National: The Politics Behind New Voter ID Laws | NPR

Voters going to the polls next year — and even some this year — will encounter lots of new rules. Photo ID requirements and fewer options for early voting are among the biggest changes. A voter casts a ballot in a Democratic primary on July 12, 2011 in Wisconsin, one of seven states to enact voter ID laws this year.

They’re part of a wave of new laws enacted by Republican-controlled legislatures this year. Supporters say the rules are needed to ensure honest elections. But Democrats say it’s part of a concerted GOP campaign to suppress the vote. They say minorities, students, the poor and disabled — those most likely to vote Democratic — will be hurt the most.

Seven states so far this year have enacted news laws requiring voters to show photo ID at the polls. Ohio and Pennsylvania are considering similar requirements, and several other states already have them on the books.

Tennessee: Debate rages over new Tennessee voter-ID law | The Commercial Appeal

With the recent passage of a state bill that changes what qualifies as valid voter identification, Memphis — and Tennessee — has entered a national conversation on whether such laws are justified or acts of voter intimidation. The bill, which requires voters to present a government-issued photo ID at the polls, becomes law on Jan. 1.

Though proponents of the bill have said it will help curb voter fraud, some contend that it’s a measure by Republicans to suppress Democratic votes in 2012 elections. State and local elected officials gathered at the Mt. Olive CME Cathedral Church near Downtown on Sunday afternoon for a forum on the bill, where about 50 attendees from across Memphis posed questions to the representatives.

Maine: Petition drive seeks return of same-day registration | The Kennebec Journal

Leaders of the effort to repeal a new law eliminating Mainers’ ability to register to vote on Election Day are “cautiously optimistic” that they will succeed in getting the issue on November’s ballot.

Opponents of the law must gather more than 57,000 signatures of registered Maine voters by Aug. 8 to put the repeal question on the statewide ballot in the fall.

Mark Gray, campaign manager for Protect Maine Votes, said, “We’re getting just an overwhelming amount of positive response, both from people that are calling or sending us emails, wanting to volunteer to circulate petitions, and the people that are out knocking on doors and talking to folks to collect signatures.”

Minnesota: Ranked-voting system to debut in St. Paul City Council elections in November | TwinCities.com

In November, voters in the St. Paul City Council election will be able to choose up to six candidates per seat, ranked in order of preference. In other words, downtown residents could conceivably vote for all five candidates who have filed to run for office in Ward 2.

Nov. 8 will mark the city’s first experience with the new “ranked voting” system, otherwise known as “instant run-off voting” or “ranked-choice voting,” which was supported by voters in a ballot question last year. As a result, Ramsey County, which is contracted to coordinate the city’s elections, is gearing up for significant changes from politics as usual, and candidates, too, have had to adjust.

For starters, the new system has eliminated political primaries. Votes are tallied on Election Day, and if no candidate has 50 percent of the vote plus one vote, the weakest vote-getter is dropped from the results.

California: Yamada bill for all-mail ballot voting goes to governor | Daily Democrat

A bill that would bring an all-mail voting pilot project to Yolo County has gone to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature. The bill overcame its last legislative hurdle Thursday, passing the Assembly Floor on a 50-19 vote.

“An important feature of this bill is the data that will be collected about the effects of all-mail ballot voting. The study element featured in this bill could help guide the future of elections in California,” said the bill’s sponsor Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada, D-Davis.

“I am proud to have received support on both sides of the aisle this year. This practical bill will give local governments an opportunity to save thousands of dollars per election.”

Editorials: Should Wyoming voters be able to register online? Wyoming Tribune Eagle Online

It is unclear if Wyoming will join the growing number of states that are adding the ability of residents to register to vote online, state officials say. Recently passed legislation in Maryland makes it the 10th state to implement online voter registration. Advocates of abandoning the paper-only policy say it can save money and make voting more accessible to the public.

Jennie Bowser, a senior fellow with the National Conference of State Legislatures, said many states have considered adding the online option since Arizona became the first in 2002.

