Texas: Abbott Opposes Curbs on Dark Money | The Texas Tribune

All that Republican infighting about revealing political “dark money” during the just-concluded session of the Texas Legislature was probably for naught. Gov. Greg Abbott has come out firmly against the idea. Speaking at a news conference Monday in the Capitol, Abbott said he had already written about the issue when he was on the Texas Supreme Court, telling reporters that legislation requiring secret political donors to come out of the shadows would violate the U.S. Constitution. Proponents of dark money disclosure dispute the claim.

US Virgin Islands: Non-profit makes case for lawsuit to restore voting rights to territories | Virgin Islands Daily News

Speaking in front of the V.I. Bar Association, We the People Project founder Neil Weare outlined the case for extending the right to vote in presidential elections to residents of the territory. He also said that his organization, a non-profit group devoted to achieving voting rights for all U.S. territories, would file a lawsuit within months featuring plaintiffs from the territory who claim that their Constitutional rights have been violated by their disqualification from casting federal ballots. Semaj Johnson of the K.A. Rames, P.C. law firm will join Weare in filling the suit. “Virgin Islanders defend the Constitution and democracy abroad while being denied democracy at home,” Weare said to a crowded banquet room Friday morning at Mahogany Run Golf Course, which included Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett and District Court Judge Curtis Gomez.

Burundi: Nkurunziza to postpone vote after pressure from African leaders | Mail & Guardian Africa

Burundi is to postpone presidential elections by a month to July 26 with the backing of five East African Community (EAC) member states after weeks of unrest left at least 20 people dead. “Postponing elections for us is not a problem, but we won’t go beyond the limit accorded by the constitution,” presidential spokesman Willy Nyamwite said on the sidelines of an EAC summit in Dar es Salaam late Sunday. At least 20 people have died in unrest since President Pierre Nkurunziza signaled he will run for a third term, a move his opponents say violates peace accords. At least 112,000 others have fled to neighbouring countries, fearing a return to conflict in a nation where 300,000 people died in a civil war that ended in 2005, according to the UN Humanitarian Agency.

Denmark: Candidate bares all in bid to be prime minister | The Guardian

Conversations tail off mid-sentence; students stop to take selfies and parents shield young children’s eyes. The cause of their embarrassment: giant posters of a man wearing nothing but a cowboy hat, a gun holster and a knowing smile. This is John Erik Wagner, and he wants to be Denmark’s next prime minister. It may not be a conventional political billboard but, in this time of frenetic campaigning before the Danish general election this month, every available tree or lamppost is plastered with images of politicians and wannabes, and a relatively unknown candidate needs to work hard to make an impression. For Wagner, a 51-year-old Copenhagener, the way to do that was to bare all.

Italy: Renzi wins in most regions, but suffers bruising setback | Europe Online

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi suffered his first election setback Monday, as results of weekend regional elections showed ebbing support for his centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and gains for populist opposition forces. Voting took place in seven out of Italy‘s 20 regions on Sunday, during a bank holiday weekend that saw many voters stay away from polling booths. Turnout fell to 53.9 per cent, compared to 64.1 per cent five years ago. The PD prevailed in five out of seven races, but suffered a surprise loss in Liguria, in the north-west, and saw its overall share of the vote fall sharply compared to last year‘s European elections, when it scored a record 41 per cent.

Pakistan: Election chief nullifies male-only election | ucanews

Election authorities in Pakistan today nullified the results of a by-election held in a remote district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province last month that barred women from exercising their right to vote. Masroor Shah, a lawyer representing human rights activists and who challenged the legality of the elections, said that Chief Election Commissioner Justice Sardar Raza Khan has declared the by-elections of Lower Dir null and void and has ordered new elections. “Women from Dir have testified before the three-member inquiry commission that they were not allowed to vote,” Shah said. “The announcements had been made from a mosque’s loud speakers to stop women from participating in the elections.”

Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka considering passing vote to Tamil refugees | Fulton News

If Sri Lanka’s government moves a special parliamentary bill to empower Sri Lankan Tamil refugees living in South Indian in the coming weeks, over 50,000 refugees of Sri Lankan origin will be able to vote at the forthcoming parliamentary election. Officials at Sri Lanka’s Election Commission have signalled that the vote can be facilitated if Sri Lanka, together with the Indian administration, prioritize the creation of legal structures for overseas voting. “Many other countries have their expatriates voting, from their current location. Sri Lanka can also take that route,” said Additional Election Commissioner M. M. Mohamed.

