Maryland: Baltimore mayoral candidate calls for media campaign to educate voters about correct primary date after sample ballot error | baltimoresun.com

Baltimore mayoral candidate and state Sen. Catherine Pugh called Thursday for city officials to launch a media campaign to educate residents about the correct date for the Democratic primary after sample ballots mailed to voters listed the wrong one. Pugh said that the city should have the correct date — Tuesday, Sept. 13 — on a banner running on every show broadcast by its cable station and resend the entire corrected sample ballot.

“Please engage in corrective action that will inform the public of what this date is and, more importantly, the mistake that has been made,” she said during a news conference.

The error on one part of the 2011 Official Primary Sample Ballot incorrectly stated that the primary is on Saturday, Sept. 3 — an early voting date. The date was printed correctly in other places on the ballot.

Wisconsin: Clearing up election confusion amid transition | Green Bay Press Gazette | greenbaypressgazette.com

Voters across the state involved with the recent recall elections experienced first-hand some of the changes to the election process that were “effective immediately” this summer pursuant to passage of the new voter photo ID bill. The special procedures of this new legislation brought about some confusion and frustration, so I’m hoping the following information will help to clear it up.

For all elections before 2012, electors who are voting must be asked to show a photo ID but are not required to provide one in order to vote before the 2012 February primary.

Ohio: Election law foes OK to resume repeal effort | Connecticut Post

Opponents of Ohio’s new election overhaul were cleared Thursday to proceed with their effort to ask voters to repeal the law, which makes changes such as moving the 2012 presidential primary from March to May in the traditional presidential swing state.

Fair Elections Ohio had wanted to challenge only parts of the law — not the primary switch — but hit a snag earlier this month when Attorney General Mike DeWine ruled against wording the group planned to use to collect signatures needed to make the ballot. Based on DeWine’s ruling, organizers resubmitted their phrasing to challenge the entire bill.

DeWine gave the group his approval on Thursday, and the state’s top elections official also said Fair Elections Ohio had the 1,000 valid signatures it needed to continue with its effort. Opponents must now gather roughly 231,000 signatures by Sept. 29 to get a referendum on the 2012 ballot.

Nevada: State board OKs funds to pay for special CD2 election | LahontanValleyNews.com

The Board of Examiners today approved a request for more than half a million dollars from a legislative contingency fund to pay the counties for the cost of the Sept. 13 special election in the 2nd Congressional District. The board, made up of Gov. Brian Sandoval, Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and Secretary of State Ross Miller, approved the $539,000 request, which will be considered Aug. 31 by the Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee.

Miller said the other options to pay for the election were to pass the costs on to the counties or to use a dwindling pool of federal funds, but that the request from the contingency fund is the best choice. Requiring cash-strapped counties to pay the costs could lead to cutting corners, and Miller said it is important to ensure the integrity of the election. Miller said his office made every effort to reduce the expenditures to reasonable levels. Initial estimates put the cost at in excess of $1 million.

Mississippi: Absentee vote rate attracts attention | The Commercial Appeal

Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann Thursday questioned the high number of absentee votes, mostly in the Democratic-dominated Delta region, that were cast Aug. 3 in the state’s primary election. The highest percentage of absentee votes, more than 29 percent, was reported in Quitman County, compared to just 2 percent in Jackson County. Only 3 percent of DeSoto County votes — 847 out of 24,812 total — were absentees.

“Absentee balloting appears to be increasing in this state,” Hosemann, a Republican who handily won his primary race, said in a news release. About 6 percent of total ballots cast statewide were absentees. That compares of only 2 percent absentees cast in the 2008 presidential election, Hosemann said.

Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh Ads Telling Ex-Cons to Vote Should Have Run | Courthouse News Service

The Pittsburgh Port Authority discriminated against public interest groups by blocking an advertising campaign that would inform felons of their right to vote in Pennsylvania upon release from prison, the 3rd Circuit ruled. The groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Pittsburgh League of Young Voters Education Fund, wanted to run an advertisement campaign that would educate former prisoners about their voting rights.

