National: Trump Loosens Sanctions on Russian Spy Agency Linked to Election Hack | Washington Free Beacon

The Treasury Department on Thursday announced the loosening of sanctions on Russia’s spy service that were imposed by former President Obama for Moscow’s intelligence operations targeting the 2016 presidential election. A notice posted on the website of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the department’s sanctions enforcement unit, stated the sanctions on Russia’s Federal Security Service, the security and intelligence agency known as FSB, were eased. The FSB was slapped with sanctions Dec. 29 by the Obama administration following an intelligence assessment that concluded the agency, along with the Russian GRU military spy service and senior Russian leaders, engaged in cyber attacks to influence the outcome of the election.

Alaska: Lawmakers consider protecting ‘ballot selfies’ as part of free speech | KTOO

In Alaska it’s illegal to “exhibit” a picture of a marked ballot. Sharing a ballot selfie isn’t a criminal offense as in some states, but it is technically grounds for invalidating that vote. Now, Alaska may be joining 22 other states who have legalized ballot selfies as a form of political speech. On Oct. 27, 2016, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin expressed her support for presidential candidate Donald Trump by posting a picture of her ballot on Facebook. The picture got 17,000 reactions, 560 shares and 616 comments. It also generated news articles questioning whether Palin had violated state law.

Arkansas: Filing would put voter-ID amendment before public | Arkansas Online

Republicans, concerned that enacting a law will not be enough to require voters to provide photo identifications before casting ballots, are working to refer a constitutional amendment to the voters that would impose the requirements. Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, filed Senate Joint Resolution 6 late Wednesday. It followed the House passage Tuesday of a voter-identification bill sponsored by Rep. Mark Lowery, R-Maumelle. “I don’t think there’s any question that voter fraud’s been going on — despite what the Democrats have denied,” King said. “They’ve stopped, actually, investigations into voter fraud. The system that the Democrats set up in Arkansas was for years, was a rigged system.” H.L. Moody, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Arkansas, said election commissions are now generally controlled by Republicans.

Maine: Senate Asks High Court for Opinion on Voter-Approved Ranked-Choice Initiative | Maine Public Radio

Maine voters approved a measure this past fall to adopt a ranked-choice voting system for statewide elections. Now lawmakers who are trying to implement the new law are asking the Maine Supreme Court to weigh in on whether it’s constitutional. Last year Maine Attorney General Janet Mills raised questions about the proposal because it appeared to clash with language in the state constitution. For decades, the candidate that got the most votes in a contest has been declared the winner. But under the new system, voters will indicate their top multiple choices in order of preference, and the candidates with the fewest votes are eliminated until someone has a majority. Democratic state Sen. Shenna Bellows of Manchester, former director of the ACLU in Maine, says the voters have spoken and the Legislature should follow their will. “We do not want to set a precedent of a Legislature turning to the courts every time a law is passed to seek an advisory opinion as to the constitutionality of our legislation,” she says.

North Carolina: Cooper not tipping hand on whether he’ll withdraw voter ID appeal | WRAL

In a blog post and a Slate Magazine column Thursday, election law expert Richard Hasen suggests Gov. Roy Cooper could score a victory for opponents of North Carolina’s voter ID law by scuttling the state’s appeal of a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling striking down the law. That 4th Circuit ruling did away with voter ID rules that were in place for last year’s primary during the November election and forced elections officials to expand early voting times across the state. Former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory appealed the 4th Circuit decision, which struck down much of the 2013 law, including a provision that eliminated same-day registration. Cooper, a Democrat, refused to make the appeal himself when serving as attorney general and took over as governor on Jan. 1. Josh Stein, a Democrat and former state senator, took over as attorney general the same day.

Texas: Trump could change Texas voter-ID law by reshaping 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals | McClatchy

During Barack Obama’s second term as president, Texas Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn allowed vacancies on Texas’ federal appeals court to fester, but now that President Donald Trump is in charge they might move quickly to morph the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals into a breeding ground for conservative-leaning decisions. “The one thing Trump said he wanted Ted Cruz’s advice on was judges,” said Kelly Shackleford of the First Liberty Institute, a conservative legal defense organization that talked with Trump about judicial appointments. “You’ve got Cornyn, who was a (Texas state) Supreme Court justice, so you’ve got people who are really known for their expertise.” The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which comprises all of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, is generally considered one of the more conservative federal courts in the country, but it struck down Texas’ controversial voter-ID law last July. That might soon change with Trump in office.

