Honduras: Thousands protest in Honduras in chaos over contested presidential election | The Guardian

Tens of thousands took to the streets across Honduras on Sunday, demanding a new president and an end to a week-long election debacle which has plunged the volatile country into its worst political crisis since a coup in 2009.  “Out with JOH” was the unifying chant, sung by protesters who accuse Juan Orlando Hernández of meddling with the vote count in order to deny victory to the opposition Alliance leader, Salvador Nasralla. The country’s beleaguered electoral commission (TSE) made a long-awaited announcement on how it plans to resolve the crisis just as the marches got under way. After a week of delays, negotiations and accusations of bias and incompetence, the chief magistrate of the TSE, which is controlled by the ruling National party, announced that the election winner would be declared after a recount of just 1,000 suspicious voting tallies.

National: Lawyers for Trump election commission respond to lawsuit | Union Leader

Attorneys for President Donald Trump’s commission on election fraud maintain that Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap has no legal right to commission-related documents he is seeking through a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Commission attorneys responded on Friday to a lawsuit filed by Dunlap, aimed at finding out what’s been going on with the commission in the months since its September meeting at St. Anselm College. New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner, also a member of the commission, says he hasn’t heard a word from Chairman Kris Kobach, Kansas Secretary of State, or any commission staff since the meeting, even though state officials have reached out in an attempt to submit the requested voter data.

National: Democrats question GOP commitment to Senate’s Russia inquiry | Politico

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are raising fresh concerns about the GOP-led panel’s appetite for digging into the Russian ties forged by multiple advisers to President Donald Trump. Friction on the committee last spiked in October, when the chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), sent a slew of letters to key figures in the Russia investigation without the signature of Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the panel’s top Democrat. Feinstein has followed by sending four rounds of letters without Grassley’s signature that seek material from other players in the Trump campaign’s communications with Russian officials — the most recent series of letters coming on Monday. Asked about Grassley’s decision to not sign on, Feinstein told reporters late Monday that “I think there’s an effort, subtle, not to go deeply. And I hadn’t realized it before, but I realize it now,” she continued. “And we’re going to have to find a way to deal with it.”

National: Deutsche Bank Received Subpoena on Client Trump | Bloomberg

Special prosecutor Robert Mueller zeroed in on President Donald Trump’s business dealings with Deutsche Bank AG as his investigation into alleged Russian meddling in U.S. elections widens. Mueller has issued a subpoena to Germany’s largest lender, forcing the bank to submit documents on its client relationship with Trump and his family, said a person briefed on the matter, who asked not to be identified because the action has not been announced. “Deutsche Bank always cooperates with investigating authorities in all countries,” the lender said in a statement to Bloomberg, declining to provide additional information.

Colorado: Voter fraud trial underway for former GOP chairman | KDVR

Just weeks before the 2016 presidential election, Steve Curtis told his radio listeners “Virtually every case of voter fraud, that I can remember in my lifetime was committed by Democrats or do I not have the facts?” Now Curtis, the chairman of Colorado’s Republican party in the late 1990’s and a former talk show host for KLZ-560 AM, is on trial in a Weld County Courtroom, charged with forgery, a felony and election fraud, a misdemeanor. The 58-year-old is accused of forging his ex-wife’s signature on her 2016 mail-in ballot after the couple divorced and she moved to South Carolina. Kelly Curtis has been subpoenaed to testify.  She spoke with the Problem Solvers back in March of 2017, when Fox 31 first broke the story of ex-husband’s arrest. “To me it was demeaning and presumptuous and I had no idea what would go on in someone`s mind to cast my ballot for me illegally,” said Kelly.

Georgia: Election Tech Companies Show Potential Replacements For Voting Machines | WABE

Some of the nation’s top election technology companies explained to state lawmakers Thursday how they might replace Georgia’s 15-year-old electronic voting machines, which have been phased out in many states around the country. … Georgia is one of five states where voting machines currently have no paper trail, and cybersecurity experts agree that exposes the system to potential doubt, hacks and glitches. “The bottom line is you want to have that fail-safe, so that the system can be checked with an audit and, if necessary, be recounted with a physical record, and that’s provided with a paper ballot,” said Susan Greenhalgh with Verified Voting, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that advocates for accuracy, transparency and verifiability of elections. She presented to the committee Thursday.

