Minnesota: Defeat of voter ID was team effort | Politics in Minnesota

At the end of April, the interfaith coalition ISAIAH held a daylong gathering for religious leaders to discuss the proposed constitutional amendment requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls. The event was organized in conjunction with Jewish Community Action and the StairStep Foundation, which works closely with predominantly African-American churches, and attracted 250 individuals. Out of that gathering the group selected anchor congregations — including St. Joan of Arc Church in Minneapolis and Progressive Baptist Church on the East Side of St. Paul — to help create a campaign opposing the proposed amendment. The group also identified 100 “voter restriction team leaders” from congregations across the state. Eventually ISAIAH, which works primarily on racial and economic justice issues, set a goal of speaking with 25,000 voters about why the photo ID requirement was a misguided idea.

Ohio: Federal judge rips Jon Husted for unconstitutional change to Ohio election rules | cleveland.com

A federal judge blasted Ohio’s elections chief on Tuesday, questioning his motives for setting new vote-counting rules that violated state law just days before the presidential election. In a scathing 17-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley said a directive on counting provisional ballots that Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted issued on Nov. 2 was “a flagrant violation of a state elections law” that could disenfranchise voters. “The surreptitious manner in which the secretary went about implementing this last minute change to the election rules casts serious doubt on his protestations of good faith,” Marbley wrote.

Pennsylvania: Number of provisional ballots, voter ID issues spur call for Pennsylvania probe of voting irregularities | NewsWorks

Reports of voter registration glitches and misinformation at the polls during last week’s election are leading some Pennsylvania House Democrats to call for an investigation. Outgoing Rep. Babette Josephs is leading the pack of lawmakers dismayed by reports of the high number of provisional ballots cast in Philadelphia and incorrect signage or information packets about voting laws. Individual polling places deserve closer scrutiny for their handling of the voter ID law, said Josephs, D-Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania: Lawmakers seek probes of Election Day irregularities | Philadelphia Inquirer

In the world of partisan politics, one person’s New Black Panther is another’s misinformed poll worker. Reports of voter intimidation, missing names, and other mishaps at the polls on Nov. 6 have sparked a duel in the Capitol over which unresolved Election Day issues should be investigated, and for what. A Democratic Philadelphia legislator wants state and federal prosecutors to investigate what she calls “voting irregularities” reported at polling places around the state.

South Carolina: Richland County election certified | TheState.com

The Richland County Election Commission formally signed and certified the results of the 2012 election Friday afternoon. The commission finished the polling process just after 4 p.m. Friday. The county was supposed to have certified its results at 12 p.m., but requested two two-hour extensions. The Supreme Court granted those requests Friday afternoon, giving the county until noon Monday to certify results, but county officials said they wouldn’t need the entire extension. “I want to get this done, the state election commission wants to get this done and the public is ready for this chapter to be ended,” county election commission attorney Steve Hamm said.

Editorials: Philadelphia voter fraud: Is it possible that Barack Obama won 100 percent of so many precincts? | Slate Magazine

The New Black Panther Party was there, on cue. Standing outside of the 4th precinct in Philadelphia’s 14th ward, there was Jerry Jackson, a member of the leather-loving fringe group who’d signed up to be a poll watcher for the Nov. 6 election. Fox News was there, too. In 2008, the network spent hours playing and replaying a video of two Panthers glaring at a conservative poll-watcher as he filmed them. This year the network sent its own reporter, who tried to interview Jackson. “Have you been around a lot today? What’s your purpose of being here?” He said nothing. The network switched to video of the 35th ward, where people waiting in a school to vote were walking past a mural of the president, even after Republicans sued to get it covered up. “This remained untouched for hours as people voted!” said reporter Eric Shawn.

South Carolina: Richland County to resume vote count | SFGate

Richland County Council will resume counting votes after the South Carolina Supreme Court cleared the way. The Richland County Election Commission planned to resume the count of last week’s results Wednesday afternoon. The justices gave county officials until noon Friday to certify the results to the State Election Commission. The justices said any disputes must be filed by Nov. 21.

