Wisconsin: Absentee ballot registration cards cause confusion | WISN

Just days before the historic recall primary, some absentee ballot registration cards are causing confusion. Election Commission office phones are ringing with voters concerned and confused over third-party mailers, which they said are leading some to think cities are actually campaigning for certain candidates, showing up in their mailbox. “We’re pleased that people are calling and asking if it’s a proper form to request an absentee ballot,” Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Susan Edman said.

Armenia: Armenians see election bringing stability at most | Reuters

Gurgen Badasyan has struggled to live on his Armenian state pension for years and holds out little hope that a parliamentary election on Sunday will improve his life in the mountainous South Caucasus state. The government raised his monthly teacher’s pension in January by a few dollars, to $82 from $75, but Badasyan says it is still almost impossible to get by. “If not for my son and my daughter, I would not survive,” the 68-year-old said, sipping his drink in a cafe in the landlocked former Soviet republic’s busy capital, Yerevan. Like many other Armenians, the most Badasyan is hoping for is a calm election that will reinforce stability in the tiny country of 3.3 million squeezed between Iran and Turkey. Above all he wants no repeat of the fraud and violence that marred a presidential election in 2008, when eight protesters and two police were killed in clashes. “My life will be the same after the election, but I don’t want to see blood and fighting in the street again,” he said.

Lebanon: Parties race to unify lists ahead of by-elections | The Daily Star

Political parties and influential local figures are busy announcing candidate lists and convincing independent candidates to withdraw in time for this weekend’s municipal by-elections to allow candidate tickets to win unopposed. The last-minute negotiations continued to bear fruit, as a village in Batroun became the latest to see its polls cancelled Sunday because of last-minute withdrawals. In Yater in Bint Jbeil, Hezbollah and Amal are trying to convince independent candidates to drop out, to prevent a repeat of the tension that resulted during the last round in 2010, when party supporters failed to adhere to the Amal-Hezbollah ticket, allowing a number of independent candidates to win office. The deal for Sunday’s poll involves nine seats on the parties’ list going to Amal and the other six to Hezbollah, with Amal receiving the mayor’s post and Hezbollah the deputy mayor’s. During the earlier round, 11 Hezbollah members won office, along with four from the rival ticket.

The Voting News Daily: The FEC: A Toothless Watchdog for a $6 Billion Election, Election Regulations and Voter Disengagement

National: The FEC: A Toothless Watchdog for a $6 Billion Election | Businessweek Worried about election fraud in 2012? Consider this: The Federal Election Commission has six members, and five of them are serving on borrowed time. Cynthia Bauerly’s and Matthew Petersen’s terms expired in 2011, Steven Walther’s and Donald McGahn’s in 2009. Then there’s…

Alaska: Anchorage Assembly certifies election, subject to recount in 15 precincts | adn.com

The Anchorage Assembly voted 8 to 3 Thursday to finally certify the flawed April 3 city election, subject to the results of a recount of 15 precincts. The election was plagued by ballot shortages at precincts all around town. Some people voted on sample ballots that couldn’t be counted until after election day. Some would-be voters said they gave up and went home. But a private lawyer hired to advise the Assembly on certification told the Assembly it can’t arbitrarily decide not to certify the election.

Arizona: Cities, counties urge Governor to veto consolidated Arizona elections bill | Arizona Capitol Times

Dozens of local and county officials are asking Gov. Jan Brewer to veto a bill that would force cities to consolidate their election dates with the state. The officials appealed to Brewer’s background as a county supervisor and secretary of state, asking her to help cities maintain local control of their elections. They argued that HB2826 would stamp out local control, politicize non-partisan elections and increase election costs. HB2826 would force all cities in Arizona to hold their primary and general elections for candidates in even-numbered years beginning in 2014, at the same time as state and federal elections. Twenty-seven county election officials signed a letter to Brewer, urging her to veto the bill. At least 40 of the 76 municipalities that would be affected, along with the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, also sent letters to the governor, according to Ken Strobeck, the league’s executive director.

Arizona: Plan to Repay Russell Pearce’s Recall Election Expenses Fails | Fox News

Friends of the former Arizona state senator known nationally for his tough stance on U.S.-Mexico border policy failed to pass legislation that would have repaid him for expenses related to fighting the voter effort that removed him from office. Critics said it would be outrageous to reimburse Russell Pearce, the suburban Phoenix Republican who had been one of Arizona’s most powerful politicians. Democratic Sen. Linda López said she’d received more than 150 emails critical of the proposal, “and they’re still coming in. People don’t know it’s not going anywhere.”

