Voters would be asked for a photo ID in the upcoming recall elections but would still be allowed to vote without one. They would then be informed that a photo ID would be mandatory beginning with the spring 2012 Primary. The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee passed an amended version of the photo ID bill Monday,…
Legislation that would require Texans to show a photo ID before voting was given final approval by the Senate on Monday, with the House expected to sign on later and send the bill to the governor. Senators approved the measure 19-12 along partisan lines, signaling the apparent victory in a long effort by Republicans to…
An elections bill by Rep. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, has a very broad caption – “relating to certain election procedures and practices” – and is subsequently beginning to look like a Christmas tree. For legislative lingo novices, that means lots of bills that haven’t made it to the floor yet are being hung on the bill…
A measure that would require voters to show photo identification when they go to cast their ballot now awaits consideration by the state House of Representatives, following a lengthy committee debate this morning. The bill from Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry and chair of the State Government Committee, passed the panel on a party-lines vote of…
Diane Russell’s goal is to enable Mainers to vote for their favorite gubernatorial candidate, rather than against their least favorite. “We want to make sure that the person elected to run our state shares the values of the vast majority of this state,” said Russell. Her bill would enable voters to list candidates in order…
A proposal aimed at easing the burden on municipal clerks around Election Day was opposed Monday by several groups that said eliminating same-day voter registration would disenfranchise Maine voters. L.D. 1376, sponsored by House Speaker Bob Nutting, R-Oakland, and supported by Secretary of State Charlie Summers, would ban absentee voting during the two business days…
Former Secretary of State Todd Rokita believes Secretary of State Charlie White erred in making public Rokita’s investigation of White’s voting history. On Thursday, White released the “Rokita Report,” a 238-page compilation of public records that the report says shows “apparent, albeit rebuttable” intent by White to deliberately vote in the wrong precinct in the…
A national organization aimed at encouraging participation in government has said it will no longer register Floridians to vote after state lawmakers approved a sweeping overhaul to the state’s election code. Lydia Galton, president of the League of Women Voters of Collier County and director of the state board, said Monday that the Florida association…
The fast pace of a bill requiring photo ID at the polls is the latest sign Republicans are moving quickly on their legislative agenda in the face of likely recall elections. The Joint Finance Committee approved the bill 12-2 Monday on party lines, despite fierce objections from Democrats that the bill was taken up when…
Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa accused opposition groups Monday of manipulating the vote count in a referendum as his margin of victory narrowed on planned media, banking and judicial reforms. Certain provinces “are refusing to include their vote data in the national count in a protest to claim that there is a dead heat” on at least…
Canada: Online voting: An open invitation to voting fraud – Vancouver Sun The Internet voting system approved by Vancouver city council promises unprecedented and untraceable voter fraud if it is allowed to proceed. We can only hope the provincial government will have the good sense to reject the city’s plan. On the face of it,…
Albanians cast ballots Sunday to elect the local authorities amid reports of incidents among political rivals following an election campaign marred by violence. The main focus of the poll is the capital, Tirana, where the leader of the opposition and three-time Mayor Edi Rama is running for re-election against former Interior Minister Lulzim Basha of…
Steven Prieve saw a lot of interesting things in his 10 years of running a polling place in Madison. The 59-year-old retired repairman watched as groups of Hmong immigrants arrived with translators in tow. He witnessed droves of students vote in their first elections. And he helped many elderly take part in some of their last.…
If you’re planning on getting married and changing your name, or moving to another part of Florida, pay attention. The way you vote may be impacted. An election reform bill that sailed through the House and Senate, despite intense debate, is headed for Governor Scott’s desk. It aims to change a number of things about Florida’s…
Colorado Deputy Attorney General Maurice Knaizer issued a response last Friday to the recent brief filed by Saguache County Clerk Melinda Myers and the Colorado County Clerk AssociationТs (CCCA) amicus brief. The briefs were filed concerning the injunction entered against Myers by Secretary of State Scott Gessler in March to hand count ballots cast in…
Earlier this year, Congresswoman Jane Harman resigned her seat in Congress, triggering a special election in California’s reliably Democratic 36th Congressional district. Sixteen candidates have filed for the May 17 special election; under California’s newly adopted primary system, the top two finishers in that election will advance to a July runoff, regardless of party. Widely…
Canada: Internet voting fraud inevitable, says expert – CityCaucus.com It’s become an all too commonplace occurrence at Vancouver city council – a staff report is filed as ‘late distribution’ and posted on the Vancouver.ca website a day before it is to be voted upon. In this case it was about whether the City of Vancouver…
Last fall’s Republican wave in Wisconsin featured a surge in straight-party voting. In some places, close to half the electorate used the “straight-ticket” option on the ballot. And in most counties that keep track of it, those straight-ticket voters were disproportionately Republican. Yet it’s the GOP that is now poised to abolish straight-ticket voting, a longstanding feature…
Lawyers for a group of North Carolina residents who favor nonpartisan municipal elections in their city urged a federal appeals court in Washington today to strike down the federal law the U.S. Justice Department enforced to block a referendum to change the city’s electoral scheme. The city of Kinston, N.C., sought permission from the Justice…
Ten persons were arrested in Bankura and West Midnapore districts today for making fake Electronic Voting Machines (EVM). While six persons were arrested from Raghunathpur area of Bankura district, four were arrested from Pingla and Chandrakona town of West Midnapore district for making fake EVMs, officials said.
