Monthly Archives: January 2016

Facing likely defeat, a Republican senator tabled his own bill Tuesday to make most public information on Florida voters secret. It was the second time that Sen. Thad Altman’s bill was pulled from consideration before a vote in the Senate Ethics & Elections Committee. Altman’s bill (SB 702), a priority of county election supervisors, would make all 12 million Florida voters’ home addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers and email addresses secret. The information has been public for decades, but supervisors say that because of the Internet, voters are shocked to find that the data is all over the web, making them potential targets of identity theft. The voter data is also used by Tom Alciere, a former New Hampshire legislator, who has for-profit websites that display states’ voter databases.

Indiana: Straight ticket voting could be eliminated as committee moves bill forward | WLFI

A bill passed through a House committee that would eliminate the option to vote straight ticket for your party, and would require an individual to cast a vote for each candidate. The bill called, “Voting Matters” barely passed with a 5-4 vote Monday morning. State Sen. Randy Head said he voted yes because some clerks have testified the straight ticket option can lead to voter error. City or county races often have multiple people on the ballot representing the same party. So Head said when clerks try to count the votes cast, they don’t know which candidates the voter meant to choose.

Kansas: Statistician’s lawyer says votes audit is vital, each 1 counts | Associated Press

A Wichita mathematician who found statistical anomalies in 2014 election counts will dispute efforts by election officials to block her request to audit voting machine results because all voters should be sure that their votes will count, her lawyer said Wednesday. Wichita State University statistician Beth Clarkson filed an open records lawsuit in February 2015 in her personal quest to find the answer to an unexplained pattern that transcends elections and states. She wants the voting machine tapes so she can establish a statistical model by checking the error rate on electronic voting machines used at a Sedgwick County voting station during the November 2014 general election. Sedgwick County officials filed a motion earlier this month asking Sedgwick County District Court to summarily dismiss her lawsuit. Judge William Woolley will hear arguments Feb. 18. The case is set for trial on March 22.

Nebraska: Legislature weighs future of state’s election technology | StateScoop

With most of Nebraska’s election technology now roughly a decade old, its Legislature is considering a pair of bills that would help chart the future of voting in the state. Secretary of State John Gale coordinated with state Sen. Tommy Garrett to introduce a bill last week that would convene a task force to spend 2017 studying the state’s voting technology, and investigate whether a move to all-mail or online voting would be feasible in the next few years. Meanwhile, state Sen. Matt Hansen introduced a measure earlier this month to convene a legislative committee to conduct a similar study over the next few months. Neither of the measures would result in immediate changes, but Gale told StateScoop that both bills represent meaningful first steps for the state. “We really don’t have a crisis at this point, but it’s timely to start thinking ahead,” Gale said.

North Carolina: Voter ID law on trial | MSNBC

Does North Carolina’s voter ID law illegally discriminate against African-Americans and Latinos? That question is at the center of a trial over the law held this week in a federal courtroom in Winston-Salem. If the law is upheld, it could make voting harder this fall in the Tar Heel State, which figures to be pivotal in the presidential race. And it could give a green light to other states considering similarly restrictive voting laws. During the first two days of the trial Monday and Tuesday, the law’s challengers aimed to show that racial minorities are more likely than whites to lack acceptable ID; that there’s no significant voter fraud of the kind that could stopped by the ID requirement; and that the state hasn’t done enough to educate voters about the law.

North Carolina: Witness: Cultural differences cause voter ID headaches | Winston-Salem Journal

In 2007, Maria del Carmen Sanchez was told she couldn’t renew her driver’s license because the name didn’t match the one on her U.S. passport. Then state officials offered this solution: Get a divorce, she said in a videotaped deposition played Wednesday during the federal trial on North Carolina’s photo ID requirement. It took a week before Sanchez was finally told she could simply fill out a name change form to get her driver’s license. But based on that experience, Sanchez said she thinks many Hispanics will face similar problems when they try to obtain a photo ID to vote in this year’s election. The photo ID requirement, which became law in 2013, didn’t take effect until this year.