Indiana: Judge orders special Muncie City Council election in two precincts | The Star Press

Democratic voters in two eastside precincts will again cast primary ballots in the Muncie City Council District 6 race, a Delaware County judge ruled on Friday.

Circuit Court 3 Judge Linda Ralu Wolf ordered that a special election be held Sept. 13 in precincts 12 and 20, voting at the Buley Center and Price Hall, respectively. Those are the polling sites that current District 6 council member — and apparent primary winner — Julius Anderson was accused of entering, in violation of election law, while the May 3 primary election was under way.

When the votes cast that day were tallied, Richard Ivy had finished 10 votes behind Anderson in a three-candidate primary field.

Cameroon: Diaspora Member: Voting Rights Law Falls Short | VoA News

A leading member of Cameroon’s Diaspora says recent changes in the West African country’s electoral law fall short of their demands. Cameroon’s National Assembly last week agreed to extend voting rights to the estimated five-million citizens living abroad, but only to those who are registered with their local embassy and who do not hold dual nationality.

Kenneth Ndeh, founder of the American Association of Cameroonians says the Diaspora has been asking for dual citizenship and that the recent changes are only intended to benefit President Paul Biya’s ruling party.

“There are lots of things that most Cameroonians in the Diaspora have asked for from the government both at the executive level and at the legislative level.  Most Cameroonians in the Diaspora have asked for dual citizenship and basic and respectable services at the consulate level of various embassies abroad and none of these things have been implemented,” he said.

Saint Kitts and Nevis: OAS Observers Confirm NIA Election Irregularities | The St. Kitts-Nevis Observer

The OAS Electoral Observation Mission has confirmed that two days prior to the July 11th Nevis Island Assembly Elections, voter names had been “added to and removed” from the voter’s list. The presence of the five-member team of experts in Nevis marked the first time the OAS had deployed a mission to observer a local election in the Caribbean.

Monday’s NIA elections saw the incumbent Premier Joseph Parry-led Nevis Reformation Party return to government with a controvertible 3-2 win over the Concerned Citizens Movement.

According to a statement issued by the OAS following the election, the observers collected complaints regarding the addition and removal of names from the voters list and its legal expert observed the related cases presented before the High Court last Friday. Based on their independent observations, the OAS team expressed concern with the process.

Malaysia: NGOs in the Election Commission? | Free Malaysia Today

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Abdul Aziz said NGOs can participate in the Election Commission (EC) but it comes with a lot of conditions attached. First, it was up to the EC to decide if civil society groups, which want to become the EC’s check and balance, are allowed to partake in its decision-making process.

Nazri says the although the EC is an independent body, the NGOs must negotiate with the government to participate in the commission. And the final caveat – if they want to negotiate with the government, they must promise that there will be no more street demonstrations.

Vietnam: Election Council pronounces May polls resounding success | Viet Nam News

The draft review report on elections for the 13th National Assembly (NA) and local People’s Councils showed that voting proceeded legitimately and democratically. General Secretary of the Election Council Pham Minh Tuyen reported yesterday that 99.51 per cent of voters or over 61 million citizens, turned out for the May 22nd election.

At a meeting in Ha Noi yesterday, Tuyen said 500 NA deputies and 302,648 People’s Council members had been selected.

India: Shillong to host first test for advanced Electronic Voting Machines | DNA

None of the existing MLAs will feel the threat of losing their seats even as candidates from all parties will be out on the electoral battlefield to woo voters as ballots will be cast in Cherrapunjee on July 26.

Confused? This will just be a mock polling exercise to be conducted in Sohra and Shella constituencies of Cherrapunjee just to test the efficacy of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) system, a new technology which verifies the recording of votes in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

Guyana: Government Ministers decry attempts at administrative disenfranchisement of voters in Guyana | NCNGuyana

Following Friday evening’s discussion on the National Communications Network (NCN) on which Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon appeared with Dr Prem Misir, discussions continued on disenfranchisement of a significant number of Guyanese who were not in possession of their source documents prior to the closure of the Claims and Objections period.

