Michigan: Michigan Governor Snyder vetoes election bills | Michigan Radio

MPRN’s Rick Pluta reports that reactions to Gov. Snyder’s vetoes today were divided across party lines: Republicans – including Secretary of State Ruth Johnson – said the bills were reasonable ways to ensure only people who are supposed to vote cast ballots. She says the veto will not stop her from including a box on voter registration forms affirming their U.S. citizenship. The governor did sign 11 other bills in the package. But GOP leaders in the Legislature expressed disappointment in their Republican governor’s decision to veto some of their work. House Speaker Jase Bolger quickly issued a statement expressing his disappointment in the vetoes. Democrats, on the other hand, praised the decision as “courageous.”

The Voting News Daily: Pentagon Reverses Course on American Voters Living Abroad, Corporate Contribution Ban Upheld

National: Pentagon Reverses Course on American Voters Living Abroad | NYTimes.com Responding to the vocal concerns of American expatriates, the Pentagon agency responsible for overseas voting has agreed not to enforce a requirement for voters requesting absentee ballots to state categorically that they either intend to stay abroad indefinitely or not. In a separate development, the…

Voting Blogs: Corporate Contribution Ban Upheld | Brennan Center for Justice

Amid the excitement over last week’s health care decision, the Fourth Circuit’s major campaign finance decision in a case called United States v. Danielczyk received relatively little attention. However, Danielczyk is a crucially important case, affirming the constitutionality of a longstanding federal law banning corporations from giving campaign donations directly to candidates. The opinion overturned a flawed lower court decision — and limited the reach of Citizens United. The federal ban on corporate contributions, now located in the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act, has been in force since Congress passed the Tillman Act in 1907. For more than a century, it has been one of the core protections against corruption in our democracy.

Voting Blogs: The Current Electoral College is Like the World Series (Which is Why We Need to Change It) | FairVote.org

Defending the current structure of the Electoral College is a difficult task. The winner-take-all method–in which states allocate all their electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate carries the state–is still used by the vast majority of states today. Its apologists, struggling to make this outdated and unfair system appealing to Americans, have tried to make it seem quintessentially American by comparing it to the most quintessentially American thing possible: baseball’s World Series. This analogy, introduced by MIT researcher Alan Natapoff in the 1990s and widely circulated after the controversial presidential election of 2000, is still commonly cited today as a defense of a winner-take-all Electoral College. It should not be. If anything, comparing these two American institutions perfectly illustrates we why we need to get rid of the winner-take-all Electoral College rules and establish a fairer system of electing the president based on a national popular vote. The basic argument goes like this. The World Series is divided into seven games. The winner of the World Series is the team that wins four out of the seven games, not the team that scores the most aggregate runs over the course of the series. Likewise, the winner of the Electoral College is the candidate that wins the majority of electoral votes through winning states, not the candidate that receives the most aggregate votes in the total population.

Minnesota: Missouri offers tutorial for Minnesota in photo ID battle | StarTribune.com

The “Show Me State” of Missouri has a lot to show Minnesota about the travails of trying to require voters to show a photo ID before casting ballots. Short version: It won’t be easy. Six years after the law first passed in Missouri, the state’s voter-friendly courts have kept photo ID and related election-law changes off the books and even off the ballot. Minnesota advocates on both sides have taken notice. “It does show a path to success,” said Mike Dean of Common Cause Minnesota, which opposes the election law changes and hopes to duplicate Missouri’s record of blocking them in court. “The Missouri legislature really screwed up,” responds Dan McGrath of Minnesota Majority, which supports the photo ID requirements. “The Minnesota Legislature didn’t make the same mistake.”

New Hampshire: Photo ID still has federal hurdle | NEWS0604

Lawmakers and others were celebrating the override of Gov. John Lynch’s veto of the photo identification bill, but the celebration may have come a little too early. The pending law must be reviewed by the U.S. Department of Justice because any significant changes in state election laws — and requiring photo identification is a significant change — have to be reviewed. New Hampshire — the only Northern state affected — and 15 other states are subject to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which seeks to eliminate discriminatory voting practices that bar or hinder voting by minorities. New Hampshire was snagged in the 1968 presidential election when 10 towns were identified with less than 50 percent of adults voting in the a presidential election, a violation of the act.