Iowa: Thousands of IDs going out under new voting law | Sioux City Journal

As Iowa’s controversial voter identification law is poised to start taking effect, Secretary of State Paul Pate said Monday his office plans to begin mailing ID cards this month to about 123,000 registered voters who do not already have a valid Iowa driver’s license or state identification card. The cards are free and will be sent automatically to roughly 6 percent of Iowa’s registered voters. Pate, who serves as the state’s elections commissioner, said the process is designed to ensure all registered voters in Iowa have an identification card to use when voting, starting with the 2018 elections.

Louisiana: Courts reject officials’ bid to block remedies for racist judicial elections | The Louisiana Weekly

The Terrebonne Parish Courthouse where Louisiana’s 32nd Judicial District Court is based. A lawsuit brought by the NAACP has resulted in the court’s at-large electoral scheme being declared racially discriminatory. A lawsuit that led to judicial elections in Louisiana’s Terrebonne Parish being declared racially discriminatory will move to the remedial stage despite efforts by the governor and attorney general — with help from a controversial law firm — to block a fix. Last week, three judges of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards’ and Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry’s attempt to appeal the liability decision against them in Terrebonne Parish Branch NAACP et al. v. Jindal et al., the 2014 lawsuit brought by the civil rights group over the electoral scheme for the state’s 32nd Judicial District Court in Terrebonne Parish southwest of New Orleans.

Editorials: New Hampshire Republicans want to impose a poll tax on college students | Mark Joseph Stern/Slate

The 2016 election was a bittersweet one for the New Hampshire Republican Party. The GOP won unified control of the state government, but Hillary Clinton carried the state and Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan squeaked out a narrow victory. Donald Trump alleged that voters bused in illegally from Massachusetts tipped the state away from him, a claim endorsed by GOP state legislators despite a total lack of evidence. Kansas’ Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the head of Trump’s voter fraud commission, has also falsely claimed to have “proof” that thousands of illegal votes tipped the 2016 election toward Democrats. In response, New Hampshire Republicans have initiated a crackdown on voting rights designed to suppress likely Democratic voters.

New Mexico: City to pursue dual track on ranked-choice voting | Santa Fe New Mexican

Santa Fe’s mayor and city councilors said Monday they voted unanimously during a closed-door meeting to prepare to use ranked-choice voting in the 2018 municipal election while deciding 5-4 to simultaneously appeal a recent court order forcing the system into place. The dramatic council meeting appeared to at once conclude the legal wrangling over whether the city would use the ranking system in March, while also carving out the possibility that the state’s highest court could reopen the issue before Election Day.

Pennsylvania: Lawyer: ‘Voter-proof’ state congressional map favors the GOP | Associated Press

A lawyer for a group of Democratic voters in Pennsylvania told a federal court Monday that it should throw out the state’s congressional district map favoring Republican candidates because it was created to be “voter-proof.” Thomas Geoghehan noted that Pennsylvania is a swing state that supported both Barack Obama and Donald Trump for president. Control of power in the state has been topsy-turvy, alternating the party of governors, for instance, and electing U.S. senators from opposing parties. Under the previous map, congressional representation changed from election to election. But since 2012, Republicans have won 13 of the state’s 18 districts in each election — even in 2012, when more votes were cast for Democrats than Republicans in House races statewide.

Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania case takes new approach to redistricting rules | Associated Press

Judges have been asked repeatedly to decide whether the lawmakers in charge of drawing congressional district lines have gone too far to favour their parties. A group of Democratic voters from Pennsylvania is approaching the issue in a different way, asserting it’s wrong for the congressional map to be made to boost one party — at all. The case is scheduled to be tried starting this week before a three-judge federal panel. The potential fallout is immense in a state where Republicans have consistently controlled 13 of 18 congressional seats even though statewide votes for congressional candidates are usually divided nearly evenly between Republicans and Democrats. A victory for the plaintiffs could mean a quick redrawing of districts before the 2018 midterm elections and could establish new rules for how congressional districts are remade after the 2020 census.

