Georgia: Brian Kemp releases Georgia data breach report | Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A long-awaited state report detailing how Georgia gave out more than 6 million voters’ Social Security numbers and other private data put the blame squarely on a employee fired for the breach last month. That employee, longtime state programmer Gary Cooley, flouted office protocol and policy within Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s office, according to the internal report about the data breach released Monday by the office and the state Department of Human Resources. The breach, it said, “was due to Mr. Cooley working outside of and circumventing established policies and procedures,” the report concluded. It called for more training, clearer policies and more active management of sensitive data.

Guam: Attorney General argues rights in territories, states can differ | Pacific Daily News

The rights of those who live in the states can differ from the rights held by residents in the territories. That’s one argument Guam’s attorney general’s office is making in a case challenging the island’s long-awaited political status vote. Guam resident Arnold Davis in 2011 challenged the island’s pending plebiscite after he wasn’t allowed to register for it. The plebiscite is a non-binding vote, intended to measure the preferred political status of Guam. Davis’ legal counsel said the plebiscite violates his fundamental right to vote. In a response filed Dec. 4, the AG states “even if the right to vote is fundamental in the several states, it does not follow that it is necessarily so in the territories.”

Montana: GOP lawsuit to force “closed primary” election is going | MTN News

The Montana Republican Party’s lawsuit to force a “closed primary” election to choose its candidates is going to trial, a federal judge ruled Monday – but he refused to block the 2016 June primary until the issue is settled. U.S. District Judge Brian Morris of Great Falls said “factual questions” remain on whether non-Republicans consistently vote in GOP primaries in Montana and somehow influence the outcome, against the wishes of actual Republicans. “Those issues must be resolved at trial,” Morris said, rejecting requests by both the party and the state to resolve the case on written arguments.

Pennsylvania: State’s online voting initiative recognized | York Dispatch

More than 31,000 people have turned to the Internet to register to vote since Pennsylvania introduced online voter registration nearly five months ago. For its efforts implementing the website, the Pennsylvania Department of State was awarded the 2015 Pennsylvania Excellence in Technology award, which recognizes projects that use technology to deliver government service. From the end of August, when the initiative was launched, through Dec. 7, nearly 51,000 people — 31,317 who have registered to vote and 19,560 who changed their registration — used the state’s www.votesPA.com website, according to Department of State data.

Virginia: Judge suggests conditional ruling on congressional districts | Richmond Times-Dispatch

A three-judge federal panel in Richmond might choose a fix for the constitutionally flawed 3rd Congressional District, but condition its imposition of a new map on a later ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne suggested that course of action Monday as he, U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady and Judge Albert Diaz of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals presided over a hearing in Virginia’s congressional redistricting case. “Would there be any difficulty in drafting a plan, but making it contingent on affirmation” by the U.S. Supreme Court, Payne asked during the hearing.
That might enable the Supreme Court to consider the panel’s initial finding, throwing out the current map, and the proposed remedy at the same time, Payne said.

Central African Republic: Voting extended for Central African referendum after violence | Reuters

A referendum on a new constitution in Central African Republic spilled into a second day on Monday after violence marred the first day of a vote intended to help end nearly three years of instability. A Red Cross official said five people were killed and 34 others were wounded during clashes in the capital Bangui which the military commander of the U.N. peacekeeping mission said was an attempt by “spoilers” to block the vote. The referendum is a precursor to long-delayed presidential and legislative elections due on Dec. 27.

New Zealand: Final voting confirms winner in New Zealand flag referendum | AFP

A flag with a silver fern on a black-and-blue background was confirmed Tuesday as New Zealand’s preferred option if the country decides to replace its current standard that features Britain’s Union Jack. The counting of late and overseas votes from a recent referendum on the New Zealand flag confirmed the preliminary results released last week, electoral commission officials said.