New Hampshire: Attorney General Holder could block Voter ID | New Hampshire Watchdog

U.S Attorney General Eric Holder could be the last hurdle between New Hampshire and its new Voter ID law. Granite State lawmakers may have overcome the objection of Governor John Lynch to the state’s new Voter ID law, but they may still have to get Holder’s permission. Under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Department of Justice must “pre-clear” any changes in election laws affecting ten New Hampshire communities. The House and Senate overrode Lynch’s veto to a new Voter ID law on Wednesday, meaning voters will have to show photo identification at the polls this fall, or sign an affidavit that they are who they claim to be. New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Matt Mavrogeorge tells New Hampshire Watchdog that his office has let Washington know that the new law is on the books. “We’ve been in contact with the lawyers in Washington to let them know about the law,” Mavrogeorge says. “We don’t anticipate any problems.”

New Mexico: Doña Ana County residents confused over voter registration forms mailed by nonprofit group | www.kfoxtv.com

Dona Ana County said a group called The Voter Participation Center has sent out voter registration forms to some ineligible voters, including deceased people and non-U.S. citizens. The group is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization which said it focuses on helping unmarried women, minorities and people under age 30 register to vote, but some of the forms have mistakenly gone to people who never should have received them. “I got an email from a French couple, French nationals, who said, ‘I don’t know why you’re asking me to register,” Dona Ana County Clerk Lynn Ellins said.

South Carolina: Justice Department again nixes voter ID law | Rock Hill Herald

The U.S. Justice Department has turned down South Carolina’s voter identification law for a second time as the state’s lawsuit against the federal government moves forward. “I remain unable to conclude that the State of South Carolina has carried its burden of showing that the submitted change in Section 5 of Act R54 neither has a discriminatory purpose nor will have a discriminatory effect,” Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez wrote in a letter Friday to an attorney representing South Carolina in its lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson sued Holder after the federal government blocked South Carolina’s photo ID requirement in December, saying it could keep tens of thousands of the state’s minorities from casting ballots. It was the first such law to be refused by the federal agency in nearly 20 years. The Justice Department has said the law failed to meet requirements of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which requires approval from that agency for changes to South Carolina’s election laws because of the state’s past failure to protect blacks’ voting rights.

Wisconsin: Recount confirms Democrat wins Senate recall election | Leader-Telegram

A recount has concluded Democrat John Lehman defeated incumbent Republican Van Wanggaard in last month’s state Senate recall races. An official canvas following the June 5 elections showed Lehman leading Wanggaard by 834 votes out of nearly 72,000 ballots cast in Racine County’s 21st Senate District. A Lehman victory would give Democrats a one-seat majority in the Senate. Wanggaard requested a recount, but final tallies from the Racine County clerk’s office Monday showed Lehman with 36,358 votes and Wanggaard with 35,539, a difference of 819 votes.

Wisconsin: Democrat defeats GOP senator in recall recount | Wausau Daily Herald

Wisconsin Democrats moved closer to controlling the state Senate today after a recount showed Democrat John Lehman defeated Republican Sen. Van Wanggaard in last month’s recall elections, though the incumbent said his campaign was pondering a lawsuit challenging the results. A Lehman victory in Racine County’s 21st Senate District would give Democrats a one-seat majority in the chamber until the November elections. Lehman issued a two-sentence statement saying he looks forward to joining his colleagues in the Senate. But Wanggaard refused to concede. “I will spend the next couple of days reviewing the evidence, speaking with voters, supporters, and my family before deciding my next step,” Wanggaard said in a statement.