South Carolina: Richland County vote: Finlay, Dixon, Penny Tax appear winners in count | TheState.com

In a count delayed a week, Kirkman Finlay appeared to prevail over Joe McCulloch, 7,207 to 6,891 in House District 75, in one of tightest and most closely watched races in Richland County’s botched Nov. 6 election, according to preliminary results from Wednesday’s tally. Finlay, a Republican, had 6,771 votes, and McCulloch, a Democrat, had 6,506 in the original count. Totals came just after 11 p.m. Wednesday – eight days after the election marked by huge outcries from voters and candidates alike and a tumultuous legal back-and-forth that led courts to interrupt Richland County’s vote before the count was complete last week.

Editorials: Minority voters in Texas still need to be protected | Star Telegram

Some experts say the U.S. Supreme Court’s announcement Friday that it will hear a case challenging the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act’s Section 5 means this pivotal part of the 47-year-old law is dead and the court is finally ready to bury it. Some members of the court have complained about Section 5 in more than one case since Congress last renewed the VRA in 2006. Section 5 requires some states — the key is some, not all — to get permission, or “pre-clearance,” from the Justice Department or a federal court before changing their election laws. The affected states, including Texas, are those determined under the act to have a history of discriminating against minority voters. Most are in the South.

Virginia: Virginia Beach voter registrar cites technical difficulties | HamptonRoads.com

Voter registrar Donna Patterson blamed technical difficulties and an unprecedented number of curbside voters for long lines at polling places and the delay in reporting election results on Nov. 6. At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Patterson said she will evaluate each precinct to see what can be improved. “Having people wait three hours isn’t anything I’d like to see with an election,” she said.

Ghana: Election climate heats up less than a month before polls | IndepthAfrica

There’s just 25 days to go before Ghana holds its hotly anticipated presidential and legislative elections, the nation’s sixth round of multi-party elections. The political environment could not be more polarised. Billboards are adorned with party colours of the main contenders and television and radio programmes are not only dominated by political debates, but campaign adverts air every few minutes. Street corners, taxis, bus stations, food stalls, places of work and worship have all become platforms for debate, especially in the midst of the series of IEA presidential debates, aired live on all the major television and radio stations. As a mark of Ghana’s maturing democracy, the 8 year-old daughter of a taxi driver has become an iconic figure in the election period, being dubbed a “peace ambassador” for her probing questions at the recent IEA debate, forcing accountability on the polity.

Japan: Elections set as Premier Yoshihiko Noda pledges to dissolve parliament | The Washington Post

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda suggested Wednesday that he will dissolve the lower house of parliament Friday, triggering an election that is likely to oust Noda and his unpopular party from power. The government said the election will be held Dec. 16. In a testy debate with opposition leader Shinzo Abe, Noda said he would go ahead with the move in exchange for cooperation on a bill to shrink the size of parliament. Officials from Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) quickly said they would agree to the deal.

Kuwait: Kuwait voting row mushrooms into broader debate over power | chicagotribune.com

What started as a dispute over voting rules in Kuwait has mushroomed into a debate about the balance of power between the emir and parliament, with implications for other Gulf dynasties facing reform pressure since the Arab Spring. Thousands of Kuwaitis have regularly taken to the streets since late October to protest at Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah’s decision to amend the electoral law before a parliamentary election on December 1. While public demonstrations about local issues are common in a state that allows the most dissent in the Gulf, Kuwait – a major oil producer and U.S. ally in a precarious region facing U.S. arch-foe Iran – has avoided Arab Spring-style mass unrest that toppled three veteran Arab dictators last year.

