Wisconsin: Democrats Remove Vote Tampering Allegations in Recall Election | Fox Point-Bayside, WI Patch

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin has pulled a news release from its website that alleges vote tampering in Waukesha County by the county clerk. The party chairman, Mike Tate, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that they would not“not pursue questions of irregularities” that was referenced by the Democratic Party in “heat-of-the-moment statements.”

Earlier: Perhaps one of the most controversial county clerks in Wisconsin, Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus is again under political scrutiny during the Alberta Darling recall election. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is claiming there is tampering going on in Waukesha County.

“The race to determine control of the Wisconsin Senate has fallen in the hands of the Waukesha County clerk, who has already distinguished herself as incompetent, if not worse,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate in a prepared news release. “She is once more tampering with the results of a consequential election and in the next hours we will determine our next course of action. For now, Wisconsin should know that a dark cloud hangs over these important results.”

Mississippi: Hinds Dems close vote certification meeting | The Clarion-Ledger

Hinds County Democratic Executive Committee Chairman Claude McInnis is not allowing reporters in the committee’s meeting this evening on whether to certify the results from the Aug. 2 primary. McInnis turned away a Clarion-Ledger reporter at the door, saying news media would not be allowed. Asked why, he said, “because we have so desired it.”

The 18-member committee is facing criticism and scrutiny in the face of election-day snafus and a post-election ballot count fraught with problems. The committee is meeting at the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, 612 N. State St. in Jackson, to vote on certifying the results. Incumbent Hinds County Sheriff Malcolm McMillin will not address today as planned whether he’ll contest his loss to Tyrone Lewis in the Aug. 2 Democratic primary.

Voting Blogs: Controversial Changes to Florida Election Law Remain in Question | Project Vote Blog

Today, Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning announced that the Justice Department approved part of a controversial new election law that is being challenged by Project Vote and the ACLU. The critical portions of the bill relating to restrictions on early voting and voter registration drives remain in question.

Browning took the most controversial elements of the law to a federal court in Washington D.C. instead of the Justice Department, a move that he claims was to avoid “outside influence” at the hefty expense of taxpayers.

Wisconsin: Ballot machine malfunction delays voters in Fond du Lac | JSOnline

A ballot machine malfunction in Fond du Lac delayed voters for a short time early this afternoon, in one of the six recall elections drawing strong turnout of electors in Wisconsin.

Ballots cast during the temporary shutdown in Fond du Lac were placed in an auxiliary bin, then scanned through a new machine when it was delivered about 12:30 p.m., said City Clerk Sue Strands. No voters were turned away, although some may have left instead of waiting in line, she said. All of the ballots were counted.

Wisconsin: Recalls: Slow Returns in Waukesha County Upset Democrats | WUWM

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin has issued a statement critical of Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus for the length of time it has taken to produce election results from Tuesday’s recall. The race between incumbent Republican Senator Alberta Darling and Democratic Representative Sandy Pasch is the only one not yet called.

Nickolaus came under fire earlier this year, when she was late in reporting thousands of votes in the race for Wisconsin Supreme Court and bags of ballots were not secured.

Wisconsin: Wisconsin’s Katherine Harris | Politico.com

It’s down to one race for control of the state Senate in Wisconsin and Democrats are accusing a GOP county clerk of holding up the ballot count. GOP incumbent Alberta Darling is leading Democratic Rep. Sandy Pasch 52 percent to 48 percent with nearly 80 percent reporting.

But before 10 of 11 precincts had reported in Senate District 8’s Waukesha County, Democrats began taking aim at clerk Kathy Nickolaus. Democratic Party chairman Mike Tate took the stage at the Majestic Theater to accuse her of “sitting on ballots.”

“We hope the Waukesha County clerk’s office is doing the right thing tonight . . . But it is a little curious isn’t it. Here we are on the cusp of victory . . . and Kathy Nickolaus is sitting on our ballots,” Tate told the crowd of Democrats to a ripple of boos.

Mississippi: Poll-worker error led to incorrect ballot style in Mississippi Primary | SunHerald.com

Complaints of voters receiving the incorrect ballot during the Aug. 2 primary election has been attributed to an error on the part of poll workers. Circuit Clerk Vickie Hariel said during the election she received a call from a candidate that a voter at the Carriere precinct did not get the proper ballot, and could not vote for the proper justice court judge.

Going to the precinct, Hariel diagnosed the problem as poll workers encoding voting cards with the wrong information. In the Gumpond precinct a similar situation occurred, with voters receiving incorrect ballots for the superintendent of education. That problem was caused by a poll worker incorrectly clearing out a voting card that was used by a previous voter.

Maine: Rhetoric heats up in Maine people’s veto move | BostonHerald.com

Supporters of an effort to preserve election day voter registration in Maine insist it’s not a partisan issue, but their effort to let voters decide the issue is drawing sharply opposing views from Democrats and Republicans.

