The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly for May 16-22 2016
Despite warnings from computer security experts and some senior Obama administration officials, 30 states will allow the electronic transmission of voted ballots for some voters this November. The Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles and secretary of the state have worked out an agreement to implement a “streamlined motor voter system” that will automatically register eligible citizens to vote when they go to DMV for a driver’s license or state-issued identification card. A federal judge ordered Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to register about 18,000 rejected voters who filed applications at Department of Motor Vehicles offices but didn’t provide the proof of citizenship Kansas law requires. About 1,000 more votes were cast during Baltimore’s primary election than there were voters who checked in at the polls, an ongoing state review has found. For a second time in four years, a federal judge ruled that Montana’s campaign contribution limits are unconstitutional — a decision that could open the way for a flood of money from political parties just three weeks before the June 7 state primary. A federal judge has upheld Virginia’s voter ID law challenged by the Democratic Party of Virginia and two voters alleging the Republican-controlled state legislature enacted it to curb the number of young and minority voters. A former chief of staff to a GOP state senator testified Monday in a federal trial that Wisconsin Republicans were “giddy” about a voter identification requirement enacted in 2011 that they saw as an opportunity to drive down Democratic turnout at the polls. Viewed widely on social media, images of police violence against Kenyan protesters calling for electoral reform have caused international outrage while Western mediators welcomed a decision by a Macedonian court to strike down plans for early elections, in a blow to the ruling VMRO party which was the only major party registered to participate.