National: Internet voting systems too insecure, researcher warns | Computerword

Internet voting systems are inherently insecure and should not be allowed in the upcoming general elections, a noted security researcher said at the RSA Conference 2012 being held in San Francisco this week. David Jefferson, a computer scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories and chairman of the election watchdog group Verified Voting, called on election officials around the country to drop plans to allow an estimated 3.5 million voters to cast their ballots over the Internet in this year’s general elections. In an interview with Computerworld US on Wednesday, Jefferson warned that the systems that enable such voting are far too insecure to be trusted and should be jettisoned altogether.

Jefferson is scheduled to participate in a panel discussion on the topic at RSA on Thursday. Also on the panel are noted cryptographer and security guru Ron Rivest, who is the “R” in RSA, and Alex Halderman, an academic whose research on security vulnerabilities in e-voting systems prompted elections officials in Washington to drop plans to use an e-voting system in 2010. “There’s a wave of interest across the country, mostly among election officials and one agency of the [Department of Defense] to offer Internet voting,” to overseas citizens and members of the military, Jefferson said. “From a security point of view, it is an insane thing to do.”

The Voting News Daily: Super PACs, candidates blur lines ahead of Nov. 6, Undermining State Campaign Laws

National: Super PACs, candidates blur lines ahead of Nov. 6 | USAToday.com Presidential candidates and the super PACs accepting unlimited donations to help their campaigns cannot coordinate their activity, yet they are sharing consultants, donors and even advertising footage, raising new questions about the independence of outside groups. Campaign-finance experts say there’s little federal regulators can…

National: Super PACs, candidates blur lines ahead of Nov. 6 | USAToday.com

Presidential candidates and the super PACs accepting unlimited donations to help their campaigns cannot coordinate their activity, yet they are sharing consultants, donors and even advertising footage, raising new questions about the independence of outside groups. Campaign-finance experts say there’s little federal regulators can or will do to curb the activity ahead of November’s election.

Some recent examples:
•Restore Our Future, a super PAC backing Republican Mitt Romney, came under fire from a campaign-watchdog group this week for running the same commercial Romney aired in 2007 during his earlier presidential campaign. The super PAC, run by former Romney aides, also shares a direct-mail and polling consultant with the campaign, new federal disclosures show.

Editorials: Undermining State Campaign Laws | NYTimes.com

On Friday, a federal district judge granted a preliminary injunction against a Montana law, the Corrupt Practices Act of 1912, that bans corporations from making independent expenditures in political campaigns. Earlier this month, the United States Supreme Court, in a separate case from the state courts, issued a temporary order preventing Montana from enforcing that law. These cases and others in the country show how the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has upended important state campaign spending laws. As the Montana Supreme Court has said on this question, “Clearly the impact of unlimited corporate donations creates a dominating impact on the political process and inevitably minimizes the impact of individual citizens.”

Indiana: State Supreme Court hears election challenge to Charlie White | The Indianapolis Star

The Indiana Supreme Court raised several questions about voter registration laws during a hearing Wednesday to determine if Charlie White was eligible to run for secretary of state in 2010. But those questions might not be enough for the state’s highest court to order White’s removal from the office. The Indiana Supreme Court has never ousted an elected official because of an election challenge. Supreme Court justices typically defer to voters, said Joel Schumm, a professor at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. It seems likely they will do so in this case, Schumm said, especially since White’s voting issues were well-publicized before the election, and he won by a large margin anyway. If the Supreme Court rules against White, the Democrat who lost to him by more than 300,000 votes in November 2010 could take office.

