The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly – January 13-19 2014
In spite of the absence of commissioners, EAC staff rejected a request from Arizona and Kansas to modify federal registration forms to allow their states to fully implement proof-of-citizen voting laws for their residents. A bipartisan bill to restore much of the Voting Rights Act weakened by the Supreme Court last summer has been introduced to mixed receptions in Congress, while a Federal judge reinstated preclearance for an Alabama town. The GOP-dominated General Assembly is pushing a collection of bills that civil rights leaders and Democrats discriminate against the poor and harken back to post-Civil War laws intended to keep African-Americans from voting. A Pennsylvania judge has struck down the State’s 2012 voter id law, setting up a potential Supreme Court confrontation that could have implications for other such laws across the country. Virginia prepares for another recount, this time in a race that will determine the control of the State Senate. Almost half the world’s population will go to the polls in 2014 and Egypt voted overwhelmingly in favor of a new constitution.