The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly for March 14-20 2016
According to an audit released on Thursday, Election Assistance Commissioner Brian Newby improperly claimed mileage and travel expenses, intentionally skirted oversight of government credit card expenses and wasted taxpayer funds while at his former job as an elections commissioner in Kansas. Richard Hasen examined “soft” Voter ID laws in an Atlantic editorial. Voting rights advocates and the state of Nevada settled a lawsuit over the state’s implementation of a federal law aimed at registering low-income voters. Democracy NC, a group that advocates for more voter participation, blamed many of the long lines at polling places across North Carolina on confusion surrounding the state’s new voter ID laws. According to a complaint filed in federal court the Texas Civil Rights Project, thousands of Texans are being denied the chance to register to vote, due to the state’s failure to follow the federal National Voter Registration Act. In spite of concerns voiced by computer security experts, Utah residents will have the option of casting ballots in the Republican presidential contest using computers, tablets and smartphones next week. Niger’s opposition coalition has announced that they “will not recognize” the outcome of the second round of the presidential and legislative elections scheduled for Sunday and Newsweek examined vote rigging and election fraud in last month’s elections in Uganda.