The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly – June 17-23 2013
In a 7-2 decision the US Supreme Court struck down Arizona’s proof-of-citizenship requirement for federal voter registration forms. In an Atlantic editorial Garret Epps considered several of the opinions published by election law experts following the decision. The Court is expected to announce a ruling next week on the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. At an event honoring Frederick Douglas, Vice President Biden advocated full voting rights for citizens of the District of Columbia. Investigation into fraudulent online absentee ballot requests in Florida show how computer programmers are supplementing old-school, block-walking ballot-brokers known as boleteras. Republican county officials are now joining with their Democratic counterparts to question the cost of New Jersey’s special U.S. Senate election. Without a functioning election commission to certify the vote, there are fears of yet another disputed election in Albania after the commission tasked with certifying the vote remained defunct a day before the Balkan country goes to the polls while a reformist-backed cleric won just over 50% of the vote in Iran’s presidential election.