The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly for March 16-22 2015
Reflecting a movement is growing around the country to dismantle felon disenfranchisement laws that keep nearly 6 million Americans from the polls, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) introduced legislation that would restore voting rights for federal elections to Americans with past criminal convictions upon their release from incarceration. Russell Berman at The Atlantic considered the ramifications an automatic voter registration bill, signed into law this week by Oregon’s Governor (and former Secretary of State Kate Brown. Electionline Weekly noted the increase in special elections and the toll on the budgets and resources of election administrators. San Francisco is considering a proposal that would make it the first major city in the US to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in municipal elections. Legislation that would return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential electoral vote system was blocked from further consideration this session by a successful filibuster. A proposed Voter ID requirement drew contentious debate in the Nevada Assembly. A online ballot error in an election in Australia could lead to litigation and the Guinean opposition withdrew its lawmakers from parliament Wednesday and said it would no longer recognize the election commission in protest over the timetable for presidential elections.