Monthly Archives: August 2015

Following through on a promise, Gov. Larry Hogan created a commission Thursday to recommend how to reform the way Maryland draws its congressional districts, widely regarded as among the most gerrymandered in the nation. Hogan said he hopes to put a constitutional amendment before voters in 2016 to change the way the maps are drawn. The idea won immediate praise from election reform advocates such as Common Cause and the League of Women Voters, but it was quickly dismissed by Democrats who control the General Assembly. “It’s not going to happen,” Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said. At a State House news conference, Hogan called the results of the last two redistricting cycles — both carried out under Democratic governors — “disgraceful and an embarrassment to our state.”

Texas: Federal court says Texas voter ID violates Voting Rights Act | Associated Press

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that Texas’ voter ID law has a “discriminatory” effect on minorities in a victory for President Barack Obama, whose administration took the unusual step of bringing the weight of the U.S. Justice Department to fight a wave of new ballot-box restrictions passed in conservative statehouses. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the 2011 Texas law runs afoul of parts of the federal Voting Rights Act — handing down the decision on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the landmark civil rights law. Texas was allowed to use the voter ID law during the 2014 elections, thereby requiring an estimated 13.6 million registered Texas voters to have a photo ID to cast a ballot.

Massachusetts: Supreme Judicial Court rules ‘invalid’ 1946 law on false statements in elections | MassLive

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday ruled a state statute governing electoral publications is “invalid,” ordering dismissal of a criminal complaint against the treasurer of Jobs First Independent Expenditure Political Action Committee. The super PAC had targeted Rep. Brian Mannal, a Barnstable Democrat running for re-election, claiming in a mailer that Mannal “is putting criminals and his own interest above our families.”

Mississippi: Trucker wins Democratic gubernatorial primary after spending $0 | The Guardian

A Mississippi truck driver who claims to have spent no money on his campaign won a nomination to be governor early Wednesday morning. Robert Gray, 46, reported spending zero dollars on his campaign to become the Democratic party’s nominee for governor, and defeated two rivals with 51% of the vote. He told the Associated Press that he did not vote on Tuesday “because he was busy”. In contrast, trial attorney Vicki Slater, reported spending $68,000 in the last month alone, and almost $200,000 this calendar year. Gray won with 146,333 votes, meaning Slater lost by almost 60,000 votes.

Rhode Island: State set to modernize its voting equipment | Associated Press

Rhode Island is modernizing its voting equipment. Gov. Gina Raimondo on Thursday signed legislation authorizing Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea to purchase upgraded voting equipment and software to replace current machines that are nearly two decades old. Raimondo says the new machines will make voting easier and will make sure every vote gets counted. Gorbea says she wants to modernize the equipment as part of a review of the entire elections process. She says voting is the most important right granted to citizens.

Canada: Early election call catches some territorial parties off guard | CBC News

The longest federal election campaign in recent history is officially underway, and the early election call has caught some riding associations in the territories off guard. While candidates have been confirmed for the Conservative, Liberal, and Green parties in Nunavut, the NDP are scrambling to get their affairs in order. The NDP have not yet confirmed a candidate, though Clyde River mayor Jerry Natanine has announced he is seeking the nomination. “Certainly, we didn’t expect [the early call],” said Doug Workman, the vice president of the NDP riding association for Nunavut. “We had heard rumours coming from Ottawa that it might occur, but by no means was our riding association ready for the call.”

Germany: Social Democrats consider balloting members for top candidate | Europe Online

Germany‘s Social Democrats (SPD) are considering holding a direct ballot of their members to select a candidate to challenge Chancellor Angela Merkel at the next national election set down for 2017. Leading SPD figures said on Wednesday they were open to conducting a plebiscite of the party‘s about 474,000 members to decide on its chancellor candidate. This follows a call by the leader of the SPD‘s youth wing, Johanna Uekermann who told the daily Welt on Wednesday: “Each member must be allowed a say in a primary-type election.” SPD chief Sigmar Gabriel has also indicated recently that the party membership should be allowed to vote if several candidates emerge to head up the election campaign.

