The Voting News Daily: State fights over CO ballots, Debate over Photo ID in NC
AZ Senate Eliminates Spanish Election Material – Texas Observer
So this really isn’t about immigrants, undocumented or not. The folks in power in Arizona don’t want anything in their state that doesn’t look or sound like they do. This recent vote in the Arizona state senate proves the point. The bill, SB1490 proposed by Maricopa County Senator Steve Smith, bars the production of all government material in languages other than English. The Arizona Senate has approved it. The Bill, according to some observers, targets election material; specifically, according to the Yuma Sun, it is “aimed at the brochures mailed out before every general election by the Secretary of State’s Office detailing all the measures on the ballot as well as the recommendations of a commission on whether judges should be retained in office.” And apparently that’s the technicality on which Sen. Smith hangs his bill. He says his bill is legal because it only bars material mailed prior to an election. Opponents say that the Voting Rights Act of 1968 is clear on the matter. Read More
CA: Court hears appeal of San Francisco’s ranked-choice voting system – San Francisco Examiner
A lawyer for six San Franciscans who oppose The City’s ranked-choice voting system argued before a federal appeals court Tuesday that the procedure deprives them of their constitutional voting rights. “This case presents the issue of whether voters have the right to have their vote counted in the most important part of an election — that is when the winner is decided,” attorney James Parrinello told a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The six voters, led by former Board of Supervisors candidate Ron Dudum, want the appeals court to overturn a federal trial judge’s ruling dismissing their lawsuit. Read More
CO: State to fight over Saguache ballots – The Pueblo Chieftain
Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler will conduct a review of the Saguache County election that includes a hand count of the ballots — if he can get his hands on them. While that issue will be a matter for the courts to decide, Gessler came to town Wednesday night to explain the scope of a proposed review to roughly 60 county residents. Controversy over the Saguache election has persisted since Nov. 5 when County Clerk and Recorder Melinda Myers, with the blessing of the state, conducted a second count of the ballots to correct a computer error that counted mail-in ballots from a precinct twice, while excluding the precinct’s polling place tallies. Read More
CO: Common Cause throws weight behind Fort Collins’ ranked-voting campaign – The Denver Post
The Fort Collins ranked voting campaign today said Colorado Common Cause is backing the April 5 measure that would make ranked voting the norm in city elections. Ranked voting — also called instant runoff voting — allows voters to rank their candidates from their top to last choices. If a candidate with an absolute majority of votes, 50 percent plus one, isn’t determined in the first round of voting, the lowest ranked candidate is dropped from the ballot and those who picked that candidate as No.