Virginia: Three bills arise from Lynchburg ballot shortage; registrars to retain choice when ordering ballots | The News & Advance

Local registrars will retain autonomy to order the number of ballots they choose for each election after legislators cut language from twin bills arising from the Lynchburg special election ballot shortage. The pair proposed by Sen. Steve Newman, R-Bedford County, and Del. Scott Garrett, R-Lynchburg, are two of three pieces of legislation arising from the Jan. 10 special election in which several Hill City precincts ran out of pre-printed ballots in the morning. The resulting confusion led to angry and confused voters, some of whom left without casting a ballot.

Wisconsin: GOP lawmakers to write blank check to hire lawyers in redistricting battle | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Republican lawmakers voted behind closed doors Thursday to give a blank check to hire two law firms — one of which routinely bills more than $800 an hour — in a legal battle over redrawing legislative maps. The move will add to a bill that has already topped $2 million. One of the firms the lawmakers hired is a high-powered legal operation where former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement is a partner. Clement, who has Wisconsin roots, charges more than $1,300 an hour, according to published reports. Legislative aides would not say if Clement will be on the legal team they are assembling.

Bulgaria: March 2017 elections: Welcome to the machine | The Sofia Globe

Bulgarian government officials are at pains to issue assurances that the March 2017 parliamentary elections will succeed in spite of the new and costly complication about having to supply voting machines to all polling stations. But the Central Election Commission has admitted the process could face the possibility of no one meeting the conditions to provide the machines or the procurement process facing a court challenge – though the commission is insisting that if this happened, it would not call into question the legitimacy of the elections. Months after the now-departed National Assembly voted the latest rewrite of electoral laws, and months after Boiko Borissov’s government resigned and set the country on the path to early elections, the election process faces an unforeseen complication. Or one that could have been foreseen.

Bulgaria: Government and Electoral Officials Looking at Ecuador, Philippines for Solution to Machine Voting Crisis | Novinite

Government and electoral officials will meet on Thursday to discuss ways to procure 12 000 voting machines, with options including an order to Ecuador or the Philippines. Talks have been scheduled between Stefan Yanev, the interim Defense Minister and Deputy PM on elections, and members of the Central Election Commission (CEC). These come less than two months ahead of the early election scheduled for March 26. On Wednesday, a supreme court ruled authorities should provide voting machines for all 12 500 polling stations. Currently, there are only 500 in stock. The announcement followed a move by CEC to warn machines would only be available for 500 polling stations, despite new legislation stipulating all stations should be equipped with them.

Ecuador: Electoral Council Promotes Program to Ensure Disabled Can Vote | teleSUR

Ahead of the presidential elections, Ecuador is rolling out a plan to make it easier for people with disabilities to vote. For the upcoming presidential elections in Ecuador people with a disability will have preferential or home-assisted voting thanks to a plan promoted by the current leftist government of Rafael Correa. Ecuadoreans will elect their new president on Feb.19, and one of the candidates is disabled. Lenin Moreno served as Correa’s vice president from 2007 to 2013 and has been in a wheelchair since being shot in 1998. He has since served as special envoy on disability and accessibility at the United Nations.

Estonia: Nasdaq says Estonia e-voting pilot successful | Cyberscoop

Blockchain technology can safely be used to authenticate e-voting by shareholders at a company’s annual general meeting, Nasdaq said this week, following a pilot project in Estonia. … Voting security experts in the U.S. were skeptical about the pilot project’s wider applicability, especially with regard to national elections. “Blockchain solves a small part of the overall set of problems [with e-voting], but nowhere near all,” said Pamela Smith, president of election integrity advocacy group Verified Voting. “If you have a boat with many leaks, plugging one of them should not make you assume the others won’t swamp you,” she told CyberScoop via email.

Nepal: Polls likely before May 24 | The Himalayan

The government has decided to officially communicate to the Election Commission to make necessary preparations for conducting local bodies’ elections in the third or fourth week of May. A Cabinet meeting held this evening took a decision to formally write tomorrow to the Election Commission to do the groundwork for conducting elections for village councils and municipalities between May 14 and 24, according to Cabinet Spokesperson and Minister for Information and Communications Surendra Karki. “With this decision, uncertainty about elections has been put to rest,” Karki added.

New Zealand: Election date set, let the campaigning begin | Radio New Zealand

Mark it in your diary – New Zealand will go to the polls on 23 September. That Saturday has been the most widely-picked date, and will take place almost three years to the day since the 2014 election. Before he resigned as Prime Minister, John Key dropped hints about a September election. Bill English has stuck to that timetable. To go much earlier would have opened the party up to criticism it was panicking, and that it feared Mr English could not hold, or attract, the attention of voters for that many months. He will want to give himself as much time as possible to settle in as Prime Minister, and have as many photo opportunities as possible with world leaders at international events, all of which helps build the “prime ministerial” image.