Utah: GOP to hold presidential primary poll online | KUTV

Utah will make history during the upcoming presidential primary season with an online vote. State Republicans will hold the first ever caucus where registered voters can cast their ballot in person or online. Utah’s caucus day is set for March 22, a move putting Utah in the middle of the early voting, instead of the end where the primary was originally scheduled for June. Utah Democrats and Republicans will hold what is being called a “presidential preference poll.” Democrats will have to show up at their neighborhood caucus for that poll, Republicans will have options.

Virginia: Senate panel backs bills to ease absentee voting | Richmond Times-Dispatch

The Virginia Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections passed legislation Tuesday that would allow registered voters to cast absentee ballots in person without providing an excuse for not voting on Election Day. Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, R-Fauquier, the committee chair, joined six Democrats on the committee to advance Senate Bill 106, sponsored by Sen. Rosalyn R. Dance, D-Petersburg. The measure now heads to the full Senate for consideration. “In today’s society, many people are not able to get to their home polling location on Election Day and so the option to vote absentee is crucial to ensuring that we do not disenfranchise these voters,” Dance said in a statement.

Wisconsin: Madison Hearing on Legislation Banning Local IDs Draws Tons of Opposition | WUWM

Several local governments in Wisconsin are interested in issuing local identification cards to residents. One is Milwaukee County. But some state lawmakers believe the locals are overstepping their authority – so legislators are considering a bill that would prohibit municipalities from issuing local ID cards. More than 50 people showed up to testify at a public hearing in Madison on Tuesday; most oppose the ban. Guadalupe Gallardo has a lot to say about any legislation she feels would restrict immigrants. She’s originally from Mexico but has lived in the U.S. for decades. “We’re going to raise our voice you know to fight for immigrants. They want to be free, they want to work. They are afraid. They’re afraid to go out, they’re afraid to go to doctors or schools because the police are going to stop them,” Gallardo says.

Haiti: Leadership is in limbo as political crisis looms | Los Angeles Times

With Haiti’s presidential elections postponed again and just over a week left until the current leader’s term expires, various political factions are negotiating to avert a constitutional crisis that could leave the Western hemisphere’s poorest nation with nobody clearly in charge. The vote was supposed to occur last Sunday, but election authorities last week postponed it indefinitely due to security concerns, including attacks that had occurred on election offices. It was the third time the vote — a runoff originally scheduled for Dec. 27 — has been delayed. President Michel Martelly must leave office by Feb. 7. The crisis threatens to throw the poor and troubled Caribbean country back into the instability and political morass that it has long struggled against.

Macedonia: Election Commission Starts Cleaning up Electoral Roll | Balkan Insight

Following the decision of the ruling parties to push on with elections in April 24, and amid concern that the opposition may boycott the polls, three separate teams comprised of IT experts are to cross-check the data to determine who is alive and in the country and so eligible to vote. “Two teams are to be engaged of competent local IT companies, and one of international companies,” the head of the election commission, the DIK, Aleksandar Cicakovski, said. The data on voters will be taken from various institutional registers, starting from the Central Bank, the Health Fund, the Employment Agency, the Cadastre Agency, the Public Revenue office and others.

Uganda: Biometric technology to be introduced in February elections | Citizen Digital

The Ugandan Electoral Commission (EC) has announced that it will use electronic systems in the forthcoming General Elections slated for February 18th, 2016. The commission will use a Biometric Voter Verification Kit (BVVK) during the voter verification process and use the Electronic Results Transmission and Dissemination System (ERTDS) to transmit presidential and parliamentary results. Also Read: Don’t feel like doing your laundry? In Kampala, there’s an app for that BVVK is set to authenticate voters’ identify using fingerprints to match the details in the systems in order to improve the management and conduct of the elections, according to a statement by the EC.