Saudi Arabia: Up to 17 female councillors in historic election | The Guardian

Saudi Arabia has elected its first female local councillors in a historic step for a country where women are banned from driving and face routine discrimination. Results from Saturday’s municipal council elections indicated there were about 17 female winners. These included four in Jeddah, one near Mecca – home to Islam’s holiest site – and others in Tabuk, Ahsaa and Qatif. Several more, reported by al-Sabq online newspaper, were expected to be confirmed later. Rasha Hefzi, a prominent businesswoman who won a seat in Jeddah, thanked all those who supported her campaign and trusted her, pledging: “What we have started, we will continue.” Hefzi and other candidates used social media to contact voters because of restrictions on women meeting men and bans on both sexes using photographs.

Slovenia: Vote on gay marriage launched | Politico

EU politicians, including European commissioner Violeta Bulc, are urging Slovenia to back same-sex marriage as early voting begins Tuesday on a referendum that could overturn a controversial marriage equality law. If the country supports gay marriage — as Irish voters did in May 2015 — Slovenia would break new ground, becoming the first Central European, Slavic and post-Communist nation to do so. In contrast, more than 10 Western European countries have implemented same-sex marriage laws. The referendum results will be released Sunday. Voters are deciding whether to uphold a Slovenian law passed in March that legalizes gay marriage.

Spain: Ruling PP party consolidates lead, short of majority | Reuters

Spain’s ruling People’s Party (PP) held onto its lead in the last polls before Sunday’s general election, but looked set to fall well short of a majority, leaving the door open to potential pacts. Surveys published on Monday suggested the conservative PP would top the poll, with the main opposition Socialists (PSOE) and two newcomers, liberal Ciudadanos and left-wing Podemos, following closely behind. No new polls are permitted under Spanish voting rules after the end of today. The fragmented vote is unusual for Spain, where the PP and the PSOE have traditionally alternated in power. A deep economic crisis marked by soaring unemployment and corruption scandals has broken their dominance, leaving many seeking alternatives.

Press Release: Clackamas County Pioneers New Voting Technology in Oregon | Hart Intercivic

Clackamas County is known for its pioneering spirit, an attitude born in the 1840s when the area was settled by the rugged travelers of the Oregon Trail. No surprise this trailblazing county’s election officials were the first in the State to adopt Verity Voting by Hart InterCivic, the most technologically advanced election system available in the U.S.

“We like to be first and we take pride in moving ahead,” said Sherry Hall, Clackamas County Clerk. “Choosing Verity was a natural choice to upgrade our older system. It’s a new technology that will serve our voters well for years to come.”

Clackamas County officials carefully scrutinized Verity before they embraced the new technology.

National: GOP preparing for contested convention | The Washington Post

Republican officials and leading figures in the party’s establishment are preparing for the possibility of a brokered convention as businessman Donald Trump continues to sit atop the polls in the GOP presidential race. More than 20 of them convened Monday near the Capitol for a dinner held by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, and the prospect of Trump nearing next year’s nominating convention in Cleveland with a significant number of delegates dominated the discussion, according to five people familiar with the meeting. Weighing in on that scenario as Priebus and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) listened, several longtime Republican power brokers argued that if the controversial billionaire storms through the primaries, the party’s establishment must lay the groundwork for a floor fight in which the GOP’s mainstream wing could coalesce around an alternative, the people said.

Editorials: Bush vs. Gore’s ironic legal legacy | Jamie Raskin/Los Angeles Times

Fifteen years after Bush vs. Gore, 15 years after the Supreme Court intervened in a presidential election, a single sentence in the majority opinion remains one of the great constitutional brainteasers in our history. If we take the sentence at face value, it’s nonsensical; if we ignore it, we might just be able to improve our dysfunctional election system, at least modestly. As we all know, the Supreme Court on Dec. 11, 2000, ordered an end to ballot-counting in Florida, effectively calling the election for the national popular vote loser, George W. Bush. And as most fair-minded legal experts agree, the rationale for leaving more than 100,000 ballots uncounted was convoluted — an extravagant and unprecedented twist on Equal Protection law.