The rhetoric heated up as the coalition to keep same-day registration gave state election officials petitions that could force a November referendum on the issue. More than 68,000 voters’ signatures were turned in Monday, and the campaign said the total could reach about 70,000 before the filing deadline arrived Tuesday afternoon.

The Protect Maine Votes coalition — 18 groups that include organized labor, civil libertarians, consumer and public health advocates, disabled and homeless groups — is seeking to repeal a state law that requires registration at least two business days before an election.

Voting Blogs: As Minority Language Assistance Becomes More Common, A More Common Approach Makes Sense | PEEA

The Denver Post had a story this weekend about the likelihood that 16 counties in Colorado will soon be required to make ballots and other election materials available in Spanish.

These requirements will be driven by 2010 Census data and required by Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act. Section 203 uses the Census data to identify jurisdictions in which the citizens voting age population in a single language group within the jurisdiction 1) is more than 10,000, OR 2) is more than five percent of all voting age citizens, OR 3) on an Indian reservation, exceeds five percent of all reservation residents AND the illiteracy rate of the group is higher than the national illiteracy rate.

Ohio: Ohio Libertarian Party sues secretary of state, wants parts of election overhaul overturned | AP/The Republic

The Libertarian Party of Ohio is suing the state’s election chief over provisions of a new law that they say will keep them off the ballot.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Columbus, the party says parts of Ohio’s new election law are unconstitutional because they don’t give third parties enough time to collect signatures to get on the 2012 ballot.

Kansas: Voter ID: Defeated in Kansas Senate, Secretary of State Tries to Unilaterally Change Voting Laws | Campus Progress

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach came under fire last year for his anti-gay missionary work in Africa. This year, it appears Kobach has a new target: Kansas voters. In April, Kansas became the 10thstate to pass a voter ID bill. The legislation gives Kansas one of the most strict voting laws in the country despite the fact that even by Kobach’s own generous estimate, there have been just 221 incidents of voter fraud in the state in the last 14 years—a rate of just more than 2/100ths of 1 percent of all votes cast. (Or, in decimal form: 0.0002% of all voters.)

But that wasn’t enough for Kobach. Soon after the initial voter ID bill passed, Kobach attempted to push through a second bill that would allow the legislation to take effect before the 2012 elections. Despite overwhelming support for the initial bill, the Kansas Senate rejected Kobach’s second measure in bipartisan fashion.

Indonesia: Watchdog Asks For Right to Cast Protest Votes | The Jakarta Globe

Should voters who favor no candidate be allowed to express this on their ballot paper? The Independent Committee for Election Monitoring (KIPP) believes so and has proposed that lawmakers accommodate the right of these voters, referred to as golput (white group) , by providing a “vote no” column on the paper ballot.

According to KIPP coordinator Girindra Sandino, the “vote no” column might help minimize the chances of corrupt candidates, or old faces who broke their promises, being elected. “The voters who feel confused and are not satisfied with the candidates will have room to express [that feeling] on the ballot paper,” Girindra said. The “vote no” could be a healthy incentive for leaders to improve the political system and for the government to improve its performance, he added.

Nigeria: Battle for Lugard House: Can Action Congress of Nigeria tame Peoples Democratic Party? | The Moment

Just last week, the Independent National Electoral Commission {INEC] rolled out the election timetable for the conduct of the governorship election in Kogi State. The timetable which was widely publicised has heightened tensions among different camps within the same party and across party lines.  The Moment gathered that pressure is being mounted on the two main camps within the Peoples Democratic Party, the ruling party in the  state.

The Jibrin Isah /Clarence Olafenmi groups who have been labouring assiduously to convince the party hierarchy to ensure that the last gubernatorial primary election which produced the duo as governor and deputy governorship candidates respectively should be made to stand while on the other hand the meeting of governorship aspirants who contested  are urging the party to call for a fresh primary election to enable them participate in it.

Zambia: Patriotic Front opposes Movement for Multi-Party Democracy origins case submissions | The Post Newspapers Zambia

The opposition PF has asked the High Court to dismiss with costs the preliminary issues raised by the Attorney General, the MMD and the Electoral Commission of Zambia in a case relating to President Rupiah Banda’s parentage issue. According to submissions in opposition to the defendants’ submissions, Wynter Kabimba who sued in his capacity as PF secretary general, asked the court to dismiss the preliminary issues on grounds that they are misconceived.

In this case, Kabimba sued the Attorney General, MMD national secretary Major Richard Kachingwe and the Electoral Commission of Zambia claiming that the ruling party cannot by law sponsor President Rupiah Banda because his parents are not Zambian citizens.

