Venezuela: Panel Clears the Way for a Process to Oust Nicolás Maduro | The New York Times

Venezuela’s electoral commission on Tuesday released documents that would allow opposition politicians to collect signatures and formally begin a process aimed at removing President Nicolás Maduro from office. The decision by the commission — which is controlled by Mr. Maduro’s Socialist government and previously resisted handing over the papers — lifted hopes of the opposition politicians, who control the National Assembly and have vowed to oust the president by the end of the year. It made Venezuela the second country in the region undergoing an effort to remove its leader. This month, Brazil’s lower house of Congress approved the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff over accusations that she misused state money.

National: Which Parts of the Voting Process Have Moved Online? | StateTech Magazine

If the average citizen is looking forward to the day when ballots can be cast on the Internet in the same manner in which people buy groceries and pay bills, they’ll have to be patient — it’ll be a while. While online voting has been deployed in small and specific cases (largely for absentee or military voters), serious security concerns exist about the integrity of online voting. “We believe that online voting, especially online voting in large scale, introduces great risk into the election system by threatening voters’ expectations of confidentiality, accountability and security of their votes and provides an avenue for malicious actors to manipulate the voting results,” said Neil Jenkins, an official in the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications at the Department of Homeland Security, according to an article in The Washington Post.

Arkansas: State awards Washington County $1.2 million in new voting equipment | Arkansas Online

The state has awarded Washington County about $1.2 million of election equipment, said Jennifer Price, election commission coordinator. “We are getting the new voting equipment,” Price said. “We’re excited.” The Quorum Court accepted the equipment during its meeting Thursday. The county put aside $420,000 for the equipment. Election commissioners have said they were worried the state wouldn’t provide equipment in time for the general election Nov. 8, which is expected to have a large voter turnout. The county’s equipment is from 2006 and was starting to break down, Price said.

California: Tens of thousands have left California’s American Independent Party in the last month | Los Angeles Times

A new analysis finds nearly 32,000 voters in California’s American Independent Party changed their official registration and left the party in the two weeks after a Los Angeles Times investigation identified widespread confusion among the party’s members. The change comes after a series of stories last month about voters who had intended to be politically independent, what’s known in California as having “no party preference.” A poll conducted for The Times found 73% of American Independent Party members did not know they had registered with an actual political party. Paul Mitchell, a political data specialist whose firm sells exclusive analyses of voter data to California political campaigns, worked with The Times on the stories. He conducted the new analysis for The Times on a pro-bono basis.

California: Activist lawyers sue California on voter rules, possibly boosting Bernie Sanders support | The Sacramento Bee

As Bernie Sanders supporters fear their candidate will miss out on crucial votes from independent and crossover voters in California’s June primary, civil rights lawyers filed suit Friday seeking more time for those voters to request a Democratic presidential ballot. The lawyers sued in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of an organization trying to boost turnout for Sanders in his bid against Hillary Clinton. Additional plaintiffs include two individual voters and the American Independent Party, a conservative organization on the opposite end of the political spectrum from Sanders. In the suit against Secretary of State Alex Padilla and Alameda County and San Francisco election officials, the plaintiffs contend that nonpartisan voters have received inconsistent and confusing instructions on how to vote in the June 7 presidential primary. They say thousands of voters will be disenfranchised.

Kansas: Kobach changing interagency policies for Kansas voter registration | Associated Press

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has told a federal court that he is changing interagency policies to improve the state’s ability to verify proof of citizenship for people who register to vote at motor vehicle offices. The notice, filed shortly before midnight Wednesday, comes a day after a federal court ruled thousands of Kansas residents who did not provide such documents must be added to voter rolls for federal elections. The judge stayed her ruling until May 31 so the state could appeal, which Kobach has said he plans to do. In his court filing, Kobach contends that the new policies were being implemented prior to Tuesday’s ruling. One policy says motor vehicle offices accept and scan documents proving U.S. citizenship. Another change gives the secretary of state’s office and election officials in all 105 counties Internet access to check whether motor vehicle offices possess such documents.

