India: Chief Election Commissioner Says Secrecy in Online Vote Not Possible | The New Indian Express

Chief Election Commissioner, V S Sampath, said secrecy cannot be maintained in the online voting system. He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the south zone symposium on ‘Best Electoral Practices’, organised by the ECI, here on Friday. Sampath said the government of India has now extended the voting rights to NRIs and a committee has been formed to examine the feasibility of using online voting and postal ballot for them to register their votes. Sounding a caution about online voting, he said, it should be approached carefully. “In the present system, each polling booth is sanitised so that the voters can vote in an atmosphere without fear. But it is possible that the voters using the online voting system may be threatened.”

Uganda: Plans to use Braille ballot papers in 2016 polls | New Vision

The Electoral Commission says it is working on printing Braille ballot papers for the blind to be used in the 2016 general elections. It will be the first time the Braille system is applied in the country’s elections. Previously, visually impaired voters have been helped by guides to cast their ballot. But there have been concerns that some guides can take advantage of the voter’s inability to see what they are doing, and go on to manipulate their choice. And one such concerned person is John Nataba, a visually impaired youth who hails from Ntungamo district. During the launch of a report titled: “Youth Participation Road Map to Uganda’s 2016 Elections and Beyond,” in Kampala recently, he told the Electoral Commission chairman Eng. Badru Kiggundu that he was worried about the legitimacy of the intentions of the person helping him to vote.

United Kingdom: Scotland’s Independence Vote Dominates Edinburgh Festival Fringe | NBC

The world’s largest arts festival attracts audiences and performers from around the globe each August, but the political future of the host nation is taking center stage this year. Dozens of performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe focus on a Sept. 18 referendum that will determine whether Scotland remains part of the United Kingdom or becomes independent for the first time in 307 years. An intense public battle to persuade voters means that writers, comedians and actors in Scotland’s capital have not had to search far for satirical inspiration. The Fringe’s reputation for political comedy and satire have meant that the prominent figures from both sides of the campaign have come under fire, often in the same show.

The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly for August 18-24 2014

APTOPIX Police Shooting MissouriThe Los Angeles Ethics Commission has authorized an investigation into various ways to increase turnout, including cash incentives like a lottery. Arapahoe County Colorado is piloting risk-limiting post election audits this week in preparation for a statewide rollout by election day 2017, as required by the state legislature.  A  circuit court judge ruled that Florida’s flawed congressional districts may remain in place for two more years and newly drawn boundaries for seven north and central districts don’t have to take effect until 2016. The judge in Chris McDaniel’s lawsuit challenging his Republican primary loss to incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran expressed doubts Wednesday that a trial can be finished before the Nov. 4 general election. Brian Beutler considers the outrage among some conservative pundits over voter registration efforts at the scene of protests in Ferguson, Missouri. The NAACP has appealed a federal judge’s decision to allow elections to proceed under the sweeping changes made to North Carolina voting laws in 2013. A group of government ministers and officials with strong ties to the security forces are threatening to seize power if an election impasse that has paralyzed the country is not resolved soon. In many Australian cities, business owners and landlords have the right to participate in local elections and conservatives are now pushing a controversial bill that would require them to cast ballots in city council and mayoral races and Indonesia’s supreme court rejected an appeal by Prabowo Subianto over alleged voting irregularities, removing any uncertainty around the victory of Jakarta Gov. Joko Widodo.

California: Can paying people to vote increase voter turnout? L.A.’s looking into it and the answer is yes. | The Washington Post

Just 23.3 percent of Los Angeles voters cast ballots in last year’s mayoral election, the lowest figures in 100 years. Turnout was “embarrassingly down,” Herb Wesson, the city’s council president said, and he’s looking at how to change that. “Someone brought up what would it be like if we had some sort of incentive program,” Wesson said. “It’s just an idea.” The Los Angeles Ethics Commission voted Thursday for Wesson to look into various ways to increase turnout, including cash incentives like a lottery. The idea is just in the “incubation process,” Wesson said, with nothing approaching even an actual proposal, but there’s data to suggest paying people to vote increases turnout. A study conducted in 2010 in Lancaster, Calif., in northern Los Angeles County, by Fordham University professor Costas Panagopoulos found nominal incentives like a few bucks don’t do much to increase turnout, but a few more dollars is enough of an incentive to convince a larger percentage of people to vote.