Editorials: Radically Revise Campaign Laws to Give People, Not Billionaires, a Voice | Richard Hasen/New York Times

It’s not a new story: Some Americans are looking to the super wealthy to get us out of a political jam. This time, it might be billionaire Michael Bloomberg supposedly saving the country from a Donald Trump-Bernie Sanders race that could leave many voters without an acceptable alternative. Back in 1967, it was the GM heir Stewart Mott providing (what was then considered to be) lots of money to allow Sen. Eugene McCarthy of Wisconsin to challenge President Lyndon B. Johnson for the Democratic nomination. Johnson, mired in the Vietnam War and wounded by McCarthy, eventually withdrew from the race. We’d rely less on rich white knights If each voter in each election got $100 in publicly financed vouchers for political contributions.

Editorials: Buckley v. Valeo at 40 | Paul H. Jossey/The Hill

Poll Americans on the leading Supreme Court cases of the past 100 years and Buckley v. Valeo, which turns 40 this month, won’t likely place alongside Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade, or even Citizens United v. FEC. But it should. Buckley, which considered the constitutionality of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974, has immeasurably impacted how we choose our leaders and discuss public affairs. Most importantly it created the “Buckley distinction,” which protected political expenditures and contributions differently. This court-created split reverberates beyond campaign electioneering to issues like how the IRS polices politics, how the Department of Justice criminalizes political activity, and how the parties influence campaigns. Four decades on, the distinction’s uneasy compromise supplies Buckley’s relevance—for better and worse.

Alabama: Judge sets hearing in suit against Alabama voter ID law | Montgomery Advertiser

n a Jan. 21 order, U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler, based in Tuscaloosa, set a Feb. 11 hearing on Greater Birmingham Ministries’ move for a preliminary injunction that would suspend the photo identification rule for the March 1 primaries in Alabama. But Coogler said in his order that he could cancel the hearing if he “determines that Plaintiffs’ motion may be decided on the papers.” Coogler also limited the defendants in the lawsuit to Secretary of State John Merrill. The voter ID law, passed by the Alabama Legislature in 2011, requires those voting to have photo identification, such as a driver’s license, before casting ballots. The state did not immediately enforce the new law. But after a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that was seen as gutting the law, Alabama officials put the law into effect.

Florida: Hacking into Supervisors of Elections Office | Fox 4

Is the Supervisor of Elections computer system vulnerable to hackers? Dan Sinclair, who is running against Sharon Harrington, says it is. In a FOX 4 exclusive, Sinclair and his team show how they were able to infiltrate one of the Supervisor of Elections servers. Using a structured query languange.injection, Sinclair and David Levin were able to gain immediate access to a server. From there, they collected the passwords for everyone that works in the Supervisor of Elections office for Lee County.

Maryland: Hogan proposing independent redistricting | The Washington Post

Gov. Larry Hogan (R) on Tuesday proposed creating a nonpartisan redistricting panel to draw Maryland’s legislative and congressional districts, a change that would strip that power from the legislature and the governor’s office. … The redistricting proposal — which will be formally introduced in the legislature Wednesday — would require an amendment to the state constitution. The change would have to be approved both by the Democratic-majority legislature and by voters. Democratic legislative leaders have vowed to resist such redistricting changes, saying they prefer to wait for national redistricting reform that would also affect states where Republicans control the legislatures.

Editorials: Ex-offenders and the right to vote in Maryland | E.R. Shipp/Baltimore Sun

These are probably frightening words to anyone who wants to maintain the political status quo: “I have a criminal record. I pledge to vote in 2016 elections because I care about my neighborhood and want to add my voice to improve everyone’s quality of life.” Let’s just suppose that a significant barrier to voting in Maryland is removed Feb. 5th and residents with felony convictions are allowed to vote as soon as they leave prison, rather than having to wait until they complete community supervision requirements. “We’re talking about infusing maybe 40,000 voters into the democratic process,” says Perry Hopkins, a community organizer who has been ubiquitous on this issue as well as on the untenable conditions that led city housing officials to agree to pay up to $8 million to settle sexual harassment claims brought by some of its public housing tenants.