Russia: European court rules Russia violated opposition leader’s rights | Reuters

Russia violated the rights of opposition politician and anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny by breaking up demonstrations and detaining him on seven occasions between 2012 and 2014, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Thursday. Navalny, who has said he plans to run as a challenger to the Kremlin candidate in a presidential election next year, rose to prominence in 2012 as one of the leaders of the biggest protest movement of President Vladimir Putin’s 17-year rule. The protests, sparked by allegations of vote-rigging, prompted a crackdown by law enforcement. The court in Strasbourg said the treatment of Navalny had been meant to sent a message to other Russians.

Texas: Appeals court panel weighs Pasadena elections in voting rights case | Houston Chronicle

With May elections hanging in the balance, lawyers made their case before a three-judge appeals court panel in Houston Wednesday in an historic voting rights case that will determine how Pasadena elects its city council. The lawyers’ rapid-fire, back-and-forth discussion with the robed trio of judges perched above them drifted from esoteric — how do you properly measure voting power? — to downright gritty — was Pasadena’s mayor motivated by mounting racial tension when he brought a pistol to a city council meeting? The City of Pasadena asked for the expedited hearing before the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a narrow issue – the structure of Pasadena’s City Council districts for the upcoming election.

National: Trump says its illegal to be registered to vote in two states. He’s wrong. | Chicago Tribune

It was a forceful condemnation — a vow to wipe out a serious crime. “I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states,” President Trump boomed on Twitter last week. But Trump’s social media decree missed a crucial fact: It’s not illegal to be registered to vote in multiple states. It is, however, a felony to cast ballots in more than one state — yet it rarely happens. Trump’s tweet storm about voter registration — and his unfounded claim that millions of illegal votes were cast for Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in November — has cast a spotlight on voting procedures nationwide. That spotlight has revealed some ironies. Trump’s son-in-law and advisor, Jared Kushner, is registered in more than one state. The same is true for some of the president’s senior officials, including his pick to lead the Treasury Department, Steven Mnuchin, along with senior advisor Stephen K. Bannon and Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Even Gregg Phillips, creator of the app VoteStand — which helps Americans report perceived voter fraud — and who Trump has boasted is a guru on the issue, appears to be registered in Alabama, Mississippi and Texas, according to the Associated Press.

National: Who believes in voter fraud? Americans who are hostile to immigrants | The Washington Post

Donald Trump has prominently promoted the idea that there are widespread conspiracies to commit voter fraud, and has recently called for a major investigation. That’s despite the fact that peer-reviewed studies have convincingly shown that voter fraud is extremely rare and difficult to prove (here, here, here and here). So who is likely to believe him? The answer: Americans who are hostile toward nonwhite immigrants. That hostility strongly influences estimates of how frequently voter fraud occurs. In a national survey of 1,000 adult Americans through the 2015 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES), we asked people to estimate how often voter fraud occurs. Like other researchers, we define voter fraud perceptions as how much people think that U.S. elections include noncitizen voting, voting more than once, and voting while pretending to be someone else.

Editorials: How ‘voter fraud’ crusades undermine voting rights | Jesse Rhodes/The Conversation

President Donald Trump has “voter fraud” on the brain. Bizarrely, after winning the 2016 presidential election, Trump has raised questions about the legitimacy of his own victory by claiming that the election was tainted by widespread voter fraud. Indeed, the president recently suggested that as many as 3,000,000 people voted illegally in the election. Reports suggest that Trump’s obsession with voter fraud is due to his outrage at losing the popular vote to Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. As Trump himself alleged in a recent interview, “of those [illegal] votes cast, none of ‘em come to me. None of ‘em come to me. They would all be for the other side.” … Trump’s comments are extraordinary – and, at best, profoundly misinformed. I’ve studied voting rights politics for years and have recently finished writing a book on the political erosion of the Voting Rights Act. My book – and the research of many other social scientists outlined below – flatly contradicts Trump’s claims about the prevalence of fraud in American elections. Put bluntly, there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud by impersonation in the United States. “Impersonation” is what we call the deliberate misrepresentation of identity by individuals in order to manipulate election outcomes.