Maine: Snowe Storm Implications: The Art Of The Possible | Pine Tree Politics

I’ve been on the phone for the last six hours.  My phone is dead, and so I write. The news is still shocking, and that shock hasn’t worn off.  I’m not alone, though – I received a call this evening from a staffer who was in the room when Governor LePage learned of Snowe’s decision.  “Oh… shit” the governor said, flabbergasted, before shaking it off and returning to his work.  [pardon my French] Dozens of people from both parties have been waiting to run for Olympia Snowe‘s seat for years, and operatives will be on the phone much later than I this evening, talking about who will be doing what in the next 48 hours. And that’s the important part:  decisions are going to need to be made by everyone in the next couple of days at the latest.  Expect some decisions made by tomorrow. Why?  The deadline to get on the primary ballot for Republican and Democratic candidates is March 15.  Any interested candidate will need to get 2,000 certified signatures by that date (which means well above 2,000 total if you figure in the names that will be thrown out), or they won’t be on the ballot.

Michigan: Romney, Santorum to split Michigan’s delegates | Detroit Free Press

The Michigan presidential primary vote was close and so will be the distribution of delegates based on the results in Michigan’s 14 congressional districts. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the popular vote by a 41-38% margin as well as the tally in seven of 14 congressional districts, most of them in southern Michigan. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum won six congressional districts, including the 1st district, which includes the Upper Peninsula an a portion of northern Lower Michigan by just two votes. All of Santorum’s wins came in the northern and western portions of the state. The only district that hadn’t been determined as of 11:30 p.m. Tuesday was the 13th district, which encompasses Detroit and portions of western Wayne County.

Michigan: Question added to Michigan ballot: Are you a citizen? | Detroit Free Press

Michigan voters got a surprise when they voted on today. When filling out an application for a ballot, a new question was added: Are you a United States citizen? Yes or no. Gisgie Gendreau, of the Secretary of State’s office, said it the question was added as part of Secretary of State Ruth Johnson’s continuing efforts to “ensure secure and fair elections.” Although there is a bill in the state legislature requiring such a declaration, it has not been passed.

New Hampshire: Senate reconsiders voter ID bill | The Portland Press Herald

New Hampshire’s Senate is voting next week on whether voters must show photo identification at the polls before casting ballots, but unlike a bill vetoed last year, the latest measure does not contain a provision that would delay the counting of some votes. The New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union says the bill is unnecessary but is not opposing it, and Senate Republican Leader Jeb Bradley expects the Senate to pass it to the House. “There is no need for this bill, but since something is going to pass, this is the most responsible and we believe it is constitutional,” said Claire Ebel of the civil liberties union.

Canada: Robocall vote suppression vies to be Canada’s own Watergate | Straight Goods

Canada appear to be on the verge of a major political upheaval thanks to the investigative work of two enterprising reporters working for news outlets that are generally considered Conservative-friendly. The story broke last week after a nine-month investigation by reporters Stephen Maher (Postmedia News) and Glen McGregor (Ottawa Citizen). They were curious about reports of strange phone calls voters were getting across Canada during the federal election campaign. Some of the calls were purportedly from parties they supported by the voters being called but came at annoying times or had offensive content. Some came, supposedly, from elections officials and had false information about where to vote. Maher and McGregor compiled a massive database of these calls and, last week, they broke what has become known as the Robocall scandal. “It has become quite clear that the Conservatives have no decent line of defence, here. They’re flying blind.”

Iran: What’s at stake in Iran’s elections | Asia Times

Parliamentary elections this Friday in Iran are far from being free and fair. Well, at least that’s a step beyond those paragons of democracy – the election-free Persian Gulf monarchies. In Iran, this time the problem is there’s no opposition; it’s cons (conservatives) against neo-cons. The Green Movement leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife, Dr Zahra Rahnavard, as well as Mehdi Karroubi, have been under house arrest for over a year now; echoing Myanmar’s Aung Suu Kyi, but more vocally, they have repeatedly stressed they will not “repent”. Virtually all key opposition leaders, including university activists, almost 1,000 people, are in jail; not because they’re criminals but because they’re very canny organizers of popular anger.

