Fewer than 90 days before election day, the rules governing who can vote remain unsettled in at least 10 US states including pivotal battlegrounds that are home to millions of voters. Judges in recent weeks have struck down voting restrictions introduced by several states following a 2013 Supreme Court decision that allowed them for the first time in decades to make such changes without obtaining federal approval. Voting rights advocates welcomed those rulings, but courtroom fights over the rules for the November 8 election continue in the swing states of North Carolina, Wisconsin, Arizona, Virginia and Ohio. Those five alone account for nearly one-quarter of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House. “It does raise questions about the rules that will be in place this November,” said Kristen Clarke, executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights. “There’s a need to provide voters greater clarity. All of this is a cause for concern.”
Amid his sagging poll numbers, Republican candidate Donald Trump is warning that the Democrats plan to steal a “rigged” November vote. In Virginia on Wednesday, Mr Trump said the elimination of a requirement for North Carolina voters to show a photo ID was “a tremendous loss”, adding: “And I’m sure none of those folks would be voting 10 times during one day, right?”
Mr Trump’s scare talk resonates: of his backers in North Carolina, 69 per cent say that if he loses it will be because Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate, rigged the election compared with 16 per cent who say she will have won more votes, according to Public Policy Polling. Nationally, one-third of respondents to an August 10 Bloomberg News poll said they expect a crooked election versus 60 per cent who expect a fair one.
Full Article: Ballot box uncertainties hang over US election – FT.com.