Canada: Rookie MP Gould takes over troubled electoral reform file | Toronto Star

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promoted first-time Burlington MP Karina Gould to cabinet, tasking her with delivering on the Liberals’ troubled promise to reform Canada’s elections. Gould was one of three rookie MPs elevated to cabinet Tuesday, replacing Peterborough MP Maryam Monsef as Minister of Democratic Institutions. In that role, Gould will have the unenviable task of figuring out how to make good on Trudeau’s pledge to replace Canada’s 150-year old first-past-the-post electoral system. It’s a mission that Gould believes in, at least. “Electoral reform is the next step in (an) evolution toward a more inclusive system. We can build a better system that provides a stronger link between the democratic will of Canadians and the election results,” Gould said in the House of Commons last June.

The Gambia: Yahya Jammeh’s election challenge postponed | Al Jazeera

The Supreme Court of Gambia cannot rule on President Yahya Jammeh’s challenge against his electoral defeat until May, according to its chief justice. The ruling casts further doubt on whether a peaceful political transition will happen next week as scheduled. The West African country has been thrust into a political crisis following a December 1 presidential vote, which saw longtime ruler Jammeh losing to opposition leader Adama Barrow. Jammeh initially conceded defeat but later reversed his position, lodging a legal case aimed at annulling the result and triggering new elections. Barrow, a former real estate agent, is scheduled to take office on January 19.

Israel: Committee approves prisoner voting rights in local elections | Jerusalem Post

The Knesset Interior Committee unanimously passed a bill on Monday that will allow prisoners to vote in municipal elections while incarcerated. The bill, initiated by MK Ilan Gilon (Meretz) and MK Aliza Lavie (Yesh Atid), is similar in its essence to the amendment bill that passed in 1986, which gave prisoners the right to vote in the general – but not municipal – election. The bill now needs to be approved by the Knesset in its first reading. The MKs explained that each citizen holds more weight in municipal elections than they do in national elections, and that the outcome has major implications on their day to day life.

National: State election officials blast ‘unprecedented’ DHS move to secure electoral system | Politico

State election officials on Monday denounced the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to label the country’s electoral system as “critical infrastructure.” The move, which DHS announced on Friday, puts the electoral system on par with the energy or financial sector, industries considered vital to national security and economic stability. On Monday, the National Association of Secretaries of State lashed out at the decision, saying it is “is legally and historically unprecedented, raising many questions and concerns for states and localities with authority over the administration of our voting process.” Secretaries of state oversee elections in most states. Several of these officials have expressed concerns that the “critical infrastructure” tag could presage a federal takeover of local elections.

National: Perez, candidate for DNC chair, calls for expanded voter protection | Baltimore Sun

U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez, one of several candidates running to lead the Democratic National Committee, said Monday he would use the position to expand the party’s efforts to protect voters in the wake of ballot laws cropping up across the country. The Takoma Park resident, a former Montgomery County and Maryland state official, said the national party needs to take a more active role to ensure voters can cast a ballot, coordinating responses from state and national leaders and “playing offense” by expanding voter registration in every state. “We are going to establish a very robust protection and empowerment effort,” Perez told The Baltimore Sun on Monday, a day before he was to address the Maryland Democratic Party. “The DNC needs to play a very important role in combating [suppression] and ensuring all eligible voters can vote.”

Editorials: Russia, Trump & Flawed Intelligence | Masha Gessen/The New York Review of Books

After months of anticipation, speculation, and hand-wringing by politicians and journalists, American intelligence agencies have finally released a declassified version of a report on the part they believe Russia played in the US presidential election. On Friday, when the report appeared, the major newspapers came out with virtually identical headlines highlighting the agencies’ finding that Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered an “influence campaign” to help Donald Trump win the presidency—a finding the agencies say they hold “with high confidence.” A close reading of the report shows that it barely supports such a conclusion. Indeed, it barely supports any conclusion. There is not much to read: the declassified version is twenty-five pages, of which two are blank, four are decorative, one contains an explanation of terms, one a table of contents, and seven are a previously published unclassified report by the CIA’s Open Source division. There is even less to process: the report adds hardly anything to what we already knew. The strongest allegations—including about the nature of the DNC hacking—had already been spelled out in much greater detail in earlier media reports. But the real problems come with the findings themselves.