In contrast to some other states, Pennsylvania allows former offenders to vote after they leave prison. Allegheny County Port Authority sales director Anthony Hickton and in-house counsel Chris Hess refused to run the ads on its buses, citing an advertising policy against “noncommercial” ads. When the officials “refused to budge,” in the words of the opinion, the advocates filed suit under the First Amendment’s free-speech clause.

After a five-day bench trial, U.S. District Judge Terrence McVerry said the Port Authority had violated the coalition’s free-speech rights since other groups freely ran noncommercial ads on local buses.

Kazakhstan: CIS mission confident of transparent elections in Kazakhstan | Trend

The CIS observer mission head has expressed confidence that the elections to the upper house of Kazakhstan’s parliament on August 19 will be transparent and will comply with all democratic principles, Itar-Tass reported. The mission’s head and the CIS Executive Committee chairman, Sergei Lebedev, met with the head of the Kazakhstan’s central election commission, Kuandyk Turgankulov, on Thursday.

Lebedev underlined that the CIS observer mission has been repeatedly monitoring the elections in the Central Asian republic and its goal “is to ensure transparency of the election process and citizens’ expression of will.” The mission that has been staying in Kazakhstan since August 11 includes 68 representatives from eight CIS member-states, except for Moldova and Azerbaijan.

Kazakhstan: Senate elections under way in Kazakhstan | Eng.Gazeta.kz

The Senate elections will take place in Kazakhstan today. Election of senators will start at 10:00 am Astana time (in some regions – at 11:00). By this time all over the country about 3 thousand deputies of maslikhats of different levels will gather at polling stations to elect 16 members to the upper house of Parliament.

The Central Election Commission registered 39 Senate candidates, including 14 nominated by local representative bodies (maslikhats) and 25 self-nominated ones. According to the CEC, the average age of candidates is 54 years, while the youngest is Erlan Bazekenov, self-nominated from the Aktobe region, born in 1981, and the oldest – Erbolat Sadvakassov, self-nominated from Almaty, born in 1945.

Egypt: Election fever hits as parties form coalitions to compete for first post-Mubarak parliament | Ahram Online

Two main coalitions have already been formed in preparation for Egypt’s first elections following the fall of the Mubarak regime. The coalitions are: The Democratic Coalition for Egypt, formed months ago and the recently created Egyptian Bloc. Although the differences between the two are unclear, there seems to be an Islamic vs. civil split. While some say the groups are distinctly different, others argue that they have not been formed in opposition to each other.

Despite expectations that Egypt’s coming elections will have one of the highest turnout rates ever, similar to the 2011 constitutional referendum conducted months earlier, political parties and coalitions are still in the making. According to statements made by the military council and Egypt’s interim government, the elections are expected to take place in November. The candidates are to be announced by September, less than one month from now.

Jordan: Senate endorses draft municipalities law | Jordan Times

The Senate on Thursday endorsed the municipalities draft law for 2011 as referred from the Lower House, with some amendments. During a session chaired by Senate President Taher Masri with the attendance of Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit, members of the Senate made suggestions over the recommendations presented by the Chamber’s Legal Committee on the law before endorsing it.

The Lower House endorsed the law in late July, raising the women’s quota and ensuring more independence and funds for municipalities. Under the law, inhabitants of any district with a population of 5,000 or more can request the establishment of their own municipality or disengagement from a merger with a larger municipality.

UAE: 477 candidates file nominations to run in UAE parliamentary election | Arab News

More than 475 candidates have filed their nominations to run in parliamentary election which is slated for Sept. 24. According to the National Election Committee (NEC), the total number of registered candidates in different emirates of the UAE includes 121 in Abu Dhabi, 125 in Dubai, 97 in Sharjah, 60 in Ras Al Khaimah, 34 in Ajman, 19 in Umm Al Quwain and 21 in Fujairah.