On the panel, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony and Minister in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran reiterated that those who have not been able to register due to no fault of their own and who would have made stringent efforts to get registered should be able to do so.

Thailand: Electoral Commission gets tough on complaints | Bangkok Post

Commissioner Sodsri Satayathum said an old tactic by opponents of victorious candidates is to set up networks which lodge false complaints, either in a bid to set up the disqualification of the MPs-elect or to stall for time in the hope that they are not endorsed before the deadline. Ms Sodsri said she could not yet confirm if such tactics had been employed since the July 3 election, but conceded “anything is possible”.

“We can encounter both real and false complaints,” she said. She warned people against trying to deceive the EC. In the past, the EC has taken criminal action against people found to have been involved in dishonest complaints.

The watchdog has been flooded with between 300 and 400 complaints stemming from the July 3 poll, with the number rising after the election as complaints came in even after the polling day.

Zimbabwe: In Zimbabwe, not enough money for elections | CNN.com

Zimbabwe’s electoral commission is not able to conduct the country’s elections this year unless it gets a cash injection from the government, a state-owned weekly newspaper reported Sunday.

The commission was only given $8.5 million by the country’s treasury, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Chairman Simpson Mutambanengwe said, according to the Sunday Mail. “We’re barely surviving. There is no money.”

Earlier this month, representatives of President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change party agreed that it would not be possible to have elections this year.
But last week, Mugabe’s party called for general elections this year to end the country’s two-year-old coalition government.

Albania: Albania’s Labyrinthine Local Elections | Worldpress.org

After two months and countless debates and legal proceedings, the local elections are finally over, or so it seems. Against all facts and expectations that pointed towards a revote in Tirana, the Electoral College on July 8 confirmed Lulzim Basha as the new mayor of Tirana with 93 votes more than his opponent, Edi Rama.

The Socialist Party, headed by Rama, won the major cities including Tirana, but dubious legal proceedings by the Central Electoral Commission, heavily criticized by OSCE-ODIHR, changed the result—which on May 14, when the counting process in Tirana finished, saw Rama winning by just 10 votes.

There were two main problems in Tirana. One votes were counted that were found in other ballot boxes. Two, in the final result from the Central Electoral Commission there are more votes than voters.

The Voting News Weekly: TVN Weekly July 11-17 2011

Malaysian riot police officers fire tear gas at activists from Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections.

Wisconsin taxpayers paid just under a half a million dollars for a round of six primaries this week in which ‘fake’ Democrats challenged ‘real’ Democrats in order to give the Republican Senators facing ‘real’ recalls an extra month to campaign and raise funds. The election also allowed what officials called a “soft launch” for the State’s new Voter ID law, which will cost those same taxpayers over $7 million to implement. Sussex County New Jersey officials are withholding service and maintenance payments to their election vendor ES&S until they get an adequate explanation and remedy for tabulation errors that occured in several contests earlier this year. The GOP candidate for Kentucky Secretary of State is challenging the incumbent’s practice of allowing homeless American citizens to write “homeless” in the address line of their voter registration application. Egypt announced it would not pursue internet voting in upcoming elections, which were also postponed. Recall fever has reached Arizona, where State Senate President Russell Pearce will face an election this November after petitions were submitted and approved. After their crushing defeat in parliamentary elections last week, the Thailand Democrat Party has challenged the winner of the election, Yingluck Shinawatra in part because she cooked noodles at a campaign event and then provided the results of her culinary efforts to attendees, which thelosing party interprets as bribery. And in Malaysia election reform protesters were met with tear gas and water cannons in what had become a very volatile situation.