California: The only thing ‘special’ about California special elections is the cost to taxpayers | Los Angeles Times

Democracy won’t come cheap in Los Angeles in 2017. Voters from Boyle Heights to Eagle Rock will likely vote twice — after two earlier elections last year — to fill a single seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, with the final ballots costing county taxpayers more than $1.3 million to cast and count. This episode begins with former Sen. Barbara Boxer’s decision to retire in 2016, leading to the election of Sen. Kamala Harris. When she gave up her post as state attorney general, Gov. Jerry Brown chose Los Angeles Rep. Xavier Becerra as her replacement. And to fill Becerra’s seat, Brown must call a special election in the 34th Congressional District. We’ll get to the timing of that election in a moment. The common sense meaning of the word “special” is to describe something that, at the very least, is unusual. But there have been 50 special legislative or congressional elections in California in the last decade, according to state records. Thirteen contests were held in 2013 — more than any single year for almost the last quarter-century.

Iowa: UI, ISU, UNI student leaders challenge Voter ID proposal | Iowa City Press Citizen

The student government presidents at Iowa’s three public universities are speaking out against a new proposal to require Iowa voters to show their IDs at the polls. “We know firsthand how difficult it is to get students registered to vote already — with frequent address changes and being introduced to the electoral process for the first time — the last thing students need is another barrier to their participation,” student government leaders at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa said in a statement released Sunday. The joint statement came in response to a plan released last week by Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, which calls for requiring voters to present an ID, which could include an Iowa driver’s license, passport or military ID card. College IDs would not be accepted, but Pate’s plan calls for issuing a new free ID to all existing active voters. Signatures would be verified at polling sites.

Nebraska: LB 163 would require more early voting locations in Nebraska | Omaha World Herald

Civic engagement in elections could get a boost under a bill introduced Monday by a freshman lawmaker from Omaha. Legislative Bill 163, introduced by State Sen. Tony Vargas, would require the state’s three largest counties each to provide at least three early voting locations with extended hours. Vargas said the bill originated from talking to Nebraskans who said the distance and travel time to Douglas County’s only early voting location were barriers to casting their ballot.

Editorials: North Carolina GOP should drop effort to block 2017 election | News & Observer

A three-judge federal panel has delivered, to no one’s surprise, an expected order that North Carolina must push ahead with a special election in 2017. The election comes as a result of an earlier ruling ordering new legislative maps to be drawn by March 28 for new districts. Any districts that have to be altered to correct unconstitutional gerrymandering will have to hold special elections this year.

Ohio: Justices turn down appeal from Libertarians tossed from 2014 Ohio ballot | The Columbus Dispatch

Rejecting an appeal from the Ohio Libertarian Party, the U.S. Supreme Court appears to have put an end to a three-year legal battle over whether elected officials in the state conspired to keep two Libertarian candidates off the 2014 statewide ballot. Without comment Monday, the justices upheld a decision last year by both a federal appeals court in Cincinnati and a federal judge in Columbus that Gov. John Kasich and Secretary of State Jon Husted did not violate the U.S. Constitution when they removed Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Charlie Earl and attorney-general candidate Steven Linnabary from the ballot. Joshua Eck, a Husted spokesman, said “once again, the court has clearly stated that the secretary is properly enforcing Ohio law. There is a clear path for establishing a political party in this state, which has been endorsed by the courts multiple times and even successfully utilized by other political groups.”

Vermont: Election day voter registration now in effect in Vermont | Vermont Business Magazine

Secretary of State Jim Condos announced today that eligible Vermont voters are now able to register to vote on any day up to and including Election Day. As of January 1, 2017 Act No. 44 (S 29) An act relating to election day registration officially went into effect, and will be implemented immediately for all local and state elections going forward, including any special elections and Town Meeting Day, which is Tuesday, March 7. Vermont became the 14th state to enact Election Day Registration, eliminating Vermont’s voter registration deadline. This means a person can register at their polling place on the day of an election, and can then vote in that election. Registration will still be available at a person’s Town or City Clerk’s office on any day prior to the election during normal business hours.

The Gambia: Election court ruling delayed for several months | AFP

Gambia’s Supreme Court cannot rule for several months on President Yahya Jammeh’s challenge against his electoral defeat last month due to a lack of judges, the court’s chief justice said Tuesday. “We can only hear this matter when we have a full bench of the Supreme Court,” Emmanuel Fagbenle said, pointing out that the extra judges needed to hear the case were not available. The Gambia relies on foreign judges, notably from Nigeria, to staff its courts due to a lack of trained professionals in the tiny west African state.