Israel: Republican Group Deploys Voter Registration Drive in Israel | usnews.com

For more than a century, the GOP has had a hard time pulling in the Jewish vote. But in a move demonstrating just how close Republicans expect the 2012 election to be, the GOP isn’t leaving any constituencies to chance—even those living abroad. The Republican Jewish Coalition announced Monday that its board of directors, together with former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleicher, are headed next week to Israel to encourage Jewish Americans living abroad to register to vote just in time for the presidential election. The Republican group hopes American voters living in Israel might help the GOP gain an edge among Jewish voters in the U.S.

Ireland: Recycling firm’s plan to sell e-voting machines for charity blocked by government department | The Irish Times

Attempts by a private company to sell some of the controversial e-voting machines for charity have been blocked by the Department of the Environment. Kurt Kyck of KMK Metals Recycling Ltd in Tullamore, Co Offaly, which bought the machines from the government, was told by a department official yesterday that attempts to sell 100 of them for charity were in breach of the terms of his contract. The machines, which have cost the State €55 million, were sold for scrap to Mr Kyck’s company for just €70,000 last week. Mr Kyck had indicated he would sell 100 of the machines for charity at €100 each, with the money going to children’s charity Barretstown. He had come up with the idea after receiving many inquiries from people interested in buying one of the machines. He said he had received more than 130 inquiries from organisations as diverse as small museums and pubs that wanted to put them on display.

Jordan: King urges Islamists to take part in elections despite dissatisfaction with reforms | The Washington Post

Jordan’s king urged his country’s Islamist opposition Sunday to take part in upcoming elections, despite their dissatisfaction with reforms. King Abdullah II’s appeal in a rare interview on Jordan TV was part of his attempt to engage with the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, Jordan’s main opposition. Islamists have made gains all over the region after Arab Spring uprisings and show increasing strength in Jordan. “Our doors and hearts are open to everyone, including the Muslim Brotherhood and their party,” he said. “We call on all groups to take part in this reform process and participate in the legislative elections.” Abdullah is concerned that the Brotherhood’s party will boycott elections, undermining his reform plan and igniting a violent uprising, like elsewhere in the Mideast. No date has been set, though the election is expected this year.

Libya: Election Commission Offices in Eastern Libya Are Sacked | NYTimes.com

Hundreds of armed protesters on Sunday attacked the offices of Libya’s election commission in two cities, Benghazi and Tobruk, in anger over the way seats in next week’s planned election for a constituent assembly were distributed among the country’s regions. The protesters carried computers, ballot boxes and ballots out of the offices, and shattered and burned them in the streets outside, according to witnesses, news agencies and photographs that circulated on the Internet. Some of the attackers carried signs calling the leader of Libya’s interim government a “traitor” to the eastern region of the country, known as Cyrenaica, which the protesters said got too few seats in the assembly. Others demanded the writing of a constitution before elections.

National: Trump, Koch brothers among mega-donors looking down-ticket | Politico.com

Conservative megadonors Sheldon Adelson, the Koch brothers and Donald Trump aren’t stopping with their efforts to swing the presidential election. Now, they’re shoveling cash into down-ticket races. Their big checks have helped state-focused GOP groups more than double the cash haul of their Democratic counterparts and open up another front that could help Mitt Romney beat President Barack Obama.Many of the hottest gubernatorial and legislative races are in key presidential election states, including North Carolina, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, and the increased activity could add attention to conservative policies on critical issues like government spending, labor rights, voter access, gay rights and immigration, and could help tip the scales in Romney’s favor. Negative ads against the Democrats won’t hurt either.

Colorado: Officials answer election suit | Pueblo Chieftain

Election officials in Chaffee County and five other counties contend a citizen group suing the officials is trying to create a nonexistent illusion of harm about access to public records. County Clerk and Recorder Joyce Reno and her counterparts in the other counties contend Citizen Center overstated the scope of a court order that restricts requests from the group’s members to view records. The advocacy group, based in Aspen, claimed earlier this month the order violates its right to view records kept by the election officials.