The government sources said 477 people had registered so far to run for half the seats in the 40 member Federal National Council. The other half of the seats will be chosen by the rulers of each emirate. A number of women candidates also have filed their applications this time, especially from Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah.  Every individual from among the 129,000 voters who have been chosen by the government is eligible to file nomination papers abiding by the set rules.

Bulgaria: Bulgaria: Bulgaria’s Electoral Body Vows to Welcome OSCE Observers | Novinite.com

Bulgaria’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has made it clear it would welcome observers for the presidential and local elections on October 23, 2011, if the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe decides to send any. “We are not afraid of being observed,” one of the CEC spokespersons, Biser Troyanov, stated Wednesday.

The CEC statement came in response of concerns raised Tuesday by the ethnic Turkish party DPS (Movement for Rights and Freedoms) whose Deputy Chair Lyutvi Mestan complained that the ruling center-right party GERB, the nationalist party Ataka and the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party had been cooperating in order to eliminate DPS representatives from key positions in the municipal electoral commissions around the country. That is why, the DPS party demanded observers from the OSCE.

Malaysia: Knives out for Malaysia’s Najib | Asia Times

Just over a month after a large rally in Kuala Lumpur to demand clean and fair elections rattled Malaysia’s ruling elite, Prime Minister Najib Razak has announced that a bipartisan parliamentary select committee will be set up to review the electoral system. The move comes as Najib’s government faces rising pressures on several political fronts, including a speculated challenge to his leadership from inside his own party.

Najib’s announcement has been interpreted as an attempt to placate disquiet about the integrity of the electoral process before the next general election, which must be held before mid-2013, and to prevent any repeat protest rally to press home the demands. The political opposition has claimed elections are structurally set up to favor the long-ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.

Mauritania: Civil society divided on national dialogue | Magharebia.com

In a phone-in conversation with the nation, Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz reiterated his readiness to talk to the opposition and civil society. But some activists insist that no meaningful dialogue can occur without prior reforms.

“Some opposition parties pose certain conditions before the start of any dialogue, while these conditions are precisely the issues that must be addressed in the dialogue,” Ould Abdel Aziz said August 5th as he marked the second anniversary of his vote of confidence. “Through a reading of the political scene, it appears that the success factors of this dialogue exist,” said Mohamed Yahya Ould Horma, Vice-President of the ruling Union for the Republic (UPR).

The Voting News Daily: Elections Canada lobbies for test of online voting, South Carolina audit of 2010 Elections Shows Widespread Problems

Canada: Elections Canada lobbies for test of online voting | CBC News The head of the agency in charge of federal elections says it’s time to modernize Canada’s elections, including testing online voting and ending a ban on publishing early election results. In a report on the May 2 election (pdf), released Wednesday, Chief Electoral Officer…

Canada: Elections Canada lobbies for test of online voting | CBC News

The head of the agency in charge of federal elections says it’s time to modernize Canada’s elections, including testing online voting and ending a ban on publishing early election results. In a report on the May 2 election (pdf), released Wednesday, Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand writes about his plan to test online voting and encourages parliamentarians to update the Elections Act. Improvements to the electoral process, Mayrand writes, will depend on changes to the law.

“Elections Canada has reached a point where the limited flexibility of the current legislation no longer allows us to meet the evolving needs of electors and candidates,” Mayrand reports. “We look forward to working with parliamentarians as we prepare for the 42nd general election.”

See also – Readers’ Responses: Would you trust your vote to a computer?

South Carolina: Audit of 2010 South Carolina Elections Shows Widespread Problems | Free Times

The State Election Commission is auditing voting data from the 2010 statewide elections, and as it does, critics of the state’s iVotronic touch screen voting machines say the government audit is proving there are problems with the system — problems the agency doesn’t dispute.

“They’re admitting that there’s holes in the data,” says Frank Heindel of Mount Pleasant, who runs the watchdog website SCvotinginfo. He adds that the elections agency also admits that there are counties where auditors haven’t been able to obtain proper election data. Emails and comments from agency officials back that up.