New York: Early voting: Cuomo wants it; Counties have concerns | Poughkeepsie Journal

Registered voters in New York wouldn’t have to wait until Election Day to cast their ballot in person if Gov. Andrew Cuomo has his way. A measure in Cuomo’s $145 billion budget proposal would make New York the 38th state in the country to allow early voting, in which a limited number of polling places are opened ahead of elections, freeing up voters from having to cast their ballot on a specific day. Supporters of early voting say states should be doing anything they can to make voting more convenient, particularly in New York, where just 29 percent of voters cast their ballot in 2014, a gubernatorial election year.

Editorials: How North Carolina voter ID law has become a dangerous farce | Bob Hall/News & Observer

In a matter of weeks, thousands of North Carolina voters will head to the polls unaware of what they’ll need to vote – and election officials will be hard-pressed to help them. Ironically, conservative Republicans who promoted voting changes could suffer the most. The excitement of the Republican presidential primary will motivate new voters to show up, but newbies are the most likely not to have followed the twists and turns of election rule changes. Will they be helped or frustrated at the polls? At this point, it’s up to Gov. Pat McCrory. Here’s why. The new law cuts out safety-net provisions for new voters and dumps a load of confusing regulations on poll workers. That combination is making it hard for election officials to do their jobs.

Ohio: Christian group, tea party activists urge delay in online voter registration | The Columbus Dispatch

If Ohio is going to implement online voter registration, it should be delayed until after the presidential election, the leader of a coalition that includes a religious group and tea party activists told lawmakers Tuesday. The website could be hacked, and thus it’s a poor decision to try to implement online voter registration during a high-volume, high-stakes presidential election, Christopher Long, president of the Ohio Christian Alliance, told a House committee. But lawmakers in both parties pushed back against his concerns. Rep. Louis “Bill” Blessing, R-Cincinnati, questioned if any other states have encountered security issues with their online systems.

Iran: Election gatekeepers keep tight controls on candidates for key panel | The Washington Post

Iran’s election overseers have cleared only one-fifth of the potential candidates seeking a spot on the panel with powers to select the country’s next supreme leader, an official said Tuesday. The rejections appear to be another stand by hard-liners seeking to hold back more moderate-leaning groups after some high-profile strides under President Hassan Rouhani, including a nuclear deal with world powers that lifted international sanctions. Such widespread vetting of candidates is a fixture of Iranian politics that allows the culling of those perceived as potential threats to the ruling system and its protectors, led by the Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Nauru: Barriers for women in Nauru elections | Radio New Zealand

An aspiring female candidate in Nauru Ann Hubert says cultural barriers are holding women back from being involved in politics in the country. Elections are to be held later this year, and the United Nations has held a series of workshops hoping to increase the participation of women. Ms Hubert says women are more educated than men in Nauru, but both women and men see Parliament as a man’s job. “When it came to the actual polling day, it just went back to like voting for the men. Because either your parents wanted you too, or because your husband told you to vote, and then it went back to the cultural, it’s the man that you should vote for, because they should be running the country, not the women.”

Philippines: Comelec prepares trusted build of poll software | CNN

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Tuesday (January 26) came up with the trusted build of the software that will be used to run the election management system (EMS) of the May 9 national and local polls. The supplier of the software, Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM), and the international certifier, SLI Global Solutions, put the trusted build together based on the customized source code reviewed by SLI in Denver, Colorado, USA. They were supervised by members of the Comelec and representatives from the Technical Evaluation Committee of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). On its website, the Comelec defines the trusted build as “the process whereby the source code is converted to machine-readable binary instructions (executable code) for the computer. It is performed with adequate security measures implemented to give confidence that the executable code is a verifiable and faithful representation of the source code.”