Florida: State working to settle voter registration suit | Daily Record

The state and the opponents of a suspended voter registration law are moving toward a settlement in a lawsuit over the new rules, both sides said Thursday, even as a group of voters is trying to brush aside the state’s legal strategy and pursue an appeal. In a brief scheduling conference Thursday with U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle, who struck down new regulations on third-party voter registration organizations at the end of last month, an attorney for the groups said the two sides were close to striking a deal. “We expect to get something on file with the court shortly memorializing the agreement,” said Farrah Berse, a lawyer representing opponents who had sued to block the law. In an interview later on Thursday, Secretary of State Ken Detzner confirmed that both sides are trying to avoid a longer legal battle over the voter law, passed by the Legislature last year. “I’m optimistic that we’ll probably get a good result and there won’t be an appeal,” Detzner said. “That’s not final, but we’re optimistic.”

Ohio: Federal court ruling to address dispute over counting provisional ballots in Ohio’s presidential election | cleveland.com

A federal court ruling this summer will decide the constitutionality of Ohio laws for counting provisional ballots, and whether some of those ballots — thousands of them, potentially — should be counted in this fall’s presidential election. The case revolves around a 2010 legal agreement, called a consent decree, that ensures certain defective provisional ballots would be counted if a poll worker’s mistake is to blame. In the 2011 general election, more than 1,500 provisional ballots were counted statewide on account of the consent decree, according to the secretary of state’s office. That number likely would increase in this fall’s presidential election. Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted and others, however, argue the consent decree should be voided because it conflicts with existing Ohio law that does not allow defective provisional ballots to be counted, regardless of poll worker error.

Tennessee: Shelby County elections facing changes in August | Action News 5

After the Shelby County Election Commission purged more than 30,000 inactive voter records, voters are concerned about whether their votes will count this August. “Why all of a sudden that thirty two thousand voters records are purged from Shelby County in the last five months,” asked concerned voter Kermit Moore. At the main library in Memphis Saturday, State Representative G.A. Hardaway hosted a voter’s right’s forum.   Richard Holden Administrator of Elections explained voters who haven’t been to the polls in 8 years were removed from their system.  “We want every vote to be counted and not to be lost,” said Holden, “even those that have been purged, if they’re still alive and still in Shelby County can re register by simply submitting an application by Tuesday.”

US Virgin Islands: Judge hears arguments in Virgin Islands recall case | Virgin Islands Daily News

District Judge Wilma Lewis heard oral arguments Friday in the case pitting the St. Croix Board of Elections against a group of residents who launched a recall petition against most of the board members. The V.I. Action Group, which initially sought to recall six of seven board members, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court contesting the board’s interpretation of the Revised Organic Act of 1954 regarding signature thresholds for recall petitions and the board’s inaction to schedule a recall election. In April, after checking signatures, Elections Supervisor John Abramson Jr. accepted four of the six recall petitions as valid. Abramson initially was named in the suit, but V.I. Action Group has since filed court papers dismissing him from the suit.

Wisconsin: Senate recall recount nearing an end | TwinCities.com

While Gov. Scott Walker called for more bipartisanship in the wake of his recall victory, a bitter fight over who controls the state Senate threatens any chance at reconciliation as Republicans fight to hold on and Democrats look to extract a victory from the recall season. The closely watched recount of a Republican state senator’s recall election is scheduled to wrap up Monday, but the battle over who will control the chamber for the rest of the year won’t end when the final ballot is tallied. Lawsuits are expected, and would probably drag out the process for weeks or months. “If they continue to try and hold onto this seat, white-knuckled kicking and screaming, it’s going to continue the same partisan battles we’ve been having and that they supposedly wanted to end,” said Democratic state Sen. Chris Larson. An official canvass after the June 5 election showed Democratic challenger John Lehman leading GOP Sen. Van Wanggaard by 834 votes out of nearly 72,000 ballots cast, for a margin of 1.2 percentage points.

Ireland: Defunct e-voting machines for sale at €100 for charity | The Irish Times

The first batch of defunct electronic-voting machines are due to be collected in Wexford this morning and the winning bidder has revealed how he secured the devices. Managing director of Co Offaly-based KMK Metals Recycling, Kurt Kyck, claims his bid of just over €70,000 was unique in that KMK was willing to buy the machines. He doesn’t believe the other six applicants offered to pay the Government to take the €50 million machines away. While listening to an interview with Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan, Mr Kyck said he realised the other bidders “would have charged the Government to take them”.