Russia: Kremlin slates ‘baseless, amateurish’ US election hacking report | The Guardian

The Kremlin has hit back at a US intelligence report blaming Russia for interference in the presidential election, describing the claims as part of a political witch-hunt. “These are baseless allegations substantiated with nothing, done on a rather amateurish, emotional level,” Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists on Monday. “We still don’t know what data is really being used by those who present such unfounded accusations.” US intelligence agencies released the joint report on Friday, a day after a Senate armed forces committee hearing on foreign cyberthreats, convened over fears of Moscow’s interference in the election. The report assessed that the Russian president had ordered a multifaceted campaign to influence the election, with a clear preference for a Donald Trump victory. “We are growing rather tired of these accusations. It is becoming a full-on witch-hunt,” Peskov said, in an echo of Trump’s own assessment and disparagement of the US intelligence agencies.

National: U.S. intelligence report says Putin targeted presidential election to ‘harm’ Hillary Clinton’s chances | Los Angeles Times

Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered an intelligence operation against the U.S. presidential campaign and ultimately sought to help Donald Trump win the White House, according to a new U.S. intelligence report released Friday, shortly after the president-elect appeared to dismiss its key findings. Putin both “aspired to help” Trump in November and to “harm” Trump’s rival, Democratic nominee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with leaks of pilfered emails and other covert activities, the report concludes in a dramatic expansion of official U.S. accusations against the Kremlin. The report depicts the Russian operation as unprecedented, saying that an aggressive mix of digital thefts and leaks, fake news and propaganda represented “a significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort” against a U.S. election campaign. Moscow’s goals “were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency,” the report states. “We further assess Putin and the Russian government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.” They “aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton,” the report adds.

National: Five reasons intel community believes Russia interfered in election | The Hill

Donald Trump met with intelligence officials Friday for a private briefing on election hacking. Long a skeptic of Russia’s role in the attacks, he finally heard the unfiltered case that Moscow orchestrated breaches at the Democratic National Committee, Democratic National Campaign Committee and two states voter roles, as well as Hillary Clinton’s campaign chief John Podesta. A declassified version of the intelligence report soon followed. It shows the outline of the U.S. stance, including who did what and why, but does not show much in the way of evidence. Crowdstrike, the company brought in by the DNC to boot the hackers and investigate the report, has publicly released details about its investigation connecting Russian attackers known as Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear to the attacks.

National: Report on election hacking says Russia plans to do more | Associated Press

The new, declassified report on Russian efforts to influence the presidential election has a troublesome prediction: Russia isn’t done intruding in U.S. politics and policymaking. Immediately after Election Day, Russia began a “spear-phishing” campaign to try to trick people into revealing their email passwords, targeting U.S. government employees and think tanks that specialize in national security, defense and foreign policy, the report released on Friday said. “This campaign could provide material for future influence efforts as well as foreign intelligence collection on the incoming administration’s goals and plans,” the report said. That could prove awkward for President-elect Donald Trump. The president-elect wants to warm relations with Russia and has repeatedly denounced the intelligence community’s assessment that the Kremlin interfered in the election. The new report goes even further by explicitly tying Russian President Vladimir Putin to the meddling and saying Russia had a “clear preference” for Trump in his race against Hillary Clinton.

National: Trump’s bogus claim that intelligence report says Russia didn’t impact the 2016 election outcome | The Washington Post

The big, overarching reason that President-elect Donald Trump doesn’t want to accept the conclusions of the intelligence community about Russia’s alleged hacking is pretty simple: It would call into question whether he would have won the 2016 election without it. Trump is a winner, and it would hurt his brand. And he’s making that very clear right now — in a deceptive way. In a statement Friday afternoon and a tweet Saturday morning, Trump claimed that a. Russia had no actual influence on the election results and that b. the intelligence report says so. The first claim is unproveable; the second is just bogus. “While Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses and organizations including the Democrat National Committee, there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election including the fact that there was no tampering whatsoever with voting machines,” Trump said in his Friday statement after receiving an intelligence briefing. Trump is using a clever bit of misdirection to argue that the report says something it doesn’t. The report does say voting machines weren’t hacked; it does not say there’s “no evidence that hacking affected the election results.” In fact, on the latter count, it says pretty clearly that it isn’t making any such determination.