Turkey: Volunteers flock to monitor knife-edge election | Reuters

In a meeting room above an upmarket restaurant in Istanbul’s Beyoglu district, some 200 people listen as a young lawyer explains what to watch for when votes are counted in Sunday’s pivotal parliamentary election. Tens of thousands of volunteers have signed up to monitor the vote, set to be the closest in more than a decade, in what organisers say is a response an erosion in the rule of law. Oy Ve Otesi (“Vote and Beyond”), was set up the aftermath of anti-government demonstrations two years ago. In last year’s presidential election, it was able to monitor six cities. This time it is targeting 70,000 volunteers in 162 towns.

National: For millennials, Facebook is poised to dominate politics (also everything else) | The Washington Post

The odds are good that you are reading this article because you clicked through a link on Facebook. On Sunday, for example, a day you should be spending time with family/reading Post articles, a third of all traffic to The Fix’s top five posts came through the social networking site. The odds of your having gotten to this article from Facebook are much better the younger you are, given that this article deals with politics. “Among Millennials,” a new report from Pew Research reads, referring to people born between 1981 and 1996, “Facebook is far and away the most common source for news about government and politics.” Far and away meaning that 61 percent of that group got news about politics or government from the site — about the same percentage as that of baby boomers (1946-1964) got from their local news. And vice-versa: Only 37 percent of millennials got political information from local news, compared to 60 percent of boomers.

Editorials: Evenwel v. Abbott and the Future of One Person, One Vote | Gareth Epps/The Atlantic

“Equality of representation in the legislature is a first principle of liberty,”John Adams wrote in 1776. Most Americans would agree. But does “equality of representation” mean equal numbers of people—or equal numbers of voters? That question is raised by the Court’s decision Monday to hear the case of Evenwel v. Abbott. Evenwel is a challenge to the Texas Legislature’s plan for state Senate districts. The appellants are registered voters from Senate districts that have significantly more eligible voters than some others. The legislature’s districts vary from each other in raw population by less than 10 percent; but in their “citizen voting-age population,” or CVAP, the variation can be as high as 50 percent.

Editorials: In Supreme Court redistricting case, it’s the ‘whole number of persons’ | Bruce Ackerman, Ian Ayres/Los Angeles Times

The Supreme Court agreed to take a case this week that will shape the future of American politics. Although the Warren court’s famous “one person, one vote” mandate requires states to draw up election districts with roughly equal populations, the court is only now going to determine the relevant population that must be counted. It has two basic options. It can stick with what most states do now and require each district to contain an equal number of inhabitants: This will favor urban Democratic areas with many immigrants and children. Or it can instead insist that districts include an equal number of eligible voters, and thereby favor rural Republican regions. While the new case, Evenwel vs. Abbott, deals with state and local districting, its logic will predictably control reapportionment for the House of Representatives in 2020, with major consequences for states such as California, New York and Texas.

Alabama: Absentee voter ID bill dead in Alabama Legislature, lawmakers say | AL.com

A bill that would require voters to submit a copy of their photo ID when requesting an absentee ballot in the state of Alabama is dead, Rep. Reed Ingram said. Ingram, R-Montgomery, who served as the bill’s sponsor, said there is too much confusion over the legislation that Republicans say is an extra measure to prevent voter fraud. Ingram likely had enough Republican votes to get the bill passed, but not without a fight from Democrats on the House floor. The bill didn’t have a third reading in the House of Representatives per Ingram’s request.

Arkansas: Deadline too tight, election officials stress | Arkansas Online

The Pulaski County Election Commission is questioning whether Secretary of State Mark Martin should delay his plans to replace the state’s voting machines by the March 1 primary election and instead wait until 2017 to overhaul the voting machines in the state’s 75 counties. Martin’s office has received three bids from voting machine equipment companies in response to his request for proposals … The secretary of state’s office is considering replacing voting equipment statewide “with a sole-source integrated voting system allowing for automation and full integration between polling place equipment and voter registration system(s),” according to a copy of the request-for-proposal released by Martin’s office. These pieces of equipment would allow voters to mark their ballots on electronic screens or to cast paper ballots. If the project succeeds, the vendor would be responsible for all replacement, installation, training, testing and maintenance no later than March 1, the request-for-proposal states. The maximum expenditure for the project would be $30 million, the secretary of state said.

Editorials: A Bad Voting Ban in Maryland | New York Times

What is the logic behind state laws that deny the vote to people who have been convicted of a felony, even after they are released from prison? The short and easy answer is: there isn’t any. For a longer, nonsensical answer, ask Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, who on May 22 thwarted strong majorities in both houses of the state legislature to veto a bill that would have restored voting rights to about 40,000 Maryland residents currently on probation or parole.

