Monthly Archives: March 2015

Ontario’s chief elections officer is urging Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government to change the law requiring a provincial election every fourth year on the first Thursday in October. Greg Essensa said in a new report that a Saturday, Sunday or school holiday in June could make it easier for citizens to cast ballots and to put polling stations in schools. “Other democracies, such as Australia, hold elections on weekends and their experience suggests that, should Ontario follow suit, voter turnout may increase,” he wrote in a new report issued Tuesday, noting just over half of eligible voters — 52.1 per cent — cast ballots in the last general election. Essensa says such a move would cut down on voter burnout as well by eliminating campaign overlap with municipal elections held in late October and make life easier in farm communities, where October is harvest time.

Israel: What happens to my vote? – Israeli Elections 101 | TLV!

Israel is getting ready for the big day: On March 17th, citizen residents in Israel will vote for the 20th Knesset since the country’s founding. Then, the politicians we see every night on TV will go head to head for 120 Knesset seats. … Each citizen has one vote. Unlike other democracies, this vote is not given to a candidate, but to a list. And this list is either a political party or a union of parties, such as for example the Zionist camp that unified Zipi Livni’s HaTnua and Avoda, the Labour Party. … Anyone with Israeli citizenship and over the age of 18 is eligible to vote: So that’s Arabs, Druze, Christians and Jews alike. People in prison or who currently do their army service are also eligible to vote. However, this does exclude most of the inhabitants of East Jerusalem who only have a permanent residency and not an Israeli ID. This is due to the difficult status of East Jerusalem. Israeli citizens can’t vote from abroad. You just have to ensure you’re in Israel on election day. That is, apart from diplomats and Israeli embassy staff based abroad. These people vote at the earlier date of March 5th to ensure their votes arrive in Israel to be counted on election day. It is debatable, but many parties and politicians think that you need to live in Israel to influence its future because it is much too easy to sit thousands of miles away and make a decision that probably won’t influence your life.

Nigeria: Protest rocks INEC over planned use of card readers | Nigerian Tribune

Protesting youths, under the umbrella of “Middle Belt Concerned Youths” on Wednesday, stormed the national headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja, protesting the use of permanent voter cards (PVCs) and the card readers for the elections. This was just as they also called on the Federal Government to sack the INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega with immediate effect. However, the youth, who arrived the Maitama headquarters of INEC in hired luxury buses around 8.00 a.m. were prevented by armed policemen and other security agents, who cordoned the INEC office. The youths, armed with various placards, were received by an Assistant Director in charge of security, Victor Egbo, on behalf of the commission. He received their protest letter with a promise to deliver same to the commission’s chairman.

Philippines: Poll watchdog: Smartmatic will ensure administration bet’s victory in 2016 | Business Mirror

Election watchdog Citizens for Clean and Credible Election (C3E) on Tuesday accused proadministration legislators of paving the way for the victory of President Aquino’s presidential candidate in 2016, by ensuring that Smartmatic-Total Information Management will remain as the country’s sole provider of automated voting machines for next year’s elections. C3E co-convener Nicanor Elman said this could be the main reason key leaders of the proadministration House of Representatives “are suspiciously turning a blind eye on the frailties” of the Venezuelan company’s Precinct Count Optical Scan machines used in the past national and local polls. “What we are trying to understand is, why some leaders of Congress had apparently turned defenders and apologists for Smartmatic,” Elman said in a statement. “If ever the elections push through, the Smartmatic cheating machine seems part of the grand equation for the administration,” he added.

Connecticut: City Council closer to ousting Hartford’s Registrar of Voters | KPAX

Last year’s Election Day in Connecticut made national headlines, and now, months later, Hartford is getting one step closer to getting rid of its registrars of voters. Some of the polling places didn’t have a moderator, and other locations didn’t receive their printed voter lists on time. Hartford’s City Council members said they can’t sit around and let the registrars of voters, who were in charge, get away with it. On Monday night, the council approved a resolution, in an 8-1 vote, that charges the three registrars of voters with failing to do their jobs on Election Day. The resolution also proposes to remove them from office.