Maryland: Board On Baltimore’s Election: ‘We Don’t Know What Happened’ | CBS

The State Board of Elections continues to update its investigation into voter irregularities and fraud in the Baltimore City primary election. All the concerns forced the board to refuse to accept the results of the election. Political reporter Pat Warren has more on what they found, and what’s next. The “who” and the “how” are becoming pretty clear. “The pattern that we saw clearly was that the provisional ballots were scanned in the polling place instead of being held with the applications,” said Linda Lamone, state elections administrator. In some cases, every single provisional ballot that should have been set aside was scanned.

Maryland: 800 improperly counted votes in Baltimore cannot be removed from results | The Washington Post

Maryland elections officials have uncovered nearly 800 improperly counted ballots from Baltimore residents who may not have been eligible to vote, calling into question how poll workers were trained for a new voting system in the April 26 primary. The discovery of hundreds more ballots cast than voters who checked into Baltimore polling sites led to the decertification of that city’s election results. On Thursday, the State Board of Elections discussed the ongoing investigation into the irregularities and how things went wrong. Election judges had apparently scanned ballots cast by people who did not appear on voter rolls, Elections Administrator Linda Lamone told the five-member board. Those ballots were not supposed to be counted until officials verified that the voter was authorized to vote. “This was a training issue introducing a brand-new voting system in Maryland,” Lamone said. “There is no evidence of voter fraud.” Some discrepancies in voters and votes in Baltimore could not be explained, she said. “The numbers simply don’t match,” Lamone said.

Ohio: Judge: No conspiracy in Libertarians’ bump from Ohio ballot | Associated Press

A federal judge delivered a legal victory Friday to Ohio’s elections chief and a voter sued by Libertarians for their roles in disqualifying the party’s gubernatorial candidate from 2014 fall ballots. A lawyer for the Libertarian Party of Ohio said the party plans to appeal. The party sued Secretary of State Jon Husted and voter Greg Felsoci, alleging they were part of a scheme to selectively enforce Ohio election law to help Republican Gov. John Kasich’s re-election bid. At the time, the third-party gubernatorial candidacy of Libertarian Charlie Earl was seen as potentially drawing votes from Kasich, who later easily won re-election. The lawsuit alleged that improperly singling out the party’s candidates violates the First Amendment and Equal Protection Clause.

Wisconsin: Testimony: Minorities bear brunt of voter ID law | Milwaukee Journal Sentinal

Minority voters represent a big share of those seeking free photo IDs under the state’s new voter ID law and may also make up the great majority of those who experience the most problems getting one, under figures that emerged in a federal trial this week. In testimony and filings in the trial before U.S. District Judge James Peterson, the plaintiffs said that blacks and Latinos make up 44% of those seeking a free ID to ensure they can vote but only 9% of the overall voting age population in Wisconsin. Minorities may also make up the lion’s share of those who struggle to get a photo ID, according to a small sample of voters who lacked the key documents needed to obtain one.

Australia: Fear of voter fraud is no excuse for restricting enrolment | The Guardian

The electoral roll closes at 8pm on Monday. Potential voters who have failed to enrol by then will not be able to vote on 2 July. As of March, the Australian Electoral Commission estimated that more than 900,000 people were “missing” from the roll – 6% of the eligible voting population. There are particularly large numbers of young voters missing from the rolls. While the AEC and other groups make a big effort to encourage young people to enrol, the rolls are closing long before most voters will engage with the election. It’s not surprising that many voters, particularly those voting for the first time, do not realise they need to enrol long befor polling day. At most elections, rolls close about four weeks before election day. This year’s longer campaign has stretched this period to six weeks.