Voting Blogs: Florida 2000 Was Not a Fluke | Ned Foley/Election Law Blog

The disputed presidential elections of 1876 and 2000 were not isolated, aberrational events in America’s political system. Instead, they are merely the two most prominent peaks in an entire range of disputed elections running through American history from the Founding Era to the present. Like geologists who can detect the plate tectonics that underlie a mountain range, we can employ the historian’s tool to see the structural forces that underlie the pattern of vote-counting disputes that have erupted periodically in the past. America’s difficulties in employing fair and predictable procedures to count ballots in close elections are rooted in beliefs held—and choices made—at the time of Founding. The Founders, as we know, abhorred political parties and they hoped to design a constitutional system that, by using separation of powers, would keep factionalism from developing into organized political parties. Well, we know the plan did not work out as intended.

Alaska: Anchorage-based group works to get voting registration attached to PFD application on 2016 ballot | Newsminer

A group of Alaskans is making its final push in an effort to get an initiative on the state ballot that would allow people to automatically register to vote while signing up for their Permanent Fund Dividend. The group, based in Anchorage, has been gathering signatures throughout the state throughout the fall. They need 28,500 signatures — 10 percent of voter turnout from 2014 — to make the ballot in 2016. The signatures must come from at least three-fourths of the state’s legislative districts. The group must submit its signatures before the start of the 2016 legislative session, which begins Jan. 19. That means the group has a little more than a month to complete its effort. If the group succeeds, the initiative would appear on either the primary election ballot in August or the general election ballot next November.

Florida: Trial on Senate redistricting plan opens | Palm Beach Post

The latest battle in a four-year war over redistricting in Florida is poised to begin Monday in a Leon County courtroom, with Republican dominance in the state Senate possibly hanging in the balance. Palm Beach County’s four senators — three Democrats and a Republican — would see the area they represent changed significantly under district boundaries floated by a voters’ coalition, which has clashed steadily with the GOP-led Legislature. The proposed maps could even lead to two senators, Joe Abruzzo, D-Wellington, and Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, running against each other in a redrawn county district that stretches into Broward County. By contrast, a map submitted by the Senate would prove less disruptive to the county.

Maryland: Officials insist new voting machines on track despite warnings | The Washington Post

Voters in Maryland will be casting their votes with black pens and paper ballots in the upcoming presidential primary, nearly a decade after lawmakers decided to get rid of touch-screen machines that leave no paper trail. The search for new equipment was mired in delays and setbacks before the state finally approved a $28 million contract last December. And even with the new ballots and scanners in hand, Gov. Larry Hogan’s administration has raised questions in recent weeks about whether the state is headed for disaster in its rush to get them up and running. Rockville and College Park deployed the new machines without trouble in their fall municipal elections, but the April 26 primary election will be the first statewide test of the new system. Voters will be casting ballots in the presidential primary and in heated races to nominate candidates to succeed Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) in the U.S. Senate and to fill two open congressional seats.

Maryland: Democrats propose automatic voter registration | The Washington Post

Maryland Democrats plan to propose legislation next year that would automatically place eligible residents on state voter rolls, a move that would make Maryland the third state to adopt what advocates call a “universal registration” system. State Sen. Roger P. Manno (D-Montgomery) has pre-filed a bill for the 2016 legislative session to implement such a plan, and Del. Eric G. Luedtke (D-Montgomery) said he is drafting a similar measure to introduce in the House. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller (D-Calvert) and House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) have indicated that they might push for automatic registration next year as a way to increase voting accessibility.