Editorials: Wisconsin voter ID law: Hurdles for voters, little to curb voter fraud & $7 million tab | Madison Independent

Governor Walker recently signed a bill that requires voters to show IDs at the polls. The new bill will cost Wisconsin taxpayers nearly $7 million in new spending and lost revenue, according to the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau. Many claim that the measure will do little to prevent voter fraud and will disenfranchise thousands of minority, elderly and rural voters.

According to PolitiFact, Wisconsin’s law is one of the most restrictive, based on research on acceptable IDs and voting procedures for those without IDs from state election offices, and the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Under the new law, citizens would be allowed to vote only after showing a photo ID such as a Wisconsin driver’s license, state-issued ID card, certain very limited student IDs, military IDs, passports, naturalization certificates or IDs issued by a tribe based in Wisconsin. The new law will be partially implemented in the upcoming recall elections this year, with full implementation beginning with the presidential election in 2012.

Oklahoma: Cherokee election recount progressing slowly | MiamiHerald.com

A second manual recount of votes in the hotly-contested Cherokee Nation principal chief’s election began on Saturday, but campaign officials said progress was slow and that it would likely stretch into a second day.

Three-term incumbent Chief Chad Smith; his challenger, longtime tribal councilman Bill John Baker; their attorneys and the tribal Supreme Court justices watched as the roughly 15,000 ballots cast for the June 25 election were counted at the American Indian tribe’s election commission headquarters in Tahlequah. Reporters were not allowed into the room, but both sides said it appeared the proceedings would continue into Sunday.

National: GOP To Push Stronger Voter I.D. Laws, Says ‘Voter Fraud Is Real’ | CNSnews.com

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus repeated his party’s commitment to stronger voter identification laws, saying that the GOP would not give up the fight against voter fraud.

“I think that we need to make it easy to vote, hard to cheat, and I think that that’s a mantra that we ought to shout from the rooftops all over the country as a Party,” Priebus told conservative bloggers on a conference call on Thursday.

Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) Chairman David Norcross said that voter fraud issues were very real, despite complaints from liberals that it is largely a phantom problem. Cross cited several cases where states had found thousands of ineligible votes after elections were already over.

National: 24,000 Pentagon files stolen in major cyber breach, official says | The Washington Post

The Defense Department lost 24,000 files to “foreign intruders” in the spring in what appears to be one of the most damaging cyberattacks to date on the U.S. military, a top Pentagon official acknowledged Thursday.

Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III, who disclosed the March breach during a speech to roll out the Pentagon’s new cyber strategy, said the files were taken from a defense contractor. He did not say who was believed to be behind the attack or describe the nature of the files that were stolen.

But Lynn said that, over the past few years, all manner of data has been stolen, some of it mundane, some of it concerning “our most sensitive systems, including aircraft avionics, surveillance technologies, satellite communications systems, and network security protocols.”

Kenya: Kibaki and Odinga to set up new Electoral Commission – no electronic voting in Kenya in 2012 | Individual.com

President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga have just two days to set in motion the mechanism that will give the country a new Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

… Mr Hassan said the commission is working on rules and regulations that will require political parties to reserve some seats for women candidates only during nominations. This will help attain the gender ratios set by the new Constitution.

He also said the commission will use a manual voting system in 2012 elections. This ends speculations that Kenya could have electronic voting in next year’s elections.

 

Florida: Voting Groups To Feds: Don’t Let Florida’s Restrictive Voting Law Go Through | TPM

A group of voting rights organizations are asking the Justice Department not to clear a Florida law which places restrictions on third-party voter registration efforts and shortens the early voting period.

Florida’s HB 1355 institutes a “panoply of burdensome and wholly unnecessary restrictions on the opportunity and ability of individual citizens and grassroots organizations to conduct voter registration drives,” the group wrote to the DOJ.

Parts of Florida are covered by section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires certain states to have changes to their voting process approved by the Justice Department. Claiming the restrictive measures are discriminatory, the groups want the feds to step in.