Editorials: Iowa shows a better way on redistricting | Omaha World-Herald

Every 10 years, Iowa does something impressive. It redraws its political maps using a system that avoids the partisan scrambling and rancor that inevitably erupt in Nebraska at redistricting time. Iowa’s general approach, in use since 1981, is one that Nebraska should give serious consideration as lawmakers look at how they draw lines. Under the Iowa system, the legislature’s nonpartisan staff use general, legislative-directed parameters to draw redistricting maps that then go before the state’s lawmakers for approval. The response from Iowa’s elected leaders has been quite positive, regardless of party. The votes in 2011 were striking. The Iowa House, in a display of bipartisan consensus, approved the new maps 90-7. The Iowa Senate said “yes” with a vote of 48-1. The maps received a thumb’s up from Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican, who praised them for encouraging a healthy competitiveness between the two parties.

Massachusetts: Galvin: Presidential Primary is unaffordable under Baker budget | WWLP

Massachusetts cannot afford to have a presidential primary in 2016 under Gov. Charlie Baker’s proposed budget, the state elections chief said Tuesday. In remarks to House and Senate budget writers, Secretary of State William Galvin flayed Baker’s proposed funding for elections in a year with no White House incumbent and an expected high voter turnout. “As you all know this country is scheduled to elect a new president next year. Apparently the governor only wants 49 states to vote, he doesn’t want this one, because he has drastically underfunded the elections budget,” said Galvin, a Brighton Democrat. Galvin’s office requested $8.1 million for elections, and Baker’s budget provides $5.7 million. Because fiscal year 2016 ends in June 2016, the outlay covers the costs of a presidential primary and his office ramping up for the fall elections. “I simply cannot run a credible election with those kind of numbers,” he said.

Michigan: Electoral College-Rigging Bill Makes Comeback in Michigan | Bloomberg

Wisconsin’s passage of right-to-work legislation has infuriated the Democratic Party for more than the usual reasons. It’s not just that the law will weaken labor unions in a state where they often make the difference between victory and defeat. It’s not just that unionized workers tend to make more money than their “liberated” peers. It’s not even that Governor Scott Walker successfully snookered the electorate, and signed the legislation after insisting, many times, that it was not a priority if he won a second term. (For whatever it’s worth, Walker also said during the campaign that he would remain focused on a full Madison term, not a presidential bid.) No, what makes progressives nervous is that the Republicans who run most of the states can govern with impunity until at least 2017, and perhaps 2023. One reason Walker was in the position to sign right-to-work on Monday was that the GOP’s 2010 Wisconsin sweep allowed its legislators to draw district lines that made it prohibitively hard for Democrats to win.

Nebraska: Winner-take-all in trouble | Lincoln Journal-Star

Legislation to return to a winner-take-all presidential electoral vote system in Nebraska appeared Monday to be on life support. In a carefully crafted floor speech, Sen. Laura Ebke of Crete expressed strong support for retention of the current system that awards three of Nebraska’s five electoral votes to the winner in each of the state’s congressional districts. Although she said she “might get drummed out of the Republican Party” for stating her position, Ebke argued that Nebraska’s current system is more in line with what the framers of the U.S. Constitution expected and, in her opinion, “the right way of doing this.”

New Mexico: Duran, Oliver Tension Plays out at Roundhouse | Santa Fe Reporter

Tension between the two former secretary of state candidates played out in a state House committee hearing over a bill that would give New Mexico’s top elections administrator authority in preventing nonbinding advisory questions from inclusion on ballots. The bill, introduced by Rep. Zach Cook, R-Lincoln, stems from the inclusion of what amount to polling questions, that carry no legal weight, placed on ballots by three counties for last year’s November elections. In September, the state Supreme Court granted Santa Fe and Bernalillo counties a petition to include a question on the statewide November ballot asking voters whether they supported marijuana decriminalization.