Austria: Far-right candidate and rival tied at 50% in exit poll | The Guardian

Austria’s political future is on a knife-edge, with the candidate bidding to be the European Union’s first far-right president holding a wafer-thin lead over his rival. According to the public broadcaster ORF, Norbert Hofer of the rightwing populist Freedom party (FPÖ) was neck and neck on 50% with his rival Alexander Van der Bellen, a former Green party leader who is running as an independent. Postal ballots, accounting for 14% of eligible voters and expected to favour the left-leaning candidate, are being tallied on Monday, and a full result is not expected until Monday afternoon. Fifty per cent and one vote would suffice to hand the presidency to one of the two candidates. Data from Austria’s interior ministry, which does not take into account the projected postal vote, put Hofer on 51.9% and Van der Bellen on 48.1%.

Austria: Postal ballots to decide result of presidential vote | BBC

Postal ballots will decide Austria’s presidential election after polling station results from Sunday’s vote gave the far-right candidate a slender lead.
Norbert Hofer of the Freedom Party was slightly ahead of his rival, Alexander Van der Bellen, the interior ministry said on Sunday. If elected, Mr Hofer would be the first far-right head of state in the EU. A key campaign issue was Europe’s migrant crisis, which has seen asylum-seeker numbers soar. About 90,000 people claimed asylum in Austria last year, equivalent to about 1% of the Austrian population, and the Freedom Party ran an anti-immigration campaign. Some 750,000 postal votes from roughly 12% of Austria’s 6.4m voters are due to be counted on Monday.

Cyprus: Parliamentary vote puts far-right in parliament | Reuters

Cyprus’s ruling conservatives took the lead in Sunday’s general election, results showed, while a far-right party won its first seats in the legislature amid voter disillusionment after a 2013 financial meltdown. With the voting tally at 100 percent, and an unprecedentedly high abstention rate, the right-wing Democratic Rally party was ahead with 30.6 percent of the vote followed by Communist AKEL with 25.6 percent. Compared to the previous elections of 2011, those two main parties on the Cypriot political scene suffered setbacks. AKEL’s Communists lost up to seven percentage points while Democratic Rally lost 3.7 percentage points.

Tajikistan: Referendum on allowing president to rule for life | Associated Press

Tajikistan held a referendum Sunday on changing the Constitution to allow its authoritarian president to run for office indefinitely, effectively allowing him to rule for life. The 63-year-old Emomali Rakhmon has ruled the former Soviet republic in Central Asia since 1992. During those 24 years, he has crushed or cowed all opposition to his rule and the referendum is expected to pass easily. One of the constitutional changes considered in the vote would lower the minimum age for presidents from 35 to 30 years. This would allow Rakhmon’s son, now 29, to run in the next presidential election in 2020. Reported turnout was high. Election officials said that 88 percent of eligible voters had cast their ballots by 6 p.m. local time ( 1300 GMT ), two hours before polls closed. The referendum has been organized and held with only cursory international scrutiny. No election in Tajikistan has ever been deemed free and fair by the most thorough monitoring organization. In the months preceding the referendum, authorities in Tajikistan have systemically dismantled the few remaining remnants of dissent to Rakhmon’s rule.

Vietnam: Day of democracy in communist Vietnam in vote on party’s parliament | Reuters

Vietnam will showcase its five-yearly day of democracy on Sunday with an election for a parliament tightly controlled by a Communist Party that is seeing unprecedented challenges to its four-decade political monopoly. Some 69 million Vietnamese are registered to vote to choose representatives for a 500-seat National Assembly, with the ballot comprised overwhelmingly of candidates representing the secretive party or nominated by state institutions. The election could turn out to be an anti-climax, after an astonishing swell of public interest in the scores of activists, celebrities and ordinary Vietnamese who tried to run as independent candidates, and it could test the sincerity of the party’s promises of inclusiveness. Almost all of the hopeful independents could not get on the ballot and were eliminated during the party’s strict vetting processes, which many of them said was rigged to shut them out.

The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly for May 16-22 2016

maryland_260Despite 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.