Editorials: Carded at the Polls – Will the Justice Department stop the assault on voting rights for minorities, the elderly, and the poor? | prospect.org

One consequence of Republican victories last November has been an onslaught of state legislation to require voters to show photo identification at polling places. This push builds on GOP efforts over the past decade to tighten ID requirements; at least 18 states have enacted more stringent rules since 2003, including, most recently, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

Last week, 16 U.S. senators signed a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder calling on the Justice Department to investigate whether the new ID requirements comply with federal law. Representative Marcia Fudge of Ohio, a Democrat, is gathering signatures on a similar letter from House members and held a press conference Wednesday on Capitol Hill with civil-rights leaders, including the Reverend Jesse Jackson, to draw attention to her effort.

Oklahoma: Second recount in Cherokee elections starts Saturday | MiamiHerald.com

Cherokee Nation election commissioners will begin a second recount Saturday in the close and hotly contested election for the leader of Oklahoma’s largest American Indian tribe.

Results from the June 25 election have been in dispute since they were announced the morning after. Unofficial results showed longtime councilman Bill John Baker winning by 11 votes, but when the Cherokee Nation Election Commission announced its official results the next day it said Principal Chief Chad Smith had won a fourth term by seven votes.

A June 30 recount ended with Baker up by 266 votes, but the tribe’s highest court ordered another recount Tuesday.

Oklahoma: Chief candidates offer up ideas for recount | MuskogeePhoenix.com

Two candidates competing for the Cherokee Nation’s top post offered suggestions Friday about how to handle the second manual recount of the ballots cast for principal chief. Incumbent Chad Smith and challenger Bill John Baker have dueled over the outcome of the June 25 election since they were tabulated election night.

The tribe’s election officials declared both men official winners and losers during the first five days following the election. While both men cling to victory, neither knows for sure who will be inaugurated chief Aug. 14. While the candidates remained outside the spotlight Friday, lawyers for the campaigns outlined proposals for how to conduct a recount that might stand.

Editorials: Justice Rears Her Head in Wisconsin As Kathy Nickolaus is Investigated by GAB | PoliticusUSA

In case you were wondering where justice was hiding in Wisconsin, she’s reared her head in Waukesha County. County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus will be investigated by the Government Accountability Board, which certified the Wisconsin Supreme Court election in question.

A former Dane country prosecutor will finally be looking into Nickolaus’ conduct. And by conduct, I mean misconduct, including open ballot bags with no secure chain of custody, voter rolls with tags that don’t match ballot bags, a canvas called a day early which took place with Nickolaus never telling the other canvassers about the “lost” votes for two days during the canvas and much more.

Kentucky: GOP candidate files ethics complaint over voter registration of homeless | Kentucky.com

Bill Johnson, Republican candidate for secretary of state, filed an ethics complaint Thursday against Secretary of State Elaine Walker and the State Board of Elections over voter registration of homeless people.

Johnson, a Todd County businessman and educator, contends Walker and the board are violating the Kentucky Constitution by allowing people who don’t have addresses to register to vote. He says the elections board was wrong June 30 when it notified county clerks they could register voters who have no addresses.

The board said applications should be approved if they have “homeless” or “place to place” listed as addresses. Walker, who is chairwoman of the elections board, was not available for comment.

Louisiana: A Tale of Two Special Elections: Costing Out Louisiana and Massachusetts | Electionline Weekly

Hundreds of special elections are held across the nation each year and because there is no way officials can plan for them, budgeting can be difficult. Below is an analysis of how two states , Louisiana and Massachusetts handle special elections.

Louisiana

A recent report from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor‘s office calculated that special elections in the state, from 2005 to 2010, cost state and local governments more than $1 million with the direct costs of running these elections ranging between $12,000 and $137,000 a piece. As already reported, a potential conclusion from this report is that Louisiana is spending unnecessary resources to hold special elections rather than postponing these races until the next regularly scheduled election days.

Legislation to reduce the number of standalone local elections has already been introduced by the state Legislature, but underneath the headline of the cost of eac h election is the story of how states and localities divvy up the costs of running those elections.