Kenya: Boundaries row might derail poll date, warn Kenyan MPs | nation.co.ke

A row over boundaries for the new constituencies and county wards may derail the election calendar and make it impossible to have elections in December. A House committee and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission have both rejected the push for new wards and constituencies from most of the 500 petitioners, who had qualms with the commission’s proposals for the 290 constituencies and 1,450 wards. (READ: Did MPs create wards for themselves?) This failure to yield to the demands, according to acting chairman of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, Mr Njoroge Baiya, will expose the process to mass litigation and open doors for a constitutional challenge on the time limit within which the Judiciary should determine petitions over delimitation. The worry over litigation arises out of an inconsistency in law, Mr Baiya told the Nation on Sunday.

Philippines: Cost of electoral reform in Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao: P850M | Inquirer News

It would cost nearly a billion pesos to nullify the entire list of voters in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and replace it with a new one, the chair of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said. The expense, however, was necessary to end decades of electoral fraud in the region, said Comelec Chief Sixto Brillantes, a former election lawyer. Brillantes said it would cost P450 million if Comelec proceeded with regular registration of voters in the ARMM and at least P850 million if Comelec did away with the old registration process and instead nullified the region’s voters’ list and put in place a registration system using modern technology. He said, however, that trashing the existing voters’ list was a necessary first step toward electoral reform in the ARMM. Comelec, he said, would use a process of registration using biometrics, or technology that would keep track of voter identity through fingerprints or other unalterable marks.

Russia: Fathers And Children: Russia’s Election Exposes Generation Gap | RFE

Fifty-six-year-old Aleksandr Avanesov says he will vote for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin because Russians have never had it so good. Eighteen-year-old Tatyana Kim says she will spoil her ballot because she sees Russian politics as a sham. Avanesov says the younger generation just doesn’t understand how bad the chaos and deprivation was in the 1990s before Putin came to power. Kim says she can’t abide Putin’s authoritarian system, adding that his so-called opponents on the March 4 ballot are little more than Kremlin puppets.

Russia: Putin Warns Opposition, Talks Of Conspiracy Theory Ahead Of Vote | Huffington Post

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin strongly warned his opponents against unsactioned protests after Sunday’s presidential election, in which he is all but certain to regain the presidency. In a statement reflecting heightening tensions four days before the vote, he also alleged Wednesday that his foes may kill a prominent opposition figure in order to fuel public outrage against the government. “They are looking among well-known people for a sacrificial victim,” he said, according to Russian news reports. “They could, I’m sorry, knock someone off and then blame the authorities for that.” Putin criticized the opposition plans for rallies over what it fears will be a fraudulent election, saying Wednesday it is “unacceptable” to prejudge the vote. “We will respect any viewpoint but are calling on everyone to act within the framework of law and use only legitimate means,” he said at a meeting with his campaign activists.

New Mexico: Dog In Voter Fraud Stunt Belonged To Heather Wilson Senate Campaign Staffer | TPM

The husband of a campaign staffer for a Republican candidate for Senate in New Mexico is under investigation for allegedly committing a felony by registering the couple’s dog to vote as part of a stunt to show how easy it could be to commit voter registration fraud. The anonymous man in the sweatshirt and hat playing with his Labrador Buddy in a local television piece? That’s Thomas Tolbert. He’s married to Heather Wade, a staffer for former Rep. Heather Wilson’s senate campaign, as first revealed by the liberal group ProgressNow NM. The Smoking Gun got a hold of the voter registration card belonging to “Buddy” and said the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office was focusing on Tolbert. Bryce Dustman, Wilson’s campaign manager, said in a statement to TPM that they learned about the allegations from the media.

National: Internet Voting: Will Democracy or Hackers Win? | PBS NewsHour

While it seems like everything can be done online these days, that’s not actually the case when it comes to elections. Science correspondent Miles O’Brien explores the security, logistical and secrecy challenges of Internet voting.

… David Wagner, University of California, Berkeley: There was no way to guarantee your vote would be counted correctly, that if someone were to hack the central computer system, then someone could change votes, and there might be no way to detect that kind of election stealing. So, I don’t think any of the voting system vendors out there right now has a solution that ensures — that’s proof against hacking or that ensures that we can detect hacking.