New York: Hasidic Community in Bloomingburg Files Lawsuit Over Voting Rights | JP Updates

Sullivan County in New York is back in the news again, as the local residents and the residing Hasidic community continue their head to head battle. The Upstate County is trying to prevent Hasidic voters from voting in an upcoming election solely based off of their religious beliefs, according to a new federal lawsuit. The Sullivan County Board of Elections (BOE) sent notices to 184 of 285 registered voters January 16 stating that it “intended to cancel their voter registration and to deprive them of the right to vote.” More than 160 of those 184 voters are Hasidim. Since the village of Bloomingburg has seen a large migration of Hasidic Jews, there has been a heavy animosity filling the air. Local officials have thrown up roadblocks trying to stifle the Jewish voices.

Ohio: Jon Husted seeks $1.2 million to mail absentee ballot applications statewide in 2016 | cleveland.com

Secretary of State Jon Husted plans to request state money to send absentee ballot applications to Ohio voters for next year’s presidential election, continuing a practice voter advocates worry will end now that lawmakers hold the purse strings. A state law enacted last year prohibits county boards of election from sending unsolicited absentee ballot requests but allows the secretary of state to do so if the General Assembly pays for it.

Editorials: With ‘Motor Voter’ bill, Oregon perpetuates voting wars | Paul Gronke/The Oregonian

Last Thursday, House Bill 2177, the “New Motor Voter Bill,” passed the Oregon Senate following passage on Feb. 20 in the House. Gov. Kate Brown has said she’ll sign the legislation; it was a signature piece of legislation for her while secretary of state and was introduced at her request in each of the last…

Utah: Future Uncertain for Fix to Count My Vote Compromise | Utah Policy

A bill that could throw a party candidates’ nomination back to delegates passed the Utah House Monday night, but its future in the Senate is unclear. Fifteen GOP House members who voted for the SB54 compromise bill last year went against the wishes of the Count My Vote leaders and supported an amended HB313. The bill passed 39-34, with two House members absent from the vote. In the meantime, UtahPolicy is told by Utah Republican Party Chairman James Evans that he would be willing to accept even further amendments to HB313 to make it more acceptable to legislators. Evans met with GOP senators Tuesday afternoon in a closed caucus. (The Senate Republicans always hold closed caucuses.)

West Virginia: Lawmakers OKs bill nixing straight party ticket voting | Associated Press

State lawmakers have approved a push to remove the option for voters to cast straight party-line ballots by checking one box. On Tuesday, the Republican-led House of Delegates voted 87-13 to prohibit the practice. Only Democrats opposed the bill. The Senate cleared a similar proposal last month. Currently, West Virginia voters can select every candidate from a single party simply by picking the straight-party option.

Guinea: Presidential vote called for October 11, opposition protests | Reuters

Guinea will hold the first round of a presidential election on Oct. 11, the West African nation’s electoral commission said on Tuesday, a decision opposition parties called unconstitutional. President Alpha Conde is widely seen as the favourite to win a second term in Africa’s largest bauxite exporter, analysts have said, though he has not officially confirmed his candidacy. Etienne Soropogui, deputy direct of operations at the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), said that because of Oct. 11 date, local council elections would be pushed back until next year. Opposition parties said the move breaks an agreement that local council elections would be held before the presidential vote.

Kazakhstan: Kazakh Ruler Wins Time for Power Transfer With Election Run | Bloomberg

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev declared his intention to run in an April 26 election to extend his 25-year rule, the longest of any leader in the former Soviet Union. “All citizens should enjoy the same level of rights, carry the same burden of responsibility and have access to equal opportunities,” Nazarbayev, 74, told a meeting of his Nur Otan party in the capital Astana after announcing his candidacy in the earlier-than-scheduled poll. He held out a promise to redistribute some powers once proposed reforms are completed that would include strengthening the independence of the judiciary, creating a more “professional” bureaucracy with foreigners possibly appointed to state posts, and boosting the status and accountability of the police. The former capital Almaty could be given a special status as a financial center, he said.

