Wisconsin: Senate passes Wisconsin voter ID bill, sends to Walker | Wisconsin Law Journal

The state Senate gave final legislative approval to a bill that would require Wisconsin voters to show photo identification during a ragged session Thursday, clearing the way for Gov. Scott Walker to sign the measure into law next week.

Assembly Republicans passed the measure in a late-night session last week. Republicans who control the Senate brought the bill up for debate on Tuesday. Democrats railed against it into the early morning hours on Wednesday, finally using a procedural maneuver to delay the final vote until Thursday.

South Carolina: The Voter ID Bill Faces New Problems in South Carolina | WYFF Greenville

But opponents believe the measure will suppress voter turnout. An estimated 178,000 voters in South Carolina don’t have a driver’s license. Those voters will be able to get state-issued ID cards for free.

However, in the middle of a budget crisis in South Carolina, there is no money to pay for it.

“So it could be that the first two elections may be very dicey for voter ID process,” said Conway Belangia.

Wisconsin: GOP legislative aide under investigation for voter fraud

A Republican legislative aide is under investigation for possible vote fraud after she cast her ballot in the November election in Onalaska although she lives in Madison.

La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke said he has forwarded the report from the Onalaska Police Department to Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne to see if criminal charges are warranted against Marcie Malszycki, 30, an aide to state Rep. Warren Petryk, R-Eleva. 

Editorials: Statement from Howard Simon on Voter Suppression Act of 2011 Being Signed into Law by Governor Scott | ACLU

If it weren’t so grotesquely un-American, you’d almost want to congratulate them for the audacity and efficiency of the attack. Governor Scott and the anti-civil liberties State Legislature have achieved an astonishing voter suppression trifecta. With just one bill, they made it harder to register to vote, harder to cast your vote, and harder to have your vote counted.

The right to participate in a fair election is the backbone of our democracy, and election laws are supposed to protect that right by making our elections fair and transparent. The current regime in Tallahassee wrongly sees voting as a privilege rather than the fundamental right that it is. They feel free to manipulate the voting process and use election laws as a weapon to against Floridians whose rights are inconvenient to their power.

Editorials: Tallahassee meddling in voting rights – Editorial | MiamiHerald.com

Whatever happens Tuesday when voters are to pick Miami-Dade’s next mayor and two commissioners — plus various proposed county charter changes — will you be able to say that your choices were considered because you voted?

Too few registered voters can say that today. Yet they will be the first to gripe about the winners in the May 24 special election. They’ll complain that county government is broken, and that they don’t vote because the fix is in.

Editorials: Kitty Kent: If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Make Sure They Can’t Vote | Associated Content

In state after Republican-controlled state (now more than two-thirds of all states), there’s a tactical imperative high on the legislative agenda. No, it’s not job creation; it is, in fact, more

along the lines of empire creation. That lofty ideal of the “permanent Republican majority” is again enjoying a chilling resurgence. Under the guise of prevention of “voter fraud,” onerous and costly “voter ID” bills are in various stages of life in state houses across the country, reports the New York Times. In a few states, bills have already passed and are law.

The Voting News Daily: Wisconsin Senate passes voter ID bill, Supreme Court Recount Done in Waukesha County

Wisconsin: Senate passes Wisconsin voter ID bill, sends to Walker | Wisconsin Law Journal

The state Senate gave final legislative approval to a bill that would require Wisconsin voters to show photo identification during a ragged session Thursday, clearing the way for Gov. Scott Walker to sign the measure into law next week.

Assembly Republicans passed the measure in a late-night session last week. Republicans who control the Senate brought the bill up for debate on Tuesday. Democrats railed against it into the early… Read More

Wisconsin: Waukesha County Could Complete Recount Today — Politics News Story — WISN Milwaukee
Update: : Supreme Court Recount Done in Waukesha County | Today’s TMJ4.

More than six weeks after the election, Waukesha County is nearing the end of its recount in the supreme court race.

Only a few wards remain to be counted, and the state’s Government Accountability Board said that it would post Waukesha’s new totals by the end of the week.… Read More

Arizona: Russell Pearce recall may be pushed to 2012 due to error | The Arizona Republic

Arizona’s elections director said she inadvertently gave an incorrect timetable to the organizers of a drive to recall controversial Senate President Russell Pearce, forcing a change in strategy in the historic recall effort.

Elections Director Amy Bjelland said she initially told recall organizer Randy Parraz that if he filed his signatures by May 25, there would be enough time to verify them and schedule a November election.