Michigan: Detroit city clerk, voting rights advocates come out against “unnecessary” elections bills | Michigan Radio

Detroit city clerk Janice Winfrey and voting rights advocates are denouncing a pair of election bills in the Michigan Legislature right now. One is a state Senate bill that would restrict absentee voting hours, and ban absentee voting at satellite office locations. Winfrey says Detroit is one of just a few Michigan cities to use satellite voting, and it’s been “very successful” there. “So when you begin to impede that process, when you want to eliminate that process, now you’re affecting a particular group of people,” she said. Winfrey also criticized a bill to eliminate single-party, straight-ticket voting, saying that will make for longer lines and more confusion, disproportionately affecting urban voters.

Minnesota: Secretary of state wants to replace aging voting machines | Pioneer Press

Minnesota’s aging voting machines are wearing out and will soon need to be replaced. That’s the message Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said he heard “loud and clear” from local officials during his recently completed tour of all 87 Minnesota counties. Most cities, counties and townships use electronic election equipment that is at least 10 years old and getting close to its “10- to 15-year useful lifespan — and 15 is sort of a stretch,” Simon said in a recent interview. There’s a growing risk the voting machines will fail or crash, resulting in lost votes or long lines at polling places. “I’m hearing loudly and clearly from election administrators and others concerned about elections that this is an issue we need to address sooner rather than later and not wait until it becomes a crisis — and they need help,” Simon said.

Ohio: Husted insists voting problems will be fixed | The Columbus Dispatch

Ohio’s elections chief is confident that glitches encountered in November’s elections will be corrected before the battleground state holds its high-stakes presidential primary in March, he said on Friday. Secretary of State Jon Husted said he plans a series of steps to ensure that problems with postmarks and poll books aren’t repeated. The remarks came on a day when he received reports related to snags in the Nov. 3 elections and met with U.S. Deputy Postmaster Ronald Stroman. Husted insisted that the pivotal swing state will be ready for 2016. “There’s no other option,” he said.

Rhode Island: No shortage of acrimony at Board of Elections |Providence Journal

A battle has been brewing at the Board of Elections. It’s been a tumultuous year for the agency that’s charged with ensuring the integrity of the state’s electoral process. Its $143,131 executive director, Robert Kando, is set to be fired in January unless the board decides before then that he has made significant improvements. Since making that decision, however, the board — one of the few where the governor-appointed members are paid — has still struggled to get through the simplest of endeavors. Last week, shouting ensued over the mundane task of approving the meeting minutes, as board members said that Kando had drafted minutes intended to disparage board members who have taken issue with his performance.

Canada: Time will tell if Trudeau is free enough from party shackles to pursue electoral reform: Hébert | Toronto Star

It is not just Justin Trudeau’s opposition rivals who were — as the prime minister indelicately put it in a recent interview — left in the dust on election night, a generation of old-school Liberal insiders was, too. For most of the new Liberals in the House of Commons, the names of the party’s veteran power brokers ring only distant bells. Many party fixtures on Parliament Hill are unknown to the new movers-and-shakers of the Trudeau cabinet. The ghosts of a recent Liberal past still haunt the halls of Parliament but they are, for the most part, rattling their chains outside the corridors of power, with few or no IOUs to collect on. Some used to make themselves indispensable by smoothing the Liberal path to well-heeled donors. But such go-between services became obsolete after Jean Chrétien banned corporate donations a bit more than a decade ago.

Saudi Arabia: Saudi Women Score First Election Wins in Historic Vote | Bloomberg

Saudi women have won seats on municipal councils in a landmark election that allowed them to run for office and vote for the first time.
The official Saudi Press Agency said at least eight women who vied in Saturday’s election will be seated on local councils. Al Arabiya television reported at least 12. A total of 7,000 candidates, male and female, contested 2,100 seats. Official results are expected later Sunday. King Abdullah ordered the inclusion of women in municipal elections — the only nationwide vote in the absolute monarchy – before he died in January. He also named women to the 150-member Consultative Council and opened more areas of the labor market to them as part of a gradual easing of restrictions on their role in society and the economy.

