Bulgaria: Opposition demands referendum on voting rules | The Star Online

Bulgarian right-wing activists backed by the opposition GERB party demanded on Monday a referendum to challenge the voting rules in the Balkan country in what has become an increasingly divisive issue in the run up to European vote this May. About 150 people marched from Sofia University to the parliament building in downtown Sofia and submitted more than 560,000 signatures to parliament calling for the referendum – above the half million they need to force a plebiscite. Recent opinion polls show the Socialists and centre-right GERB are running neck-to-neck in support ahead of the May election.

Editorials: How the Fair Elections Act might actually hurt the Tories in 2015 | National Post

The federal government has recently introduced legislation aimed at significantly revising the powers of Elections Canada. Critics of the Fair Elections Act (Bill C-23) contend that the bill offers an electoral advantage to the governing Conservatives, suggesting that its provisions have been designed to suppress voter turnout among segments of the population traditionally unfriendly to the Conservatives. That may be true, though we would suggest there are at least two ways in which the Fair Elections Act might actually hurt the Tories come 2015. No wonder the Tories were so nervous. The government had been noticeably skittish about what Marc Mayrand would say before the Commons Procedure and House Affairs committee Thursday: not only had it kept the chief electoral officer largely out of the loop in the months before it introduced its landmark Fair Elections Act, but there was doubt whether he would even be allowed to testify about it afterwards. A promise to that effect had been made to the NDP’s David Christopherson the night before to persuade him to end his filibuster of the Act in committee. Yet on the day Mr. Mayrand’s testimony was interrupted by the calling of not one but two votes in the Commons just as he was scheduled to speak.

El Salvador: Ex-rebel’s lead ‘irreversible,’ rival wants recount | Reuters

A former Marxist rebel commander’s tiny lead in El Salvador’s presidential election is irreversible, the country’s electoral tribunal said on Monday, but his right-wing challenger demanded a full recount, insisting he was the real winner. Salvador Sanchez Ceren of the ruling Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), which as a rebel group fought a string of U.S.-backed governments in the 1980-1992 civil war, claimed victory on Sunday after preliminary results showed he had won 50.11 percent support. Challenger Norman Quijano, a former mayor of San Salvador and candidate of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) party, had 49.89 percent support. The two men were separated by just 6,634 votes.

Israel: Knesset expected to raise electoral threshold to 3.25% | Haaretz

Knesset members are expected to make it tougher for others to join their ranks Tuesday, by voting to raise the threshold for entering the Knesset to 3.25 percent of valid votes in a general election. It was not yet clear how all the Hatnuah and Habayit Hayehudi MKs were planning to vote on the so-called Governance Bill. Monday’s debate on the bill took place without the opposition MKs, who were boycotting the session. Several Hatnuah MKs were critical of the governance bill, which some say will reduce the number of Arab MKs because there are far fewer Arab voters than Jewish ones, making it harder for Arab candidates to get enough votes to push them over the threshold.

Ukraine: OSCE observers weren’t officially invited to Crimean referendum | Voice of Russia

The administration of Crimea has not sent an official invitation to the OSCE to monitor the referendum in Crimea, Rustam Temirgaliyev, deputy prime minister of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, told Interfax. “We are really ready to accept monitors from the OSCE, but not as military advisers, let alone the NATO countries, but real monitors. A verbal invitation was indeed made by Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov, but no official invitation was sent,” he said. The administration of Crimea has invited representatives of the Russian Central Elections Commission and monitors from the CIS countries, he said. “We are open to various international organizations, but only if they are ready to send monitors, not saboteurs, military experts and advisers. We don’t need the help of such ‘specialists’,” he said.

National: Selma honors anniversary of ‘Bloody Sunday’ | Associated Press

Speakers at the commemoration Sunday of a key event in African Americans’ fight for voting rights urged Congress to resurrect the requirement that many southern states get federal approval for changes in election laws. The son of Martin Luther King Jr. said blood spilled on Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge helped pave the way for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. But a court case also arising out of Alabama led the U.S. Supreme Court last year to effectively strike down a key provision of the law that requires federal approval for election changes in all or parts of 15 states. “I’m very concerned because it is ironic that the state that helped to give us so much has temporarily set up a scenario to take it away. That we must change,” Martin Luther King III said in a speech this morning.

