Virginia: Presidential Campaigns Use Virginia Elections as Opportunity to Qualify for 2016 Primary | National Journal

After serving eight terms in Con­gress, Tom Cole­man got used to ask­ing people to vote for him. This Elec­tion Day, though, Cole­man camped out in front of a Vir­gin­ia pre­cinct ask­ing for sig­na­tures on be­half of an­oth­er can­did­ate. As voters ar­rived at Wash­ing­ton Mill Ele­ment­ary School in Al­ex­an­dria on a crisp fall morn­ing to vote in state and loc­al elec­tions Tues­day, Cole­man greeted them, hold­ing a clip­board with a stack of pe­ti­tions, a pen, and a blue “Kasich For Us” stick­er af­fixed to the back. His job—one that’s usu­ally re­served for vo­lun­teers and low-level staffers—was to col­lect as many sig­na­tures as pos­sible to help his one­time House col­league, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, qual­i­fy for the 2016 Re­pub­lic­an pres­id­en­tial primary in Vir­gin­ia. By 8:15 a.m., Cole­man was an hour in­to his day and had 15 sig­na­tures to show for it. “I had no idea if I’d even get one,” Cole­man joked, not­ing he had nev­er done this be­fore.

Virginia: 122 legislators sought re-election Tuesday; they all won | Richmond Times-Dispatch: Virginia Politics

A total of 122 Virginia legislators sought re-election Tuesday. Not a one was defeated. The Virginia Public Access Project said it is the first such clean sweep for incumbents since it started tracking Virginia’s legislative elections in 1995. “In modern times, it is apparently unprecedented,” added Larry Sabato, a veteran political analyst at the University of Virginia. Analysts cited several factors in the incumbents’ overwhelming dominance, but one topped the list — carefully drawn district boundaries. The result boils down to three words — “gerrymandering, gerrymandering, gerrymandering,” said Stephen J. Farnsworth of the University of Mary Washington.

Virginia: State Moves Back to Paper Ballots for the Election | Newsplex

Charlottesville resident Paul Jacob has been rocking the vote since he was 18. He’s been voting for nearly 60 years now and he’s seen quite a few changes. “From marking X’s, to punching holes,” said Jacob. “To the computers.” At Tuesday’s election, he’ll see one more. The city registrars office is taking people back to the future when it comes to voting. Touch screens are now a thing of the past and paper is back in style. One reason for the change is because of problems with voting machines in previous years. Another reason is computer hacking. Hacks have occurred across the United States, including Washington, D.C. To prevent that, Rick Sincere from the Electoral Board says the Commonwealth is steering away from computer voting statewide.

Virginia: Fleeting victory on district boundaries | Virginian-Pilot

The slit decision last week upholding the constitutionality of certain Virginia House of Delegates districts is hardly confirmation of good government in action. The federal court panel’s decision does, however, stand in contrast to a ruling more than a year ago that declared Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District boundaries illegal. That determination, ultimately upheld after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a similar case from Alabama, has led the judicial branch to assume responsibility for crafting congressional boundaries that pass constitutional muster. A court-appointed special master has spent weeks considering alternate plans and is scheduled to submit his remedy to the 3rd District’s lines – and others’ – by Friday.

Virginia: Plaintiffs appeal to US Supreme Court in redistricting case | Associated Press

A group of Virginians who unsuccessfully challenged the state’s legislative boundaries in federal court is appealing a recent ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. The group, which is backed by lawyers who frequently work for the Democratic Party, filed its notice of appeal Monday. Last week a panel of federal judges rejected the allegations that the Republican-led Virginia House of Delegates illegally packed black voters into a dozen legislative districts.

Virginia: Questions remain on conflicting district rulings | WTOP

Disparate rulings on whether Virginia violated federal law by drawing state House and congressional district maps based on race might pave the way for a grand decision from a higher court. The latest ruling from a special three-judge panel, issued Thursday, threw out a Democrat-backed challenge to Virginia’s House of Delegates district lines. State Republican leaders say the lines, and those that shape the 3rd Congressional District that a similar federal court panel found to be unconstitutional, are legal. “Today’s decision validates our consistently held view that the House (of Delegates) districts were drawn in accordance with the Constitution, all state and federal laws, and in a fair and open process,” House Speaker Bill Howell said in a statement Thursday.

