democrats seek to curb tough state voter-screening laws | MiamiHerald.com

Push on for same-day voter registration | The MetroWest Daily News

Early voting's end angers Democrats | Toledo Blade

Non-Precinct Place Voting: Trends and Opportunities | Doug Chapin/PEEA

The Effects of Egypt's Election Law | The Middle East Channel

A guide to Egypt’s first post-revolution elections | IRIN Middle East

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