The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly for February 2-8 2015
Pam Fessler surveyed voting legislation being considered in state legislatures in 2015 while Techonomy considered the potential of open source voting systems to upend the elections technology market. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case brought by Arizona legislators challenging the authority of the state’s independent redistricting commission, which was set up by voters through a ballot initiative back in 2000. A longstanding proposal to change Nebraska’s Electoral College system to winner-take-all may finally reach the Republican governor’s desk, amid a renewed push by conservative lawmakers hoping to have new rules in place for the 2016 presidential election. A Democratic proposal that would establish automatic voter registration, adding as many as 300,000 new voters to the rolls, appears likely to pass the Oregon legislature. In Washington abill has been introduced that would provide prepaid postage on ballots as well as another that would allow, in spite of the well-established security concerns, the return of voted ballots by fax and as email attachment. In a move seen as favorable to the ruling party, Nigeria’s electoral commission has said it is postponing the Feb. 14 presidential election until March 28 and with events held across Britain on National Voter Registration Day over 80,000 people used Gov.uk to apply to be put on the electoral register.