Virginia: House map constitutional, federal judges rule | The Washington Post

A panel of three federal judges ruled Thursday that the 12 House of Delegates districts that Democrats challenged in federal court are constitutional, giving Republicans a win for now in Virginia’s fraught political map-making battle. The 2-to-1 ruling comes four months after a separate three-judge panel sided with Democrats in a similar case centered on the state’s redistricting of its congressional map four years ago. The contrary rulings ensure that the redistricting battle in Virginia will continue for some time. Democrats on the losing side Thursday said they were likely to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, as Republicans already have in the case decided against them in June.

Virginia: State launches online application for absentee ballots | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Virginia voters who are unable to make it to the polls for next month’s election now have the option of applying online for an absentee ballot. The Virginia Department of Elections launched a new website feature Wednesday morning that allows voters to sign an application electronically using their Social Security number and information on a driver’s license or identification card issued by the DMV.

Virginia: Workers on congressional redistricting ordered to pledge secrecy | The Daily Progress

Three state workers who will help an expert recommend new congressional boundaries for Virginia have signed confidentiality oaths and must destroy their working papers when they’re through. The three employees of the Division of Legislative Services signed the pledges in accord with a court order naming them to assist the expert, Bernard Grofman of the University of California-Irvine. On Sept. 25 the three-judge panel that will redraw Virginia’s congressional boundaries named Grofman as a “special master” who will consult with the court on a remedy. The federal judges have given Grofman until Oct. 30 to recommend a solution — by picking one of 11 proposed remedies submitted to the court, modifying a version or devising a plan of his own.
The judges plan to issue a new map “at the earliest practicable opportunity after Nov. 17.”

Virginia: Use of electronic signatures for absentee-ballot requests causes alarm | The Washington Post

Some Republican elections officials expressed concern Tuesday over a practice both major parties are using to streamline the process of signing up absentee voters, saying it encourages voter fraud. Earlier this year, members of the state Board of Elections said that voters may sign ­absentee-ballot request forms electronically instead of printing the forms, signing them with a pen and ­e-mailing back a scan or mailing the forms through the post office. The change allows voters to skip the step of printing the forms. That guidance was offered during a contentious primary this summer, when House Speaker William J. ­Howell (R-Stafford) set up a secure Web site to make it easier for voters to request absentee ballots electronically.

Virginia: McAuliffe says his redistricting plan deserves ‘special deference’ | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s plan to redraw Virginia’s congressional boundaries deserves “special deference” because of his elected position, his lawyers told a federal three-judge panel Wednesday. The judges have twice ruled that Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District is unconstitutional because state legislators packed too many additional African-Americans into its boundaries, diluting their influence elsewhere. Last month McAuliffe submitted one of 11 proposed fixes sent to the court. He urged a “comprehensive redrawing” of the congressional map, arguing that tinkering would be insufficient.

Virginia: E-signatures for absentee ballots spark debate at elections board | Richmond Times-Dispatch

A partisan battle over absentee voting broke out Tuesday at a State Board of Elections meeting, with Republicans warning that a new policy has opened the door to electronic voter fraud and Democrats dismissing the charge as unverified and overblown. The concern was raised Tuesday evening at the end of what will likely be the last elections board meeting before the Nov. 3 General Assembly elections, when control of the state Senate will be up for grabs. The debate centered on a policy that allows voters to use electronically typed signatures to apply for absentee ballots. The policy was approved in May at the request of Speaker of the House William J. Howell, R-Stafford, who was facing a spirited primary challenge from Susan B. Stimpson.

Virginia: State pushes to dismiss voter ID suit | Daily Press

Private attorneys defending the state against a lawsuit that targets Virginia’s voter ID laws and long election-day waiting times have asked a federal judge to dismiss the case. In filings this week they argued that the plaintiffs, including the Democratic Party of Virginia, don’t have standing to file the case, and that some arguments against the state amount to “speculative hypothetical.” The suit – one of several in swing states that target voting procedures ahead of the 2016 presidential elections – describes Virginia’s 2013 photo ID law and other state regulations as race-based efforts to curtail voting. Attorneys with Perkins Coie, which has brought challenges in other states as well as two separate redistricting suits here in Virginia, filed the case in June.

