The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly for January 26 – February 1 2015

lynch_confirmationAttorney General nominee Loretta Lynch was questioned about her position on controversial voting laws during her confirmation hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee. A network of conservative advocacy groups backed by Charles and David Koch pledged Monday to spend $889 million on the 2016 election. An Arizona case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court that questions whether it’s constitutional for independent state commissions to have the sole power to draw political district maps may force California and other States to return to partisan congressional gerrymandering. In a direct response to Chad Taylor’s withdrawal from last year’s U.S. Senate race, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is advocating legislation to severely limit the situations in which a candidate’s name can be removed from the ballot. Almost a decade after passing legislation requiring a paper ballot voting system, Maryland will finally abandon their touchscreen voting machines in 2016. On Friday, a Superior Court judge heard arguments in a case challenging North Carolina’s voter id requirement. In spite of widespread voter displacement and terrorist violence, Nigeria’s electoral commission has pledged to hold presidential elections in February as scheduled. And in ComputerworldUK Glyn Moody comments on the push for internet voting in the United Kingdom.