Supporters and opponents alike have acknowledged that the alternative vote would never be introduced for Westminster elections after the proposal received a thumping defeat in the national referendum. With 439 of the 440 voting areas counted, the no campaign had established a lead of 68% to 32%, another wounding blow to Nick Clegg, whose Liberal Democrats…
After a long and twadry campaign on both sides where partisan politics and persoanlities took centre stage, the UK electorate has rejected the Alternative Vote (AV) system by a thumping majority of 67.9% to 32.1%. The final vote tallied at 6,152,607 voted Yes to the Alternative Vote, while 13,013,123 voted No, according to the official Electoral…
You recall the “found” votes in Brookfield City that Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus added to her off-system computer a day after the Wisconsin Supreme Court election results and failed to tell the election canvassers about for two days, right? Those votes swung the election to the Republican, Prosser, by around 7,000 votes with a…
Council voted 10-1 Tuesday in favour of having online voting available for residents choosing to cast a ballot at advanced polls in the November municipal election. The move, however, will not eliminate voting stations. “It’s not to narrow choices, but expand them,” said Vision Vancouver Coun. Andrea Reimer, who led her party’s charge to experiment…
Alleging a regular racket involved in attempts to manipulate Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), CPI(M) today sought urgent intervention of the Election Commission to stop such instances. “There is a regular racket (rigging of EVMs) happening in every elections. It happened in Bihar also. People are coming and offering packages to candidates saying that you pay…
Instead of spending $2 million or more to implement a voter ID law in Wisconsin, the state should be spending that money on improving the overall voting process in the state. Lawmakers are getting ready to vote on a measure that would require everyone who wants to vote to show a valid identification card with a…
The second risk-limiting audit under California AB 2023 was conducted on May 6 in Monterey County. The contest was a Special all-mail election for Monterey Peninsula Water Management District Director, Division 1. Monterey uses Sequoia equipment. There were two candidates: Brenda Lewis and Thomas M. Mancini, and write-ins. 2111 ballots were cast in all. The reported totals were 1353 reported for Lewis, 742 for Mancini, and 13 write-ins. The remaining 3 ballots were recorded as undervotes and overvotes. Lewis was reported to have 64.18% of the valid votes.
Two members of the public observed the entire audit process, which took roughly 90 minutes including some preliminary explanation of the procedure. They confirmed that their interpretation of the ballots agreed with mine and the elections officials’, and they helped roll the dice used to select ballots at random. In conversations afterward, they seemed quite satisfied with the transparency of the procedure (although perhaps not utterly convinced by the mathematics that justified the details).
The audit was performed as follows. After the ballots had been tabulated officially, elections officials Bates-stamped each with a unique serial number (1962 ballots that were scanned had been stamped prior to audit day; the remaining 149 were stamped as part of the audit). It is my understanding that stamping the ballots took about 5 person-hours in all.
Gov. Brian Schweitzer has vetoed a bill to require a government-issued photo identification to cast a vote during an election. Schweitzer says the bill would have placed an unnecessary burden on low-income, elderly, disabled and student voters.
A report on allegations of voter fraud by Secretary of State Charlie White found “apparent, albeit rebuttable” indications that White intentionally used his ex-wife’s address to vote in the May 2010 primary. The report, released Thursday, offers just enough suspicion to excite Democrats, who have filed a complaint alleging that White wasn’t legally registered to…
Secretary of State Jason Gant announced today that the Sioux Falls School District will join the Yankton School District on Tuesday, May 24th to be the first two local elections in the state to utilize the State Election Reporting Systems for their local races. And, for the Sioux Falls School District, the election will also…