Myanmar: Opposition Leader Suu Kyi warns against flood-linked vote tampering | Associated Press

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi expressed concern Thursday that massive flooding in much of the country might be used as a pretext to undermine November’s general election. In a video appealing to the international community to help flood victims, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate drew a parallel with a referendum, carried out under military rule in 2008, that brought in the current much-maligned constitution. The voting took place during widespread chaos following Cyclone Nargis, which killed an estimated 140,000 people. According to the official results, the charter was overwhelmingly confirmed, but many reports cast doubt on the fairness of the vote and the results. The constitution was drafted under military supervision and enshrines its dominance in government, making substantial democratic reforms difficult to achieve.

Tanzania: Opposition leaders step down to protest candidate choice | Reuters

Two senior leaders of Tanzania’s new opposition coalition have resigned over the nomination of a former ruling party official as presidential candidate, exposing fractures in the fragile coalition ahead of an October poll. In a move meant to cut the ruling party’s 54-year grip on power, Tanzania’s four major opposition parties on Tuesday named former prime minister Edward Lowassa – once seen as a leading contender for the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party nomination – as their candidate. Some analysts see a shrewd move to win over disenchanted supporters of CCM and break the lock on power it has enjoyed for decades. But senior members of the opposition coalition have expressed disgust and stepped down.

Virginia: U.S. court denies GOP request for congressional redistricting extension | The Washington Post

A panel of federal judges on Wednesday denied Republicans’ request to delay a court order to redraw a Virginia elections map that was found to illegally pack African Americans into a single congressional district at the expense of their influence elsewhere. The ruling increases the likelihood that state legislators will have to abide by a call from Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) to return to Richmond this month to tackle redistricting. The Republican-controlled General Assembly has been reluctant to accept an earlier court ruling that set a Sept. 1 deadline to adopt new congressional district boundaries. Republicans requested an extension to Nov. 16 to give their congressional counterparts time to exhaust an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Haiti: Despite indifference, Haiti heads toward election day | Zee News

After a nearly four years of delays, legislative elections will take place Sunday in Haiti, but voters hardly seem to care. Portraits of candidates and posters in their parties` colors have finally invaded the public space. But, in front of an electrical pole plastered with photos of various candidates for Haiti`s Senate and Chamber of Deputies, Luckson is completely indifferent. “Him I know, but he won`t do anything for me. Her, I`ve never seen her face before,” the shoeshiner says while surveying the posters that now adorn his corner. For a brief moment, the nearby vendors and their clients discuss the candidates and argue about the backgrounds of these would-be parliamentarians. They all agree on one point: they will not vote Sunday “because there`s no point.”

Spain: Catalonia Calls Election in New Bid for Secession From Spain | The New York Times

A year ago, secessionist movements were all the rage in Europe — until they were not. After a nerve-rattling campaign, Scots narrowly voted in September to remain part of Britain. Two months later, Catalonia’s drive for an independence referendum fizzled into a nonbinding vote after being thwarted by Spanish courts. But if Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of Spain breathed a sigh of relief that the issue was behind him, he has reason again to worry. Catalan politicians have managed to revive the independence issue. Setting aside personal and political rivalries, they have formed a broad alliance of candidates whose aim is to turn a regional parliamentary election scheduled for September into a plebiscite on breaking away from Spain. Should their alliance secure a majority in the Sept. 27 vote, the secessionist leaders say they will proclaim independence within 18 months.

