Yearly Archives: 2011

Throngs of Egyptians voted for a second day Tuesday in parliamentary elections that were surprisingly peaceful, as the country appeared excited and determined to fulfill the so far elusive promises of the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak. Lines snaked and last-minute campaigning echoed across nine governorates as the first round of a multistage vote drew what Abdel-Moez Ibrahim, head of the election commission, called a "massive and unexpected turnout."

After months of protests and anger over military rule, Egyptians were defiant in stamping their imprints on ballots and on the nation's fate. The election took place as protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square dwindled and voters focused on the deeper questions of selecting a 498-seat parliament that would write a constitution and usher in a post-Mubarak political era.

Russia: In the bag: why Russian elections are neither free nor fair | Deutsche Welle

The Kremlin has ways of influencing the results of Russia’s parliamentary election. The aim is to do it in such a subtle way that you'd never guess that the vote was manipulated. Activists have published an interactive map on the Internet, displaying a bunch of red circles with black numbers in the middle: 265, 119, or 25. These represent Russian cities and the number of reported irregularities related to the country's parliamentary election. This online project is being run by the independent election-observer organization Golos and the Internet newspaper Gazeta.ru. Russians can use it to report incidents related to the election. It is quick, anonymous and unfiltered.

So far, users have reported 3,500 cases of alleged biased reporting in the media, vote buying or supervisors in workplaces exerting pressure on their workers. St. Petersburg is top of the list of alleged irregularities ahead of the vote, with more than 200 reported. Here is one reported on November 28: "The president of our university has told students who live in dorms not to vote in their hometowns but to take the buses laid on here to vote for United Russia. Anyone who doesn't agree to do so is threatened with expulsion. Students say the president is a member of the United Russia party."

Russia: Russia to Hold Presidential Elections in March 2012 | Voice of America

Russia’s upper house of parliament formally set March 4, 2012 as the date for the country’s presidential election. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is widely expected to return to the job for a third term after President Dmitry Medvedev in September agreed to step aside, in a job swap with Mr. Putin.

The prospect of having the former president return to power apparently has some Russians upset. Mr. Putin was recently, and unprecedentedly, booed in public at a sporting event in Moscow and he has fallen in some public opinion polls. This rare show of animosity towards one of Russia’s most popular men has analysts weighing in.

Uganda: DP to sue Electoral Commission | Uganda Government News

The Democratic Party has revealed plans to sue the Electoral Commission for delaying the swearing in of Brenda Nabukenya as the Woman Member of Parliament for Luwero district.

Speaking to journalists in Kampala today, the DP General Secretary Mathias Nsubuga said that they had given the EC up to today the 29th of November to have sent Nabukenya’s name in parliament for swearing in but the commission has not complied.

The Voting News Daily: How Ranked-Choice Voting Silenced 31,500 Voters, Online voting lacks crucial transparency

California: How Ranked-Choice Voting Silenced 31,500 Voters | The Bay Citizen

Sixteen percent of San Francisco voters who filled out their ballots correctly and completely — more than 31,500 people — did not have a say in the final outcome of the city’s mayoral race, according to The Bay Citizen’s analysis of election results.

Their ballots were discarded or exhausted, because they did not list either Ed Lee, the eventual winner, or runner-up John Avalos as one of their top three candidates. Unlike other cities, San Francisco does not allow voters to rank all the candidates on the ballot. Read More

Editorials: Online voting lacks crucial transparency | Vancouver Sun

Elections BC is seeking permission to run pilot projects on online voting and other new technologies. It is generally known that voters are becoming increasingly alienated from politics. It is nevertheless ludicrous for Elections BC to attribute some of this apathy to outdated technology at the polling stations, or to imply that measures like online voting would somehow revive democracy.

A greater source of voter dissatisfaction is a creeping loss of faith in the system. An effective step in restoring that faith would be the evidence that the process is valued, cherished and, most importantly, safeguarded from ways in which it can be subverted. Read More

Alabama: Alabama backs Shelby County in Voting Rights Act appeal | al.com

The state of Alabama has officially sided with Shelby County in its fight to have key sections of the Voting Rights Act declared unconstitutional. "To be clear: There are still race-relations problems in Alabama, just as there are race-relations problems in every state of our Union. But today's Alabama has come a long way from the past that justified (Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act) some 40 years ago," wrote lawyers for the Alabama Attorney General's Office.

Shelby County, a mostly white and strongly Republican area, sued the U.S. Justice Department last year over the decision by Congress in 2006 to extend the historic civil rights-era law by another 25 years. The county's case, financed by a nonprofit interest group, argues that the law is outdated and too much of a burden because it requires that local election procedures get approved in advance by the federal government.