Voting Blogs: Arizona Election Consolidation Bill Divides Counties | Election Academy

This morning’s Arizona Capitol Times includes a story about several counties’ call for the Governor to veto an election consolidation bill. According to the article, 27 county officials and 40 of 76 affected municipalities signed a letter arguing that the bill “would stamp out local control, politicize non-partisan elections and increase election costs.” More specifically, they are concerned that by bringing local elections in line with federal and state elections would create a host of problems.

Florida: Election officials frustrated with reform law’s implementation | electionlineWeekly

In 2011 Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed into law sweeping election reform legislation that limits third-party registrations, decreases the length of time for early voting and creates more reasons to cast a provisional ballot. At the time the governor signed the legislation into law, many supervisors of elections throughout the Sunshine State were concerned about the impacts the new law could have not only on their offices, but also on voters. Now, just about a year later, some of those concerns, in the eyes of the people responsible for administering elections, seem justified. “Several of the changes were very unpopular with supervisors of elections, but at the end of the day, barring court intervention, we must implement any new laws passed by the legislature and signed by the governor,” said David Stafford, supervisor of elections for Escambia County.  Stafford is also the current president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections. “That said, as an association we will continue to advocate for changes to Florida’s statutes, including provisions contained in HB 1355, to improve the administration of elections in our state,” Stafford said.

Nevada: Voter registration effort reaches out to unlikely constituency: ex-inmates | Las Vegas Sun

As customers entered Mario’s Westside Market on a recent Friday afternoon, they might not have noticed the nondescript table and its occupants sitting outside. There were no signs or group logos, just papers impeccably stacked on a table beside a pile of pens. Nearby, a neatly dressed Antoinette Banks, 42, sat in a folding chair next to her friend, watching streams of people come and go from the neighborhood store on Martin Luther King Boulevard. “How are you doing?” Banks asked those nearing the door, catching their attention. “Are you registered to vote?”

New Hampshire: House redistricting plan faces more legal challenges | BostonHerald.com

Two more legal challenges have been filed to the House redistricting plan that redraws the political boundaries for its 400 seats. One suit was filed by nine Republican House members and the other by the town of Gilford and two of its residents. Both claim lawmakers did not follow the New Hampshire constitution requiring communities with sufficient population to have their own representative. The two suits filed this week bring the total to five challenges to the House plan that was vetoed by Gov. John Lynch but overridden by the House and Senate.

Pennsylvania: Most College IDs Don’t Comply With Pennsylvania’s New Voter ID Law | CBS Philly

The vast majority of Pennsylvania’s 110 colleges and universities do not have student IDs that comply with the Commonwealth’s new voter ID law.  This could put students from other states who wish to vote in Pennsylvania in a catch 22. Under the new law, student IDs are acceptable if they contain the students name, the name of the institution, the student’s photo and an expiration date. Since most Pennsylvania college IDs don’t comply, students who want to vote in the Commonwealth are left with a choice. “They will have to surrender a license from a different state.”

Wisconsin: Voting machine concerns bubble up as Wisconsin recall elections near | Statehouse News

You might be forgiven for thinking John Washburn is paranoid. Plenty of people do, Washburn admits with some humor. … “Quite frankly, I’m not really concerned by (being called paranoid), because it’s highly correlated with how much people have checked my claims,” he said. Washburn’s fears — that Wisconsinites and, really, voters nationwide, are putting too much faith in a questionable voting system — may be unfounded. But he’s not the only one worried. As part of a University of California-Santa Barbara study in 2007 that reviewed electronic voting machines similar to some used in Wisconsin, researchers designed software they said “developed a virus-like software that can spread across the voting system, modifying the firmware of the voting machines. The modified firmware is able to steal votes even in the presence of a Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail.”

Canada: Online voting system mulled in Alberta | Sherwood Park News

Strathcona County council gave its thumbs up at a meeting on April 24 to a partnership with the City of Edmonton and the City of St. Albert to establish an internet voting pilot project for the 2013 municipal election. Jacqueline Roblin, manager of Strathcona County Legislative and Legal Services (LLS), stated in her presentation to council that the pilot would be applied to solely the special ballot process for those people who will be absent from the jurisdiction during the 2013 election. She noted that administration wants to add an amendment allowing for any voter to vote through this process. “We’re taking it in a very small portion of our election so that we can test out our systems and that will gradually start to build voter confidence in the process,” Roblin said.