Maine: Republicans to recount caucus votes after protests from Paul supporters | The Hill

The Maine Republican Party is asking county and town chairman to resubmit vote totals from last week’s presidential caucuses after reports of missing and incorrect vote totals have thrown Mitt Romney’s narrow win over Ron Paul into question. A significant revision in the vote totals could be the second high-profile embarrassment for a state Republican party in the still-young campaign, after Iowa Republicans announced more than two weeks after their first-in-the-nation caucus that, in fact, Rick Santorum had defeated Mitt Romney. Romney had edged Santorum by eight votes in results released by the party on election night. “We are confirming the totals from the presidential preference straw poll,” an e-mail from the Maine GOP sent Thursday said, according to the Portland Press Herald. “Can you please email me the totals from your towns?”

Maine: State GOP adds missing caucus votes, but won’t release updated vote count | The Daily Caller

The Maine Republican Party has added additional votes accidentally omitted from Saturday’s caucus results, state party chairman Charlie Webster told The Daily Caller Wednesday. But those votes won’t be publicly released. “We don’t want any more drama,” Webster told TheDC. “I’ve already got death threats and 1,800 emails.” Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was declared the victor in Maine over the weekend, claiming a slim 194-vote lead over Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

Maryland: Schurick Sentenced in Robocalling; Maryland Vote Suppression History Reviewed | Yahoo! News

Paul Schurick, campaign manager for former Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., received a one-year suspended sentence, 30 days of home detention, and 500 community service hours Thursday after being convicted in connection with a robocall campaign aimed at keeping black voters away from the polls in the 2010 election. The call impliedly made by Democrats told voters now-Gov. Martin O’Malley was assured of victory so they needn’t get out to vote. Schurick could have been sentenced to up to 12 years in prison, the Baltimore Sun said, for violating a 2006 law prohibiting the use of deception to influence voter decisions.

Minnesota: Voter ID issue advances in Minnesota Senate | TwinCities.com

A bill that would ask Minnesotans whether to amend the state constitution to require voters to present a photo ID at the polls cleared its first hurdle at the Capitol on Wednesday. All eight Republicans on the Local Government and Elections Committee voted for the bill; all six Democrats voted against it. The bill heads next to the State Government Innovation and Veterans Committee. Eight other states have such legislation. Proponents say it’s a way to safeguard the integrity of the electoral system and reduce fraud, but critics argue it’s unneeded and will make it harder for the elderly, college students, the disabled and others to vote.

Montana: Citizens United Part II: Montana Supreme Court Collides With U.S. Supreme Court | Huffington Post

The fate of Montana’s century-old ban on corporate political spending is now in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court, setting up a possible sequel to the hotly contested Citizens United decision handed down two years ago. In 2010, a five-member majority of the U.S. Supreme Court declared that corporations’ independent spending in elections does not corrupt — or even appear to corrupt — the political process. On Wednesday, Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock submitted a brief to the Court with facts that suggest otherwise as he urged the justices to uphold his state’s ban on corporate political spending.

Ohio: Senator says ‘step back’ and ‘reassess’ Ohio election law bill | The-Daily-Record.com

A Senate committee began hearings Wednesday on legislation to repeal controversial GOP-backed election law changes, a move that would stop a referendum from appearing on the November ballot. Proponents want lawmakers to give Democrats who gathered enough signatures to place House Bill 194 before voters what they want — a full repeal, with a new election reform package negotiated between Republicans and the minority party. “We should step back and reassess the situation,” Sen. Bill Coley, a Republican from southwestern Ohio, told members of the Senate’s Government Oversight and Reform Committee. “Clearly, some issues should be revisited.”