Alabama: Voting rights for ex-felons: Difficult and rare to get a second chance in Alabama | AL.com

Perrion Roberts, 49, earned a pardon from Alabama this year. That means she can cast a ballot at the next election. But it’s difficult and it’s rare to get a second chance in Alabama. In Alabama and 11 other states ex-felons forfeit the right to vote. But the U.S. Department of Justice has sharply criticized the practice. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder last month called for repeal of such state bans, saying that “the impact of felony disenfranchisement on modern communities of color remains both disproportionate and unacceptable.” Alabama blocks anyone convicted of a crime of moral turpitude from voting. There are exceptions. Ex-felons can regain the right to vote through full and partial pardons. Yet Roberts, who served time in prison on drug-related charges roughly a decade ago, is the first success story Bob Harrison can remember.

Editorials: Bill that limits party-switching in Kansas could limit voters’ right to support their chosen candidates | Lawrence Journal World

A bill that would create new limits on when Kansas voters could change their party affiliations is another example of state legislators trying to correct a problem that probably doesn’t exist or at least not to an extent that justifies legislative action. In this case, that “fix” also could limit Kansas voters’ ability to cast their ballots for their preferred candidates. The bill that has passed the Senate Ethics and Election Committee last week would bar Kansas voters from changing their party affiliation from June 1 (the filing deadline for candidates) to Sept. 1 (about a month after the August primary elections).

Ohio: Husted disqualifies 2 Libertarian candidates from May primary after protests | Associated Press

Two Libertarian candidates for statewide office were tossed from Ohio’s primary ballot on Friday in a state election chief’s ruling that sparked immediate plans for a legal challenge. Secretary of State Jon Husted issued a brief statement in disqualifying gubernatorial candidate Charlie Earl and attorney general candidate Steven Linnabary from the May 6 primary, saying he had adopted a hearing officer’s recommendations. The candidates’ nominating petitions were challenged on two grounds: that signature gatherers failed to comply with Ohio laws requiring them to be either Libertarian or political independent and another requiring them to disclose their employer. Mark Brown, an attorney for the Libertarian Party of Ohio, said the party will challenge the decision in federal court.

Editorials: Why Ohio’s GOP is strangling voters’ access to the polls | Toledo Blade

Voter fraud is minuscule. No massive voting irregularities have been uncovered in Ohio. Ballot stuffing, perpetrated by individuals who scheme to skew elections in the state, is a myth. So the new Republican-backed voting restrictions adopted recently in Ohio are not really about preventing deceit at the polls. Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted launched a comprehensive investigation of voting in the state after the last presidential election in 2012. It produced almost no evidence of voting irregularities worthy of prosecution. Out of more than 5.5 million Ohio votes cast in November, 2012, just 135 were referred to law enforcement agencies for review. Mr. Husted, a Republican, concluded that while voter fraud exists, “it’s not an epidemic.” So if large-scale voter fraud is virtually nonexistent in Ohio, we can rule out aggressive policing as the motivation behind GOP efforts to chip away at established voting practices in the state.

Wisconsin: Lawmakers could restrict political robocalls | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Political robocalls could be added to Wisconsin’s do-not-call list and become illegal before the Wisconsin governor’s race if a bipartisan bill makes it through the Wisconsin Legislature. Similar proposals in the past never made it into law, partly because of opposition from special interest groups that use the automated robocalls. But authors of Senate Bill 97 say it has better odds than any bill in the past because it’s extremely popular with increasingly frustrated consumers and because it has 30 co-sponsors — more than any previous bill. “I think it still has some obstacles to clear, but it’s closer to passing now than it has been at any point in the past,” said Rep. André Jacque (R-DePere), one of the bill’s authors. “A large part is, with every election season, you see a higher number of calls. Technology has made it easier and cheaper to make these calls. It’s something, if we don’t get it passed, I think we’re going to continue to hear from constituents.”