Texas: Appeals court to weigh ‘discriminatory’ voter id law | Austin Statesman-American

Lawyers for Texas return to court Tuesday to try to save the state’s voter ID law, and there is more at stake beyond requiring photo identification at the polls. Republicans in the Legislature stand accused of blatant racism in enacting the 2011 law, and there is more at stake beyond requiring photo identification at the polls. Republicans in the Legislature stand accused of blatant racism in enacting the 2011 law, and unless that finding by a federal judge is reversed, Texas could be forced to get federal approval for changes to its election laws based on its history of voter discrimination. The next step in the long-fought case takes place Tuesday morning with oral arguments before a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. 

France: Nationalists in Corsica demand more freedoms after election gains | AFP

Nationalists seeking greater autonomy for France’s Corsica on Monday ruled out an imminent independence bid but demanded greater freedoms for the island after winning the first round of regional elections. The governing Pe a Corsica (For Corsica) alliance, which groups the pro-autonomy Femu a Corsica (Let’s Make Corsica) and pro-independence Corsica Libera (Free Corsica), won 45.36 percent of the vote in Sunday’s election to the regional assembly. Local rightwing party La Voie de l’Avenir (Future Path) came second with 14.97 percent, ahead of France’s main opposition conservative Republicans in third with 12.77 percent.

Germany: SPD to start talks with Merkel next week if members agree | Reuters

The leader of Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) said on Monday he would launch talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives on forming a government next week if members of his center-left party gave him the green light at a congress this weekend. The remarks by Martin Schulz raised hopes that the two parties that suffered losses to the far right in an election in September could renew an alliance that has ruled Germany since 2013 and end the political deadlock in Europe’s largest economy. Merkel turned to the SPD after failing to form a three-way alliance with the left-leaning Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats, plunging Germany into a political impasse and raising doubt about her future after 12 years in power.

Honduras: Worried that their election is being stolen, Hondurans take to the streets in droves | Los Angeles Times

Thousands of opposition backers waving banners and shouting anti-government ballads marched through the streets of the Honduran capital Sunday in a boisterous but peaceful repudiation of the administration of President Juan Orlando Hernandez. The mostly young demonstrators repeated the president’s initials, JOH, in a rhythmic chant — “Fuera JOH,” meaning “Out with JOH” — demanding that the president concede defeat in his reelection bid in the Nov. 26 vote. “People are fed up with the corruption, the theft, the poverty,” said Jonathan Alarcon, 28, who was part of a musical combo singing an anti-Hernandez ballad in cumbia style along the protest route. “It’s time for JOH to go.”

Liberia: Will Supreme Court Demand Cleaning of Voter Roll? | Liberian Observer

It is widely believed that the pending judgment by the Supreme Court could likely demand the National Elections Commission (NEC) to clean up the Final Registration Roll (FRR). This is important because instead of a re-run of the October 10 presidential and legislative elections that have been challenged on grounds that the entire voters’ roll was marred with fraud and irregularities, their clean up could restore confidence in the electoral system. The court is expected to rule in the matter on Thursday, December 7. Both Liberty Party (LP) and the ruling Unity Party (UP) have repeatedly accused the Commission of tampering with the FRR on the basis that people whose names were not found on it the FRR were recorded on sheets across and allowed to vote during the October 10 representative and presidential elections.

Spain: Judge Releases Six Catalan Separatists Ahead of Regional Election | Wall Street Journal

A Spanish judge on Monday ordered the release on bail of six former government officials in Catalonia, but ruled that the former Catalan vice president and three other separatist leaders must remain in jail while prosecutors investigate them for their independence drive. If the six ex-officials, who had been cabinet members under former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, post the €100,000 ($118,950) bail ordered by the judge, they will be able to campaign in events ahead of the regional parliamentary elections that are scheduled for Dec. 21. The officials were jailed on Nov. 2 pending an investigation by state prosecutors on charges of sedition, rebellion and misappropriation of public funds for their sustained bid to split with Spain.