Nevada: Judge overturns decision on open special election – News – ReviewJournal.com

It looks as if the Sept. 13 special election to replace former GOP Rep. Dean Heller won’t be the flash mob of candidates that Republicans had feared.

In a decision that stunned the Democratic Party and buoyed the GOP, a district judge Thursday overruled Secretary of State Ross Miller’s May 5 decision to allow any qualified major party candidate to run in a free-for-all U.S. House race.

Instead, Judge James Todd Russell enjoined the secretary of state from moving ahead. And he gave the political parties until June 30 to nominate just one candidate each, the ruling the Republican Party sought in a lawsuit filed against Miller.

Michigan: Michigan Secretary of State branches back on line – system-wide restoration not yet complete | The Detroit News

Computer connections were restored to all 131 branch offices of the Michigan Secretary of State this afternoon after a broken fiber link interrupted services.
Officials cautioned it would take time to address the backlog created by the outage.

According to the SOS, the break occurred on Wednesday on a mainframe computer essential to branch office systems. Technicians have repaired the break and restored its connection with the computer system, but restoration of the entire system is not yet complete.

The Voting News Weekly: TVN Weekly May 14-20 2011

Over the past week, several issues have dominated the voting news. The coordinated effort to establish restrictive voter identification requirements in state election codes and limiting early voting periods continued in spite of fierce opposition, with bills reaching governor’s desks in Florida, Texas, Wisconsin and South Carolina. All face legal challenges and the Department of Justice has been asked to weigh in on Florida’s controversial bill.

The Wisconsin recount is over – challenger Joanne Kloppenburg defended the importance of the recount process and pointed out numerous chain of custody and other administrative issues that were revealed.

The city of Vancouver BC has given approval for internet voting in local elections this Fall apperently without thorough consideration of the security concerns surrounding the online submission of voted ballots.

Memory limitations may interfere with Egypt’s plan to use Indian electronic voting machines for their elections.

The Kansas Senate thought twice about the provisions of an election bill promoted by Secretary of State Kris Kobach and Tennessee has dialed back the reforms put in place with the 2008 Voter Confidence Act.

This Week’s Featured Articles

Pennsylvania: Montgomery County Pennsylvania elections chief: Hundreds may have voted unregistered in 2008 | Philly.com

Hundreds of unregistered Montgomery County residents may have been allowed to cast ballots in the 2008 presidential election, the county’s chief election official said Wednesday.

And as Voter Services Director Joseph Passarella described it, that decision, made by a low-level staffer, eventually morphed into an unwritten policy that mistakenly added more than 3,000 people to the county’s voter rolls over the next three years.

Venezuela: Nearly 500,000 Families Register with Venezuela’s Mass Housing Program | venezuelanalysis.com

In just under three weeks since its launch, nearly half a million families in five states across Venezuela have answered the national government’s call to register for its massive new public housing program which seeks to build two million new homes by the year 2017.

The program, called Grand Mission “Housing Venezuela”, is the Chavez administration’s answer to the Caribbean nation’s current housing shortage, calculated at over 1.5 million, and marks a firm commitment by the Executive branch to provide access to affordable living space for all the country’s residents. 

New York: Bungled Ballots From 2010 Election Dismissed As “Non-Issue” By New York City Board of Elections | City Hall News

Paper ballots cast by New York City voters last year violated a technical but mandatory part of state election law, the city Board of Elections learned this week, but board officials dismissed the revelation as a “non-issue.”

A provision of state election law requires that names of candidates on the ballot “shall be printed in capital letters.” Instead, last year’s city ballots spelled candidate names in both capital and lower-case lettering.

California: Secretary of State Bowen concedes in California race | POLITICO.com

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen conceded Thursday in the special election race for a vacant Southern California congressional seat, handing a surprising second-place finish to little-known Republican Craig Huey. Huey, a wealthy advertising executive who spent $500,000 out of his own pocket, will face Democratic Los Angeles Councilwoman Janice Hahn in a July 12 runoff.

Bowen, also a Democrat, finished about 200 votes behind Huey in Tuesday’s primary but was waiting on around 10,000 absentee and provisional ballots that had yet to be counted. On Thursday afternoon, as election officials sorted through the remaining votes, Huey’s lead grew to 750 ballots.

Ghana: Former Ghanaian President Kufuor says leaders are the problem, not the people | ghananewsagency.org

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor on Wednesday laid the blame for political unrest and instability at the doorstep of leaders who subverted their countries’ constitutions to extend their stay in office.

“I have witnessed from across Africa, the determination of citizens to exercise their democratic rights. Everywhere people are given the vote, they treasure it. It is not the citizens but their leaders who are too often the obstacle to democracy,” former President Kufuor said.