Luxembourg: Conference on foreigner voting rights | Luxemburger Wort

Specialists from all over Europe are to participate in an interdisciplinary conference on voting rights for foreigners in Luxembourg. On March 20 and 21, leading thinkers in Europe from legal, philosophical and political backgrounds will gather at Luxembourg’s Chamber of Deputies for a conference dubbed “A new horizon for democracy? Voting rights for foreigners in national elections”. This conference discussion will be conducted in French with simultaneous English translation.

Macedonia: Opposition claims government manipulated elections | Associated Press

Macedonia’s main opposition party on Tuesday published what it says is new evidence of government vote-manipulation in three recent elections, following up on accusations of a massive wire-tapping scandal. At a party rally, Zoran Zaev’s Social Democrats released what they said were recorded conversations between conservative government officials and Macedonia’s intelligence chief. Addressing more than 2,000 party supporters, Zaev repeated calls for conservative Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski to immediately hand over power to an interim government that would ensure “free and fair elections.”

National: Holder and Obama mark Selma events with call for voting rights protections | The Guardian

Thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the historic Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Alabama on Sunday to reprise one of the most powerful acts of the civil rights era. But memorializing history was not the only order of the day, attorney general Eric Holder said in a speech inside the church. In a message that appeared to be coordinated with a pre-recorded television interview by President Barack Obama, Holder attacked a 2013 supreme court decision that invalidated part of the Voting Rights Act as he called for a new national push for protections for minority voters. This year’s march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Holder said, was a symbolic call to finish the work of the original demonstration of 7 March 1965, “Bloody Sunday”, which set the stage for the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Police estimated the crowd crossing the bridge on Sunday at 15-20,000.

National: Redistricting war waged in US Supreme Court | Gannett

Despite recent gains in drawing fairer lines for state lawmakers’ districts, congressional district maps could look like Rorschach test ink blots for the foreseeable future. One of the reasons for the impasse in reforming congressional redistricting is a U.S. Supreme Court case debated Monday. In the case, Arizona lawmakers say they were cut out of the congressional line-drawing process when voters created an independent commission in 2000. The board of two Republicans, two Democrats and an independent took the pencil out of the hands of partisan politicians.

Editorials: Celebrating Selma without fixing the Voting Rights Act dishonors the sacrifices of Bloody Sunday | Sherrilyn Ifill/Los Angeles Times

Long after he had left his career as a civil rights lawyer to become a justice on the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall described his 1944 success in a case striking down all-white primary elections in Texas as his “greatest victory.” This is an astonishing statement for a man who was the architect and chief litigator of the most important civil rights case of the 20th century, Brown vs. Board of Education. But Marshall recognized that breaking down the stranglehold on exclusive white political power was as crucial to defeating Southern white supremacy as dismantling segregation in education. Despite Marshall’s victory in the Texas case, it took 20 years and the activism of thousands before the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 provided the tools to protect the right of blacks to participate equally in the political process. On Saturday and Sunday, thousands converged on Selma, Ala., to commemorate March 7, 1965, “Bloody Sunday,” and the voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery that led to the passage of the act.

Voting Blogs: Rethinking “Corruption” in Campaign Finance Reform Circles | More Soft Money Hard Law

“What is corruption, how should we define it, and why is it bad?” This is the question put to the panel organized by Fordham Law and featuring key theorists about corruption and equality, all of them on the reform side. It is available on video and well worth watching. Rick Hasen has already reported that he and Larry Lessig came to a sort of detente – – coming closer, he said, “than we ever have before” on the role of money. This is an understatement. By the time they were done, Lessig, champion of a theory of “dependence corruption”, and Hasen, vigorous exponent of a theory of political equality, agreed that they might be talking about roughly the same thing. Somewhat more on her own was Zephyr Teachout, who argued eloquently for a morality-based view of corruption centrally concerned with shoring up civic culture.