Tanzania: Zanzibar election re-run raises likelihood of confrontation | African Arguments

After a long period of negotiations, it was announced on Friday that Zanzibar will hold a re-run of elections on 20 March. The news was accompanied by a deployment of security forces in the semi-autonomous archipelago and was greeted with anger by many on the streets of the capital. “We have been cheated,” exclaimed one resident of Stone Town. “They will be here up to the 20 March, there is no freedom in Zanzibar,” said another. The decision comes three months after elections in October 2015 were controversially annulled by the Zanzibar Electoral Commission chairman, Jecha Salim Jecha, who claimed that there had been irregularities. The Tanzanian army had a strong presence in Stone Town and had surrounded the Commission.

National: North Carolina voter-ID case could have ramifications across U.S. | The Washington Post

The requirement to present photo identification to cast a ballot went on trial Monday in a closely watched case that will have legal ramifications for voting across the country this presidential election year. Inside a federal courthouse here, attorneys for the Justice Department and the NAACP argued that the law passed by the Republican-led North Carolina General Assembly intentionally discriminates against African Americans and Latinos, who disproportionately lack one of the required forms of photo identification. “The state should be making it easier for people to engage in the fundamental right to vote, not harder,” Michael Glick, a Washington lawyer representing the NAACP, said in his opening statement. Because the voter-ID requirement will make it harder for African Americans and Latinos to vote, Glick said, it is unconstitutional and violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Editorials: Seeking to End Gerrymandering’s Enduring Legacy | Carl Hulse/The New York Times

Buried less than two miles from the Capitol is the man many blame for the toxic partisanship infecting Congress today even though he died 202 years ago. Elbridge Gerry was a patriot, signer of the Declaration of Independence, drafter of the Constitution, House member, governor and vice president under James Madison. Yet he is best known today for the twist on his name that now defines the twisting of legislative boundaries to give one party or candidate an electoral advantage. This “gerrymandering” is seen by many as a root cause of Washington gridlock, a point President Obama underlined anew in his final State of the Union address. Mr. Gerry, as governor of Massachusetts in 1812, signed into law a state legislative map that included an irregularly shaped district obviously drawn to benefit his party. A cartoon in The Boston Gazette archly observed that the map resembled a salamander and added a head, wings and claws to bring it to life. “Better say a gerry-mander,” retorted the waggish opposition newspaper editor Benjamin Russell, who is often credited with coining the exact term. Thus, a lasting element of America’s political lexicon was born. (Mr. Gerry’s name was pronounced with a hard “G” that has been softened in the contemporary use of gerrymander.)

Alabama: Committee working to restore felons’ voting rights | Montgomery Advertiser

In a meeting room in Alabama’s State House on Wednesday afternoon, Pastor Kenneth Glasgow, a longtime advocate for those who have been incarcerated in the state, looked across the room at Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn and announced, with a laugh, that they were in agreement. That exchange came after several minutes of discussion on the intricacies of imposed court fees, but the conclusion was a microcosm of the meeting of the Voter Disenfranchisement and Restoration of Voting Rights Exploratory Committee – a mishmash of state officials, law enforcement, court workers, legislators and public advocates.

Arizona: House committee OKs bill outlawing early ballot collection | Associated Press

A House committee has passed a measure that would block voter-outreach groups from collecting and dropping off early ballots as the state prepares for the 2016 election season. The proposal would make it a felony for anyone but a family member, roommate, caregiver, postal worker or candidate to collect early ballots from another person in an act sometimes called “ballot harvesting.” The House Elections Committee chaired by Ugenti-Rita passed the measure along party lines in a 4-2 vote Monday. The outcome of the legislation could impact the state’s general and primary elections if the bill is signed into law and enacted before elections take place.

Colorado: Federal funds to help with new voting system costs | Journal Advocate