Colorado: Arapahoe County pioneering use of new vote verification system | The Denver Post

Arapahoe County is piloting a vote-checking system this week that promises to raise the level of confidence in the accuracy of election results in Colorado. Elections officials gathered Wednesday at the county’s clerk and recorder office in Littleton to put the system — dubbed the risk-limiting audit — through the paces. The goal is to work out the bugs and have it ready for statewide rollout by election day 2017, as required by the state legislature. “The way we do audits doesn’t present a good enough picture,” Arapahoe County Clerk Matt Crane said Wednesday. “Our citizens deserve to know that we have a fair, transparent and accurate voting process.” The way a post-election audit of ballots is done currently requires a canvass team to pull at least 500 randomly selected paper ballots and compare the results to the tally recorded by the tabulation machines used in the election. Under the risk-limiting audit, random numbers generated by a software program will identify certain ballots to be pulled for inspection. The sample size is statistically determined based on the total number of ballots cast, the margin of the contest and the audit results as they unfold.

Florida: Original districts stand for 2014 election, new map to take effect in 2016 | Miami Herald

Florida’s flawed congressional districts may remain in place for two more years and newly drawn boundaries for seven north and central districts don’t have to take effect until 2016, a Tallahassee circuit court judge ruled late Friday. Judge Terry Lewis upheld the revisions to the state’s congressional map approved by the Florida Legislature during a three-day special session earlier this month. But he said the original map, which he ruled unconstitutional a month ago, could stand for the 2014 election. “An election in 2015 is not a viable option,” Lewis wrote in his four-page order. “The 2014 elections will have to be held under the map as enacted in 2012.” That will come as a relief to U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, and U.S. Rep. Dan Webster, R-Winter Garden, whose congressional districts were the target of the court’s criticism. Brown and Webster feared being elected to a new term in November only to have to face a special election possibly next year under the newly configured boundaries.

Mississippi: Judge doubts McDaniel election challenge can be decided by Nov. 4 | USA Today

The judge in Chris McDaniel’s lawsuit challenging his Republican primary loss to incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran expressed doubts Wednesday that a trial can be finished before the Nov. 4 general election. Special Judge Hollis McGehee told lawyers for McDaniel and Cochran he feels compelled to quickly hold trial on McDaniel’s challenge of his June 24 GOP Senate runoff to Cochran, but the case is complicated and unprecedented. McGehee said Tuesday he’ll set a trial schedule by the end of the week. He said trial will likely begin Sept. 15 or Sept. 22. McGehee scheduled an Aug. 28 hearing on motions Cochran’s lawyers plan to file to have the case dismissed.

Arizona: Pima County to do away with precinct scanners | The Explorer

Pima County will no longer make use of precinct scanners at polling locations after the Pima County Board of Supervisors rejected a measure to spend $1.8 million to replace them. The board’s decision came despite a recommendation by Pima County Election Integrity Commission (PCEIC) to keep the scanners in place since they allow for an electronic count at polling locations, serving as a way to double check ballots when they are tallied in the central count system. Bill Beard, District 1 PCEIC representative called the board’s decision frustrating, particularly since he says Pima County has a poor track record with handling elections in the past. “If the board is truly concerned about the matter, perhaps actually listening to the advisers they appointed to advise them on thing elections-related might be a good place to start,” he said, also noting that District 1’s Ally Miller was the only supervisor to vote in favor of the PCEIC’s recommendation to keep scanners in place.

California: How to Make Sure Your Vote-by-Mail Ballot is Counted | KQED

Almost 8 million Californians now cast their ballots by mail instead going to the polls. A new study of three California counties found that only 0.8 percent of mailed ballots, about 30,000, are not tallied. That might seem insignificant, unless it’s your ballot. There are three main reasons vote-by-mail ballots go uncounted:

• The ballot was mailed too late. Ballots need to be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day, not postmarked (61 percent of uncounted ballots).
• There was no signature (20 percent).
• The signature provided did not adequately compare with the one on file (18 percent).