California: How Ranked-Choice Voting Silenced 31,500 Voters | The Bay Citizen

Sixteen percent of San Francisco voters who filled out their ballots correctly and completely -- more than 31,500 people -- did not have a say in the final outcome of the city's mayoral race, according to The Bay Citizen's analysis of election results.

Florida: Absentee voting: Democrats mobilizing a year before election | Sun-Sentinel.com

The outcome of next year's election could be decided far from the polls and long before Election Day. Copying a page from the Republican Party's playbook, Democrats are hoping to turn one of their opposition's most effective election strategies into a weapon that could win Florida for President Barack Obama — an outcome that could ensure him a second term in the White House.

The effort has been quietly under way for months. Its gist: Find every registered Florida Democrat who used an absentee ballot in the 2008 presidential and 2010 governor's elections, and get them signed up to vote again by mail next year. With more than one in five of the state's registered Democratic voters living in Broward and Palm Beach counties, South Florida is ground zero for the effort.

Minnesota: Automated ranked-choice a long shot for Mpls. in 2012 | StarTribune.com

Midway between Minneapolis city elections, it's looking more doubtful that the city will have new equipment in place for 2013 balloting to avoid another lengthy hand count of voter choices under ranked-choice voting. In 2009, it took 18 days after the election and lots more money for the last winner to be declared after a hand count of second-choice ballots determined the outcome.

Hennepin County's election director said she hopes the county can buy new voting equipment in late 2012 or early 2013. Asked how optimistic she was that such equipment could count the ranked-choice ballots, Rachel Smith responded, "It's certainly possible. ... I'm still optimistic that we'll have something in place for Minneapolis."

Mississippi: Debate heats up on voter ID laws | The Montgomery Advertiser

Mississippi has just joined Alabama and numerous other states in adopting tougher voter ID laws, a trend that promises to fuel an intense battle over how such laws may affect voter turnout in the 2012 elections and beyond. "It's boiling over," said Jennie Bowser, a senior election policy analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures. "People on both sides of the aisle are very protective of elections. They regard it as the cornerstone of American democracy."

Nearly 200 mostly Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Terri Sewell of Birmingham, recently wrote state election officials urging them not to let the new laws jeopardize voters' rights. Democrats and civil rights groups warn that millions of voters, mostly minorities, may be turned away at the polls next year if they don't have the required ID.

Texas: Parties Contest Election-Monitoring Techniques | Roll Call

Not only are Americans divided over the presidential candidates, they appear to be divided over how people should vote for those candidates. Texas tea partyers have launched an election-monitoring effort designed to weed out voter fraud. Civil rights groups call it an elaborate intimidation scheme targeting minority voters.

“They’re trying to put in place a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist,” said Judith Browne-Dianis, co-director of the Advancement Project, adding that voter fraud is uncommon.

Editorials: Virginia’s parody of democracy | The Washington Post

State Legislative elections in Virginia have come to bear a certain resemblance to what passed for voting in the old Soviet Union. There, candidates, unopposed and endorsed by the Communist Party, routinely ran up victories with 99 percent of the vote, although voters had the theoretical right to cast a “no” ballot. In Virginia’s elections this month, the competition wasn’t much tougher.

As we reported on the eve of the elections, just 27 of the 100 contests for Virginia’s House of Delegates featured a Democrat and a Republican. That was bad enough. In the election, the winner trounced the loser by a margin of about 10 percentage points or more in all but five races statewide. In other words, 95 percent of the state’s House races were either uncontested or blowouts.

Editorials: Render gerrymandering obsolete | Rob Richie/HamptonRoads.com

Virginia has become one of the few true swing states in presidential elections and, in recent years, has experienced divided partisan control of its state legislature. You'd think that this would have prompted hotly contested state legislative races on Election Day, but in fact only 52 of 140 races had candidates from both major parties - including just 27 percent of elections for the House of Delegates. Another round of largely uncontested races is just the latest evidence of the failure of winner-take-all, single-member district elections.

Winner-take-all inherently represents voters poorly and tempts partisans to gerrymander outcomes. Although we need other changes like independent redistricting, it's time to look for a better way grounded in our electoral traditions: fair voting, which is an American form of proportional representation in elections taking place in larger "superdistricts."

Editorials: Online voting lacks crucial transparency | Vancouver Sun

Congo: Voting extends into 2nd day in Congo | Zimbio

Voting in Congo was extended into Tuesday after the first day of elections was marred by the late delivery of voting materials, errors on the ballot papers and by pockets of violence. Country experts had urged the government to postpone Monday's presidential and legislative election, arguing that a delayed election was better than a botched one. Congo is in a race against the clock, though, because the five-year term of President Joseph Kabila expires next week, and the country could face unrest if he is seen as staying past his constitutional mandate.

Anger began to boil over in opposition strongholds in the capital where voters waited since dawn for ballots to be delivered. The spokesman of the election commission, Matthieu Mpita, announced late Monday that the election would be extended into a second day.