The Voting News Daily: Wisconsin clerks ready for heavy turnout for recall elections, Mississippi Secretary of State Looks To Fix Election Problems

Wisconsin: Clerks ready for heavy turnout for recall elections | The Oshkosh Northwestern Clerks across the 18th and 14th Senate districts have been gearing up for a heavy turnout in the recall elections pitting two incumbent Republican senators against their Democrat challengers. The stage for the final recall election has been set for today in…

Wisconsin: Clerks ready for heavy turnout for recall elections | The Oshkosh Northwestern

Clerks across the 18th and 14th Senate districts have been gearing up for a heavy turnout in the recall elections pitting two incumbent Republican senators against their Democrat challengers.

The stage for the final recall election has been set for today in which 18th District state Sen. Randy Hopper, R-Empire, will square off against Democrat candidate Jessica King of Oshkosh while 14th District state Sen. Luther Olsen, R-Ripon, will face challenger state Rep. Fred Clark, D-Baraboo. Hopper and Olsen are among six Republican senators facing recall in today’s election. Two more Democrats face recall elections on Aug. 16.

Mississippi: Secretary of State Looks To Fix Election Problems | WAPT Jackson

Election officials said Tyrone Lewis avoided a runoff against Sheriff Malcolm McMillin by a slim margin. Lewis received 50.79 percent of the vote to McMillin’s 45.15 percent. Lewis will become Hinds County’s new sheriff, defeating the long-time incumbent in the primary. There are no Republicans running in the general election.

It wasn’t until late Sunday evening that Hinds County election officials released the final numbers from last week’s election. Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said the Democratic and Republican parties run the primary elections, but he wants to fix some other polling problems before the November general election.

South Carolina: Voter ID battle: Getting Married Can Make it Difficult to Vote in South Carolina | The Post and Courier

Multiple marriages have played havoc with Massachusetts transplant Andrea Tangredi’s hopes of getting a South Carolina driver’s license. During a Monday rally for foes of the new S.C. voter ID law, Andrea Tangredi tells of her experience at the S.C. Department of Motor Vehicles when she tried to get her driver’s license changed from Massachusetts to South Carolina. Tangredi still is trying to get her new South Carolina driver’s license along with her voter-registration card.

By her count, Tangredi has spent at least 17 hours online and in person since July trying to get a license here, only to face hurdle after hurdle tied to her several name changes. On Monday she asked aloud that if it is this hard to get a South Carolina driver’s license, how much more difficult is it to get documentation for a voter ID?

“I’m educated,” she said during a forum sponsored by opponents of the state’s new voter ID law. “I don’t know how someone who isn’t would want to ever start this process.”

New Jersey: Vote devices in New Jersey counties re-evaluated | Courier-Post

In the middle of a vast warehouse of Gloucester County voting machines last Wednesday, Gary Plummer replaced chips and resealed some of the 520 voting devices. Plummer’s Medford-based Election Support & Services Inc. has been contracted by several New Jersey counties — including Burlington and Camden — to help them comply with a controversial Superior Court order.

In February 2010, Judge Linda Feinberg ruled New Jersey’s11,000 voting machines be disconnected from the Internet and re-evaluated by a panel of experts, and that anyone who works with or on voting machines be subject to a criminal background check.

Feinberg’s order is being appealed by Rutgers University’s Constitutional Litigation Clinic and the Princeton-based Coalition for Peace Action, neither of which believes the court order goes far enough.

Mississippi: Still no vote tally in Adams County Mississippi | The Natchez Democrat

The election commission and political parties are making their lists and checking them twice before releasing the final vote totals from last week’s election. Election Commission Chairman Larry Gardner said absentee ballots for District 5 were completely counted by approximately 3 p.m. Monday, and reports had begun to be printed. Districts 1-4 had been counted by Saturday morning.

“(We print) reports for every precinct, for every party,” he said. “I don’t know how long the sheet of paper will end up being — probably several hundred feet.”

Wisconsin: Absentee balloting big in Wisconsin recall election | TMJ4

Early voters are already casting ballots. Some cities are seeing big turnouts in the Senate showdown between Republican Alberta Darling and Democrat Sandy Pasch. “We were shocked at the turnout,” said Whitefish Bay Clerk Jennifer Amerell.

That’s because the absentee ballots are piling up in Whitefish Bay. Hundreds of voters have already made up their minds and wanted to vote early. “We actually had to call in two poll workers to come in and help because it was so busy,” said Amerell. Friday was the last day to vote absentee in person in the 8th State Senate district .

California: Will mail ballots be a victim of budget? | PressDemocrat.com

In 1979, a year after voters adopted Proposition 13 and tightly limited property taxes, they decreed in another ballot measure that the state should reimburse schools and local governments for state-mandated costs they incur.

