The Committee on Election Reform is convening an Election Reform Advisory Group for the purpose of examining Guam’s election laws to craft legislation that will help to ensure elections are efficient, fair, and reliable. “During the last three General Elections, and a couple of primaries, we have repeatedly seen a wide ranging list of allegations…
Alaska’s governor has signed into law a bill allowing the state to use discretion in counting write-in ballots. The law, set to take effect in August, is the result of last year’s U.S. Senate race. That race was ultimately decided in the courts.
Voting in municipal elections proceeded smoothly across South Africa on Wednesday, even in hotly contested districts, where a rising opposition party is hoping to make gains. … Some minor glitches occurred in parts of Johannesburg and in the far north, including several polling machines that did not function and one station that was damaged overnight…
Salt Lake County may have to come up with $10 million or more to keep elections running smoothly beyond 2015. Elections Director Scott Konopasek announced Tuesday that the county’s voting machines may need to be swapped by then,meaning that the county would have to come up with the cash for about 3,000 replacements. The projected…
Post-Election Public Opinion in Kosovo 2011, IFES’ third post-election survey in the country since 2008, is now available. The poll captures the perspectives of Kosovo citizens on matters such as perceptions of democracy, opinions on the December 2010 elections, and assessments of the overall situation in the country.
These IFES surveys have provided much insight into the evolution of opinions of Kosovo citizens from immediately prior to the country’s declaration of independence in 2008 to this year. The data not only gives a pulse of the country, but is a thorough gauge of public opinion on the country’s advancing electoral process and democracy.
The New South Wales electoral commissioner has rejected claims that two of his staff exchanged emails allegedly referring to errors in the count of votes for Upper House candidate Pauline Hanson. Ms Hanson is challenging the election result which saw her miss out on an Upper House seat.
She has launched action in the Court of Disputed Returns, after being told that staff at the commission had mistakenly put around 1,200 votes for her in a pile of blank ballots. Ms Hanson says she was tipped off by an Electoral Commission worker that her ballots were sabotaged.
North Carolina’s early voting would be scaled back by a week under a bill that won tentative approval from the state House on Thursday. “This is clearly not an indictment against early voting,” said unaffiliated Rep. Bert Jones of Rockingham County, the sponsor of the bill. “I guess the question is, how long is enough?”
My print column this week examines the debate over voting systems that theorists and reformers have backed to replace the system prevalent in the U.S. and many other places, in which each voter gets one vote and the candidate with the most votes wins. Among possible alternative systems include some where voters rank candidates and…
Politically tinged legislation to cut North Carolina’s early voting period by a week hinges on Democratic worries they’ll lose voters and Republican insistence the shorter time is more efficient. The state House is scheduled to vote on the measure Monday. A tentative vote last week passed by a close margin, meaning a veto by Democratic Gov. Beverly…
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida has hired two more lawyers and is planning to add another to help handle an expected workload increase resulting from the Republican-led Legislature’s recently ended session. The ACLU, unions and some liberal and nonpartisan groups are gearing up for potential legal challenges to legislation as well as at…
Bills requiring local special elections to be held on general election days and bringing military voting guidelines in line with national standards passed the House Monday night. The special election date bill, sponsored by Harry Warren, requires special elections – such as bond referendums – to be held when voters would also be going to…
Kathy Nickolaus, the county clerk at the center of the state Supreme Court election controversy and the focus of an ongoing state elections investigation, has been described by colleagues and acquaintances as headstrong and insular, hardworking and independent. She came to local public office, where constituents are the boss, from a staff job at the…
Wisconsin taxpayers so far are on the hook for more than a quarter-million dollars in the recount of votes in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. The statewide recount of ballots in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race will cost the state at least $230,000, according to updated financial data gathered by Wisconsin Reporter. As of Friday, initial…
Councilwoman Priscilla Leal wants a recount of Saturday’s election results and a state investigation into alleged voting problems in her district. Leal, who is seeking her fourth term as the District 3 representative, was forced into a runoff by three votes. She received 1,016 votes to challenger Roland Barrera’s 921 and Rose Marie Soto’s 99, according…
