Voting Blogs: The DISCLOSE Act and the Non-Profit Campaign Finance Loophole | Legislation & Policy Brief Blog

Thanks in no small part to the efforts of comedian Stephen Colbert, the issues around Super PACs and the campaign finance regime in this country have been elevated in the national consciousness. People following campaign finance are aware of the now famous 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC), which held that corporate and union political speech, in the form of spending on independent and electioneering communications, is protected by the First Amendment. However, there is still considerable misunderstanding about how the system works and why corporate and union donations remain largely undisclosed. This post will attempt to briefly explain the main forces at work in keeping these donations in the shadows and the current most viable legislative fix, the Disclosure of Information on Spending on Campaigns Leads to Open and Secure Elections (DISCLOSE) Act of 2012 recently reintroduced in the House. Super PACs are among the hottest discussion topics this campaign season and are used as shorthand for the problem that ail our campaign finance system, but, in fact, the issues around Super PACs are not quite so simple. Super PACs emerged not directly from the Citizens United decision but from a subsequent DC Circuit court case called SpeechNow v. FEC. In that case, the court held that corporations and unions were permitted to make unlimited donations to support political committees making so-called independent expenditures – political spending not coordinated with a campaign. After that decision the FEC began permitting independent expenditure political action committees (IE-PACs) which were soon dubbed Super PACs.

Alaska: Unscanned ballots tallied as problems investigated in Anchorage | Anchorage Daily News

When some Anchorage precincts ran out of ballots on Election Day, frustrated voters were asked to cast substitute ballots. They selected their mayor using ballots printed for faraway precincts. They marked their vote on a controversial gay rights proposal on blue sample ballots or hastily made photocopies. On Thursday, 1,800 of those makeshift ballots were being counted at City Hall even as election officials and city leaders work to untangle just what went wrong April 3. The replacement ballots couldn’t be counted alongside regular ballots the night of the election because they’re incompatible with voting machines, said City Clerk Barbara Gruenstein. “These are the ones that people showed up at their own home precincts … but there was a shortage of ballots,” Gruenstein said. “So they voted a sample ballot that won’t slide through the machine.” The city will release results of the 1,800 “unscannable” votes as soon as they become available, Gruenstein said.

California: Every Vote Counts — Except When the Post Office Is on the Brink | East Bay Express

This afternoon, the National Association of Letter Carriers will be hitting the streets (the streets identified here in a delightful chart) to defend the post office. There’s another nationwide demonstration called Occupy the Post Office organized by Community and Postal Workers United set for April 17. There’s reason to demonstrate. Currently, 223 post office processing centers nationwide are slated to close starting this summer, and 14 of those are in California — including the one in Petaluma, which means all North Bay mail will be headed to the Oakland processing center. Petaluma is 47.5 miles away from Oakland, and not all the Petaluma mail clerks will be financially fit enough to travel the distance. 229 positions will be lost, and mail in the Oakland processing center could pile up. So, that’s a problem. Not just for citizens, or for mail carriers, but for the entire vote-by-mail system. Voters can no longer expect their ballots to arrive overnight once the consolidations take place — or, worse, they’lll expect their ballot to arrive overnight, and then it won’t.

Indiana: Access to Marion County voter database triggers lawsuit | Indianapolis Star

Three Marion County judicial candidates and two candidates for the Indiana House on Thursday sued the Marion County Election Board and the Board of Voter Registration for access to the county’s voter registration database. The complaint, filed in Marion Circuit Court, says the voter registration office unlawfully denied requests to access the database for their campaigns. The plaintiffs are running against their parties’ endorsed candidates in the May 8 primary.

New Hampshire: Push poll law scrutinized by skeptical FEC | NEWS06

New Hampshire’s controversial push poll law may be on shaky legal ground when it comes to candidates for federal offices. A member of the Federal Election Commission said Thursday the state cannot force federal candidates to identify themselves to voters when they conduct polling calls calls against their opponents. The Federal Election Campaign Act, which requires no such disclaimer on polling calls, “clearly preempts” the state push poll law for federal elections, Commissioner Donald McGahn said during a meeting of the six-member Federal Election Commission. “This isn’t about federalism,” said McGahn. “It’s different. It’s about federal elections, and the Constitution makes clear that the House and Senate are the judge of their elections and they are the ones who can pass laws.”