Egypt: Election commission says voter turnout ‘massive’ | silive.com

The head of Egypt's election commission said turnout was "massive and unexpected" for the first elections since Hosni Mubarak's ouster, with millions participating peacefully in a spirit of hopefulness that surprised many after new protests broke out in the days leading up to the vote.

Long lines formed again today at polling centers around the capital Cairo and other cities on the second and final day of the first round of parliamentary elections. The historic election -- which promises to be the country's fairest and cleanest in living memory -- will indicate whether one of America's most important Middle East allies will turn down a more Islamic path with powerful religious parties such as the Muslim Brotherhood expected to dominate.

The Gambia: Gambian Incumbent President Jammeh re-elected with landslide victory, calls for national unity | NL-Aid

President Yahya Jammeh on Friday secured a new five-year term after the Independent Electoral Commission declared him winner of 24th November 2011 presidential election. Results announced by the returning officer and Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, Mustapha L. Carayol, showed Jammeh polled 72% of the total votes cast while main opposition leader Ousainou Darboe polled 17%. Independent candidate Hamat Bah scored 11% of the total votes cast. Voter turnout was 83%, showing a massive jump from that of the 2006 elections, which was about 59%.

According to the IEC chairman, out of a total number of 796, 929 voters, Hamat Bah polled 73, 060 votes, Ousainou Darboe 114, 177 votes while President Yahya Jammeh polled 470, 550 votes. Jammeh’s victory, seen by many as a foregone conclusion, was also described as historic in the country’s politics, as Jammeh won with a landslide in all the 48 constituencies across the country.

South Ossetia: Court requests poll result delay | AlertNet

The Supreme Court in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia asked the election commission on Monday to delay the announcement of results in a run-off presidential poll for a day so it could examine a complaint by one of the candidates.

Anatoly Bibilov, the region's emergencies minister, and Alla Dzhioyeva, its former education minister, competed on Sunday to become South Ossetia's first new president since Russia recognised the sliver of land as independent after Moscow's brief 2008 war with pro-Western Georgia.

South Ossetia's Central Election Commission said preliminary results looking at more than half the ballots cast, showed Dzhioyeva won with 56 percent of votes, while Bibilov received 40 percent. But Bibilov accused his rival of foul play and filed a complaint to the region's Supreme Court, citing voting violations, while Dzhioyeva called on him to admit defeat.

South Ossetia: Kremlin candidate losing in South Ossetia election | SFGate

An opposition candidate appeared Monday to have won a presidential election in the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia, defeating the Kremlin's chosen candidate in the Russia-allied enclave.

Former Education Minister Alla Dzhioyeva was leading with about 57 percent of Sunday's run-off vote against 40 percent for Emergencies Minister Anatoly Bibilov with ballots from 74 of the 85 precincts counted, the South Ossetian election commission said.

The Voting News Daily: Ballot transparency a statewide debate, Look elsewhere for voter fraud

Colorado: Ballot transparency a statewide debate | AspenTimes.com

A candidate’s request to inspect ballots cast in Aspen’s 2009 municipal election has set in motion similar efforts around Colorado. The end result might be new rules that govern the review of ballots or that withhold them from public inspection altogether.

Meanwhile, Aspen resident and 2009 mayoral candidate Marilyn Marks is expected to review on Tuesday 100 ballots cast in Pitkin County’s Nov. 1 election. Rather than simply eye the ballots, though, Marks has suggested that county Clerk and Recorder Janice Vos Caudill and a group of election officials look over 100 to 200 ballots with Marks and discuss whether any of them are “identifiable.”

The potential to link a voter to a particular ballot via various election information that is available to the public through the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) has emerged as a concern among county clerks across the state as they respond to ballot requests from Marks and others. Read More

Editorials: Opinion: A rogue convention? How GOP party rules may surprise in 2012 | Politico

The rules of a game often determine its winner. With the approach of the Republican Party’s first presidential nomination caucuses and primaries, party rules are already playing a key role — and just may lead Republicans on a wild nomination ride that won’t end until the last day of its convention in Tampa.

The Republican Party is an association rather than a government entity, making its national rules the equivalent of a constitution when it comes to its nomination process. To be sure, states may want to change the dates of a primary, state parties may change the manner of their nomination contests and members of Congress may pontificate about the process. But for the final word, it’s the Rules of the Republican Party. Read More

Connecticut: Connecticut Voters Elect Incumbent’s Son After Ballot Typo | Mason County Daily News

James J. Butler just won his first election, but he wasn’t even running for office. Because of a typo on the Derby, Conn., ballot, Butler was unwittingly elected to the city’s Board of Apportionment and Taxation, knocking out the incumbent, his father James R. Butler, who was actually campaigning for the seat.