National: Civil rights leaders seek new voting protections | USA Today

In late February 1965, during the heat of the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama and a few days after the shooting death of Jimmie Lee Jackson by Alabama State Troopers, a Marion civil rights activist named Lucy Foster suggested a response. “We should take his damn body and put it at the feet of Gov. (George) Wallace,” Foster told other civil rights leaders, according to Albert Turner Jr. That idea morphed into a more reasonable one: A Selma-to-Montgomery March, across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and right up the Alabama Capitol steps, where protesters would demand that Wallace implement voting rights protections for all people, including blacks. That march became a national spectacle on March 7, 1965, when the protesters were met by state troopers just across the bridge in Selma and savagely beaten. It captivated the country, spurring President Lyndon Johnson to first offer the marchers protection on their journey to Montgomery and later to sign into law the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Editorials: A wealthy oligarchy of donors is dominating the 2016 election | The Washington Post

The United States may be turning a corner in presidential politics. Although the election itself is more than a year away, the latest reports to the Federal Election Commission show that a wealthy oligarchy of donors has come to dominate campaign finance, particularly in the crowded Republican contest. Fewer than 400 families are responsible for almost half the money raised in the campaign so far, according to an analysis by the New York Times. This class of wealthy patrons, some with new fortunes and others of long-standing, is throwing money into campaigns, not of all which will end happily. But the preeminence of this clan of tycoons so early in the season is not a good sign.

Editorials: Automatic Voter Registration: The Next Step in the Battle for Ballot Access | Alex Padilla/Huffington Post

“This most basic right of all is the right to choose your own leaders. The history of this country is in large measure the history of expansion of the right to all of our people.”

President Johnson delivered these words in his eloquent speech to the full Congress on March 15, 1965, a week after African Americans were attacked while preparing to march to Montgomery to protest voting rights discrimination. On August 6, 1965 President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law, empowering millions of Americans to fully participate in our democracy. The progress made possible by the Voting Rights Act is undeniable. Literacy tests, poll taxes and other obstacles used at the time which excluded millions of eligible voters are a thing of the past. In 2012, we saw record turnout by African American and Latino voters. We elected a record number of Asian Americans to Congress, and nearly 10 million more women than men reported casting a vote. That’s progress. But as we commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, we still have work to do. Voting rights are once again under attack.

Editorials: Internet voting a needless threat to voter privacy, election security | David Schultheis/The Colorado Statesman

Colorado is poised to reject the best advice of the Department of Defense, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Vote Foundation and almost every nationally known expert as the state expands Internet voting. Although voters read daily headlines of breaches of government and commercial computer systems and emails, Colorado’s email balloting expansion ignores the experts and defies common sense and lawmakers’ directives. Yet Secretary of State Wayne Williams seems determined to use Colorado voters as guinea pigs who will learn what the experts already know — Internet voting is a needless threat to voter privacy and election security. Williams received input from legislators, experts, political parties, non-profit organizations and many individual voters. Feedback has been almost universally negative, except for the Colorado Democratic Party and the Colorado Clerks Association. Scores of voters and organizations, including the Colorado Republican Party, Common Cause, Verified Voting, and the Colorado Voter Group oppose the expansion. Yet proposed Colorado rules will likely permit the expansion of Internet voting for military voters, overseas civilians and military families, regardless of their location or access to mail ballots or polling places. Skiers at Whistler, Air Force Academy professors’ kids at a coffee shop, and officers at the Pentagon could vote over the Internet if they conclude postal mail ballot delivery “is not certain.”

Florida: GOP suit: Redistricting law equals ‘thought policing’ | Politico

Two Florida Republican Party officials have filed a federal lawsuit to block the state’s anti-gerrymandering constitutional clauses, arguing the provisions limit First Amendment speech and amount to “thought policing.” The lawsuit, filed Tuesday night in the conservative-leaning Pensacola division of the Northern District of Florida, comes less than a week before the start of a special legislative session to redraw some of the state’s 27 congressional districts. Citing email correspondence from GOP consultants, the Florida Supreme Court ruled last month that at least eight congressional districts were improperly drawn and violated the 2010 voter-approved “Fair Districts” amendments that prohibited lawmakers from intentionally drawing political boundaries to favor or disfavored political parties or incumbents. But Pasco County Republican Party chairman Randy Maggard and his Walton County counterpart, Tim Norris, say the amendments themselves infringe on their right to free speech. They also say the court’s interpretation of the law ultimately violates their Fourteenth Amendment due process rights because members of political parties are unfairly limited in speaking with elected representatives about redistricting in the future.