Afghanistan: Taliban pledge violent campaign to disrupt Afghan election | AFP

The Taliban today vowed to target Afghanistan’s presidential election, urging their fighters to attack polling staff, voters and security forces before the April 5 vote to choose a successor to Hamid Karzai. Previous Afghan elections have been badly marred by violence, with at least 31 civilians and 26 soldiers and police killed on polling day alone in 2009 as the Islamist militants displayed their opposition to the US-backed polls. Another blood-stained election would damage claims by international donors that the expensive military and civilian intervention in Afghanistan since 2001 has made progress in establishing a functioning state system.

Canada: Author of elections report cited by Poilievre contradicts minister on voter fraud | CBC

The author of a report cited repeatedly to justify cracking down on potential voter fraud says the Harper government is misrepresenting his report and ignoring his recommendations. Indeed, Harry Neufeld says there’s not a shred of evidence that there have been more than “a handful” of cases of deliberate voter fraud in either federal or provincial elections. “I never said there was voter fraud,” Neufeld said in an interview with The Canadian Press. “Nor did the Supreme Court, who looked at this extremely carefully.” Neufeld said the government’s efforts to prevent voter fraud are aimed at a non-existent problem. And he predicted they’ll wind up disenfranchising thousands of voters and resulting in a rash of court challenges.

Colombia: Observers report 150 allegations of voter fraud amid relatively calm elections | Colombia Reports

With only a few reported rebel attacks, less than 20 arrests and little more than 160 fraud allegations, Colombia’s congressional elections that began at 8AM this morning are proceeding in relative calm. Police did arrest five suspects for allegedly trying to influence voters on their way to the polling stations in the southern Putumayo state, said Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon who called this year’s elections the “most secure” in Colombia’s history. Twelve more suspects were arrested at polls throughout the country, reported Colombian news agency El Tiempo.  Some of the arrested were arrested for crimes related to voter fraud while others were reportedly arrested because of pre-existing warrants. Rebel groups like the FARC and ELN refrained from high-profile attacks; According to local police, FARC rebels did attack an army unit, but away from a polling station.  A front of the FARC also has been blamed for preventing some residents from voting in a municipality in the state of Putumayo said El Tiempo.

Egypt: Presidential election law passed | Associated Press

Egypt’s interim president on Saturday issued a much-anticipated decree governing an upcoming presidential election that clears the way for a vote many expect will be won by the country’s military chief. Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has not yet officially announced he will run for president, but it is a widely expected move. After the Interim President Adly Mansour’s legal adviser, Ali Awad, announced the move on state television, the election commission is expected to set the date for the vote in April, opening the door for candidates to run. The election is a key step in a transition plan laid out by interim authorities in July after the army ousted President Mohammed Morsi.

India: India set to challenge U.S. for election-spending record | Reuters

Indian politicians are expected to spend around $5 billion on campaigning for elections next month – a sum second only to the most expensive U.S. presidential campaign of all time – in a splurge that could give India’s floundering economy a temporary boost. India’s campaign spend, which can include cash stuffed in envelopes as well as multi-million-dollar ad campaigns, has been estimated at 300 billion rupees ($4.9 billion) by the Centre for Media Studies, which tracks spending. That is triple the expenditure the centre said was spent on electioneering in the last national poll in 2009 – partly a reflection of a high-octane campaign by pro-business opposition candidate for prime minister, Narendra Modi, who started nationwide rallies and advertising last year.

Maldives: Entire Maldives election commission sentenced | BBC

The Maldives Supreme Court has given all four election commissioners six-month jail sentences, suspended for three years, for “disobeying orders”. The head of the commission and his deputy have also been sacked. The BBC’s Charles Haviland in Colombo says the ruling comes at an awkward time as the commission is supposed to be preparing for parliamentary elections in less than two weeks. Former President Mohamed Nasheed has called for protests against the ruling. The four election commission members were brought to trial under new rules that allow the Supreme Court to initiate proceedings, prosecute and pass judgement. The judges said they had disrespected the court by not following election guidelines.