Editorials: South Carolina’s new voting system must be secure | Walt McLeod/The State

When I cast my first ballot, I voted on a paper ballot for Daniel R. McLeod, who was elected attorney general and served for the next 24 years. At that time, voting machines in South Carolina were limited to several urban counties. As I recall, election security consisted of a padlocked plywood ballot box, the key to which was attached to a modest chain connected to the padlock. I did not give much thought to the mechanics of elections, or how the poll managers tabulated the election results from the paper ballots cast. Though no election is perfectly conducted, most of us engage in faith-based voting, meaning that we as voters have faith that, for the most part, our election procedures work properly. We have faith that when we cast our ballots, our votes are recorded as intended. Sometimes, we must stop to examine that faith. Recently, I viewed a documentary film titled “I Voted?” by filmmaker Jason Grant Smith. His film opened my eyes to our systemic voting challenges.

Vermont: State to Launch Same-Day Voter Registration | NECN

Vermont will allow voters to cast ballots the same day they register to vote, effective January 2017. It used to be that voters would need to register close to a week before casting a ballot. “For the greatest democracy in the world, the number of people who vote in elections is too low, and it hurts our democracy because it’s so low,” said Gov. Peter Shumlin, D-Vt. Shumlin authorized the so-called same-day voter registration law Monday in Montpelier, making Vermont the fourteenth state to have such a law. Other states that allow same-day voter registration include New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Maine, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Editorials: Lowering the voting age to 16 would be good for Australian democracy | Sydney Morning Herald

Momentum is building around the world to lower the voting age to 16 years. A similar shift occurred in the 1970s when the age was reduced from 21 to 18. Some nations have already made the shift, with voting in national or local elections occurring at age 16 in Austria, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, the Philippines, Argentina, Nicaragua, Brazil and Ecuador. Others are in the process of debating this. At the recent British election, the Labour Party and Liberal Democrats committed to lowering the voting age to 16. This followed the successful experiment of granting 16-year-olds the right to vote in the referendum on Scottish independence. It is expected that the vote will soon be extended to them generally for elections to the Scottish Parliament.

Burundi: Government open to postponing vote, to wait electoral body direction | Reuters

Burundi’s government on Monday held out the possibility of a postponement of elections which have led to weeks of protests and bloodshed. President Pierre Nkurunziza said in April he would run for another term in a June 26 vote. More than 20 people have been killed by security forces in protests decrying his move as a violation of the constitution. Parliamentary and local council elections are also slated for June 5. A summit of leaders of the East African Community – comprising Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda – and South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma on Sunday called for postponement of the elections for at least a month and a half. Presidential spokesman Gervais Abayeho said the electoral commission was looking into the request and would advise the government.

United Kingdom: Prisoners may be given vote because of human rights climbdown, Tory adviser warns | Telegraph

Prisoners in Britain may be given the vote because of David Cameron’s refusal to pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights, a leading QC and adviser to the Conservative Party has warned. Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, has confirmed that pulling out of the convention is not “on the table” despite objections from both Theresa May, the Home Secretary, and Michael Gove, the Justice Secretary. Jonathan Fisher QC, who has advised the Conservatives on a British Bill of Rights to replace the Human Rights Act, said it means that when “push comes to shove” the party will have to give way to Strasbourg judges on prisoner voting.

National: The next political battleground: Your phone | CNN

There’s a new political battleground in 2016: your phone. Next year’s election presents a new opportunity for politicians to harness a slew of technologies — from video to demographic data — that will help them reach voters. The drive toward connecting with potential voters on their smartphones is playing out, in part, because so many people have one this election cycle. About two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone today, compared with just 35% in the spring of 2011, according to the Pew Research Center. For about 10% of Americans, their smartphone is the only form of high-speed Internet they have access to at home.

National: New FCC robocall rules concern pollsters | Politico

For many Americans, the idea of technology that can block automated telephone calls sounds like a solution to all those annoying “robocalls” and interrupted family dinners. But to the nation’s pollsters and campaign professionals, many of whom are gearing up for the 2016 election cycle, a federal government proposal circulated Wednesday to encourage phone companies to embrace the technology feels like an existential threat. As a result, they say, Americans might soon know much less about what they think about everything from which candidates are gaining or losing ground to what issues voters care about most. And political campaigns might be forced to abandon tools they currently use to reach large numbers of voters in a short period of time.