The California Voter Foundation studied the vote-by-mail process for one year in Santa Cruz, Sacramento and Orange counties. The foundation estimates that about 66,000 vote-by-mail ballots went uncounted statewide in 2012.

Editorials: The voter turnout conundrum in Los Angeles | Los Angeles Times

It’s one of the worst ideas we’ve heard in a long time: Last week, the Los Angeles Ethics Commission floated a plan to offer cash prizes as an incentive to get Angelenos to vote in local elections. Sheer desperation, as far as we can tell, led the commission to propose an election day lottery, with a jackpot of $1,000 or more that might persuade more registered voters to go to the polls. Would it work? Probably. But it’s still a bad idea. The folks pushing the lottery concept are well-intentioned and obviously disheartened by Los Angeles’ record of terrible voter turnout. Just 23% of registered voters bothered to cast a ballot in last year’s mayoral election. Last week, turnout was an abysmal 9.5% for a Los Angeles Unified School Board special election. But dangling a cash prize over the polls is a cynical and superficial pseudo-solution that fails to address the deeper reasons why people don’t vote. If the Ethics Commission and the City Council want to increase engagement and participation on election day — and they should — they would do better to focus on specific changes that make it easier to cast a ballot, while also getting to work on larger, longer-term reforms that could help counter the pervasive civic malaise that prevents so many Angelenos from feeling engaged in the democratic process.

Florida: In Redistricting Battle, Both Parties Claim to Offer Better Protections for Black Voters | Governing

The racial tensions that coursed for years beneath the surface in Florida’s redistricting battle came into sharp focus Wednesday as lawyers for each side blasted each other for attempting to use black voters for partisan gain. The conflict emerged at a hearing Wednesday called by Leon County Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis to decide whether the Florida Legislature’s redrawn congressional map meets the constitutional standards imposed by voters in 2010. Lewis said he will decide “as quickly as I can” whether to accept the new map drawn by legislators last week in a three-day special session. Legislators had until Aug. 15 to revise two congressional districts he ruled invalid — one held by Democrat U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, and the other held by Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Webster.

Editorials: Florida’s New Redistricting Plan: Round Two | Linda Killian/Wall Street Journal

Florida Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis heard arguments Wednesday about whether to throw out the Florida Legislature’s redrawn congressional map, which critics say unfairly advantages Republicans, hurts minority voters and is unconstitutional. Under order by Judge Lewis, the legislature met in special session in early August and issued a revised congressional map on Aug. 11. But a coalition led by Common Cause and the Florida League of Women Voters says the new redistricting plan contains only minimal changes and still violates the state constitution. The nonprofit coalition charges that both the original and revised redistricting plans were drawn up by Republicans behind closed doors with no public input.

Hawaii: ACLU sues Hawaii over election storm response | Associated Press

The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii has asked the state’s top court to allow voters affected by Tropical Storm Iselle to cast ballots in the primary election. The ACLU filed the challenge in state Supreme Court on Thursday. The lawsuit against Gov. Neil Abercrombie, Chief Elections Officer Scott Nago and others says voters on Hawaii Island were disenfranchised because they couldn’t get to the polls due to storm damage. Tropical Storm Iselle made landfall on Hawaii’s Big Island less than 48 hours before election day. Two precincts in the badly damaged Puna region were closed, and voters were told they would be mailed ballots. But then Chief Elections Officer Scott Nago changed course and scheduled a makeup primary for a week after the original election date, leaving some voters confused about the logistics of voting.

