National: Civil rights leaders ask Sessions to scuttle Trump voter fraud probe | Politico

il rights leaders who met with Attorney General Jeff Sessions Tuesday asked him to urge President Donald Trump not to proceed with his plans for a blue-ribbon panel to investigate Trump’s own claims that millions of people voted illegally for his opponent in last year’s presidential race. “I asked him to counsel the president against the creation of such a task force and a commission because that commission will be seen to intimidate our communities,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. “In the absence of any evidence of voter fraud, he should be counseling the president away from such a course….We don’t need an investigation into something that doesn’t exist. We should not be crediting the fantasies of this president at the cost of African Americans and Latinos feeling secure that they’re not being intimidated from voting and participating in the process.”

Georgia: Hancock County agrees to restore black voters’ rights | ABC

Election officials in Georgia’s sparsely populated, overwhelmingly black Hancock County agreed Wednesday to restore voting rights to dozens of African-American registered voters they disenfranchised ahead of a racially divided local election. About three-quarters of the people they removed from the voting rolls — nearly all of them black — still live in the voting district and will be restored to the county’s registered voter list under the settlement. “We want to make sure that a purge program like the one that played out in the fall of 2015 never happens again,” said Kristen Clarke, executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, which sued the county in federal court.

Iowa: Democrats dig in as lawmakers debate contentious voter ID bill | Des Moines Register

The Iowa House of Representatives debated a contentious voter identification bill into the evening Wednesday as Democrats fought changes they say would disenfranchise voters. Debate was ongoing, but Republicans hold a strong majority in the chamber and are expected to approve the measure. “Voter ID is a commonsense reform that makes it easier to vote, harder to cheat and nobody is turned away,” said the bill’s floor manager, Rep. Ken Rizer, R-Cedar Rapids. If approved, House File 516 would make numerous changes to the state’s election laws that Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate says are needed to ensure the integrity of the process and prevent fraud. Among them is a provision that would require every voter to present government-issued identification at the poll on Election Day, which Democrats argued would disproportionately hurt voter turnout among minority people, elderly people, disabled people and others.

Michigan: ‘Ballot selfie’ battle resurfaces in Michigan with proposal to allow them | Fox17

The ban on so-called ‘ballot selfies’ in Michigan is resurfacing with the introduction of a new proposal that would allow voters to use their cell phones or other cameras to take pictures of their ballots or themselves with their ballots in a polling place. Rep. Steve Johnson, R-Wayland, introduced the proposal which has bi-partisan support in the Legislature. “Around the country, people increasingly are sharing pictures of their ballot as a way to show support for candidates and issues,” Johnson said in a statement, adding that 20 other states currently allow ‘ballot selfies.’

Minnesota: Dated voting machines needing improvements | Republican Eagle

Minnesota’s local government officials say searching the eBay online auction site for voting machine parts is not the best way to keep the foundation of democracy running smoothly. The company that made much of Minnesota’s voting equipment, especially for disabled voters, has moved on to newer technologies and parts for machines used in most Minnesota polling places are hard to find. “The best answer to that is eBay,” Administrative Services Director Deborah Erickson of Crow Wing County told a Minnesota House committee Wednesday, March 1, before the panel approved a bill providing counties $14 million next year.

Nevada: Voter registration bill heads to Senate after party-line vote in committee | Las Vegas Review-Journal

An initiative to automatically register people to vote when they obtain or renew a driver’s license or identification card at a Department of Motor Vehicles office passed a Senate committee Wednesday on a 3-2 partisan vote. The Automatic Voter Registration Initiative, or IP1, would amend Nevada law to require the DMV to transmit information to the secretary of state and county election offices to register people who obtain, renew or change an address on a driver’s license or identification card.

Oregon: State looking at making ballots free to mail | Statesman Journal

Do Oregon voters fail to return their ballots because of the price of – or inconvenience of obtaining – a postage stamp? Two Democratic legislators think in a significant number of cases, the answer is ‘yes.’ They’re backing a bill to provide postage on mail-in ballots, at a cost to taxpayers of about $650,000 per year. “We know there are ballots out there that are not getting in,” Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, told the Senate Rules Committee on Monday. “We would like to remove the impediment that is there for some people to mailing their ballot that has to do with the postage stamp.”

Vermont: Voting Misstep Means New Election| NECN

The small Vermont community most famous as the birthplace of President Calvin Coolidge abruptly canceled its Australian ballot vote on Tuesday’s Town Meeting Day, and is now readying for a do-over. “This was an honest mistake,” said Russ Tonkin of the Plymouth Select Board. “And we will make it right.” Tonkin said about 90 of Plymouth’s nearly 500 registered voters had cast their ballots in the local election when the select board shut down the process midday, voiding those votes. “We didn’t want to waste anybody else’s time,” Tonkin added.

Europe: Fears of election hacking spread in Europe | PCWorld

France has followed the Netherlands in placing its faith in paper-based voting systems ahead of key elections later this year, following allegations that Russian hackers influenced last year’s U.S. presidential election. The French government will not allow internet voting in legislative elections to be held in June because of the “extremely elevated threat of cyberattacks.” The move follows a recommendation from the French Network and Information Security Agency (ANSSI), it said Monday. The move will only affect 11 of the 577 electoral districts voting, those representing French citizens living outside their home country. These expatriates had previously been allowed to vote over the internet in some elections because the alternative was to require some of them to travel vast distances to the nearest embassy or consulate with a ballot box. It also only applies to the legislative elections to be held in June: The two rounds of presidential elections to be held in April and May were always expected to use paper ballots.

Bulgaria: Expats in Germany and US take election commission to court over polling stations | The Sofia Globe

ulgarian citizens living in Germany and the United States are taking the Central Election Commission (CEC) to the Supreme Administrative Court over the commission not opening polling stations in 13 German cities and two places in the US with Bulgarian communities. This emerged from the electronic public register of complaints and communications submitted to the CEC, Bulgarian National Radio said on March 9, seventeen days ahead of Bulgaria’s early parliamentary elections.

France: Election beset by criminal investigations and fake news | Slate

Former Prime Minister Alain Juppé’s announcement Monday that he has decided “once and for all” not to enter the French presidential race makes it very likely that neither the center-left nor the center-right will have a candidate in the second-round runoff vote in May, an unprecedented development in modern French politics. Juppé lost a Republican Party primary to François Fillon, another former PM, in November, but supporters had been urging him to get back in the race as Fillon’s campaign has imploded over an ongoing corruption allegation. Fillon, who had billed himself as the candidate of morality and traditional values, allegedly arranged no-show jobs for his wife and two of his children, with French taxpayers picking up the bill, and faces possible corruption charges, but so far refuses to withdraw.

Netherlands: Greens aim for breakthrough in Dutch election surge | Financial Times

Well before doors open, dozens are queueing outside the Gebr de Nobel concert hall on a cold Monday evening in the Dutch university town of Leiden. The act they have come to see? Jesse Klaver, the leader of GroenLinks (GreenLeft), the leftwing party surging in Dutch polls. Sunita, a children’s therapist from The Hague, first bumped into Mr Klaver in an Apple store. “I said: ‘You are the only one with a vision.’” It was the first time she had spoken to a politician. The 30-year-old Mr Klaver could register a breakout election success next week. GreenLeft is forecast to win up to 20 seats in the vote — a fivefold increase from its previous effort. If it does so it would probably overtake the Dutch Labour party, traditionally the country’s largest left-of-centre political force.