Haiti: Run-off vote to go ahead despite irregularities | AFP

An independent commission on Sunday reported that the first round of Haitian presidential elections on October 25 were “stained by irregularities” but claimed problems were not serious enough to void the poll or further delay a run-off. The panel found that poll watchers intervened to help several candidates in the October ballot, and recommended possible legal action against poll workers and others involved in a fresh blow to a country long crippled by political instability. It also urged measures to improve the transparency in the contest to choose a successor to President Michel Martelly.

Taiwan: 45 arrested in election gambling ring | Channel NewsAsia

Taiwan police have arrested 45 people involved in a betting ring worth more than US$40 million a year including wagers on the upcoming elections, officials said Monday (Jan 4), adding the racket could have influenced voting. Police launched weekend raids on 31 venues across the island and made the arrests on charges of gambling and obstructing votes, prosecutors said. “As the ring had so many posts islandwide and so many gamblers were involved, we fear that the gambling could influence the outcome of the election,” said Wang Yi-wen, spokesman for the Taoyuan Prosecutors’ Office.

National: Enshrining the right to vote and 2015’s other constitutional amendment ideas | The Guardian

More than 11,000 amendments have been proposed in Congress to the constitution, and only 27 have become law. But that hasn’t stopped members of Congress from trying to add to that total and make their mark on the founding document of the United States. This year, congressmen and senators have proposed nearly 70 different amendments to the constitution. Amending the constitution is an intentionally difficult process. In order to be enacted, an amendment needs to be approved by two-thirds majorities in both the House and the Senate, and then has to be approved by the legislatures in at least three-fourths of states (or 38 out of 50). The last amendment was passed more than two decades ago. … Unbeknown to many Americans, there is no explicit right to vote in the US constitution. While US citizens have the right to bear arms, the right not to have troops quartered in their homes and to trial by jury in a federal civil law “where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars”, there is no affirmative right to cast a ballot.

Colorado: Officials say voter database is public information | Associated Press

The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office says information on Colorado voters released on the Internet is public information and did not compromise any voter’s identity information after a database of 191 million U.S. voters was published on the Internet. The database included voter names, addresses, ages, party affiliation, phone numbers and voting history. A company that said it compiled the national database for campaigns said it was released inadvertently and was no longer available.

Florida: How other states have modernized elections offers lessons for Florida | Miami Herald

This November in Austin, Texas, voters will pick a president during their regular trip to the grocery store. Maine residents who have never voted will register on Election Day. Every Colorado voter will get a ballot in the mail that they can mail or drop off anytime before the polls close. And some Alaskans will simply mark their ballots online. More and more, waiting in line at a neighborhood school or church to vote on a Tuesday in November is becoming archaic. Around the country, states are changing their laws accordingly, hoping to make casting a ballot as convenient as possible. And then there’s Florida, a state that has shunned same-day voter registration and vote centers as an alternative to busy precincts. Citizens here have to request a mail-in ballot every other election year or set aside time to go to a polling place.

Michigan: Snyder is pressed to veto bill restricting ballot issue info | Associated Press

Lawmakers’ unexpected vote to block school districts and municipalities from informing the public about local ballot measures within two months of an election has left opponents pressuring Gov. Rick Snyder to veto the bill, which they say would keep voters in the dark about taxes and other issues. On Dec. 16, in the final hours of the Legislature’s last voting day of 2015, majority Republicans added the provision and others to campaign-finance legislation with no explanation and quickly passed the measure over objections from Democrats who said they were not told what was in it. Caught off guard, groups representing school officials, cities, libraries and other local entities are lobbying the Republican governor for a veto. He has until Jan. 11 to decide.

Utah: Some Republicans face huge hurdles in gathering ballot signatures | The Salt Lake Tribune

Dozens of candidates are expected to begin gathering signatures to get on the ballot in 2016 under a new election law, but a handful will face a steep, almost insurmountable climb in their bid for office. The way the new law is written, combined with a judge’s ruling and Republican Party rules, will mean some incumbents would have to get signatures from 1 of every 3 GOP voters in their districts. It is a daunting task that has some questioning the fairness of the new law and may ultimately result in a lawsuit. Utah Republican Party Chairman James Evans blames Count My Vote — the group of prominent Utah politicos who pushed for changes to open up the elections process — for forcing through changes for the 2016 election.

Wisconsin: Judge’s ruling a mixed bag for those challenging voter ID law | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A federal judge has thrown out portions of a challenge to Wisconsin’s voting laws but is allowing a key part of the lawsuit to proceed that could allow more types of identification to be used under the voter ID law. In his ruling last month, U.S. District Judge James Peterson in Madison also found the liberal One Wisconsin Institute could pursue its argument that recent restrictions on early voting violate the U.S. Constitution. The group brought its lawsuit in May, contending the voter ID law, limits on early voting and other policies were designed to make it harder for minorities, the poor and those backing Democrats to vote.