Florida: Beyonce, Tebow for prez? Invalid votes spiked in Florida | Associated Press

Beyonce, Tim Tebow or the Norse god Thor for prez? Those were some of Florida’s more unusual picks for president this past election. And the number of Florida voters who didn’t cast a vote for either Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton or any other valid contender spiked in 2016, apparently in protest over the ballot choices. A report released by state officials Wednesday showed more than 161,000 Florida voters who took part in the elections either at the polls or by mail didn’t cast a valid vote for president. The “non-valid votes” include those who wrote in such names as Mickey Mouse or Bernie Sanders and others who simply left the ballot blank. It also includes those who voted for more than one candidate. All told, the invalid ballots outnumbered Republican Trump’s margin of victory over Democrat Clinton of nearly 113,000 votes to clinch Florida’s 29 electoral votes. And the rate of invalid votes for president in 2016 — 1.69 percent overall — was more than double the rate it was in 2012 and 2008 when President Barack Obama won the state each time.

Georgia: Ruling upheld for third-party presidential candidates in Georgia | Atlanta Journal Constitution

The federal appeals court in Atlanta on Wednesday upheld a ruling issued last year that found a portion of Georgia’s ballot access laws violated the U.S. Constitution. The one-sentence ruling, by a unanimous three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, adopted the “well-reasoned opinion” issued last March by U.S. District Judge Richard Story in Atlanta. Story had significantly lowered the number of signatures required for third-party candidates to petition to get on Georgia’s presidential ballot — from tens of thousands to 7,500. The 11th Circuit’s ruling was notable in that it was issued less than a week after it heard arguments on the case – an exceptionally quick turnaround for a ruling by the busy court that oversees cases out of Georgia, Florida and Alabama.

Iowa: Secretary of State: No extra money for voter ID outreach | Associated Press

Iowa’s top election official doesn’t plan to ask the Legislature for extra money to educate the public about a voter identification requirement that could soon become law, a move that advocacy groups say could impact how many people find out about the change. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate intends to use existing office funds to pay for voter education and outreach in connection to his proposal to require ID at voting polls. His office provided the details in response to a public records request by The Associated Press. “We are not asking for any additional funding for this, because educating and encouraging people to vote is part of the duties this office already conducts,” said Kevin Hall, a spokesman for Pate, in an email Wednesday.

Iowa: Son of State GOP chair wants to end political party checkoff on state tax forms | The Gazette

An Iowa House member isn’t doing any favors for his father. Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, who succeeded his father in the Johnson-Cedar County legislative district, is proposing that the state stop collecting voluntary contributions to the state Democratic and Republican parties from Iowa income taxpayers. Kaufmann’s dad, Jeff Kaufmann, is the chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa. “My dad can raise his own money,” the younger Kaufmann said Wednesday after the House Ways and Means Committee approved his plan on a party-line vote. The income tax checkoff doesn’t raise a lot of money — $72,797 in 2016, but it allows Iowans, especially low-income Iowans, to make a contribution toward the political process, Rep. John Forbes, D-Des Moines, said in opposing the bill during the committee meeting.

Maryland: U.S. judge: Miller, Bush must testify, turn over documents in redistricting case | The Washington Post

A federal judge has ordered Maryland’s top two legislative leaders to testify and turn over records for a lawsuit challenging the 2011 redrawing of the state’s congressional districts, which effectively ensured Democratic control of seven out of eight U.S. House seats. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) and House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) have fought efforts to examine their intentions during the redistricting process, claiming that “legislative privilege” protects them from records requests and litigation related to internal deliberations. But U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar ruled Tuesday that the ability to discover evidence “lies at the heart of this case” and that the legislature’s direct role in the redistricting process “supports overcoming the legislative privilege.” Bredar wrote that the protections Miller and Busch had claimed do not apply in certain types of federal lawsuits, particularly those that don’t involve financial liability.

Michigan: Democrats to challenge ‘partisan gerrymander’ in Michigan | The Detroit News

Former Michigan Democratic Party chairman and attorney Mark Brewer is preparing to sue state officials over what he alleges is an “unconstitutional partisan gerrymander” that has helped Republicans consolidate power but minimized the voice of Democratic voters he will represent. The pending lawsuit seeks to build on a recent federal court ruling in Wisconsin, where a three-judge panel ruled in a 2-1 decision that the state’s Republican-led Legislature crafted a plan for political district boundaries that “systematically dilutes the voting strength of Democratic voters statewide.” The U.S. District Court panel last week ordered Wisconsin to redraw its maps ahead of the 2018 election, but the state is expected to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. “Our clients believe that the current Michigan legislative and congressional redistricting plans are similarly flawed,” Brewer wrote this week in a letter he said he sent to roughly 60 state legislators, staffers and other officials involved in redrawing district boundaries following the 2010 U.S. Census.

