The Voting News Daily: Backlash Swells Against Voter Laws, Think Voter ID is Bad? Meet the Poll-Watchers

National: Backlash Swells Against Voter Laws | The Daily Beast Another symbol of just how quickly the political calculus can change ahead of Election Day: crucial swing states Ohio and Florida, along with Texas, South Carolina, and Wisconsin, have won significant—albeit possibly temporary—victories against restrictive voting laws over a span of mere weeks. Voting laws,…

The Voting News Daily: Challenges to Voting Laws May Play Havoc On and After Election Day, Voter fraud and its discontents: Restricting the franchise

National: Challenges to Voting Laws May Play Havoc On and After Election Day | Roll Call Democratic Rep. Mark Critz’s chances of hanging onto his seat representing Southwestern Pennsylvania could hinge on a lawsuit filed by a 93-year-old great grandmother over the state’s new voter identification law. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is hearing Viviette Applewhite’s…

The Voting News Daily: Voting Laws In Several States Remain Unsettled, Why The Supreme Court May Soon Strike Down A Key Section Of The Voting Rights Act

National: Voting Laws In Several States Remain Unsettled | NPR Eight weeks before the presidential election, new laws passed by Republican legislatures that concern who can vote and when remain in the hands of federal and state judges. Among the cases: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court this week will hear an appeal to overturn that state’s new…

The Voting News Daily: Ten Weeks Out From Election Day, Outside Spending Exceeds 2008 Total, Voter registration drives adopting new methods

National: Ten Weeks Out From Election Day, Outside Spending Exceeds 2008 Total | OpenSecrets With the end of the Democratic convention today, we’ve only just now reached the beginning of the traditional presidential election season, but that hasn’t stopped outside groups from unleashing a torrent of advertising on the political landscape early on in this…

The Voting News Daily: Defense Department inspector General questions military voting, A Ballot Box Tactic With Deep Historical Roots

National: Defense Department inspector General questions military voting | Politico.com Many military installations across the globe lack offices where troops can register to vote and obtain absentee ballots, the Defense Department’s inspector general concludes in a newly released report. Investigators attempted to contact 229 voting-assistance offices and were able to reach just 114 — about 50 percent. Under…

The Voting News Daily: Ending the Voting Wars, Every vote counts? For military members, only if they plan ahead

Blogs: Ending the Voting Wars | Rick Hasen/TPM Over the last few days I’ve been describing some of the major problems with our elections which I cover in The Voting Wars. Too many U.S. jurisdictions allow our elections to be run by political partisans. Local officials have too much control, and often lack adequate training and resources. Political rhetoric has…

The Voting News Daily: Voter ID laws tied to conservative group ALEC, RNC Platform Committee Officially Endorses Proof Of Citizenship, Voter ID Laws

National: Flurry of Voter ID laws tied to conservative group ALEC | Open Channel A growing number of conservative Republican state legislators worked fervently during the past two years to enact laws requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls. Lawmakers proposed 62 photo ID bills in 37 states in the 2011 and 2012 sessions,…

The Voting News Daily: Internet voting is an idea whose time has not come, Technology could supplant voter IDs at polls, but registration problems remain

Editorials: Internet voting is an idea whose time has not come | Vancouver Sun Chief electoral officer Keith Archer has announced the formation of a panel of experts to investigate whether British Columbia should adopt Internet voting. Let’s hope the panel focuses on the big picture before getting bogged down with technical details. Our democracy is…

The Voting News Daily: Twitter and other social media will make the next close presidential election much worse than Florida in 2000, State Laws Vary Widely on Voting Rights for Felons

National: Twitter and other social media will make the next close presidential election much worse than Florida in 2000 | Slate Magazine The tweets were full of rage. As officials began to tally the results of the tight ballots, many voters suspected fraud. After all, there had been allegations of election misconduct before, as well…

The Voting News Daily: Voter fraud found to be rare, survey indicates, New voting rules make getting Latinos to polls harder than ever

National: Voter fraud found to be rare, survey indicates | KansasCity.com A new nationwide analysis of more than 2,000 cases of alleged election fraud over the past dozen years shows that in-person voter impersonation on Election Day, which has prompted 37 state legislatures to enact or consider tougher voter ID laws, was virtually nonexistent. The analysis…

The Voting News Daily: New database of US voter fraud finds no evidence that photo ID laws are needed, Getting Disabled Voters Off the Sidelines?

National: New database of US voter fraud finds no evidence that photo ID laws are needed | News21 A new nationwide analysis of 2,068 alleged election-fraud cases since 2000 shows that while fraud has occurred, the rate is infinitesimal, and in-person voter impersonation on Election Day, which prompted 37 state legislatures to enact or consider tough…

The Voting News Daily: Civil Rights Groups Release New Voter Protection App, Study shows voters with disabilities face access barriers

National: Civil Rights Groups Release New Voter Protection App | Huffington Post Defenders of the right to vote have a new high-tech weapon in their arsenal. A consortium of civil rights groups unveiled a smartphone application Thursday as part of a comprehensive strategy to combat what it called a nationwide effort to disenfranchise minority and youth voters. “The Election…

The Voting News Daily: Rep. Hank Johnson Introduces Legislation for Election Accuracy, Obama Campaign App Raises Privacy Concerns

National: Rep. Hank Johnson Introduces Legislation for Election Accuracy | Tucker, GA Patch Congressman Hank Johnson (GA-04, which includes parts of Tucker) has introduced the bipartisan Verifying Official Totals for Elections or VOTE Act, H.R. 6246, which would require jurisdictions using electronic voting machines for federal elections to deposit the software or source code in…

The Voting News Daily: Voter ID lawsuits could delay election results again, Schumer Says GOP Threatening IRS To Block Campaign Finance Oversight

National: Voter ID lawsuits could delay election results again | CNN.com Partisan legal showdowns in battleground states over a spate of new voting laws could turn the 2012 elections into a repeat of the 2000 presidential vote recount saga, political experts say. “Whenever you change the rules by enacting new laws, it triggers a round of…

The Voting News Daily: Federal Voting Commissioners AWOL As Election Approaches, Voter Roll Purges Could Spread To At Least 12 States

National: Federal Voting Commissioners AWOL As Election Approaches | Huffington Post As local officials gear up for a national election where razor-thin margins could tip the balance of power, the federal agency established after the Florida ballot disaster of 2000 to ensure that every vote gets counted is leaderless and adrift. There are supposed to be…