Editorials: Ferguson Voter Registration Drive Infuriates Conservatives | Brian Beutler/New Republic

During a brief moment of calm late last week—when the police stood down and protesters celebrated a short-lived victory and it seemed as if the story had undergone a permanent transition—I wrote an article drawing a single line between the trampling of liberties in Ferguson, Missouri, and broader, less violent social phenomena, like voter suppression. Since then, the police have taken another volte-face, public opinion about the events in Ferguson has polarized along racial lines, and the combination of the two has elicited a conservative response that neatly underlines my point. I’m not talking about responses to the details of Michael Brown’s shooting, or the emergence of looters and outside agitators. I’m talking about the reflexive hostility with which conservatives reacted to the news that protesters in Ferguson had organized a voter registration drive. “If that’s not fanning the political flames, I don’t know what is,” Missouri GOP Executive Director Matt Wills told the conservative website Breitbart. “I think it’s not only disgusting but completely inappropriate.” Breitbart described the drive as “efforts by liberal organizers to set up voter registration booths”—a rendering that reflects a few revealing assumptions. But let’s begin with the overarching one—that these organizers are engaged in something nefarious; that their real goal here is to advance ideological or partisan interests, unrelated to those implicated by the civic unrest.

Wyoming: Secretary of state race highlights counties’ differing election equipment | Billings Gazette

As primary election results poured in late Tuesday night, the seesaw battle in the secretary of state race became the main event. Ed Murray and Ed Buchanan hovered at 36 percent of the vote, trading the lead throughout the night. One cloud loomed over the race until the bitter end. Laramie County, Murray’s home turf, had yet to report the entirety of its results with more than 80 percent of the state’s precincts reporting. The time it took to get the results from Laramie County, while adding drama to the race, left many in the age of instant gratification wondering what took so long. Laramie County Clerk Debbye Balcaen Lathrop said there were no issues in reporting the vote. “If people had any kind of memory, they would know that we finished last night about the same time we did in the primary two years ago and four years ago,” she said. “The reason the focus was on Laramie County last night is people knew that our results would change the secretary of state’s race.”

Afghanistan: Afghans call for immediate presidential vote results | PressTV

Scores of protesters have taken to the streets in the Afghan capital Kabul to call for the immediate release of the results of the disputed presidential runoff vote, Press TV reports. On Thursday, more than a hundred civil society activists chanted slogans and expressed their outrage over what they described as the violation of the Afghan constitution. The demonstrators also emphasized that the delay in announcing the results of the June vote is against the interests of Afghanistan. “Some elements do not think about our country and people, but rather think only about their own interests. It is nothing but a pre-planned political game against the nation,” said Mohammad Jawadi, a civil society activist.

Georgia (Sakartvelo): Abkhazia holds presidential elections amid Ukraine turmoil | Europe Online

The Black Sea region that broke away from Georgia more than 20 years ago might serve as a prime example of Russia‘s ability to impose its will on its neighbours through separatist movements. The Georgian breakaway province of Abkhazia is holding snap presidential elections on Sunday that might not pass unnoticed. Russia‘s annexation of Crimea and its covert military support for the insurgents in eastern Ukraine reminds many of the war in the early 1990s that led to Abkhazia‘s secession from Georgia. But the ouster of president Alexander Ankvab, who quit on June 1 after protesters stormed his administration building in the regional capital Sukhumi, also reminded observers that the lush subtropical region has its own unresolved problems.

North Carolina: NAACP appeals federal judge’s ruling to let 2014 elections proceed under new voting rules | News Observer

The NAACP has appealed a federal judge’s decision to allow elections to proceed under the sweeping changes made to North Carolina voting laws in 2013. U.S. District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder rejected a request earlier this month by the NAACP and other challengers of the 2013 overhaul to hold the November elections under old election laws instead of the ones at the heart of the lawsuit scheduled for trial in July 2015. The NAACP, the League of Women Voters, registered Democrats in North Carolina and others contend that voters will suffer “irreparable damages” if any elections scheduled before the hearing of the lawsuit are held under the laws adopted by the Republican-led General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Pat McCrory last summer.  “If one person’s right to vote is denied or abridged this election, this democracy suffers,” the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, president of the North Carolina NAACP, said in a prepared statement. “While restoring the rights of North Carolina voters and renewing the integrity of democracy in our state will require a long legal fight, we must start now by doing everything we can to block this law for the November election.”