North Korea: Kim Jong Un ‘elected’ with 100% of the vote | Associated Press

With no one else on the ballot, state media reported Monday that supreme leader Kim Jong Un was not only elected to the highest legislative body in North Korea, he won with the unanimous approval of his district, which had 100% turnout. North Koreans went to the polls on Sunday to approve the new roster of deputies for the Supreme People’s Assembly, the country’s legislature. The vote, more a political ritual than an election by Western standards, is generally held once every five years. Though results for the other seats in the assembly had not yet been announced, North Korea’s media quickly reported Kim had won in his district — located on the symbolic Mount Paekdu — without a single dissenting ballot.

North Korea: To protect families, North Korean defectors sneak back for election | Asahi Shimbun

Some North Korean defectors in China said they would sneak back into their country to vote in an election to further conceal their absence and prevent possible repercussions against family members. It was unclear how many defectors returned to North Korea for the March 9 election to pick deputies to the Supreme People’s Assembly. Some defectors said they had no plans to return for the vote. But all defectors interviewed by The Asahi Shimbun denied they had any interest in the election itself. “All candidates in past elections were strangers,” one of them said. “Voting meant nothing for us.” What they were interested in was the stricter voter identification control in the latest election. The defectors in China heard that North Korean authorities would conduct extensive investigations into anybody who did not turn up at a polling station.

Ukraine: Crimea Prepares for Referendum | VoA News

The chief of Crimea’s election commission, Myhkailo Malyshev, said Monday he is moving ahead with preparations for next Sunday’s referendum on unification with Russia. He said all registered Crimean voters are eligible to vote. “All citizens who are registered in the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea have the right to vote at this referendum, meaning that nothing will prevent them from voting,” said Malyshev. Russian forces have tightened their grip on Crimea, as authorities in the breakaway territory push their plan to join Moscow.

Ukraine: Join Russia now or later, asks Crimea ballot paper | Telegraph

Crimea took a vital step towards joining Russia on Tuesday when the region’s parliament formally voted to leave Ukraine if the electorate chooses that option in a referendum due to be held on Sunday. The vote is being billed as a chance for the Ukrainian territory’s peoples to decide fairly and freely their future, but it emerged on Tuesday that there is no room on the ballot paper for voting “Nyet” to control by Russia. The ballot paper for the contest, which was published by parliament, disclosed that Crimean voters will be given two options: either immediate “reunification” with Russia, or adopting the “1992 constitution” — which gives parliament the power to vote to join Russia.

The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly March 3-9 2014

Voter hold crying baby as she stands in queue to cast her ballot at Lalgarh villageWith the announcement of a nine stage month-long election process to begin April 7 in the world’s largest democracy, India, as well elections in Afghanistan, Algeria, and several other countries, April will see the historically largest number of voters to cast a vote in any single month. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on McCutcheon v. FEC this week. A judge in Iowa invalidated a rule issued by Secretary of State Matt Schultz that screens voters against a Federal database.  A Federal judge ruled that North Carolina must provide groups suing to overturn last year’s voting law with documents created even after it was signed last summer. Cuyahoga County Executive and gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald has submitted legislation asserting his right to mail out unsolicited absentee ballot applications to all registered voters in the county, a move that would be in direct contradiction to a recently-passed state law. New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardiner, bound by State law to hold the first Presidential primary in the election cycle has urged Utah lawmakers to reject a bill that would try to put the Beehive State ahead of the New Hampshire primary or the Iowa caucuses. The Russian-controlled parliament of Ukraine’s Crimea area voted Thursday to secede and join Russia, and set a March 16 election for succession.

International: One billion voters go to polls in most democratic month world has ever seen | The Guardian

April may traditionally be the cruellest month, but in 2014 it will also be the most democratic the world has ever seen. More than a billion people are eligible to vote in a sudden flurry of national elections in some of the world’s largest – and newest democracies. As well as the 800 million eligible to casts their ballot in India from 7 April, another 190 million have the right to vote in Indonesian elections on 9 April. In terms of size of electorate, India and Indonesia are the world’s first and third largest democracies. The US is second.