“We never received complete data from Charleston … No data is available for Lancaster and Orangeburg,” wrote Election Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire in one email to Heindel about the ongoing audit. The reason no information was available for Orangeburg was because a computer with the audit data on it there crashed, Whitmire said.

Voting Blogs: Elections Canada and Social Media – How Tweet it Is | Edmonton Journal

If you still have any vague memories of this spring’s federal election campaign, you may be recall that Elections Canada attempted to enforce a ban on the “tweeting” and “Facebooking” of any regional election results before the polls had closed in British Columbia. It also banned mainstream media outlets from reporting such results on their commercial websites.

It was an antediluvian notion, which completely failed to grasp the way that social media and the Web have changed the way Canadians report upon and discuss the news. It was, in fact, a noxious attempt to censor political speech in the name of regional equity – as though western Canadians had a constitutional right or duty to be kept in ignorance of what was happening in the rest of their country.

It wasn’t wholly Elections Canada’s fault, of course. It was the Harper government which failed to amend the offending, and offensive legislation, despite the fact that Stephen Harper himself had railed against it back when he ran the National Citizens’ Coalition.

Voting Blogs: Still Clueless About Touch-Screens in South Carolina | The Brad Blog

Yesterday, The Post & Courier of Charleston, South Carolina reported that a local “Council of Governments [COG] approved a resolution…asking for the state to audit how its voting machines are working.” The “machines” are the 100% unverifiable ES&S iVotronic touch-screen Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting systems.

The Post & Courier not only mentions the fact that state election officials insist that the “iVotronic machines reliably tally votes,” but buys into the canard that “increased skepticism” is based upon [emphasis added] “human errors made during last year’s elections.” It adds that the COG resolution expressed “a concern [that the] voting machines…do not incorporate a ‘paper trail’ that could facilitate unequivocal confirmation of election results.”

If there is any state in the nation that should realize that casting a vote on the ES&S iVotronic amounts to an exercise in blind-faith, with or without a so-called “Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail” (VVPAT), it would be South Carolina.

North Carolina: Raleigh man arrested in voter fraud sweep would not have been prevented from voting twice if photo ID was required | NewsObserver

Another person has been arrested in the Wake County voter fraud sweep – an 89-year-old Raleigh man who said he tried to alert elections officials to a fault in their system. Leland Duane Lewis said he had voted only one side of the ballot at an early-voting station at Optimist Park in West Raleigh on Oct. 29. When he later realized what he had done, he went to his regular precinct on Election Day and requested another ballot, which poll workers gave him.

Lewis said he filled out the other side of the ballot and on the way out told poll workers what he had done, assuming they would report it. Lewis said he called the county elections office several times in weeks that followed and left messages to report it himself, but never heard back until Gary Sims, the deputy director of the Board of Elections, called him to say officials had discovered he had voted twice. “I voted with two ballots, but only once, really,” Lewis said. “Half and half is one.”

Colorado: Colorado congressman wants ballots printed only in English | The Denver Post

U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman announced plans Wednesday to introduce legislation that would repeal a section of the 1973 Voting Rights Act that requires jurisdictions with large populations of nonproficient English speakers to print ballots in more than one language.

Coffman, R-Colo., asserts that Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act is an unnecessary and unfunded federal mandate that can be a financial hardship for some jurisdictions because of the increased cost of translating and printing election materials and mailing larger ballots.

Iowa: Butter Cow, Obama, “Parry” & “Paylin” all got Straw Poll votes | Radio Iowa

The State Fair’s most iconic figure and even President Obama were among the write-in votes at this past weekend’s Iowa Republican Party Straw Poll in Ames.

“There were votes for the Butter Cow. It happens in every election, just random votes that didn’t equate with a person,” says Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz, a Republican who oversaw the Straw Poll balloting. ”Most of them were fictitious characters.”

Schultz and his fellow counters used existing state rules for primaries and the General Election to sift through the votes cast in Saturday’s Straw Poll. That means anyone who spelled Texas Governor Rick Perry’s name with an A instead of an E had their vote counted as a vote for Perry.