Libya: Militiamen, protesters storm election commission in eastern city, set voting slips on fire | The Washington Post

Libyan protesters and militiamen stormed the headquarters of the election commission in the eastern city of Benghazi on Sunday, setting voting slips on fire, a militia commander said, a week before the country holds its first general election in nearly five decades. In southern Libya, a leader of Libya’s Tabu tribe threatened to boycott the election if the government does not withdraw its forces and tanks from a southern desert city where clashes have killed dozens. The violence and calls for boycotts threaten to tarnish the process of electing a 200-member assembly to form a government and oversee writing of a constitution.

Mexico: Peña Nieto claims victory in Mexico elections | guardian.co.uk

Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary party (PRI) is poised to regain the power it lost 12 years ago after seven decades in charge of the country. The official quick count of a large sample of polling stations announced late on Sunday gave the PRI’s candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto, around 38% of the vote and a lead of around seven percentage points over his nearest rival. “This Sunday Mexico won”, Peña Nieto said at his party’s headquarters in the capital to the strains of a popular mariachi song, accompanied by his soap opera star wife and children. “Mexico voted for change with direction,” he added. During his speech, the slick, telegenic former governor of the country’s most populous state was at pains to address fears that the return of the PRI would mean a return to the periodic authoritarianism, corruption and corporatist hubris that had characterised the party’s political hegemony for most of the last century. “Mine will be a democratic presidency. We are a new generation and there will not be a return to the past,” he said. “In today’s plural and democratic Mexico everybody has a place.”

Mongolia: 9 parties demand vote recount of Mongolia elections | GlobalPost

Nine political parties in Mongolia, including the ruling Mongolian People’s Party, have signed a petition demanding a vote recount and rejecting as unconstitutional an electronic voting system used for the time in the country’s parliamentary elections on Thursday. The automated system was introduced to ensure Mongolia’s elections were free of corruption, but it has been plagued by technical problems and results that were supposed to be announced hours after polling stations closed two days ago are yet to be made public. According to Al Jazeera, the Mongolian People’s Party and eight smaller parties are calling for a vote recount and for a return to the old way of counting votes by hand.

Senegal: Macky Sall seen winning parliament vote | Reuters

A coalition backing new Senegalese President Macky Sall was poised to win majority seats in parliament, according to provisional results reported by local media on Sunday after legislative elections in the west African country. Early counts reported by Senegal’s APS news agency showed that Sall’s Alliance for the Republic party (APR) and the Benno Bokk Yakaar coalition were leading in several constituencies across the country. Results on APS’s website showed that the leading coalition had won the vote in several major districts including Thies, Kaolack, St. Louis and the capital Dakar. Complete provisional results are expected by Tuesday.

The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly June 25 – July 1 2012

Bringing an end to a decade-long saga, Ireland sold it’s fleet of NEDEP voting machines to a recycling company for a mere €9.30 each. In a momentous week of decision for the Affordable Care Act, the Supreme Court also decided two significant election-related case, blocking Arizona’s requirement for voters to show proof of citizenship beyond what is required on the Federal voter registration card, and strengthening their 2010 Citizens United decision by reversing a decision of the Montana Supreme Court. Both decisions were by 5-4 votes. Colorado election activist Marilyn Marks prevailed in her three-year quest to establish that ballots are open to public inspection. Stating that Federal laws that prohibit systematic removal of voters from voter rolls within 90 days of an election do not refer to non-citizens, a U.S. District Court justice halted a Justice Department attempt to block Florida’s controversial voter purge. Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Mike Turzai asserted that the State’s new Voter ID law will help his party’s nominee to win the State’s electoral votes. The Mitchell South Dakota Daily Republic looked into the checkered history of the ES&S Model 650 central count scanner after a programming error caused problems in the State’s June 5 primary and, after a week-long delay, Egypt’s election commission announced the the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate Mohammed Morsi had won the nation’s first presidential election in over 40 years.