That seemingly straightforward decree, however, has evolved into a chronically convoluted wrangle over what is, and what is not, a reimbursable cost and how much money should flow from Sacramento into local coffers.

Thousands of school districts, cities, counties and special districts, the governor’s Department of Finance, legislative committees, lawyers, a special state bureaucracy called the Commission on State Mandates — and sometimes the courts — are enmeshed in a process that can be likened to a laboratory rat on a treadmill, running ever-faster but going nowhere.

Voting Blogs: What to expect when you’re expecting recalls: A guide to state legislative recalls | The Recall Elections Blog

While the political arguments surrounding tomorrow’s Wisconsin recall elections are well covered elsewhere, I’d like to draw attention to the many issues and history surrounding the use of the recall – both in Wisconsin and the rest of the nation. Due to the unprecedented circumstances in Wisconsin, we shouldn’t expect the usual recall phenomena like…

Arizona: Ruling in Russell Pearce recall hearing expected this week | The Arizona Republic

Russell Pearce wasn’t in court Monday, but the two-fisted lawmaker’s political career may now hang on what happened there. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Hugh E. Hegyi will rule this week on a legal challenge filed on Pearce’s behalf, seeking to nullify petitions demanding that the Senate president face a Nov. 8 recall election.

The judge listened as lawyers argued for about two hours on recall-election petitions that county and state election officials determined had enough valid signatures to force the November vote. Arguments ranged from what happened in Arizona’s 1910 constitutional convention to whether homeless people should have a say in ousting Pearce.

Maine: Mainers likely to have say in Election Day voter registration | Bangor Daily News

A broad coalition of advocacy groups and volunteers has gathered more than 68,000 signatures in an effort to allow Maine voters to affirm or overturn a recently passed law that bans Election Day voter registration. Those signatures, well above the 57,277 needed to ensure a people’s veto, were delivered to the Secretary of State’s Office on Monday afternoon, one day before the deadline and exactly one month after the effort began.

As long as enough of the gathered signatures are certified by the Secretary of State, Mainers will get to weigh in this November on the following question: “Do you want to reject the section of Chapter 399 of the Public Laws of 2011 that requires new voters to register to vote at least two business days prior to an election?”

California: Suspected Ballot Thief Refuses To Take Mental Competency Test | KTVU

A man accused of stealing ballots from a San Francisco polling station will remain in jail indefinitely after refusing to talk to doctors who were appointed to determine his mental competency, a judge ruled Monday. Karl Bradfield Nicholas, 51, could likely have been out of jail more than a month ago, but a series of bizarre court appearances have kept him in custody beyond the sentence he had agreed to as part of a plea deal.

Nicholas is accused of taking about 75 ballots, a voter roster, and a memory box and access key to a ballot-counting machine on Knott Court in the city’s Crocker Amazon neighborhood where he was working as a voting station inspector on Nov. 2, 2010. Nicholas was arrested the next day, and the ballots were later found in the lagoon at the Palace of Fine Arts. He has been in custody ever since. The memory box and access key have yet to be found.

Pakistan: Quest of Indiscriminate Justice | PakTribune

It is alarming to read the recent development in Pakistan where The Election Commission (ECP) & the Govt of Pakistan is considering imposition of new tighter regime on overseas Pakistanis whereby their right to vote, stand election, take public office and or governmental and judicial position may be curtailed forever.

The background of anxiety is the July media reports talking about a ban announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan on the 4th of July 2011 on Overseas Pakistanis to be in the voter lists, hence disqualified to participate in any electioneering process.

Malaysia: Biometric voting: ‘No way Election Commission is ready’ | Free Malaysia Today

The Election Commission (EC) is unlikely to be ready to introduce the biometric voter system if the general election is held in November this year.
This is the view of Port Dickson assemblyman M Ravi. Speaking to FMT, he said: “I can say the biometric system won’t come into effect if Parliament dissolved in November.

“Yesterday, it was reported that EC deputy chairman Wan Ahmad Wan Omar said the EC will explain biometric system to all parties concerned before implementing it. The EC expects to do this by year-end. “But I believe by the time the EC completes the explanation, the 13th general election will be over.”

Bulgaria: 84 Parties Bid in Bulgaria’s 2011 Local Elections, 10 in Presidential Vote | Novinite.com

A total of 84 political formations have submitted registration papers for Bulgaria’s 2011 local elections scheduled to take place on October 23, 2011, together with the presidential vote. The deadline for applications for registrations with Bulgaria’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC) expired Monday at 5 pm.

Ralitsa Negentsova, spokesperson of the CEC, reminded that a total of 88 parties and coalitions registered for the local elections in 2007. While Bulgaria has 6 major parties that are represented in Parliament, and a couple that failed to make it to it, the local elections traditionally feature a wide array of marginal and local parties.