National: Russian Intervention in American Election Was No One-Off | The New York Times

The intelligence agencies’ report on the Russian intervention in the American presidential election portrays it as just one piece of an old-fashioned Soviet-style propaganda campaign. But it was a campaign made enormously more powerful by the tools of the cyberage: private emails pilfered by hackers, an internet that reaches into most American homes, social media to promote its revelations and smear enemies. What most Americans may have seen as a one-time effort — brazen meddling by Russia in the very core of American democracy — was, the report says, only part of a long-running information war that involves not just shadowy hackers and pop-up websites, but also more conventional news outlets, including the thriving Russian television network RT. The election intervention to damage Hillary Clinton and lift Donald J. Trump was the latest fusillade in a campaign that has gone on under the radar for years. For the three agencies that produced the report — the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and the National Security Agency — this is a heart-stopping moment: They have just told their new boss that he was elected with the vigorous, multifaceted help of an adversary, the thuggish autocrat who rules Russia.

Alabama: The Voter Fraud Case Jeff Sessions Lost and Can’t Escape | The New York Times

When Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Donald J. Trump’s choice for attorney general, answers questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, he can expect to revisit a long-ago case that has followed him. In 1985, when Sessions was the United States attorney in West Alabama, he prosecuted three African-American civil rights activists, accusing them of voter fraud. The case, more than any other, helped derail Sessions the last time he sought Senate confirmation, when he hoped to become a federal judge in 1986. Yet then and now, Sessions has defended the prosecution as necessary and just. If he had it to do over, Sessions would bring the case again, a Trump transition official told me in December. To some black leaders who lived through the prosecution, however, it remains a reason, all these years later, for grave concern about a Sessions-led Justice Department. “If he is attorney general, I would not expect the rights of all people, including the least among us, to be protected,” said Hank Sanders, a longtime Alabama state senator. “To understand why, you have to start with that case.” Albert Turner, Sessions’s chief target, began fighting for the right to vote in West Alabama in the early 1960s, trying to organize other African-Americans after he wasn’t allowed to register because he couldn’t pass a test used to thwart black applicants, even though he had a college education. Beginning in 1965, he served as state director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and an adviser to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., helping to organize a major voting rights demonstration that year. Speaking out and organizing was dangerous at the time. “There’s no explanation in the world as to how I’m still living,” Turner reflected a decade and a half later, in an article in the journal Southern Changes.

Arizona: Maricopa County hires team to hack into election system | The Arizona Republic

Computer experts are attempting to hack into the Maricopa County election system at the invitation of Recorder Adrian Fontes as he seeks to boost security in the wake of cyberattacks on national political groups in the 2016 election. Fontes, who took office Jan. 1, said one of his first actions was to hire a “white hat” hacker team from a leading system supplier to partner with the Maricopa County Office of Enterprise Technology to test for internal and external security weaknesses. “My first priority is to provide my fellow citizens with reliable, efficient, safe and secure elections,” Fontes said in a written statement announcing the operation.

Iowa: Proposal would require ID for Iowa voters | Des Moines Register

Iowa voters would be required to present identification at the voting booth under a plan unveiled Thursday by Secretary of State Paul Pate. The proposal by the state’s chief election official, which will be considered in the 2017 Iowa Legislature’s session, is aimed at ensuring the integrity of Iowa’s elections, Pate said. However, Democratic legislators and civil libertarians promised a fight over the issue, raising concerns that new rules could suppress voter turnout. Pate’s plan would require all voters to present an ID, which could include an Iowa driver’s license, passport, or military ID card for all who have them, and issuing a new free ID to all existing active voters. College IDs would not be accepted. Signatures would be verified at polling sites. … State Sen. Jeff Danielson, D-Cedar Falls, who chaired the Senate State Government Committee last session, issued a statement contending Pate’s plan will disenfranchise older Iowans, younger Iowans and people of color.

Kansas: Lawmaker seeks to strip Kris Kobach of power to prosecute voting crimes | The Wichita Eagle

A Wichita state representative has filed a bill to strip Secretary of State Kris Kobach of his authority to prosecute election crimes. Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, said allowing Kobach to bring criminal cases has not uncovered evidence of illegal immigrant voting fraud, which was a big part of Kobach’s pitch when the Legislature granted him prosecutorial power in 2015. “Since that time, he has commenced approximately 10 of those prosecutions, all of them against United States citizens and in virtually every instance, against folks who made mistakes in casting their ballots,” Carmichael said. “Some of these cases have since been dismissed … as unfounded, and a handful more have resulted in minimal fines against otherwise law-abiding citizens.