Indiana: New ballot has no place for one-person race | Journal and Courier

Voters who turn out this fall for municipal elections in Lafayette and West Lafayette will find some notable names missing from the ballot. Among them: Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski and City Clerk Cindy Murray, and West Lafayette Clerk-Treasurer Judy Rhodes.

They’re not dropping out of the races. Those candidates simply don’t have any opposition, so thanks to a new Indiana law, their names and offices will be removed from the ballot. They’re not too happy about it. And neither are local election officials, who are already making plans to deal with voters they expect will be confused by the blank spaces where names have traditionally been on ballots. The new state law says “an election may not be held for a municipal office if there is only one nominee for the office.”

Afghanistan: Some lawmakers to lose seats after IEC election review | AlertNet/Reuters

Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Thursday said it will remove some, but not all of the 62 parliamentarians whose victories were thrown out by a special court set up by a decree from President Hamid Karzai.

The special poll court’s June ruling rejected results for 62 lawmaker seats, or about a quarter of the 249-member assembly elected in a fraud-riddled poll in September of 2010, raising the prospect of a standoff between Karzai and the parliament. The tribunal carried out recounts and dismissed the 62 on grounds of alleged voting irregularities. The IEC, which ran the foreign-funded election, at first opposed the tribunal’s decision, but last month said it would review it.

India: Goans increasingly vying for Portuguese nationality | Financial Express

The number of Goans opting for the Portuguese nationality has risen steadily over the last three years, according to the Election Commission statistics.
As per the records available with the state office of the Election Commission of India, as many as 1855 Goans have become Portuguese nationals in the last three years and more are catching up.

According to the statistics, the trend is fast becoming a rage as 312 people chose to be Portuguese nationals in year 2008 followed by 432 in 2009 and 807 in 2010.

Singapore: Singaporeans will vote for Tan, but which one? | CNN.com

Singapore’s presidential candidates may all share the same name — the common Chinese surname of Tan — but with four candidates now officially in the race, this presidential election is the most contested in Singapore’s history.
Singapore is a nation that’s been ruled by one party since its independence in 1965. But the recent general election showed a growing interest by Singaporeans in politics and some point to a growing willingness of Singaporeans to speak out.

According to presidential candidate Tan Jee Say, “People are more open now in expressing their views against the government. In the past they were a bit apprehensive about being open. But now I think the election showed they are prepared to share their anger” he said, over the government’s economic policies. He said the Internet, and movements in other countries like the “Arab spring” has had an effect on Singaporeans too.

Philippines: Two panels to probe 2004, 2007 poll fraud in the Philippines | ABS-CBN

Not one but two panels from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Commission on Elections (Comelec) will work in tandem to investigate alleged massive cheating in the 2004 presidential and 2007 senatorial elections.

In a 5-page joint order dated August 15, 2011 signed by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes, the DOJ and the Comelec created a joint Preliminary Investigation Committee and a joint Fact-finding Team.

The Voting News Daily: Department of Justice says South Carolina Voter ID law can’t be enforced this year, Court made the right call on Saguache ballot battle

South Carolina: Department of Justice says Voter ID law can’t be enforced this year | Examiner.com A recently-passed state law requiring voters to present photo IDs could be delayed. Passed in May, the new law directly affects 178,000 registered voters in South Carolina who are without, or with expired, state-issued photo identification cards. The problem with…

South Carolina: Department of Justice says South Carolina Voter ID law can’t be enforced this year | Examiner.com

A recently-passed state law requiring voters to present photo IDs could be delayed. Passed in May, the new law directly affects 178,000 registered voters in South Carolina who are without, or with expired, state-issued photo identification cards.

The problem with the new law is the length of time it could take that high number of residents to receive new IDs.  As a result, it can’t be enforced in elections this year, the U.S. Dept. of Justice said on Tuesday. Robert Cook, deputy attorney general with DOJ, declared “such short time period is beyond the voter’s control.”