“I understand that mistakes are made but this one is especially unfortunate,” Derby Republican Town Committee Chairman Tony Szewczy said in a letter to the county clerk pointing out the error. “We will be in violation of State Election law if we allow a person who wasn’t on the ballot and received no votes to be sworn in. This would also be a huge disservice to our voters.” Read More

Indiana: Lake County voting machine provider to be reviewed | Post-Tribune

A Ball State University-based oversight program will review the voting technology used by Lake County at the bidding of the Indiana Election Commission. The county’s vendor, MicroVote, has not reapplied for state certification though several of its models were certified in the past.

The Election Commission ordered the review because MicroVote wants the ability to sell parts to the 47 Indiana counties using its system.

Editorials: Opinion: A rogue convention? How GOP party rules may surprise in 2012 | Politico

Connecticut: Connecticut Voters Elect Incumbent’s Son After Ballot Typo | Mason County Daily News

Indiana: Lake County voting machine provider to be reviewed | Post-Tribune

The Election Commission ordered the review because MicroVote wants the ability to sell parts to the 47 Indiana counties using its system. A future ruling could impact Lake County’s ability to replace failed parts or purchase additional MicroVote machines.

Editorials: Look elsewhere for voter fraud | The Santa Fe New Mexican

If nothing else, Secretary of State Dianna Duran deserves credit for getting to the bottom of that age-old, oft-repeated New Mexico folk tale about dead people voting. Not so much, it turns out.

And Duran can prove it, too. Once in office, she and her staff have taken the state's voter list, torn it apart, put it back together and in the end, found almost no voter fraud in New Mexico. From the 64,000 voter registration records she once referred to state police as possible cases of voter fraud, we are down to 100-plus voters apparently registered illegally. Of those "illegally" registered, 19 possible non-citizens might have cast a ballot they should not have. Another 641 people, now believed to be deceased, remain on the rolls, although there is scant evidence they are voting. That's out of 1.1 million registered voters, by the way.

Bangladesh: Khaleda: No vote without army | bdnews24.com

The opposition will accept no election with electronic voting machines in use under a partisan government, BNP chief Khaleda Zia said, adding that army will have to be deployed in the upcoming election. "We will not accept any vote under the partisan government. We will not allow such elections in the country. Now they [the government] are conspiring two things, holding the polls without deploying army and getting the ballots on EVM," Khaleda told a wayside in Jessore on Sunday, as part of her two-day road march to Khulna.

"We want to say that no polls without the army (deployment) will be allowed. The EVMs are vote manipulation machines. We do not accept them." The BNP-backed candidate was withdrawn from the Narayanganj City Corporation mayoral race only seven hours before the vote on Oct 30 as the army was not deployed.

Congo: DRC Prepares For Vote Following Violence in Capital | Voice of America

Voters in the Democratic Republic of Congo are preparing for Monday's presidential and legislative elections with opposition candidates already claiming fraud following violence in the capital in which at least two people were killed.

Electoral commission vice president Jacques Djoli Eseng'Ekeli says ballots and ballot boxes are being delivered by helicopter to remote polling stations in this country the size of Western Europe. Eseng'Ekeli says there may be some difficulties for some people to find the right place to vote, but he expects that everyone will eventually be able to cast their ballots.

Congo: Pessimism grips Congo with elections in disarray | The Independent

Campaigning in the Democratic Republic of Congo lurches to a riotous and uncertain finish this weekend, with authorities warning that rain could still delay a historic vote in sub-Saharan Africa's biggest country.

Should it go ahead, Monday's vote will pit the young incumbent Joseph Kabila – whose father toppled dictator Mobutu Sese Seko – against elder statesman Etienne Tshisekedi, hailed as the "father of Congolese democracy" and standing for president for the first time.

Egypt: Egypt’s election: Another charade | The Economist

Elections in Egypt tend to produce not just one but two solid majorities. The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) has never, since its creation in 1978, failed to win less than a two-thirds majority of seats in Egypt’s parliament. And since that time, the vast majority of voting-age Egyptians have never bothered to vote.

Predictability under a veneer of democracy has given three decades of stability to the most populous and politically pivotal Arab state. But it has also produced a ruling class increasingly remote from an increasingly bitter people.

Egypt: Military rulers reject demands to leave | The Globe and Mail

Egypt's military rulers rejected protester demands for them to step down immediately and said Thursday they would start the first round of parliamentary elections on time next week despite serious unrest in Cairo and other cities.

The ruling military council insisted it is not the same as the old regime it replaced, but the generals appear to be on much the same path that doomed Hosni Mubarak nine months ago — responding to the current crisis by delivering speeches seen as arrogant, mixing concessions with threats and using brutal force.

France: Poll shows French favour voting rights for foreigners | The Local