The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) on Sunday made the bizarre demand for a re-poll using traditional ballots, saying that the Congress had rigged the electronic voting machines (EVMs) to win the Assam elections for the third straight time. “Definitely there should be a re-election by way of ballots as we strongly believe the Congress party…
The Voting News for 05/17/2011 Joanne Kloppenburg: Why recounts are a vital part of election process | JSOnline The Journal Sentinel Editorial Board is entitled to its own opinions but it is not entitled to its own facts. The board’s speculation about my motives regarding the recount of the vote in the Supreme Court election is…
Tomorrow is election day and the country will become a network of hope, change and unity. To make sure that each of the 23.5-million votes cast will count – literally at least – there are three people and their teams who have been working tirelessly. They are Libisi Maphanga, the chief information officer for the Independent…
With the presidential and legislative elections just eight months away, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators are pushing for legal amendments that would allow the elections to be held on a Sunday rather than a Saturday, and for polling stations to stay open later because of the anticipated high voter turnout. The Central Election Commission (CEC)…
These were the welcoming remarks by Professor Itse Sagay when Sunday Trust visited his office in Lagos for this interview: “I have every reason to be worried. Since I made a remark criticizing the last elections especially in the South East and South-south as not being credible, I have not rested. I have received calls…
Just like for the 2008 general election and the 2009 European Parliament election, travel arrangements have been made for eligible voters living abroad to enable them to vote in Malta in the forthcoming divorce referendum on 28 May. Bookings opened as from noon yesterday and Air Malta will be making available return tickets, at a…
A few years ago, New Jersey began allowing anyone who wanted to vote in elections using a mail-in absentee ballot to do so. It was a good idea that caught on with aging voters who have trouble getting out and with time-strapped voters who simply find it easier to vote at their leisure than to…
The Party’s top member-managing and discipline-inspecting departments have jointly sent supervisory teams to 14 provinces and autonomous regions to ensure there is no misconduct during the local leadership reshuffles as officials at various levels finish their five-year terms. The teams, comprising officials from the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee…
Following the rationale of one man, one vote, should not the outcome of an election reflect the true will of the people? Is it really fair? In Singapore’s elections last week, the People’s Action Party won 81 out of 87 seats even though only about 60% of voters chose it. Yes, the island republic officially has…
The New South Wales Electoral Commission has been ordered by a Sydney court to hand over all the information it has about the alleged sabotage of votes for Pauline Hanson.
The One Nation founder has lodged a petition in the Court of Disputed Returns after her failed bid to win a seat in the state’s Legislative Council at the March election.
After the revolution in Tahrir Square, Egyptian authorities consulted India’s Election Commission for help in conducting parliamentary polls in the country, only to get cautious advice from chief election commissioner (CEC) SY Quraishi. He asked his Egyptian counterpart to not import electronic voting machines (EVMs) from anywhere and get these manufactured domestically. Imported machines, however…
Kansas legislators are refusing to move up the starting date for a proof-of-citizenship requirement for people registering to vote for the first time or to give Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s office new power to prosecute election fraud cases. The rejection of those proposals Wednesday by a bipartisan majority in the state Senate is a political…
Lawmakers are zeroing in on ways to cut the cost to taxpayers for holding elections. Recent months have seen a long string of special elections, even locally. With term limits taking effect, state senators are abandoning ship for statewide posts and new public jobs. Representatives are stepping up to become senators, and their vacancies are prompting…
The state Senate voted on Thursday to undo requirements of the Voter Confidence Act passed three years ago. Supporters said the action will ensure that more accurate voting machines would be implemented across the state as the legislature reversed requirements approved three years ago. House Bill 386 as approved by the Senate would delete the requirement…
The directors of the National Electoral Council (CNE) approved, after a seven-hour meeting, a new project called “Improvements to the Automated Voting System,” which includes the establishment of a Comprehensive Authentication System (SAI) of voters to be implemented in the upcoming elections. The decision taken by the CNE directors involves a major modification in the…
Parties to Zimbabwe’s power-sharing deal resumed the constitutional process Saturday after reaching a compromise on how to analyse views gathered from the public, an official said. The process stalled on Wednesday over disagreements between President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) over the weight given to the public submissions.…