Texas: Redistricting impasse delays Texas primary until May 29, at the earliest | Houston Chronicle

Texas’ primary elections won’t take place until at least May 29 because of the ongoing battle over the state’s redistricting maps, a San Antonio federal court announced Wednesday. “It appears based on all the things that are going on here that it is extremely unlikely there will be a primary in April or for that matter before May 29,” said Judge Jerry Smith. “Based on the discussion we just had with the political parties, we asked that they start working on an election schedule.” The delegation of county election officials who came to the second day of the redistricting hearing was elated by the decision. Their leader, Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen, told the court Tuesday that delays had made it impossible to hold the primary in April. “This feels like the weight of the world has been lifted off our shoulders,”Callanen said after Smith spoke from the bench. “This is a win.”

Texas: Primary Could Face New Delay Over Redistricting Lawsuit | NYTimes.com

A federal three-judge panel here is considering delaying the Texas primary election for the second time in two months, posing a number of logistical and political challenges for Republican and Democratic leaders and candidates as a redistricting dispute between the state and several minority groups remains for the most part at a stalemate. The primary had been scheduled for April 3, but at the end of a two-day hearing on Wednesday, Judge Jerry E. Smith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said that a primary in April was “extremely unlikely” and that the new date would probably be May 29. But the judges stopped short of selecting a new date, asking lawyers with the state Democratic and Republican Parties to outline new candidate filing periods and other deadlines using May 29 as a tentative date.

Editorials: Direct Popular Vote v. The Electoral College | ChicagoNow

I know the elections are awhile away, but with all of this campaign coverage I think it is plausible to discuss a controversy during election time. Remember the Presidential Election of 2000? Yes, the one that led to the Supreme Court Case of Bush v. Gore. I’m talking about the dreaded Electoral College. According to a Gallup Poll, 62% of Americans would favor Direct Popular Vote over the Electoral College . However, our current system of election isn’t all that bad…and it’s a lot better than the alternative. The Electoral College has performed its function for over 200 years and in over 50 presidential elections. It ensures that the President of the United States has both sufficient popular support to govern, and that his popular support is sufficiently distributed throughout the country to enable him to govern effectively.

Wyoming: Redistricting bill faces little opposition in House | Trib.com

Despite expectations of a long, contentious debate, the Legislature’s 2012 redistricting bill sailed through the House on Wednesday on voice vote — with only one minor change. House Bill 42, sponsored by the Joint Interim Committee on Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions, comes up for a second vote today. Expectations of at least one amendment to change the configuration in the southwest corner of Wyoming faded Wednesday.

Ghana: Electoral Commission estimates GH¢243m budget for 2012 elections | Ghana Business News

A total amount of GH¢243,528,305 is needed for the conduct of Ghana’s 2012 general elections, according to the Electoral Commission’s (EC) budget estimate for the exercise. The money is meant for voter’s registration and both the presidential and parliamentary elections in December 2012, said the Commission’s Chairman Dr K. Afari-Gyan at a meeting organised by the Editors Forum, Ghana (EFG) in Accra February 15, 2012.

Kosovo: Resounding ‘No’ delivered in Kosovo referendum | New Europe

On 14-15 February, Serbs living in four municipalities of northern Kosovo voted in a referendum and overwhelmingly rejected the authority of the Republic of Kosovo. Even the referendum question seemed to indicate the direction in which the vote would go: ‘Do you accept the institutions of the so-called Republic of Kosovo?’ Some 35,500 people living in the four Kosovo municipalities were eligible to vote and, according to preliminary results, around 75% of them cast their ballots, with 99.74% circling ‘No’.

Pakistan: Expats given voting rights | Telegraph

According to local media reports, the decision was made at a meeting at the headquarters of the Election Commission in Islamabad on Tuesday.
The change is expected to affect more than three million Pakistanis living abroad, with another meeting expected soon to decide whether voting should take place by postal ballot, or at polling stations set up at foreign embassies.
Voting will be limited however to those Pakistanis who have a National Card for Overseas Pakistanis or NICP card, an identification card which allows expats visa-less entry into their home country.