Ohio: Election-law changes opposed by League of Women Voters, Common Cause and others | Youngstown News

Election advocates urged lawmakers Thursday to refrain from passing any more changes to the state’s election laws, saying their actions to date already have caused too much confusion among voters. The League of Women Voters of Ohio, Common Cause Ohio and other groups want the Republicans who control the Ohio Senate and House to stop a pre-emptive repeal effort on House Bill 194, the controversial GOP-backed election-reform package that is the subject of a November referendum. And they want the Legislature to leave laws as-is until after the presidential election. “Enough already,” said Carrie Davis, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio. “In the last 12 months, the Legislature has considered but not passed a bill on voter ID. They passed a comprehensive voting bill, HB 194. Two weeks later, they went back and fixed things that they missed and mistakes they had made. … There was then a referendum effort on HB 194 to stop it from going into effect. And now, they are planning to pass a repeal of HB 194. … We’ve been told … that they plan to introduce and pass yet another election bill before they adjourn for the summer. All of this in 12 months. It’s too much.”

Oklahoma: Tulsa County Judge Could Decide Who Wins Oklahoma House Seat | KOTV.com

A hearing will resume next week in a Tulsa County courtroom over the outcome of a special election for state House District 71 seat. Democrat Dan Arthrell and Republican Katie Henke are seeking to replace former state Representative Dan Sullivan. In that special election April 3, 2012, Arthrell won by three votes. Henke asked for a recount and on Wednesday, the Tulsa County Election Board certified Henke as the winner by one vote. After the board certified the election, two uncounted ballots for Arthrell were found inside a ballot box. The election board believes the two ballots were caught somehow, maybe on the edge of the drop box underneath the voting machine.

US Virgin Islands: Senate committee endorses paper ballots | Virgin Islands Daily News

The Senate Government Operations, Energy and Veterans Affairs Committee on Wednesday voted to forward three elections bills to the Rules Committee and tabled two others. The bills that moved out of committee were: a bill allowing paper ballots under the elections laws of the territory, a bill pushing up the date for primary elections so the territory would be in compliance with the federal Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, and a bill changing the way senators are elected to a combination of island seats and at-large seats. Senators said they plan to amend all of the forwarded bills while they are in the Rules Committee. The bill about paper ballots, sponsored by Sen. Neville James and co-sponsored by Sen. Celestino White Sr., would allow voters to choose whether they wanted to vote by machine or by paper ballot. As written, it also requires that all paper ballots be counted after the closing of the polls, at the same time that electronic ballots are counted on election night.

Wisconsin: Democrats want faux candidates out of recall election | Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune

Democrats asked state elections officials on Thursday to block six Republicans trying to run as Democrats from the ballots for this spring’s recall elections. Democratic Party of Wisconsin attorney Jeremy Levinson filed Thursday’s complaint against the Republican Party of Wisconsin and the six people it recruited to run as fake Democrats, or so-called “protest candidates.” The complaint, filed with the state Government Accountability Board, said the GOP and fake Democrats — Gladys Huber, Isaac Weix, Gary Ellerman, Tamra Varebrook, James Engel and James Buckley — gave false information on documents submitted to elections officials. “The respondents falsified information on these documents, asserting that the six phony primary candidates were ‘affiliated’ with and ‘represent’ the Democratic Party,” the complaint reads.

Wisconsin: The Real Loser Of The Scott Walker Recall? The State Of Wisconsin | Richard L. Hasen/The New Republic

On June 5, Wisconsin voters will head to the polls to decide whether to recall controversial Republican Governor Scott Walker and hislieutenant governor, Rebecca Kleefisch. The current pollingshows a close race. But while it’s not yet clear whether Walker will survive the vote, it’s increasingly safe to declare one winner and one loser from the recall election. The winner is the national Democratic Party, which is already reaping benefits. The loser is the cause of civility in the state of Wisconsin. Democrats may not succeed in removing Walker from office, which would be only the third removal of a U.S. governor ever (following a North Dakota governor in 1921 and California’s Gray Davis in 2003). But the recall vote will likely improve the Democrats’ general election prospects. The June election will be a practice run for get-out-the-vote and other organizing efforts in November. That provides an opportunity to both parties to make sure voters are registered to vote–but it’s Democrats who stand to disproportionately benefit, as they usually have a harder time with voter registration, for various demographic reasons (ie: their voters’ incomes are lower; they move homes more frequently.)