Sierra Leone: Electoral Commission ‘Ready’ for Poll | VoA News

The spokesman for Sierra Leone’s National Electoral Commission says the electoral body has taken new measures to ensure Saturday’s general election is transparent and credible. “The commission is poised to conducting credible elections. In that vein, the commission is undertaking series of activities,” said commission spokesman Albert Massaquoi. “At the moment the commission has recruited over 70,000 staff and training is underway for [the] staff at different levels all over the country.” Massaquoi says the Electoral Commission worked closely with all political parties as well as the police to prevent any violence during the vote.

National: Voting Problems Renew Efforts to Overhaul System | Roll Call

Election experts and activists are calling for an overhaul of the voting system after hours-long lines, machine malfunctions and other obstacles plagued polling places around the country last week and in some cases delayed the results of races for days. Buoyed by President Barack Obama’s promise to “fix” the system in his acceptance speech, interested parties are coalescing around a campaign to retool the registration and voting process to avoid a meltdown in tight contests down the road.

Arizona: Election workers still counting early ballots | KVOA.com

Election workers in Pima County are still counting ballots nearly a week after the polls closed. Early ballots are nearly all verified and counted. Once that is done, workers can begin working on the estimated 27,000 provisional ballots. Brad Nelson, the elections director said, “We’ve got a really good process involved, it just sometimes takes a little bit longer than people think it might.”

Arizona: Agreement in ballot dispute in Barber-McSally race | Arizona Daily Sun

An agreement reached Tuesday at least temporarily resolves a dispute over 130 provisional ballots that could prove decisive in Arizona’s last undecided congressional race. A lawsuit filed on behalf of a voter who supported Republican challenger Martha McSally had sought to block counting results from the 130 ballots, alleging that they were mishandled by Cochise County elections workers who did not seal them in envelopes.

Arizona: Confusion clouds uncounted ballot total | The Sierra Vista Herald

Monday morning, a day most government employees were off for Veterans Day, Cochise County elections staff and volunteers were gearing up to continue the process of checking around 6,600 ballots yet to be tabulated. According to Juanita Murray, elections office director, that number includes the 2,300 provisional ballots that had been verified over the weekend by staff at the Recorder’s Office. The rest are early ballots.

Arizona: McSally Supporter Sues To Block Ballots In Latino Precinct | TPM

One of the few unresolved congressional races in the nation could come down to whether voters in a heavily Latino precinct in Arizona get their ballots counted this week. Backed by two high-powered lawyers, a supporter of Republican congressional candidate Martha McSally filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to get election authorities to halt counting of provisional ballots from a heavily Latino area of the state’s Cochise County. The suit could be pivotal as McSally is trying to unseat Rep. Ron Barber (D) in southern Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District. At last count, McSally was trailing Barber by just 512 votes, but the lead had changed hands multiple times since election night.

Arkansas: GOP has edge for Arkansas House seat after 3 recounts | SFGate

The battle for control of the Arkansas House has come down to a recount in Independence County. Recounts Tuesday in Jackson and Poinsett counties left Republican John K. Hutchison with a 45-vote lead over Democrat L.J. Bryant. Poinsett County has as many as 10 provisional and military ballots to consider before certifying results Friday, but by themselves they cannot overturn last week’s election results. Independence County election officials will recount votes Thursday. Craighead County verified its totals Friday without making a change.

Florida: Groups call for sweeping election changes in Florida | Herald Tribune

Democratic lawmakers, liberal activists and labor unions on Monday called for sweeping changes in Florida’s voting laws, warning that if Gov. Rick Scott and lawmakers do not act the issues could end up in court. “We are calling upon the state to move very quickly and not to continue to undermine our democracy by cutting off the participation of Florida voters,” said Judith Browne Dianis, co-director of the Advancement Project, a civil rights group. The call came after Florida again became the center of national attention — and ridicule — as the state was the last in the nation to be able to tally its votes and declare a winner in the presidential race.

Florida: West challenges results as Florida declares vote-tally over amid recounts and irregularities | Fox News

Florida Republican Rep. Allen West continues to challenge election officials’ tallies that show he has lost his re-election bid – amid wild ballot swings on Tuesday and a partial recount needed because of voting-machine problems. The Tea Party-backed West demanded a recount after the swing of votes on election night, leading Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy by roughly 2,000 votes, then trailing by 2,400 votes about 35 minutes later.