National: The fascinating recent history of political primary ‘meddling’ | The Washington Post

Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) would presumably like to run against Joe Miller (R) in the November election. Miller, the GOP’s surprising 2010 nominee who eventually lost to Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) write-in bid, emerged from that campaign extremely unpopular and now fares worse than his primary opponents in general-election polling against Begich. At the very least, Begich’s supporters see former state attorney general Dan Sullivan as the biggest threat in Tuesday’s three-way Republican Senate primary in the state, judging by ads run by the group Put Alaska First are any indication. The pro-Begich PAC has been hammering Sullivan, in a move that some Republicans critique as undue “meddling” in their primary. A better descriptor than “meddling” might be: How politics works.

Alaska: Yup’ik Voters Give Ballot Translation Mixed Reviews | Alaska Public Media

Alaska Native voters in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region of Western Alaska gave the Yup’ik language primary ballot translations mixed reviews. All eight of the Yup’ik voters that KYUK talked with said they needed help understanding what they were voting on. Elder Jacob Nelson is originally from the coastal village of Kwigilingok. He moved to Bethel in the 1970′s and he speaks mostly Yup’ik, and very little English. He says leading up to Alaska’s primary election, he heard some information on the radio in his language about an oil tax referendum. “I only ever heard about the ballot initiative on radio, not from anyone else.”

California: State high court declines to hear Palmdale voting rights appeal | Los angeles Times

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to take up the city of Palmdale’s appeals in a voting rights lawsuit it lost last year. The high court’s decision is the latest in a series of legal setbacks the city has faced since a Superior Court judge last year ruled Palmdale was in violation of the California Voting Rights Act and ordered it to hold a new election with council members chosen by geographic district. The trial judge said the current city council, elected at large, could not hold office after July 9. The city appealed parts of the ruling but the appellate court upheld the trial judge, prompting Palmdale officials to turn to the state’s high court.

Editorials: How to boost voter turnout in L.A. — and it isn’t offering prizes | Los Angeles Times

In a wondrous proposal that says more about the decline of civilization than its authors surely intended, the Los Angeles Ethics Commission has come up with a way to boost voter turnout in L.A. city elections: Make voters eligible for cash prizes. The recommendation may fail to persuade the City Council to enact such a plan, and even if it does, the particulars — two $25,000 awards? one $50,000 windfall? 500 all-you-can-eat coupons to In-N-Out Burger? — remain to be determined. The plan’s purpose is to arrest the decline of voter participation in municipal elections, which has been falling for decades and hit an all-time low of 23% in last year’s mayoral run-off. Then again, it would be almost impossible to design a system more likely to produce low turnouts than L.A.’s elections. They are held in the spring of odd-numbered years, when potential voters are just coming up for air after the saturation coverage and ad blitzes of presidential and gubernatorial contests. More fundamentally, by the terms of California’s Constitution, city officials don’t have all that much power over public affairs. Separately elected school boards run the schools, while county supervisors are in charge of health and welfare programs.

Colorado: Attorney asks for dismissal in Montezuma vs. voters lawsuit | The Denver Post

An attorney for three residents of the town of Montezuma has asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit the town filed recently naming all its voters as respondents in a legal dispute that revolves around a botched election. “The town seems to be suing itself,” stated the motion to dismiss, filed Monday in Summit County District Court. Gunnison attorney Luke Danielson cited a number of what he believes are errors in the town’s lawsuit, including basing the suit on a repealed statute, failing to challenge an election in the allotted time and failing to name the 61 respondents who could be forced to appear before a judge.

Florida: Lawyers Spar in Florida Over Newest Voting Map | New York Times

In the latest legal face-off over Florida’s invalid congressional map, lawyers wrangled in court on Wednesday over the State Legislature’s newest version. With the state’s primary days away, the judge weighed whether to approve the revised boundaries for seven districts. Lawyers for the coalition of voters’ rights groups that sued the Republican-dominated Legislature over the original boundaries argued that the new map was scarcely different from the old one. They said the judge should reject the new map because it still gave the Republican Party an advantage. “They never tried; they never considered any other alternative because the intent we established at the last trial is alive and well in the Florida Legislature,” David King, the coalition’s lawyer, said in court. He said the Republicans who drew the map tried “to do the least they could possibly do.” If Judge Terry P. Lewis approves the Legislature’s revised map, he must then decide whether to delay the coming elections for those seven districts, possibly until next year, a move that Democrats oppose. Florida’s primary is scheduled for Tuesday.