East Timor: Ex-guerrillas face off in East Timor run-off election | Asia One

East Timor’s second presidential election as a free nation will see two ex-guerrillas compete in a run-off vote on Monday, after the Nobel Prize-winning incumbent was knocked out in the first round. Either Francisco Guterres “Lu Olo” or Taur Matan Ruak, both heroes of the nation’s 24-year war against Indonesian occupation, will replace Jose Ramos-Horta, who trailed in third place in a vote seen as a key test for the young democracy. While the presidency is largely ceremonial, it enjoyed a high profile under Ramos-Horta, and the election is the first in a series of landmark events for the half-island nation of 1.1 million people. In May, East Timor will celebrate 10 years of independence, which came after three years of UN administration. Then, in July, voters will choose a new government in a general election. At the end of the year the impoverished and chronically unstable nation bids goodbye to UN forces stationed in the country since 1999.

Editorials: French elections: how will London vote? | The Guardian

Sitting in a pub in Bethnal Green and nursing a mug of beer, Vincent Drapeau is hard pushed to think of what he misses about his home country. “The price of wine in supermarkets,” he says. “The baguettes in the bakery every morning. The diversity of landscapes.” He runs out. There is no more. He is at home here, in a quirky corner of the capital better known for its greasy spoons and street-art than its pâtisseries and pavement cafes. “East London leads London and London leads Europe, and maybe the world!” he declares, chuckling. Even he seems a little taken aback by the zeal of his anglophilia. The 25-year-old is just one of an estimated 300,000-400,000 French people who have crossed the Channel to live in Britain and are now scattered all over the country and, predominantly, in London. He is far from being, however, a member of the fabled South Kensington set, the close-knit community of expatriates based in and around the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, the Institut Français and the “Frog Alley” of Bute Street. For decades, the prominence of the enclave has caused it to become the symbol of the French community in Britain – much to the irritation of those who want no part of it. One woman, who lives in Kent, describes the south-west London district as an inward-looking “ghetto”- albeit one of wealth and privilege.

Guinea-Bissau: Coup Removes Presidential Front-Runner | NYTimes.com

A grimly familiar sequence of gunfire in the capital, military communiqués on the radio and the arrest of government officials is repeating itself in the small coastal state of Guinea-Bissau — apparently the latest West African nation to succumb to a coup d’état. A second round of voting in presidential elections was scheduled to take place later this month, but on Friday, the heavy favorite, Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Jr., was in army custody along with other senior officials. The military, which has dominated politics in the country ever since it fought its way to independence from Portugal in 1974, announced it did not intend to stay in power and called a meeting of political parties late Friday. But military officials did not say what their plans were for the nation of 1.6 million people, which is heavily dependent on aid and considered a major transit hub for Latin American drugs. Once again, in a country long accustomed to coups, the trigger was apparently the army’s perception that its prerogatives were threatened, diplomats said.

Iraq: Electoral commission head arrested for graft, sent to jail | Oman Tribune

A judge from Iraq’s anti-corruption watchdog has ordered the head of the nation’s electoral commission and another member of the panel to be jailed until Sunday, a fellow commission member said. Faraj Al Haidari, the head of the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) and member Karim Al Tamimi are jailed “until Sunday due to a decision taken by a judge from the integrity commission,” a member of IHEC said on Friday on condition of anonymity. The judge could also order an extension of their custody. Asked about the matter, Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki’s spokesman Ali Mussawi said only that “it is a judicial issue related to the integrity commission and the judiciary.”