Virginia: McAuliffe proposed 'comprehensive redrawing' of congressional map | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Friday proposed a “comprehensive redrawing” of Virginia’s congressional map in order to fix constitutional flaws with the 3rd District. Lawyers representing Republicans in Virginia’s U.S. House delegation offered narrowly drawn proposals meant to correct the violation while deferring to the legislature’s choices in redistricting. A federal panel is working to redraw Virginia’s U.S. House districts after twice ruling that Virginia lawmakers packed too many black voters into the 3rd District, diluting their influence in adjacent districts. The judges who will redraw the lines gave outside parties a Friday deadline to propose revised maps. At least eight outside parties proposed redistricting plans by the judges’ deadline Friday.

Virginia: New lawsuit challenges Virginia legislative districts | Richmond Times-Dispatch

A lawsuit filed Monday in Richmond Circuit Court challenges 11 of Virginia’s legislative districts, arguing that they violate the state constitution’s requirement of compactness. The suit, backed by the nonpartisan redistricting reform group OneVirginia2021, challenges six Republican-held districts and five Democrat-held districts. The plaintiffs in the districts include members of both major parties, a tea party activist and members of nonpartisan organizations such as the League of Women Voters. The defendants are the Virginia State Board of Elections; chairman James B. Alcorn; vice chair Clara Belle Wheeler; board secretary Singleton B. McAllister; the state Department of Elections; and Edgardo Cortes, commissioner of the state Department of Elections.

Virginia: A third redistricting lawsuit targets elections map | The Washington Post

A group of Virginia residents sued state elections officials Monday over 11 legislative districts — including some in Northern Virginia — charging that they violated the state Constitution by enforcing election maps that too easily protect incumbents. The plaintiffs argue that during the last round of redistricting, in 2011, the General Assembly drew the districts to give incumbents the best chance at holding on to their seats at the expense of geographical compactness, which the Constitution requires. If successful, the suit, which is the third recent court challenge to the state’s elections maps, could scrap the maps and send vulnerable lawmakers scrambling to compete in newly drawn districts. The House and Senate districts in question are spread all over Virginia and include parts of Prince William County, Manassas, Manassas Park, Fairfax County and Arlington County.

Virginia: Hearing held on state election law | Richmond Times-Dispatch

A federal judge last week heard arguments in a case of the Powhatan County Republican Committee and four Republican candidates for the Powhatan County Board of Supervisors trying to challenge state election law. U. S. District Judge M. Hannah Lauck presided over a hearing on Thursday, Sept. 3 that saw the local Republicans suing the Virginia State Board of Elections to challenge a state code they say would unconstitutionally prevent the political party affiliation of local candidates from being included on the Nov. 3 general election ballot next to the candidate’s name. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division.

Virginia: U.S. court moves ahead with plan to redraw Virginia congressional maps | The Washington Post

Two days after Virginia lawmakers blew their court-imposed deadline for redrawing the state’s congressional election maps, federal judges on Thursday began to take matters into their own hands. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia set an ambitious schedule for naming an expert to help judges set new district boundaries and accepting suggested maps from legislators. Last year,the court declared Virginia’s congressional map unconstitutional, saying it packs African American voters into a single district at the expense of their influence elsewhere. The court later ordered the General Assembly to adopt a new map by Sept. 1. Congressional Republicans appealed the decision, but the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to say if whether it will hear the case.

Virginia: Paralysis on redrawing the boundaries of Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District | Daily Press

Sept. 1 brings yet another reminder of the partisan rancor that too often paralyzes the Virginia General Assembly these days. Despite convening briefly for a special session in mid-August, that body failed to meet the deadline imposed by a federal court for redrawing the boundaries of the state’s Third Congressional District. … While the legal and political wrangling continues, the failure of the General Assembly to address its responsibilities will likely leave the map-drawing in the hands of the federal judiciary — a job that the League of Women Voters of Virginia suspects the judges are not eager to take on. The league believes that these maps are a good place to begin, because they were developed by persons seeking to adhere to the redistricting requirements embedded in the Virginia Constitution, rather than by persons seeking only to amass enough voters of the right political stripe in their districts to assure their easy re-election.