National: Justices Poised to Rule on Citizens United 2 | Newsweek

Last year, the Supreme Court ruled on a case involving an Alabama county that wanted to see key sections of the Voting Rights Act eliminated. Shelby County mostly got its wish. Southern states no longer have to have their voting rules vetted by the federal government. Now, an electrical engineer and Republican activist–Shaun McCutcheon, also from Alabama–has a case before the high court that threatens to upend the current status quo on campaign finance. Due any day now, the court’s ruling in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission could overturn a nearly 40-year-old law that limits what individuals give to campaigns and what they can give in total. Politicians and activists are watching closely because in 2010 the Roberts court overturned a century’s worth of law with its Citizens United ruling that allowed unlimited contributions and contributions by corporations to certain kinds of political committees.

Editorials: Why Did the Senate Block Debo Adegbile? | Brentin Mock/Demos

Much of the rancor around why they opposed Debo Adegbile for heading the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has been about Mumia Abu-Jamal. But it seems from their line of questioning that there’s also an agenda to undermine the Civil Rights Divisions’ duties to enforce voting rights and protect Americans against discrimination. This probably explains why Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama sound really pissed with the Senate right now. “At a time when significant voting rights cases and other consequential matters are pending, it is more critical than ever to have a confirmed leader for the Civil Rights Division,” said Holder in a statement decrying the Senate vote. “He deserved to have his nomination considered wholly on the merits.”  President Obama called it a “travesty” noting that Adegbile’s “unwavering dedication to protecting every American’s civil and Constitutional rights under the law—including voting rights —could not be more important right now.”

Voting Blogs: Overseas Vote Foundation studies new remote voting program | electionlineWeekly

Making sure every vote counts and every vote is secure is of the utmost importance to all elections officials. When the voters are members of our military or residents serving and living abroad, the counting of those votes is as important, it’s just a bit more complex. Through the years there have been a variety of legislative measures such as the MOVE Act to make sure that ballots are sent to and accepted from overseas voters in a timely fashion. There have been some attempts — some somewhat successful, some not-so-much — to create secure systems for overseas residents to case their ballots electronically. Now the Overseas Vote Foundation (OVF) is conducting a new study that will team up scientists and state and local elections officials to look at the feasibility of end-to-end, verifiable, secure Internet voting for military and overseas voters.

California: More than half of California voters vote by mail, not at the polls | UC Davis News

For the first time ever, more than half of all California voters in 2012 voted by mail, and in most regions of the state, more than 60 percent dropped their ballots in the mailbox rather than the polls, according to a new University of California, Davis, policy paper. But not all voters are using mail ballots at the same rates. There are disparities in the rate of vote-by-mail use by age, race, ethnicity and political party in California. “Outreach and services to voters — including election and campaign materials — may need to be retooled to reflect these different use rates to ensure all voters have access to the voting option that is most useful for them, said Mindy S. Romero, author of the paper. Romero is founding director of the UC Davis California Civic Engagement Project, which collects and analyzes statewide data on voters and other civic issues.

Florida: Senate bill puts absentee ballot dropoff sites in cross hairs | Tampa Bay Times

At the urging of state Sen. Jack Latvala, the Senate will take up voting law changes that include preventing counties from using satellite locations where voters can drop off absentee ballots. The proposal is aimed at Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark, but it antagonized two other supervisors who say dropoff sites save money and are convenient for voters. The Senate plan follows a confrontation in December between Clark and Gov. Rick Scott’s top elections official, Secretary of State Ken Detzner, who ordered an end to dropoff sites because no law allows it. Clark continues to defy the directive and is using five sites in the Congressional District 13 special election.

Kentucky: Thayer files bill clarifying Rand Paul’s ability to seek re-election and run for president in 2016 | Kentucky.com

State Sen. Damon Thayer introduced a bill Thursday afternoon that would clear the way for U.S. Sen. Rand Paul to seek re-election to the Senate and run for president on the same Kentucky ballot in 2016. Thayer, R-Georgetown, and other allies of Paul said the proposal would make clear that an existing state law prohibiting candidates from appearing twice on the same ballot applies only to those seeking state and local offices. Paul, who is openly flirting with a run for the White House in 2016, and his supporters say he already has the ability to pursue both seats at the same time, but the legislation filed Thursday would thwart any legal challenges to his potential multiple candidacies.