Iran: Second round of parliamentary elections to be held in Iran | AFP

Iran will hold a second round of parliamentary elections on Friday to decide 65 seats still outstanding in its 290-member legislature following a March 2 first round. Conservative MPs of various stripes easily dominated in the first round, meaning the parliament’s political stance is unlikely to change significantly from the previous legislature. But with half of them new faces, it will take until after the inauguration of the next parliament, at the end of this month, to see how that conservative force is configured.

Serbia: Pro-EU vs. nationalist camps in Serbia vote | San Jose Mercury News

Serbia’s bid to join the European Union will be strongly tested in elections this weekend that pit ruling pro-Western democrats against nationalists who are promising jobs, economic revival and closer ties with Russia. Held in the shadows of French and Greek ballots, some seven million voters in Serbia will choose a president, a 250-seat national parliament and local councils—a triple vote held amid deep economic problems, joblessness and widespread discontent over rapidly falling living standards. Sunday’s balloting is key for Serbia’s plans to become an EU member, after being an isolated pariah state under late autocrat Slobodan Milosevic in the ’90s. It also could determine whether Serbia continues to reconcile with its neighbors, including the former province of Kosovo which declared independence in 2008.

United Kingdom: Local elections: Council and mayoral voting under way | BBC News

Voters are going to the polls for local elections in England, Wales and Scotland – and to elect mayors in London, Liverpool and Salford. More than 4,700 seats are up for grabs on 128 English councils, most of which were last contested in 2008. Every seat on Scotland’s 32 unitary authorities is up for election and the make-up of 21 unitary authorities in Wales will also be decided. Referendums on whether to elect a mayor are being held in 10 English cities.

National: Jury is out on states’ voter ID laws | The Post & Courier/Politico

Some see South Carolina’s voter ID law and other states’ efforts to tighten early voting as less of an attempt to curb voter fraud than some of the earliest volleys in the 2012 presidential race. At least that is how the laws were painted by Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), as well as NAACP members and union leaders who spoke before more than 100 people at a Tuesday evening rally in Charleston, S.C. Clyburn said he has visited Florida four times in the past six weeks to work on anti-voter-suppression efforts with the Democratic National Congressional Committee. He noted that national GOP strategist Karl Rove has forecast that President Barack Obama could win South Carolina this fall, and Republicans are fighting to keep this state — and other swing states — in the GOP column. “They have put in these draconian rules and regulations and laws because they have calculated that if they can suppress the vote by 1 percent in nine different states, we lose the national election in November,” Clyburn said. “That’s their calculation.” Most experts put the Palmetto State solidly in the Republican column.

National: Americans Elect scraps virtual caucus for lack of early candidate support | The Post and Courier

A group clearing the path for an independent White House bid canceled the first phase of its search for a bipartisan ticket Tuesday because declared and draft candidates aren’t mustering enough preliminary support. Americans Elect scrapped a virtual caucus that had been planned for next week. Another round of voting set for May 15 also is in jeopardy; a third is to be held on May 22. Candidates must meet a certain threshold of support to be eligible for the caucuses.

National: Third-party candidate for POTUS: Anyone? Walker? | Politico.com

It’s the dream that won’t die: a plain-spoken, pure-hearted independent sweeps into the presidential race, talks straight with the American people and upends a broken process with a historic third-party campaign. Even at this late hour in the 2012 election, there’s still hope in elite circles that a fresh face will enter the field. Columnists continue to plead publicly for billionaire New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to run. Americans Elect, the group focused on obtaining ballot access for a so-far nameless independent candidate, begins to hold online caucuses this month to choose its nominee. The organization suffered a setback this week when it announced that it was stalling the start of its nominating process because no candidate had yet qualified for the competition. With no high-profile national politician apparently interested, nonpartisan idealists are turning toward David Walker, the former U.S. comptroller general and an advocate for broad fiscal reform. An austere technocrat, Walker has embraced the role of reluctant presidential contender and is the target of a draft movement seeking to place his name into nomination for the Americans Elect line.

Alaska: Voters File for Anchorage Election Recount | ktuu.com

A group of Anchorage voters has formally requested a recount of ballots associated with the city’s troubled April 3 election. The group — consisting of 10 Anchorage voters, and headed by Anchorage attorney Hal Gazaway — is asking that all ballots cast in 15 different precincts be recounted by hand. The recount application, filed late Wednesday afternoon with the city clerk’s office, says the results provided by the optical scan vote counting machines used on election night can’t be trusted. The recount application cites reports of “at least one” malfunctioning vote counting machine. It also cites testimony from a poll worker that a security seal for a vote counting machine’s memory card appeared to be “cut.”  The group asking for the recount also said it was concerned with Deputy Municipal Clerk Jacqueline Duke’s instructions to poll workers that they “ignore and/or replace security seals protecting the memory cards that were ‘broken in transport.'”