Editorials: ‘One person, one vote’ should stay that way | Los Angeles Times

Five decades after the Supreme Court ruled that legislative districts must be drawn on the basis of “one person, one vote,” the justices have agreed to consider a claim that representation should reflect the number of eligible voters in a district, not the overall population. They should reject such a radical interpretation, which would undermine the principle that legislators must be attentive to the needs of all of the people living in the areas they represent. That includes children and the noncitizens who in many parts of this country — including Southern California — form a significant and productive part of the population.

Editorials: Two Supreme Court cases threaten to unravel California election reforms | Contra Costa Times

For more than two decades, Californians have struggled to reform the state’s electoral process, to make it less partisan and public officials more responsive. After fits and starts beginning in 1990, state voters approved an independent redistricting commission, open primaries and term limits that now allow state legislators to serve up to 12 years. Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court could significantly undermine the reform effort with its review of two redistricting cases, one out of Arizona, the other out of Texas, and both with profound implications for California and the nation.

Connecticut: Senate Responds To Election Day Problems With Bill Giving More Oversight To Secretary Of State | Hartford Courant

The state Senate on Thursday responded to last Election Day’s polling place problems with unanimous approval of a bill that gives the Secretary of the State more control over elections officials and establishes a training and certification process for registrars of voters. Due in large part to office politics and poor personal relationships between election officials, Hartford’s registrars of voters failed in last fall’s statewide elections to adequately prepare and open several polling places on time, to properly tally votes and to properly account for absentee ballots, according to a investigative report released in January that outlined “multiple, serious errors.”

Mississippi: Bryant lets suffrage bills stand without signature | Washington Times

In his first term, Gov. Phil Bryant has allowed eight bills to become law without his signature. All have been suffrage bills. Mississippians convicted of certain felonies lose the right to vote. Those who lose their vote have to be pardoned by the governor or go to the Legislature, where it takes a two-thirds majority to restore a person’s suffrage. The Mississippi Constitution lists 21 crimes that take away a convict’s right to vote: arson, armed robbery, bigamy, bribery, embezzlement, extortion, felony bad check, felony shoplifting, forgery, larceny, murder, obtaining money or goods under false pretense, perjury, rape, receiving stolen property, robbery, theft, timber larceny, unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, statutory rape and carjacking.

New Mexico: Number of campaign finance violations unclear | The Santa Fe New Mexican

Just a few months after announcing a task force to overhaul campaign finance practices in New Mexico, state officials are still not clear on how many violations are being investigated. “We are currently in the process of compiling our list of candidates still out of compliance for referral to the Attorney General at this time,” Ken Ortiz, chief of staff and spokesman for Secretary of State Dianna Duran’s office, said in an email Friday. Attorney General Hector Balderas’ office released one violation referral from Duran on Friday. More are expected to be disclosed by June 10, the Daily Times in Farmington reported.

New York: Sanders could face New York primary ballot struggle | Capital New York

Senator Bernie Sanders, who is challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, will face a significant legal barrier if he attempts to run in next year’s New York primary while remaining unaffiliated with a party. A section of state election law commonly known as Wilson-Pakula prohibits candidates from appearing on the ballot in a party’s primary unless they are either enrolled members or receive the approval of the party’s committee.

Ohio: Move to delay Ohio’s 2016 primary could aid Kasich | The Columbus Dispatch

Ohio lawmakers set the table for Gov. John Kasich to potentially take all of the Buckeye State’s GOP presidential delegates in one swoop next year. By moving the state’s 2016 primary election back a week — from March 8 to March 15 — Ohio’s Republican vote will be a winner-take-all contest. The Senate gave the legislature’s final approval on Wednesday, 23-10. The measure becomes law with Kasich’s signature.

Texas: Passing the Buck on the Motor Voter Law, Texas Style | Texas Election Law Blog

This week, the law firm of Waters and Kraus LLP sent a demand letter to the Texas Secretary of State, informing him of his failure to meet the legal requirements of the National Voter Registration Act, and of his legal liabilities under that federal law. The law in question is Section 20504(a) of Title 52, Chapter 205, United States Code (text taken from uscode.house.gov):

(1) Each State motor vehicle driver’s license application (including any renewal application) submitted to the appropriate State motor vehicle authority under State law shall serve as an application for voter registration with respect to elections for Federal office unless the applicant fails to sign the voter registration application.

(2) An application for voter registration submitted under paragraph (1) shall be considered as updating any previous voter registration by the applicant.

Easy enough to understand, right? If you get a driver’s license, or renew a driver’s license, you get registered to vote, or you get your registration updated, assuming that you are legally eligible to vote.