The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly for April 6-12 2015

The Election Assistance Commission approved a measure to update the guidelines against which manufacturers test electronic voting machines to make sure they are secure and accessible. Following Oregon’s lead, a bill has been introduced into the California Assembly that would establish automatic voter registration in the state. Hartford City Council members looking to oust the city’s registrars of voters will hold a hearing Tuesday, but they won’t be able to hear testimony or consider evidence after a Superior Court judge on Monday postponed ruling on whether to grant an injunction that would stop the removal hearings. Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner faced criticism from lawmakers for his opposition to their plan to let people register to vote online by October 2017 and from elections officials, when they learned that Detzner released private data on more than 45,000 voters — including judges and police officers — and didn’t alert them immediately. Marshall County Illinois wants former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock to pay the $76,000 in unbudgeted county costs for special elections to fill the 18th Congressional District seat he abandoned. A new bill filed in the North Carolina House of Representatives would delay some counties from having to buy new voting equipment for the 2016 election. Electionline Weekly looked at the Virginia Department of Elections review that is critical of the AVS WINVote touchscreen voting machines used in 29 localities in the state. New South Wales election officials seemed more interested in protecting their reputations than the integrity of elections when they sharply criticized researchers for their discovery of security vulnerabilities in the iVote internet voting system and the Phillippine Commission on Elections will no longer purchase precinct-based direct recording electronic (DRE) machines amid questions on the reliability of the touch screen technology.