New York: Early voting pushed by Cuomo as State of State tour kicks off | Albany Times Union

In an attempt to remove barriers to voting, Gov. Andrew Cuomo will propose the state adopt plans for early voting. The governor said the move would make voting easier by requiring counties to provide at least one day of polling during the 12 days leading up to an election. His proposal also included plans for automatic voter registration and same day registration. … Cuomo’s early voting proposal is one of several proposals the governor has made in advance of his State of the State addresses that he will conduct in various locations beginning Monday.

North Carolina: Judges decide to keep North Carolina election law blocked | Associated Press

A law North Carolina Republicans approved scaling back the new Democratic governor’s control over election boards won’t be enforced until his legal challenge to it is resolved, state judges decided Thursday. A panel of trial court judges is granting the request by Gov. Roy Cooper to extend a temporary 10-day block on the law, which Cooper argues is unconstitutional because it shifts appointment powers from him to legislative leaders. Cooper sued GOP legislative leaders just before his New Year’s Day swearing-in, challenging a law the General Assembly approved in a surprise special session barely a week after Republican incumbent Pat McCrory conceded to Cooper in their close race. Barring any appeals, the incremental victory for Cooper keeps separate the State Board of Elections and the State Ethics Commission and halts what his allies considered an illegal power grab by Republicans. But GOP legislators said the blocked law would promote bipartisanship in carrying out elections. “We’re pleased with the result,” Cooper spokeswoman Noelle Talley said in an email.

Texas: Federal Judge Rules Pasadena Infringed On Latino Voting Rights, Orders Changes | Associated Press

A federal judge ruled late Friday that the the City of Pasadena promoted and implemented a voting plan intended to dilute Latino power at the polls. In a 113-page ruling (a link is below), U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal ordered city officials to revert to an eight-single-member City Council voting plan used before 2014. That was the year voters narrowly approved a plan that elected six members from districts and two at large. … Aside from restoring the previous voting plan, Rosenthal also said she will supervise the 2017 municipal elections in May and watch for any efforts to suppress Latino voting rights. The judge also ordered Pasadena to submit any future changes in its voting plan to the U.S. Justice Department for civil rights pre-clearance. One month after the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, Pasadena Mayor Johnny Isbell proposed changing the council’s structure to a mix of six single-member district seats and two at-large seats.

Texas: Attorney General: Voter ID education documents can be withheld from public | San Antonio Express-News

Details of how Texas spent a big chunk of $2.5 million of taxpayer money for a voter ID education campaign during last November’s election will remain secret. Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Office has ruled that the Texas secretary of state’s office can withhold records from the public showing where the state bought television and radio ads to promote court-ordered changes to a controversial voter ID law. The ruling also allows for the names of an estimated 1,800 community groups that partnered with the state on the education campaign to remain hidden from public view. A voter ID lawsuit has been winding through the courts since 2013, and the U.S. Supreme Court could decide as soon as this week whether it will hear an appeal from Texas. The law was weakened for the November election by a federal judge, who also ordered the state to conduct a robust education effort, after it was found to discriminate against minorities.

Wyoming: Bill would expand automatic restoration of voting rights to eligible non-violent Wyoming felons | Casper Star Tribune

More nonviolent felons who have completed their entire sentence – including probation and parole – would have their voting rights automatically restored under a bill introduced in the Wyoming Legislature. Under the current system, nonviolent felons who completed their sentence before Jan. 1, 2016, were convicted under federal law or who were sentenced out of state can have their rights restored, but must first complete an application process. Felons who were sentenced in Wyoming and completed their sentence after Jan. 1, 2016, would be exempt from the application requirement.

France: 24,000 cyber attacks blocked amid fears that Russia may try to influence French presidential election  | Telegraph

France is to beef up cyber-security amid growing fears that Russian hackers could try to influence its upcoming presidential election following claims that Moscow orchestrated US computer attacks to help Donald Trump. Jean-Yves Le Drian, the defence minister, said French intelligence agencies were trying “to learn lessons for the future” from the allegations by their US counterparts. Mr Trump has dismissed the accusations and renewed calls for close ties with Russia. Mr Le Drian said that if the Russians had meddled in the US election, it amounted to an attack on western democracy. France and its political parties are “no less vulnerable,” he stressed. He said the risk became apparent when hackers took the French television channel TV5 Monde off air in 2015. French investigators suggested that the Kremlin was behind the cyber-attack.