Hawaii: Hanabusa says she will not file election challenge | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa said Tuesday that she would not legally challenge her Democratic primary loss to U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz. The congreswoman lost to Schatz by 1,769 votes. The outcome was delayed for nearly a week after the state Office of Elections allowed voters in two Puna precincts on Hawaii island struggling to recover from Tropical Storm Iselle to cast ballots in a makeup vote. The state also found about 800 previously uncounted absentee ballots on Maui. “A big mahalo to our volunteers and supporters for your hard work, sacrifice and most importantly, for your trust,” Hanabusa said in a statement. “We would not have gotten as close as we did without the love and Aloha you poured into our campaign. I will forever be humbled and inspired by your support.”

Mississippi: Tyner Explains Irregular Vote: McDaniel Lawyer Listed in Challenge | Jackson Free Press

Last week the Internet poked fun at state Sen. Chris McDaniel’s challenge to the election results of the U.S. Senate race due to one piece of evidence included in the amended filings: His campaign lawyer’s name was listed as an irregular vote. Political enthusiasts on both sides speculated about why his name was listed, but McDaniel lawyer Mitch Tyner has confirmed that he voted, or at least tried to vote, for the Tea Party candidate. “His banner’s on my building; of course, I voted for Chris McDaniel,” Tyner said. Comedic blogs used the seemingly hypocritical element of the challenge to mock the McDaniel campaign, but right-wing blogger Charles C. Johnson claims the addition was unfiltered data. On Wednesday he tweeted: “The entire Madison precinct is in question, and McDaniel volunteers reported the data without filtering it so it can be properly examined in the appropriate venue.” But Tyner told the Jackson Free Press that he was listed as an irregular vote because he was listed as voting twice. He said he knew his name was on the list all along.

Mississippi: Trial for McDaniel’s election challenge likely next month | WAPT

A judge presiding over a lawsuit that challenges Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran’s victory in a Republican primary runoff said his intention is to have the case settled in time for the November general election. A hearing was held Wednesday before Special Judge Hollis McGehee, who was appointed to hear the lawsuit filed by Chris McDaniel. McGehee said it was a unique case because there has never been a statewide election challenge. McDaniel claims he lost to incumbent Thad Cochran because of thousands of fraudulent votes and voter irregularities. McDaniel wants to be declared the winner of the Republican primary runoff or have a new election. Certified results of the June 24 runoff show that Cochran, a six-term incumbent, defeated the tea party-backed McDaniel by 7,667 votes.

New York: Teachout Can Stay on Ballot Against Cuomo, Appeals Court Says | New York Times

A New York State appeals court ruled on Wednesday that Zephyr Teachout, a law professor who is running against Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in the Democratic primary, can remain on the Sept. 9 ballot. Mr. Cuomo’s campaign, which had sought to disqualify her, said it would not appeal. The campaign had questioned whether Ms. Teachout, who teaches at Fordham Law School, met the state’s five-year residency requirement to be governor, arguing that in recent years, she had intended for Vermont, where she grew up, to be her legal residence. It cited a variety of records in which Ms. Teachout used a Vermont address. But a State Supreme Court justice rebuffed the challenge last week. Mr. Cuomo’s campaign appealed that ruling, and the appeal was argued in Brooklyn on Tuesday.

Australia: Politicians billing taxpayers twice for election campaign material | The Guardian

Federal MPs and senators are passing on the cost of printing election-related material to the taxpayer in a practice once described as “double dipping” by the auditor general’s office. A Guardian Australia analysis of politicians’ entitlements shows that on average claims for printing and communications materials during an election campaign are twice as high as at other times. Funds are provided separately to parties for election campaigns via the Australian Electoral Commission, so using regular entitlements for campaign material may represent a double use of taxpayers’ funds that benefits incumbent politicians.