Georgia: Fayette Co. bill hits $1 million in election battle | WXIA

An intense legal battle is costing taxpayers in Fayette County around a million dollars – and it’s far from over. The case stems from the seat vacated by Pota Coston who lost her battle with breast cancer. On Wednesday, the board agreed to abide by a judge’s ruling to use district voting in an upcoming special election. That means her replacement can only be elected by those in her district.

Hawaii: Online Voter Registration Now Available | Big Island Now

Residents are now able to register to vote online. Officials from the Office of Elections and the Office of the City/County Clerks made the announcement Tuesday. According to officials, the online system was built to ensure that only individuals with verifiable identification could register. The system will only be available to residents with a valid Hawai’i driver’s license or state identification card.

Iowa: 2½ years later, Iowa prosecutor drops election fraud case | Associated Press

After 2½ years of delays, a prosecutor has dropped an election misconduct charge against an ex-felon accused of illegally voting in the 2012 presidential election. Jefferson County Attorney Timothy Dille said Wednesday that he concluded the case against Cheri Rupe, 43, “wasn’t something that needed to be pursued” any longer. He said he made his decision in the interest of justice, citing the amount of time that had lapsed and noting that a similar case last year ended in an acquittal. The dismissal is another setback for a state effort to criminally punish ineligible voters who participated — or tried to participate — in elections. Under a two-year investigation involving former Secretary of State Matt Schultz and the Division of Criminal Investigation, about two dozen people, including ex-felons and non-U.S. citizens, were charged with registering and/or voting illegally.

Kansas: First election fraud cases coming next month, Kobach tells NEJC Conservatives | Prairie Village Post

The Kansas Secretary of State’s office will waste little time making use of its new prosecutorial powers, Kris Kobach told a gathering of the Northeast Johnson County Conservatives on Tuesday. At the group’s monthly meeting at Burg and Barrel in Overland Park, Kobach said he was preparing to bring the first cases of voter fraud in September and October. Kobach gained the right to prosecute election fraud cases in June, when Gov. Sam Brownback signed SB 34, a bill Kobach had pushed for since shortly after coming into office in 2011. No other secretary of state’s office in the country has similar powers.

Maine: Anti-gay marriage group must disclose donors | Associated Press

Maine’s highest court on Tuesday rejected a national anti-gay marriage group’s latest bid to shield the identities of the donors who contributed to its effort to defeat the state’s gay marriage law in 2009. The National Organization for Marriage had sought permission to delay submitting a campaign finance report that the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices ordered it to file last year when it fined the group $50,250 for its involvement in overturning the law supporting same-sex marriage six years ago. But the Maine Supreme Judicial Court said Tuesday that NOM can’t put off filing the report and revealing its donor list until after the court considers the group’s challenge of the commission’s ruling because the justices said it’s unlikely that the Washington D.C.-based organization will win its appeal.

Texas: Appellate Panel Says Texas ID Law Violated Voting Rights Act | The New York Times

A federal appeals panel ruled Wednesday that a strict voter identification law in Texas discriminated against blacks and Hispanics and violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — a decision that election experts called an important step toward defining the reach of the landmark law. The case is one of a few across the country that are being closely watched in legal circles after a 2013 Supreme Court decision that blocked the voting act’s most potent enforcement tool, federal oversight of election laws in numerous states, including Texas, with histories of racial discrimination. While the federal act still bans laws that suppress minority voting, exactly what kinds of measures cross the legal line has been uncertain since that Supreme Court ruling.