Florida: Almost 1K ballots found in Broward elections warehouse | WSVN

Nearly a thousand ballots that were not included in Florida’s final count have been found in a warehouse in Broward County. Tuesday morning and into the night, there was a buzz of activity at the Voting Equipment Center in Lauderhill, a week after the general election. There was a recount going on for two commission seats that were too close to call, one in Hallandale Beach and another in Dania Beach. Workers had to count those votes manually.

Florida: Former Florida elections chief on West-Murphy: ‘How do you get away with doing a partial recount?’ | Palm Beach Post

Former Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning, a three-decade veteran of Florida elections, says he understands why Republican U.S. Rep. Allen West would be “a little steamed” by Sunday’s disputed partial recount of early votes in St. Lucie County. A recount wasn’t required by state law because Democrat Patrick Murphy’s margin was larger than 0.5 percent. But St. Lucie County elections officials acknowledged problems with the way electronic memory cartridges of early votes were uploaded on election night and scheduled an emergency canvassing board meeting Sunday to recount all 37,379 early votes for all the races on the ballot.

New Mexico: Attorney General Looks Into ‘Near Meltdown’ of Voting in Rio Rancho | ABQJournal

Attorney General Gary King is investigating what he is calling a “near meltdown of voting procedures” in Rio Rancho last week, when voters had to wait up to five hours to cast ballots. King’s office launched the “high-priority” investigation in response to complaints from legislators, concerned citizens and some of its own attorneys and staffers, spokesman Phil Sisneros said Monday. “We want to find out what caused the delays — who did what, when— and what is being done about it,” he said.

Ohio: Federal court sides with coalition saying Ohio must count provisional ballots with incomplete voter ID | Toledo Blade

A federal court judge sided Tuesday with a homeless coalition and said Ohio must count provisional ballots cast on Nov. 6 that lack or contain incomplete voter identification information. Secretary of State Jon Husted promptly said his office would appeal the ruling to the Cincinnati-based U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. “Secretary Husted will appeal today’s ruling because it allows protentially fraudulent votes to be counted,” said Husted spokesman Matt McClellan. “By eliminating the ID requirment on provisional ballots, the ruling is contrary to Ohio law and undermines the integrity of the election.”

Pennsylvania: Philadelphia voting glitches counted: 27,000 provisional ballots | NewsWorks

A Philadelphia election official says more than 27,000 voters had to cast provisional ballots in the city last Tuesday, apparently confirming reports from citizens and election watchdogs that there were an unusual number of glitches at city polling places. City Commissioner Al Schmidt said the 27,100 provisional ballots is roughly twice as many as were cast in the last presidential election. The number is equal to about 4 percent of the ballots cast using electronic voting machines. Provisional ballots are paper ballots used when a voter’s registration status is in doubt. The ballot is sealed and opened once the voter’s status is verified.

South Carolina: High court orders Richland County ballots returned | AP

South Carolina’s Supreme Court has ordered state police to return ballots and voting machines to Richland County officials so that they can be tallied, ruling on Tuesday that a lower court didn’t have jurisdiction to order a recount. The justices also gave county officials until noon Friday to canvass the votes and give the results to state authorities, who will certify them later that day. Any disputes with election results must be filed by Nov. 21.

South Carolina: Richland County vote count resumes today | TheState.com

Richland County voters could learn as early as this afternoon what the county’s official results are in the Nov. 6 county elections. Votes will be tallied beginning at 1 p.m. on the fourth floor of the county administration building on Harden Street, Election Commission chairwoman Liz Crum said Tuesday evening. “We will get this done, and we will get it done right,” Crum said. Election observers and news media can observe county officials do the count. “Everybody on hand can watch the canvassing,” she said. “We never finished counting the vote – this is not a recount.”