Connecticut: DMV, Merrill Agree On Streamlined, ‘Automatic’ Motor Voter Registration System | Hartford Courant

The Department of Motor Vehicles and secretary of the state have worked out previous differences and signed 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. The Department of Motor Vehicles and secretary of the state have worked out previous differences and signed 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. The “memorandum of agreement,” signed Monday by DMV Commissioner Michael Bzdyra and Deputy Secretary of the State James Spallone, says the new system, under which the DMV customer would be registered to vote unless he or she specifically declines by choosing to opt out, would begin operating by August 2018. Under the current program, the DMV customer is registered to vote only if he or she actively chooses that option.

Kansas: Judge rules Kobach must register 18,000 suspended Kansas voters | The Wichita Eagle

A federal judge on Tuesday 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. Kobach said he’ll file an emergency appeal to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. Judge Julie Robinson ruled the Kansas proof-of-citizenship law conflicts with the federal motor-voter act, which was passed by Congress to make it easier to vote by requiring motor-vehicle offices to also offer voting registration. Robinson approved a preliminary injunction requiring Kobach to register prospective voters who were rejected since 2013 because they didn’t file documents proving their citizenship. They could vote in federal elections – U.S. House, Senate and the presidency – in this election cycle. The case centers on a Kansas law Kobach authored that requires applicants to provide documented citizenship proof. For most voters, that means either a passport or birth certificate – along with proof of marriage- and divorce-related name changes for women.

Maryland: State review finds ‘significant’ irregularities in Baltimore election | Baltimore Sun

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. State elections officials said Thursday that workers examining Baltimore’s election have uncovered “significant” problems. They have found more than 450 provisional ballots that were not considered by election judges. And nearly 800 provisional ballots — given to voters whose eligibility is in question — were improperly counted before eligibility was verified, officials said. Most of the problems were caused by untrained judges scanning ballots into the system that they shouldn’t have, said Linda H. Lamone, Maryland’s elections administrator. The state might not get to the bottom of every problem, she told the State Board of Elections. “There will be precincts that cannot be explained,” Lamone said. “We don’t know what happened. The numbers simply don’t match.”

Montana: US judge strikes down Montana campaign contribution limits | Associated Press

For a second time in four years, a federal judge ruled Tuesday 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. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell was a clear setback for state Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl, who has defended the strict limits that voters enacted in 1994. Lovell said Montana officials did not prove that the limits “further the important state interest of combating quid pro quo corruption or its appearance.” Motl urged restraint by political parties that can now contribute unlimited amounts of cash to candidates. Lovell expressed no opinion on what contributions should be for individuals and political action committees and left the question to the Montana attorney general.

Virginia: U.S. judge upholds Virginia voter ID law | Richmond Times-Dispatch

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. “Mindful that the court’s mission is to judge not the wisdom of the Virginia voter ID law, but rather its constitutionality, this court cannot say that plaintiffs have met their burden of proof in showing by a preponderance of the evidence that the Virginia voter ID law … contravenes the Voting Rights Act, the First Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, the Fifteenth Amendment, or the Twenty-Sixth Amendment,” U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson wrote Thursday. Hudson’s ruling concluded: “While the merits of this voter identification law, and indeed all aspects of Virginia’s voting regime, can be reasonably debated, it remains true that Virginia has created a scheme of laws to accommodate all people in their right to vote. From in-person voting, to an absentee option, to provisional ballots with the ability to cure, and the provision of free voter IDs, Virginia has provided all of its citizens with an equal opportunity to participate in the electoral process.”

Wisconsin: Federal judge hears challenge to Wisconsin election laws | Associated Press

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, a former chief of staff to a GOP state senator testified Monday in a federal trial targeting that law and others. The lawsuit targets more than a dozen changes to Wisconsin’s election law passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Gov. Scott Walker since 2011. Two liberal advocacy groups and affected voters argue the changes are a violation the federal Voting Rights Act, the First Amendment and the equal protection clause. Their attorney, Josh Kaul, said in opening statements that evidence will show the changes create a “torturous” process making it harder to vote for college students as well as blacks, Hispanics and other minorities who tend to support Democrats.