Voting Blogs: Why Michigan should remove restrictions on who may cast an absentee ballot | State of Elections

Michigan voters are voting via absentee ballot in increasingly high numbers. In the November 2016 election, approximately one-fourth of Michigan voters used an absentee ballot to case their votes. In the August 2016 primary election, that number was even higher in many counties. In Kent County, 43 percent of votes were cast via absentee ballots; in Grand Rapids, 40 percent of votes were absentee; in Ottawa County, roughly one-third of voters voted via an absentee ballot. Though absentee voting in Michigan is increasingly more common, Michigan requires voters to check off on their absentee application and ballot a reason they cannot vote in person at a polling station on Election Day. According to Michigan Election Law §168.758 and the Michigan Secretary of State, a voter registered in Michigan may only vote via absentee ballot if the voter is: (1) sixty years old or older; (2) unable to vote without assistance at the polls; (3) expecting to be out of town on election day; (4) in jail awaiting arraignment or trial; (5) unable to attend the polls due to religious reasons; or (6) appointed to work as an election inspector in a precinct outside of his or her precinct.

Editorials: Bills in Minnesota Legislature are at odds with balanced redistricting | David Schultz/StarTribune

One of the chief causes of the partisan polarization and political gridlock across the country is the gerrymandering of congressional and state legislative districts. To prevent this gerrymandering, voters across the country are taking the power to redistrict away from legislators and entrusting it to nonpartisan commissions. Minnesota should follow this example, but there are bills in the Legislature right now that would prevent that from happening. Dating back to the 18th century, state legislatures had the job of drawing congressional and state legislative district lines after the decennial census. Unfortunately, this task has not always been done fairly, with incumbents and the party in control drawing lines to favor them or to disadvantage people of color or some geographic region. Until the 1960s, rural legislators drew lines to favor their constituents at the expense of the larger and growing urban populations. But the Supreme Court issued several decisions launching a reapportionment revolution demanding that district lines honor the “one person, one vote” standard with equal populations. These decisions helped but did not eliminate the partisan drawing of district lines.

Texas: House Speaker Straus calls for end to straight-ticket voting | Houston Chronicle

Texas House Speaker Joe Straus on Wednesday called on his fellow lawmakers to end straight-ticket voting. Straus, R-San Antonio, issued the call in a news release following a speech in which Texas State Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht said Texas should end the option for judicial elections. “I agree with Chief Justice Hecht that we should end straight ticket voting in judicial elections, but we shouldn’t stop there,” said Straus, noting that 40 other states do not have the option in any elections.

Virginia: House passes bill to require proof of citizenship to vote in state, local elections | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Legislation to require proof of U.S. citizenship before registering to vote in Virginia elections passed the Republican-controlled House of Delegates Wednesday on a 64-33 vote along party lines. Echoing President Donald Trump’s claim, made without evidence, that millions of people in the country illegally have made it onto the voter rolls, the GOP-sponsored bill would apply to state and local elections because citizenship tests are not allowed in federal elections. Citizenship could be proved with a birth certificate, passport, naturalization document or other record accepted under federal law. Anyone registered to vote as of Jan. 1, 2018, would not have to prove their citizenship. “You may be aware that there have been cases of non-citizens either inadvertently or intentionally registering to vote in the commonwealth,” Del. Mark L. Cole, R-Spotsylvania, the bill’s sponsor, said on the floor this week. “This was designed to prevent that.”

Virginia: Democrats call for vote on redistricting reforms | Capital News Service

Democratic delegates Tuesday called on Republican House Speaker William Howell to revive legislation that supporters say would help take politics out of redistricting. The Democrats tried to put pressure on Howell a day after a Republican-dominated subcommittee voted to kill five redistricting proposals in one swoop with little discussion. At its meeting Monday morning, the Constitutional Subcommittee of the House Privileges and Elections Committee ignored a request from a Democratic member to vote on the proposed constitutional amendments individually. The panel then tabled the redistricting measures on a single 4–3 vote. Republican Dels. Randy Minchew of Leesburg, Mark Cole of Spotsylvania, Tim Hugo of Centreville and Jackson Miller of Manassas all voted to table the resolutions. Opposing the motion were Republican Del. Jason Miyares of Virginia Beach and Democratic Dels. Joseph Lindsey of Norfolk and Marcia Price of Newport News.