Connecticut: Registrars Under Fire | NBC Connecticut

Only in Connecticut will you find a registrar of voters nominated by each political party, in every city and town. Secretary of the State Denise Merrill believes this is part of the reason there have been problems in several recent elections and the system needs to change. On Monday, Merrill came to the state capital to ask legislators to move forward a bill calling for professionalizing all 169 registrars offices across the state. ”In the past few years election day problems court interventions long lines at the polls and numerous other breaches of the law have shocked the public, and rightly so,” she said.

Florida: Jefferson County sued over redistricting plan | Tallahassee Democrat

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Monday against the Jefferson County Commission, the county’s school board and supervisor of elections challenging the inclusion of state prison inmates in the drawing of election district maps. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee by the ACLU on behalf of concerned county residents, says the redistricting plan adopted by the commission and school board in 2013 violates the constitution’s “one person, one vote” requirement and amounts to “prison-based gerrymandering.”

Maryland: Assembly weighs bills to help ex-offenders overcome past | Baltimore Sun

In a shift from the “tough on crime” rhetoric of years past, some Maryland lawmakers are questioning whether the state has gone overboard in punishing ex-offenders long after they have paid their dues and returned to the street. “Restorative justice is the movement we’re hearing about,” said Del. Brett R. Wilson, a prosecutor and Western Maryland Republican who supports some efforts to help ex-offenders get jobs. “It’s gained momentum over the years. There’s no doubt about that.” The General Assembly is considering bills that would make it easier for some former offenders to have their records expunged or to at least shield records from potential employers and landlords. Another measure would restore voting rights to felons much sooner than under current law.

Editorials: Oregon again will lead nation in voters’ rights | Ron Eachus/Statesman Journal

It was appropriate that during the same week of commemoration and reenactment of the civil rights movement’s march across the Selma, Alabama, bridge that led to “Bloody Sunday” and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the Oregon Legislature took steps to further advance the opportunity to vote. Under the “New Motor Voter” bill passed last week, Oregon, already a leader in encouraging voter participation through its vote-by-mail balloting, will have the most expansive voter registration system in the country. By providing automatic voter registration for any citizen obtaining a driver’s license who’s not already registered, the bill makes it easier for many to register, especially for poorer and younger voters who move a lot. An estimated 300,000 new voters could be added to the nearly 2.2 million currently registered voters.

Tennessee: Voter ID Law Challenged in U S District Court | Public News Service

Tennessee’s voter ID law may have its day in court now that a group of college students has filed a federal lawsuit alleging the state is violating rights guaranteed to them by the U.S. Constitution. At issue is the exclusion of student ID cards from the accepted list of voter IDs. Jon Sherman, an attorney with the Fair Elections Legal Network, is representing the students. “The state has discriminated against students and discriminated on the basis of age,” he states. “They’ve made it easier for older voters to cast ballots without showing ID and made it harder and harder for students to cast their votes.”

Utah: House barely passes tweak to new primary election process | The Salt Lake Tribune

The Utah House narrowly passed a bill that would let a party’s delegates choose the party’s nominee if nobody in a primary election gets more than 40 percent of the vote. The bill is in response to last year’s compromise between lawmakers and organizers of Count My Vote, which was pushing a voter initiative allowing candidates who gather enough signatures to get to the primary ballot without going through the traditional caucus-and-convention process. Rep. Marc Roberts, R-Santaquin, said the concern is that someone would win the party’s nomination without winning a majority of the vote. His bill was amended to let delegates make the decision between the top two vote-getters if no nominee gets at least 40 percent. “I think we should demand at least 50 percent. We will live at 40 percent at this point,” Roberts said.

Israel: United Arab party a surprise new force in Israeli election | Reuters