National: Ban on political ads on public TV struck down | Reuters

A divided U.S. appeals court struck down a federal ban on political advertising on public TV and radio stations, a decision that could open the public airwaves to a heavy dose of campaign ads leading up to the November elections. By a 2-1 vote, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said the Federal Communications Commission violated the First Amendment’s free speech clause by blocking public broadcasters from running political and public issue ads. The court said the ban was too broad, and that lifting it would not threaten to undermine the educational nature of public broadcast stations. It upheld a ban on ads for goods and services on behalf of for-profit companies. “Public issue and political speech in particular is at the very core of the First Amendment’s protection,” Judge Carlos Bea wrote in the main opinion. “Public issue and political advertisements pose no threat of ‘commercialization’,” he continued. “Such advertisements do not encourage viewers to buy commercial goods and services. A ban on such advertising therefore cannot be narrowly tailored to serve the interest of preventing the ‘commercialization’ of broadcasting.”

Editorials: No Election Assistance Commissioners? No problem. | The Washington Post

Wait, isn’t this an election year? The kind that will see voters stepping into booths and casting ballots, pulling levers and punching buttons? Bad timing then for the Election Assistance Commission to be completely leaderless. It’s the body that was created in the wake of the 2000 presidential election’s hanging-chad debacle and tasked with overseeing federal election standards. Not one of the body’s four commissioner seats is filled, and it looks like they’ll remain vacant for the foreseeable future. Adding to the leadership vacuum, the commission’s executive director left in November. Filling in has been general counsel Mark Robbins — although he has been nominated to another post and could leave the agency if confirmed.

Voting Blogs: Cost of Voter ID: What we know, and what we don’t | electionlineWeekly

Last year, electionline ran an article entitled, “Debate Over Photo ID at the Polls Shifts to Costs.” Since then, voter ID — the issue of how voters are identified at the polls — has only gotten hotter. Recently, Pennsylvania enacted photo ID legislation, Minnesota’s legislature put aconstitutional amendment about photo ID on the November ballot, and Virginiasent a bill to the governor, which he proposed changes to. See the National Conference of State Legislature’s Voter ID: State Requirements webpage or last week’s Electionline Weekly for the status of voter ID legislation around the country. This year, cost concerns seem to be buried beneath the partisan debate. And yet money always matters, so the question remains: how much does it cost to implement a photo voter ID requirement? No one knows for sure. There are before-the-fact estimates, and after-the-fact “actuals,” but none are cut and dried. The truth is that the cost of voter ID — like the cost of virtually everything election-related — is hard to estimate, or to measure.   For now, we can offer a look at legislative estimates and “boots on the ground” details from states that are in the process of implementing last year’s new photo ID laws, and perhaps explain why these numbers are so difficult to pin down.

Voting Blogs: I Have CONFIDENCE … in the Election System? | Election Academy

Very often, when you listen to election policy debates, you hear one (and usually both) sides invoking the value of “voter confidence”. The term isn’t very well-defined, but it is thought to capture a general sense of satisfaction with and acceptance of the election system. It also has a certain appeal; if democracy rests on the consent of the governed, confidence can be considered an important measure of the degree to which voters accept the results of elections and the frequent transfer of power between parties or individuals who otherwise fiercely disagree. Fortunately, voter confidence has been a popular subject of study by political scientists, who examine responses to public opinion surveys to divine how confident (or not) voters are about voting systems and procedures.

Voting Blogs: A Silver Bullet That Would End Secret Tax-Exempt Money in Elections | OurFuture.org

No doubt about it, large unlimited donations are flowing into SuperPACs from rich individuals and corporations aimed at influencing who is elected at all levels of government in 2012. With the SuperPACs and other forms of political committees regulated by the federal and state election agencies, or by the IRS under section 527, at least we know who the donors are. But when political campaign expenditures are made by various forms of nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations, such as 501(c)(4) social welfare groups (like Crossroads GPS) or 501(c)(6) business associations (like the US Chamber of Commerce), there is no general law requiring their donors to be identified. So secret money in the millions, once again, flows in. A number of Senators and members of the House of Representatives have proposed a new DISCLOSE 2012 Act to force public disclosure of secret donors in federal elections. A similar bill failed by one vote in 2010. If the new Act passes, will it solve the problem? It might help, but it wouldn’t be enough. In 29 pages, the Act is cumbersome at best.

