The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly for August 8-14 2016
For years, computer security experts have warned that electronic voting is vulnerable to hacking that could alter vote tallies and theoretically swing an election. The intrusions that compromised the Democratic National Committee and the House Democrats’ fundraising campaigns’ systems have only heightened those concerns. The MIT Technology Review identified the states and counties most vulnerable to digital election manipulation and Lawrence Norden of the Brennan Center called for actions to enhance voting system security. In a move criticized by voting rights advocates Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner vetoed a bill aimed at making voter registration automatic. Michigan’s attorney general has asked a federal appeals court to reinstate a law banning straight-ticket voting. Federal judges struck down nearly 30 North Carolina House and Senate districts as illegal racial gerrymanders, but will allow General Assembly elections to be held using them this fall. In Texas, a federal judge approved a plan that says it won’t be mandatory for voters to present an ID in order to vote in the November general election while a federal appeals panel blocked a lower court ruling that would have allowed Wisconsin voters without photo IDs to sign an affidavit and cast a ballot. Moves to introduce online voting in Australian elections has been dealt a “massive blow by the disastrous stuff-up” of the country’s online Census, with some commentators saying it is dead in the water and Zambian President Edgar Lungu was ahead of his main rival in early vote counting, but the main opposition said its count showed their candidate ahead and the vote may have been rigged.