International: Voting Rights Expansion Pressed Across Globe | VoA News

The United States’ landmark Voting Rights Act, despite what many see as its recent weakening, is a global rarity in terms of legislation that explicitly safeguards minorities’ access to the ballot. Its 50th anniversary on Thursday comes amid international efforts to expand voting opportunities to those who’ve had little voice in government. “Across the world, to the best of my knowledge, there’s no law as specific in its protections as the U.S. Voting Rights Act of 1965,” said Pat Merloe, who, as electoral programs director for the nonpartisan NGO National Democratic Institute in Washington, has visited 65 countries. Referencing a 2013 Supreme Court ruling, he added that, “While the protection of that act has been curtailed … across the world, there’s a general trend to make the vote ever more available – to minority populations, indigenous peoples, peoples with disabilities, those who have been convicted of crimes.”

Myanmar: Voters to get identity cards | Myanmar Times

Voters will receive a special identity card that will guarantee their right to vote on election day, Sunday, November 8, the Union Election Commission has announced. The new measure will apply to all 32 million perspective voters. The new cards, which are separate from the existing National Registration Cards, will be distributed a week or so before the poll, the UEC said. “On election day, voters must bring their cards to the voting booth, where electoral officials will check the cards against the voters register and give them a ballot paper,” UEC official U Thaung Hlaing in Nay Pyi Taw on August 4. “Minor errors like spelling mistakes are acceptable,” he added.

Venezuela: Ex-President Carter shuts down electoral office in Venezuela | Associated Press

A pro-democracy foundation run by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has shut down its 13-year-old electoral observation office in Venezuela as the South American country gears up for closely watched legislative elections. In a monthly report on Venezuela’s political outlook published Wednesday, the Carter Center said it closed its Caracas office May 31 to concentrate its limited resources in other countries that have solicited its help. It said it would continue to monitor events from the center’s headquarters in Atlanta. The Carter Center has been a frequent observer of elections in Venezuela and it mediated talks between the socialist government and opposition following a 2002 coup that briefly unseated then President Hugo Chavez.

Press Release: Colorado SoS Wayne Williams approves pilot program for ES&S and three other vendors | Election Systems & Software

There are many benefits to a state selecting a uniform voting system including standardized training, improved reporting across jurisdictions and better buying power. Colorado recognized these benefits and more earlier this year, with the Secretary of State forming the Pilot Election Review Committee in March to explore implementing a statewide voting vendor. Tuesday SOS Williams announced certification for the four voting systems the committee will be evaluating.

National: Voting Rights Still a Political Issue, 50 Years Later | US News & World Report

It was one of the most historic bills ever passed by Congress. And when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on Aug. 6, 1965—50 years ago Thursday—he declared that enactment was a matter of morality and not just politics. “This act flows from a clear and simple wrong,” the president said. “Its only purpose is to right that wrong. Millions of Americans are denied the right to vote because of their color. This law will ensure them the right to vote. The wrong is one which no American, in his heart, can justify. The right is one which no American, true to our principles, can deny….It is not just a question of guilt, although there is that. It is that men cannot live with a lie and not be stained by it.” He called the measure “one of the most monumental laws in the entire history of American freedom”—a law that, very specifically, aimed to knock down legal barriers at the state and local levels that hindered or prevented African Americans from exercising their constitutional right to vote. But the issue is still being debated today.

National: US Voting Restrictions Fuel Tensions | VoA News

Among the political and legal fights over U.S. elections, some of the most contentious ones center on voter identification requirements and on the way political districts are drawn. Historically, both sometimes have been misused to suppress minority voting, which the Voting Rights Act of 1965 aimed to correct. As of this spring, 32 states had voter identification laws in place; North Carolina will join them in 2016, the National Conference of State Legislatures reports. Most of the new measures have been introduced and implemented by Republican-led legislatures. While some states permit the use of bank statements, student IDs or other evidence of state residence, stricter ones require approved photo IDs, such as government-issued driver’s licenses and passports. Supporters say voter ID requirements battle fraud and build confidence in election fairness. Critics say that voter impersonation is rare and that the laws disproportionately discourage the poor, minorities, senior citizens and students from voting.

National: Martin O’Malley calls for constitutional amendment on voting rights | CBS