Virginia: McAuliffe Restores Voting Rights for More Than 10,000 Virginians | Associated Press

Gov. Terry McAuliffe says his administration has restored the voting and civil rights of more than 10,000 Virginians with criminal records. The Democratic governor said Monday that more Virginians have had their rights restored under his watch than under any other governor in a four-year term. That process allows an ex-offender to vote, run for public office and serve on juries. McAuliffe has made several changes to the process, including allowing residents to submit their application before they’ve paid their court fees.

Virginia: Court to move on redistricting as deadline passes | Richmond Times-Dispatch

The day before today’s court-imposed deadline to redraw Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District, there were no signs of reconciliation between Democrats and Republicans in the legislature. That will almost certainly put the map in the hands of a federal court. “There haven’t been any conversations, no,” said Matt Moran, spokesman for House of Delegates Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford, on Monday afternoon — two weeks after the state Senate adjourned a special legislative session hours after it began. “The House of Delegates acted in good faith to begin the redistricting process. Senate Democrats unilaterally ended that process in the middle of a public hearing, defying a federal court ruling and unilaterally shutting down the possibility of a legislative remedy. The ball is squarely in their court,” Moran said.

Virginia: Who’ll be hurt in redistricting? Surely, some incumbent, somewhere? Surely? | Daily Press

Now that the General Assembly punted on re-doing the map of Virginia’s Congressional districts, the efforts of federal judges to fix matters looks likely to boost Democrats’ hopes for a larger share of the state’s 11 member delegation in the House of Representatives, says Kyle Kondik, of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. How, though, is the question. A panel of U.S. District Court judges has ruled that the General Assembly had packed too many minority voters into the Norfolk-to-Richmond district that sends Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Newport News, to Congress. It told the General Assembly to redo the map by Sept. 1, but that ain’t happening. Kondik thinks if the judges draw a new map, they’d mostly likely move some African American voters into the districts represented by Rep. Scott Rigell, R-Virginia Beach, or Rep Randy Forbes, R-Chesapeake. That could make both those districts more competitive.

Virginia: Redistricting Battle Continues in General Assembly | WVTF

The General Assembly’s impasse over whether or not the Special Session on Redistricting is legally over shows no signs of abating. The Senate adjourned last week thanks to a ruling by Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam and the votes of the chamber’s Democrats and one Republican—but the House of Delegates has still not adjourned. The bone of contention is how to interpret Article 4, section 6 of the Virginia Constitution. The provision says: “Neither house shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn to another place, nor for more than three days.” GOP Senator Bill Stanley says the vote to adjourn defied both that and a federal court.

Virginia: Uncertainty Reigns as Court Takes Over Virginia Redistricting | Roll Call

The same federal three-judge panel that has twice ruled that Virginia’s congressional map unconstitutionally packs blacks into the 3rd District will now be responsible for remedying the injustice it found. How will the court arrive at a new map for the 2016 elections? “We don’t know,” Loyola Law School Professor Justin Levitt told CQ Roll Call Tuesday. “I think they were really hoping the legislature would do it.” The court had given the General Assembly a Sept. 1 deadline to redraw district lines, and Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe had called a special August session to begin that process. But the state Senate failed to agree on a map Monday, when a dispute over a Supreme Court appointee derailed the session.

Virginia: Federal judges will redraw Virginia’s congressional map | Richmond Times-Dispatch

The public never got its say on changes to Virginia congressional district boundaries and the state’s political redistricting process. But federal judges soon will. A public hearing on redistricting ended abruptly Monday when the House Privileges and Elections Committee chairman, Mark L. Cole, R-Spotsylvania, refused to take further testimony after announcing that the Senate had adjourned the special legislative session hours after it began. Cole interrupted Diana Egozcue, president of Virginia NOW and the sixth of 19 scheduled speakers, with the announcement, “We’re no longer in session, so we can no longer take your testimony.” House Republican leaders appeared shell-shocked by the Senate maneuver, which ensures the General Assembly will not meet a Sept. 1 deadline imposed by a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to fix unconstitutional defects in the redistricting plan that then-Gov. Bob McDonnell signed in January 2012. Gov. Terry McAuliffe issued a statement that explicitly kicked the issue back to the courts and declared, “The opportunity for a legislative remedy has ended.” McAuliffe said he was going to send a letter to the courts. “They need to get this redistricting done,” he said in a meeting with reporters outside the Executive Mansion.