Voting Blogs: The Return of CREEP | ProPublica

With 300-plus super PACs and counting, it would be easy to miss CREEP. But last Thursday, a new super PAC ingeniously named the Committee for the Re-Election of the President registered with the Federal Election Commission. The committee is based out of a post office box at the Watergate Complex—an homage, of course, to the other Committee for the Re-Election of the President, the fundraising committee for President Richard Nixon that became embroiled in the Watergate scandal. It’s an inside joke with a serious punchline. The old CREEP (which used the acronym CRP and at one point was called the Committee to Re-Elect the President) helped spur the creation of the FEC. The website for CREEP Super PAC says it’s committed “to raising voices not dollars” and advocates disclosure. “It’s an excellent chance for people to step back and say, ‘Are we happy with 40 years of campaign finance and the lack of disclosure?’” said Robert Lucas, 22, founder of the new CREEP and a graduate student in public policy at Georgetown University. “There’s a lot of irony, with the 40th anniversary of Watergate and where we are now.”

Alaska: Anchorage Assembly Votes Against Independent Council To Investigate Election | alaskapublic.org

The Anchorage Assembly has voted ‘no’ on appointing an independent council to investigate the Municipal Election and called a special work session to review the situation. The announcement comes a week after polling places ran out of ballots. Rhonda Matthews holds her right to vote dear. She’s voted in every election since she was 18, except when she was stationed overseas with the Air Force. She is one of the people who contact the ACLU of Alaska to report that she was not able to vote during the municipal election. “I don’t care what side of the politics you’re on, it has to do with the right to vote and I was denied that,” Matthews said. Matthews first went to her voting precinct at Klatt Elementary School just after 7 pm on April 3. That’s where she says she was turned away by an election worker in the parking lot who told her they’d run out of ballots and directed her to vote at the Alaska Club on O’malley.

Alaska: Anchorage Assembly Votes Against Independent Council To Investigate Election | alaskapublic.org

The Anchorage Assembly has voted ‘no’ on appointing an independent council to investigate the Municipal Election and called a special work session to review the situation. The announcement comes a week after polling places ran out of ballots. Rhonda Matthews holds her right to vote dear. She’s voted in every election since she was 18, except when she was stationed overseas with the Air Force. She is one of the people who contact the ACLU of Alaska to report that she was not able to vote during the municipal election. “I don’t care what side of the politics you’re on, it has to do with the right to vote and I was denied that,” Matthews said. Matthews first went to her voting precinct at Klatt Elementary School just after 7 pm on April 3. That’s where she says she was turned away by an election worker in the parking lot who told her they’d run out of ballots and directed her to vote at the Alaska Club on O’malley.

Colorado: Lawmakers battle over inactive voters | Aurora Sentinel

Senate Democrats moved to take down what they say is a roadblock that makes it more difficult for more than 100,000 voters to participate in the November elections, resurrecting a proposal Monday that House Republicans previously rejected. The legislative action would send mail-in ballots to so-called inactive voters who otherwise would have to cast ballots in person. And the implications are huge. About 37 percent of the affected voters are Democrats. Around 23 percent are Republicans. The remaining 40 percent are unaffiliated — a bloc both parties think they can use to pick up support. Democrats say they are pressing the issue to make voting easier, adding that the issue is more urgent with important state issues and the White House on the line. “I would think that we would want every possible soul who’s eligible to vote, to be able to vote in that election,” said Sen. Rollie Heath, the chair of the committee that brought back the plan.

Guam: Bordallo, party differ on election investigation | Pacific Daily News

Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo said she will consider a request that she ask federal authorities about the status of an election irregularities complaint. Bordallo yesterday released her statement after Democratic Majority Leader Rory Respicio announced that Bordallo responded “positively to the party’s request for a congressional investigation.” The Democratic Party complaint stems from former Gov. Carl Gutierrez’s loss to Republican Gov. Eddie Calvo in the 2010 General Election. Respicio’s statement described Bordallo as having committed to a congressional investigation “into the allegations of voter fraud and electioneering in the Guam Election Commission’s own findings of illegalities and irregularities surrounding the 2010 election.”