Seychelles: Electoral Commission Outlines Changes to Second Round of Presidential Vote | allAfrica.com

Seychellois voters who cast ballots in the second round of the presidential vote next week may see more electoral workers at their polling station. The country’s electoral commission said Friday that it has discussed concerns after the first-round ballots were cast earlier this month. Election observers noted in their reports that some voters had to wait several hours in line before casting their ballots. The commission’s chief registration officer, Lorna Lepathy, said there would not be more polling stations for the second-round vote next week, but that more electoral officers would be placed at stations with a large number of voters.

Spain: Landmark election for voters to gauge state of nation | Associated Press

In the main plaza of a wealthy suburban bastion of Spain’s ruling Popular Party, volunteers hand out campaign pamphlets trumpeting economic gains ahead of Sunday’s national election. Sipping an espresso nearby, toy company executive Miguel Sanchez describes the new Mercedes-Benz company car he’ll soon get, thanks to rising sales for his firm following years of tough times. Downtown in a trash-strewn blue-collar stronghold of the Socialist Party, unemployed lawyer Maria Uribe rails against sky-high joblessness, a seemingly endless string of political corruption cases, tax hikes and public service cutbacks pushed through Parliament in the past four years.

Thailand: Somchai defends voting machine purchases | Bangkok Post

An election commissioner has defended the procurement of voting machines in the latest showdown between the commissioners and a former secretary general. The Election Commission (EC) decided on Dec 8 not to renew the employment contract of secretary general Puchong Nutrawong because his performance evaluation did not meet the requirement. Mr Puchong, who worked for the EC for 18 years, claimed his removal was not fair and that he could not do his job properly because the EC commissioners kept intervening with the administration.

United Kingdom: Electoral Commission hands Government a boost in bid to block votes for 16 year olds | Telegraph

The Electoral Commission has backed Conservative plans to block votes for 16 and 17 year olds in the European referendum, claiming the proposals put forward by Labour and the Liberal Democrats are not good enough. The powerful body has handed the Government a boost in the House of Lords ahead of a vote on Monday by publishing guidance stating some young voters could miss out if plans to extend the franchise were to go ahead. The opposition parties want to give young people the chance to vote on whether the UK should remain in the EU or leave, but Ministers are opposed to the plans.

The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly for December 7-13 2015

voter_id_260On Tuesday, a closely divided Supreme Court on struggled to decide “what kind of democracy people wanted,” as Justice Stephen G. Breyer put it during an argument over the meaning of the constitutional principle of “one person one vote.”  The court also weighed a challenge to Arizona’s legislative districts, in which plaintiffs have argued the fact that almost all the state’s Republican-leaning districts are overpopulated, and almost all of the state’s Democratic-leaning districts are underpopulated. Writing for Reuters, Herman Schwartz disputed claims by defenders of voter id requirements that public opinion polls indicate widespread support for their arguments. On the 15th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Bush v. Gore, Richard Hasen writes about what has changed – and what hasn’t – in America’s elections. Maryland has joined the states considering automatic voter registration. With many states across the country relying on aging voting technology, many jurisdictions are facing the potential of problems like the calibration issues found in Halifax County Virginia. Nearly two months after the pivotal balloting and three weeks before the scheduled Dec. 27 presidential runoff, Haiti remains at an impasse and Britain’s lower house of parliament voted against reducing the voting age for a referendum on EU membership.

National: Outdated Voting Machine Technology Poses Security and Election Risks | StateTech

Votes being registered for the wrong candidate. Voting machines running out of memory. Election officials searching eBay for outdated notebook computers. These are just a few of the nightmarish scenarios state and local officials face as the country’s voting machines age and break down. A recent report by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law found that the expected lifespan of core components in electronic voting machines purchased since 2000 is between 10 and 20 years, and for most systems it is probably closer to 10 than 20. Experts surveyed by the Brennan Center agree that the majority of machines in use today are either “perilously close to or exceed these estimates.”