Alaska: Redistricting map solutions elusive as court battle looms | adn.com

One of the most important and complicated insider games in politics moves back to the Alaska Supreme Court this week with an appeal by the Alaska Redistricting Board of its method for redrawing the state’s legislative map. In a petition filed Tuesday, the board is asking the high court to overturn a decision by a Fairbanks judge that the board failed to first rely on state law for drawing up “one-person, one vote” districts before adjusting them to prevent Alaska Native votes from being illegally diluted. Native voting rights are protected by the U.S. Justice Department under the federal Voting Rights Act. The Alaska Supreme Court has previously ruled that the Voting Rights Act should be applied only after state requirements are met.

Florida: Palm Beach County upgrades troubled vote-counting computer system | Sun Sentinel

Palm Beach County commissioners on Tuesday agreed to upgrade vote-counting software, just over a month after a vote-counting mix-up in the Wellington city council election. The software improvements cost $117,450 in a deal with Dominion Voting Systems, Inc. Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher had the deal in the works before the Election Night problems in Wellington. Bucher in March initially blamed software problems for her office naming the incorrect winners in two Wellington races. The software upgrades and other procedural changes are supposed to iron out any problems like those that occurred in Wellington and speed up Palm Beach County’s traditionally slow vote counting.

New Mexico: Electronic Voter Registration Drive Tests Power Of Technology Against Voter ID Policies Huffington Post

As both the Republican and Democratic parties clamor to claim a larger share of the Latino electorate this year, electronic voter registration has emerged as a potential sweet spot, a space where political procedure may collide with culture and boost Latino voter participation. In New Mexico, that theory is in the early stages of a ground test. Jetta Reynolds has spent a good portion of the last five years working to register voters in the Albuquerque, N.M., area. She’s heard the questions people raise about the process so often that before she deployed nearly 200 volunteers to do the same work at grocery stores and street fairs this year, she created her own Spanish and English-language voter registration brochure. But when Reynolds took Jason Libersky — one of the developers behind a new voter registration app called Evotee — and his iPad to a session for mostly Latino and Native American potential voters Monday, it was Reynolds who walked away surprised.

Oklahoma: Supreme Court Voids Special State House Election | Election Academy

On Monday, the Oklahoma Supreme Court unanimously voided the results of a special election for a state House seat in Tulsa. The court’s order came after a series of problems cast doubt on the true outcome of the election. … The Court, after reviewing the “totality of the evidence presented,” found it “impossible to determine with mathematical certainty which candidate is entitled to a certificate of election” and thus voided the election entirely. In the wake of the order – and due to the delays occasioned by the case – the state board of elections is going to keep the seat vacant until it can be filled at this November’s general election.

Pennsylvania: Voter ID Law Would Keep 93-Year-Old Who Marched With Martin Luther King From Voting | TPM

If there’s a contest for most sympathetic plaintiff in a lawsuit opposing a state voter ID law, Pennsylvania’s Viviette Applewhite wins. The 93-year-old has voted in almost every election since 1960. Her daughter was a public servant. She has five grandchildren, nine great grandchildren, and four great-great grandchildren. She’s a widow. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Macon, Georgia during the civil rights movement and traveled to Atlanta to hear him preach. Under Pennsylvania’s voter ID law, Applewhite wouldn’t be able to vote. Applewhite is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, the Advancement Project, the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia (PILCOP) and the law firm of Arnold & Porter LLP on behalf of ten Pennsylvania voters.

Vermont: Campaign finance bill dead for year | CBS News

The Vermont Senate has voted against taking any more action to pass a campaign finance reform law, meaning the issue is dead for this year. The Senate voted 19-9 on Tuesday afternoon to send a bill that would have set limits on donations to people running for state offices to the Judiciary Committee. Sen. Richard Sears, the Bennington Democrat who chairs the committee, says there isn’t time to act on the measure before lawmakers adjourn this weekend.

Virginia: Voter ID bill may be dead until next year | Examiner.com

When asked whether he would put his name next to the controversial voter ID legislation passed by the General Assembly that would require voters without identification to cast provisional ballots, Gov. McDonnell made no signs of committing one way or the other on Sunday. Legislators reasonably rejected the governor’s proposed amendment earlier in April that would have required members of the electoral board to compare the signature in a voter’s registration file with the signature on a provisional ballot to confirm the identity of the voter. This scheme would have undoubtedly led to a host of other problems in the voter confirmation process. Some have suggested that the entire point of the McDonnell amendment was to eliminate the bill.