Illinois: Winnebago County to be reimbursed for oversize ballot costs | Rockford Register Star

Winnebago County will be reimbursed for the extra labor and material costs during the March primaries as election judges and employees scrambled to reprint more than 8,500 oversized ballots. Clerk Margie Mullins met Tuesday with Larry Mandel, president of GBS, the Lisle company that supplied the ballots, which were one-sixteenth of an inch too large to fit through counting machines. GBS agreed to replenish the stockpiled inventory the county had to use on Election Day to print new ballots, credit the county’s next printing bill and pay a small cash sum to compensate people who worked well into the night of the election and the following day reprinting the ballots, Mullins said. Mullins couldn’t say Wednesday the exact expense in labor and supplies the county incurred because of the error, but said she is pleased her office will be compensated. Mandel “told me that they just want to get everybody involved in this taken care of to the best of their ability and close the book on this and go forward from here,” Mullins said.

Oklahoma: No ruling yet in recount in Tulsa House race | NewsOK.com

A Tulsa judge is expected to issue a ruling early next week after meeting Thursday with attorneys and candidates in an Oklahoma House of Representatives race being decide by a handful of votes. Initial results in an April 3 special election for the District 71 seat determined Democrat Dan Arthrell defeated Republican Katie Henke by three votes. A Wednesday recount requested by Henke found she won by one vote. But after the Tulsa County Election Board certified Henke as the winner, two more ballots cast for Arthrell were found under a ballot box.

Oklahoma: Stray ballots found after Republican certified winner in Oklahoma House District 71 | Tulsa World

Tulsa County election officials certified a new winner in the razor-thin House District 71 election Wednesday – only to discover two more ballots that apparently had remained unsecured in election equipment for days and which would reverse the results again if counted. The whole mess will be taken to court on Thursday morning for Tulsa County District Judge Daman Cantrell to figure out. The day started with Democrat Dan Arthrell ahead by three votes in the April 3 election. At the request of Republican candidate Katie Henke, Cantrell ordered a recount Wednesday, which resulted in Arthrell losing four votes and Henke being certified as the winner by one vote. But several hours later, acting at the urging of Arthrell’s supporters, election officials reinspected election equipment and found two more ballots from the election – both for Arthrell, enough to swing the returns in the other direction.

Oklahoma: New ballots found after recount in Oklahoma House race | RealClearPolitics

The results of a recount that changed the outcome of an Oklahoma House race by one vote have been thrown into question after Tulsa County Election Board officials reported finding two more ballots for the losing candidate Wednesday night. Earlier in the day, county Election Board officials recounted ballots by hand that were cast in the House District 71 special election initially won April 3 by Democrat Dan Arthrell 1,418-1,415 over Republican Katie Henke. The recount determined that Henke received 1,415 votes during the election, while Arthrell collected 1,414 votes, Tulsa County Election Board Secretary Patty Bryant said. With four fewer votes, Arthrell ended up losing the race by one vote, and the recount result was certified by the board. “It was eating on us, and we were thinking `There’s got to be a reason for this,’ ” Bryant said. Two technicians who work for the board looked through 15 precinct ballot boxes and found two ballots in one of them, Bryant said. “We immediately contacted the state Election Board and Secretary Paul Ziriax and the assistant district attorney that helps the Election Board with our counsel,” Bryant said.

Pennsylvania: Luzerne County Elections Director Piazza fired 2 weeks before primary | Citizens Voice

With less than two weeks to go before the April 24 primary, Luzerne County fired Director of Elections Leonard Piazza. Piazza disclosed his termination on his Facebook webpage before 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, and county Solicitor Vito DeLuca confirmed a letter was delivered to Piazza at his home informing him of his termination. County Manager Robert Lawton suspended Piazza with pay after a disciplinary hearing April 5. Lawton and DeLuca have not provided a reason for the termination, claiming the decision is a private personnel matter. But the decision appears to be connected to Piazza’s attempt to audit the campaign finances of county Controller Walter L. Griffith Jr., who in December started reviewing Piazza’s attendance records as part of a payroll audit of 378 county employees.