Kenya: Opposition vows to continue protests | Deutsche Welle

Images of police violence against demonstrators, viewed widely on social media, have caused international outrage. Protestors are calling for reform amid accusations that the Election Commission is biased. The political impasse in Kenya shows no signs of abetting as both sides of the political divide stand by their positions regarding the future of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). Opposition politicians and protestors continue to demand the body’s disbandment, accusing it of bias towards President Uhuru Kenyatta. But the ruling Jubilee coalition has ruled out dissolving the IEBC. On Monday, protests against IEBC were brutally quashed by anti-riot police, injuring several people and prompting international condemnation.

Macedonia: Court halts early election in blow to ruling party | Financial Times

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. The Balkan country’s constitutional court ruled on Wednesday that the dissolution of parliament had been unconstitutional, in effect halting preparations for the poll on June 5. The elections were planned as part of an EU-mediated agreement to resolve a year-long crisis. It began when the opposition alleged that Nikola Gruevski, former prime minister, and his counter-intelligence chief had arranged the wiretapping of thousands of people, enabling them to influence the media, courts and elections.

Arizona: Fewer voters in Arizona election, but latest cost $1M more | Associated Press

Fearing another botched election, Arizona’s most populous county opened twice as many polling spots for a special election this week than for the March presidential primary. This go-round cost about $1 million more, even though Maricopa County election officials knew far fewer voters would turn out to vote on education funding and pension overhaul plans. But those officials say the extra spending was necessary to rebuild lost confidence after some people waited as long as five hours to cast their vote for the Democratic and Republican nominees for president. The county cut the number of polling places from 200 in 2012 to just 60 in March to save money. Tuesday, there were 116 places to vote, county elections department spokeswoman Elizabeth Bartholomew said Thursday.

Colorado: Election officials admit mistakes, pledge changes after voter fraud controversy | The Denver Post

Colorado’s top elections chief acknowledged Thursday that state officials made mistakes in reviewing possibly fraudulent signatures on petitions for U.S. Senate candidate Jon Keyser and pledged to overhaul the process. The new policies will feature better public notice and escalate questions about signatures more quickly to top-level management, including Secretary of State Wayne Williams, who can refer the issue to investigators for review. The secretary of state’s office disclosed Tuesday that petition supervisors in his office knew about questionable voter signatures on Keyser’s petitions for the Republican primary — including one from a dead person — a month before the controversy erupted.

Connecticut: GOP Legislators: Merrill, DMV Circumvented General Assembly With New ‘Motor Voter’ System | Hartford Courant

Republican legislative leaders claimed Wednesday that Secretary of the State Denise Merrill and the Department of Motor Vehicles bypassed the General Assembly when they agreed this week to establish a “streamlined motor voter system” to automatically register citizens to vote when they go to DMV for a driver’s license or state-issued identification card. Senate GOP Leader Len Fasano of North Haven and Michael McLachlan of Danbury, the highest-ranking Republican senator on a legislative committee that oversees state elections, issued a statement blasting a “memorandum of agreement” signed Monday by the DMV and Merrill’s office.

Delaware: Bill gives felons voting privileges | Cape Gazette

A bill has passed the Senate that restores the voting rights of people with felony convictions who’ve completed their prison sentences but have not yet fully paid fines and fees. Senate Bill 242 passed 16-4 down party lines May 10. The bill does not call for the fees and fines to be forgiven. “This legislation affirms the state’s commitment to provide a second chance to those who’ve served their time in prison after breaking our laws,” said Claire Snyder-Hall, program director for Common Cause Delaware, in prepared statement. “We can’t reasonably expect them to become productive citizens unless we’re willing to extend to them all the rights that go with citizenship, including the right to vote.