Africa: Election Year 2015 – a Long Way to Democracy? | allAfrica.com

The year 2015 will go down in history as one of elections in Africa. Overall there were thirteen of them. According to observers, eligible voters realized the importance and civic duty to take part in the elections. For the first time in Nigeria’s history, a sitting president was defeated and accepted the outcome of the election. He later willingly handed over power to his main rival. In this case it was Goodluck Jonathan handing over power to Muhammadu Buhari. Six months later it was Burkina Faso’s turn to elect its new leader. Voters endured long queues at polling stations to elect a new leader, knowing that this time their vote counted, unlike in the past three decades under Blaise Compaore’s rule when the results were long certain.

Comoros: 25 candidates vying for presidency in Comoros | AFP

Twenty-five candidates out of 28 have been cleared to run in the first round of next month’s presidential elections in the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Comoros, the Constitutional Court confirmed in a ruling on Saturday. All the remaining hopefuls come from the island of Grande Comore, which is next in line to hold the post in compliance with a 2001 constitutional provision stipulating that the presidency should rotate among the three islands that make up the Comoros.

Germany: Turks in Germany demand right to vote in local elections | Daily Sabah

As three German states prepare to hold local elections in March 2016, Turks, who make up the largest ethnic community in the country, seek voting rights. The 1-million-strong Turkish community in North Rhine-Westphalia launched a petition to win voting privileges, complaining of double standards in voting rights among foreigners. They demand the same voting rights held by citizens of European Union member states, who are granted the right to vote after residing in Germany for three months. Bahattin Demirci, an activist for Initiative to Vote in North Rhine-Westphalia, says it is unfair to give the right to EU citizens while Turks “who have served this country for the past 54 years” are exempted. Germany’s large Turkish population is the product of a post-World War Two economic development program which saw thousands of Turkish “guest workers” flock to the country.

Ghana: Electoral Commission Says No to New Voter List | VoA News

The electoral commission of Ghana will not be compiling a new voter list to be used for the November 7 general election, despite calls by the main opposition, New Patriotic Party (NPP) to do so. Backed by other opposition and some civil society groups, the NPP petitioned the electoral commission, saying it has evidence that the current voter list is bloated with minors and non-citizens. The opposition party maintains the credibility of presidential, parliamentary and local elections will be undermined if the current voter list is not discarded and a new one compiled. The electoral commission had appointed an independent panel to look into the NPP’s concerns.

Haiti: Presidential vote plagued by irregularities, report finds | Miami Herald

A commission charged with evaluating Haiti’s Oct. 25 presidential and legislative elections has found that egregious irregularities and a high presumption of fraud plagued the vote, while the electoral machine requires sweeping changes in order to hold a postponed runoff. According to official results, government-backed candidate Jovenel Moïse received 32.76 percent of the votes while Jude Célestin, the former head of the state construction agency, garnered 25.29 percent. Célestin, however, called the results a “ridiculous farce” and refused to campaign. Alleging vote-rigging and ballot-stuffing, Célestin and other opposition candidates called for an independent Haitian-led commission to probe the disputed balloting. The commission was created by President Michel Martelly on Dec. 22, five days before the postponed second round. On Sunday morning, members issued their findings, which critics say do not resolve the political crisis despite pointing out a series of major systemic problems besieging Haitian society.

Spain: Catalonia heads to new election in March | Politico

Members of the small far-left Catalan party CUP (Popular Unity Candidacy) decided Sunday not to support a new term for the incumbent regional president Artur Mas, bringing down his plans for a pro-independence government and pushing the wealthy Spanish region towards a new election in March. The decision brought to an end months of negotiations between the pro-independence movement Junts pel sí (Together for Yes), which unites center-right and left parties, and the radical CUP, which wants Catalonia to leave Spain, the EU and NATO. The prospect of a new election in Catalonia, which only held its last regional vote at the end of September, adds to the political uncertainty in Spain after the December 20 national elections, in which no party — including incumbent Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative Popular Party (PP) — got enough votes for a majority.

The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly for December 28 2015 – January 3 2016

car_260A database containing this information from 191 million voter records was mysteriously published over the last week, the latest example of personal voter data becoming freely available, alarming privacy experts who say the information can be used for phishing attacks, identity theft and extortion. In his review of recall elections in 2015, Joshua Spivak reports that 108 recalls got on the ballot or led to a resignation and in those 108, 65 officials were ousted, and 15 resigned, while only 28 survived the voters’ wrath. Colorado’s choice of Dominion Voting Systems as the statewide voting technology vendor has generated negative reactions from some counties. In a setback for the Republican-led legislature, a state judge on Wednesday approved an entirely new map of Florida’s 40 Senate districts that was recommended by a coalition of voting rights groups. Both Republican and Democratic party leaders in Iowa are hoping that a new app developed by Microsoft and its partner Interknowlogy will help avoid reporting errors that have marred the state’s presidential caucus in the past. Virginia’s strict voter-identification law will go on trial in a federal court in Richmond in February, part of a national strategy by Democrats to remove what they say are barriers to voting by African American, Latino and poor voters. Despite calls from both the left and right that any changes to how Canadians elect their government require the direct input of the people, Government House Leader Dominic LeBlanc ruled a national referendum on election reform and voters in the Central African Republic cast ballots in long-delayed elections that follow three years of sectarian violence that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.