Virginia: Redistricting will go to U.S. court | Richmond Times-Dispatch

The public never got its say on changes to Virginia congressional district boundaries and the state’s political redistricting process.
But federal judges soon will. A public hearing on redistricting ended abruptly Monday when the House Privileges and Elections Committee chairman, Mark L. Cole, R-Spotsylvania, refused to take further testimony after announcing that the Senate had adjourned the special legislative session hours after it began. Cole interrupted Diana Egozcue, president of Virginia NOW and the sixth of 19 scheduled speakers, with the announcement, “We’re no longer in session, so we can no longer take your testimony.”
House Republican leaders appeared shell-shocked by the Senate maneuver, which ensures the General Assembly will not meet a Sept. 1 deadline imposed by a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to fix unconstitutional defects in the redistricting plan that then-Gov. Bob McDonnell signed in January 2012.

Verified Voting in the News: Virginia Finally Drops America’s ‘Worst Voting Machines’ | Wired

If you voted in a Virginia election any time between 2003 and April of this year, your vote was at serious risk of being compromised by hackers. That’s the assessment reached by Virginia’s board of elections, which recently decertified some 3,000 WINVote touchscreen voting machines after learning about security problems with the systems, including a poorly secured Wi-Fi feature for tallying votes. The problems with the machines are so severe that Jeremy Epstein, a computer scientist with SRI International who tried for years to get them banned, called them the worst voting machines in the country. If the WINVote systems weren’t hacked in a past election, he noted in a recent blog post and during a presentation last week at the USENIX security conference, “it was only because no one tried.” The decision to decommission the machines, which came after the state spent a decade repeatedly ignoring concerns raised by Epstein and others, is a stark reminder as the nation heads into the 2016 presidential election season that the ongoing problem of voting machine security is still not taken seriously by election officials. Virginia officials only examined the WINVote systems after Governor Terry McAuliffe tried to vote with one during the state’s general elections last November.

Virginia: Contentious special session on redistricting ahead | Associated Press

State lawmakers are set to return to the Capitol on Monday for what’s expected to be a contentious fight over congressional redistricting and a Virginia Supreme Court appointment. The fate of the governor’s high court selection is all but certain, but the final look at what Virginia’s new congressional boundaries will look like is less clear. Republican leaders of the GOP-controlled General Assembly plan to elect Rossie D. Alston Jr. Monday as a new justice on the Virginia Supreme Court. His election will remove Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s new appointment to the high court, Justice Jane Marum Roush, who took her spot on the bench at the beginning of this month. The judge fight has been all about politics, as both sides say Roush is a qualified candidate.

Virginia: Voter registration changes that worried GOP are delayed in Virginia | The Washington Post

The head of Virginia’s elections board on Tuesday postponed action on a plan that would let people registering to vote skip questions about their citizenship and criminal history, saying it needs to be reworked. James , chairman of the Virginia State Board of Elections, said in an email to fellow elections officials that he was pulling the proposal from the board’s September agenda. At the same time, he asserted there was still a need to revamp existing voter registration forms, which seem to routinely trip up would-be voters. The move puts off action on a seemingly arcane administrative matter that hit a nerve with Republicans on the hot-button issues of illegal immigration, voter fraud and the restoration of felons’ right to vote. Hundreds of people flocked to a board meeting two weeks ago to oppose making questions about citizenship and felony convictions optional on voter registration forms. They said the change would make it easier for felons and illegal immigrants to vote fraudulently and suggested that Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) was seeking to pump up Democratic voter rolls in the crucial swing state ahead of the 2016 presidential elections.