Ohio: Cuyahoga County seeks bids for help with vote-by-mail project | 19 Action News
Cuyahoga County’s Department of Public Works is seeking bids for help with the project approved by Cuyahoga County Council Monday evening to send a vote-by-mail application to all active Cuyahoga County voters.
The request for bids was approved Monday morning by Cuyahoga County’s Executive Board of Control in advance of the County Council’s Monday evening vote. Specifically, county government seeks help with manufacturing envelopes to be used in the mailing and mailhouse data processing. Read More
Indiana: White to represent himself in next round of court | WISH– TV
Embattled Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White will represent himself as state Democrats’ challenge to his candidacy works its way through the next round of court hearings.
As 24-Hour News 8 reporter Jim Shella first reported in his blog at noon Tuesday, Republican attorney Jim Bopp confirmed Tuesday that he had resigned as White’s lawyer. Read More
Ohio: Rep. Kucinich asks U.S. Attorney to investigate Ohio over Cuyahoga ballot controversy | WEWS
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has asked federal authorities to intervene on behalf of Cuyahoga County voters. Kucinich sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice Monday asking U.S. attorneys to “use all the investigative and Prosecutorial power” of their office to look at the state’s ban on unsolicited absentee ballots.
Ohio Secretary of State John Husted recently banned from sending unsolicited absentee ballot counties applications to voters. Cuyahoga County ballot Executive Ed Fitzgerald plans to continue the practice of sending every registered voter in absentee. Read More
Perhaps we now know why the earth rumbled beneath the Eastern Seaboard then sustained the wrath of Hurricane Irene as she barreled ashore — in the same area and in the same week. The spirit of Martin Luther King Jr., who was immortalized with a memorial on the National Mall, may have been aroused to anger as yet another state, this one Arizona, is tampering with the Voting Rights Act, one of the measures for which he and others selflessly sacrificed their lives.
Republican attorney general Tom Horne, obviously executing the whims of powerful GOP operatives, has decided to challenge Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a measure that was implemented specifically to protect the rights of the minority electorate. This is a bold and obvious move to further bolster conservatives’ obsession with making President Obama a one-term president.
The same body of individuals has doubtlessly ordered a systematic challenge to this law across the country after the U.S. Supreme Court mysteriously ruled that voting districts could be exempt from the federal law if they can show they’re no longer engaged in race discrimination. Read More
Nevada: North Las Vegas refuses to pay for lawsuits | Las Vegas Sun
North Las Vegas refuses to foot the bill for lawsuits Councilman Wade Wagner and former Mayor Mike Montandon filed against the city in June over a new election. Wagner is asking for more than $72,000 in attorney’s fees. Montandon, along with North Las Vegas resident Jay King, claims the city should pay $40,000 for a joint lawsuit that halted a special election in Ward 4.
Wagner won the Ward 4 general election against former Councilman Richard Cherchio by a single vote. The Clark County Elections Department later found one invalid vote. The Council voted to hold a new election in Precinct 4306, where the one invalid vote was cast, which prompted Cherchio to sue the city, joined later by Montandon.
According to court documents, North Las Vegas has filed an opposition to Wagner’s request, stating that the Council had the right to vote for a new election and that Wagner’s attorney, Todd Bice, stated in open court that he was “not getting paid” and was representing him because he “believed in the cause.” Read More
South Carolina: Savannah Woman told she needs Proof of Marriage to get Driver’s License | WSAV TV
Nora Elze is 88, and still pretty spry, so she’d still like to do her own errands. But when it comes to driving around Savannah, well, her car is still in the garage. That’s because she can’t get aGeorgia driver’s license and it has nothing to do with her age, it has to do with her name.
Elze and her husband Warren lived in Savannah for fourteen years. “so from 1985 to 1999, I had a Georgia’s driver’s license,” she tells me. She and Mr. Elze moved back from Pennsylvania a few weeks ago. “And we went right in to get our licenses. My husband got his without any trouble, but I couldn’t get mine,’ she tells me.
Mrs. Elze was told that because her birth certificate had her maiden name on it and her Pennsylvania ID had her married name, she would need to prove that she was married. “I think this is crazy, we got married in 1946,” she told me. Read More
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Voting Section requested more information from the State of South Carolina regarding a new photo ID law for voters. DOJ is reviewing the new law under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires some states and jurisdictions – including SC – to submit their voting changes for approval before they can be enforced.
The request for more information – which gives the state 60 days to respond and will delay DOJ’s decision up to 60 days after the receipt of the new data – came in a letter from Section chief Chris Herren to the office of Attorney General Alan Wilson. Read More
Blogs: What More Can We Learn from South Carolina? | Election Updates
Doug Chapin’s post today on his blog digs down into the Department of Justice’s data request from South Carolina, seeking more detailed data concerning who does, and who doesn’t, have the identification required to vote in that state, as a consequence of their new voter ID law. I agree entirely with Doug’s top-line reaction — At last! Some real data.
At the same time, the request seems to miss an opportunity to find out more about whether voter identification laws will have a disenfranchising effect, and in particular, a disproportional effect on minority voters. The reason is that the disproportional effect may not be so much on whether whites and blacks have drivers licenses, but whether they have drivers licenses with the voter’s current address. Read More
Zambia: Ballot papers to be flown directly Durban to Lusaka, says Mambilima | LusakaTimes.com
Ballot papers for the September 20 tripartite elections will be flown directly to Lusaka from Durban, Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) chairperson Justice Ireen Mambilima has said.
Justice Mambilima told journalists at a Press briefing held atUniversal Print Group (UPG) that the ballot papers would be flown directly to Lusaka unlike in the past when they used to go through Johannesburg. She said the UPG would make arrangements to charter a cargo plane which would deliver the ballot papers directly to Lusaka. Read More
Secretary Election Commission Ishtiaq Ahmad Khan called on Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani here on Tuesday and apprised him of the preparation of reforms being undertaken by the Commission to ensure fair, transparent and credible elections in the country. The Secretary informed the Prime Minister about Election Commission of Pakistan’s Strategic Plan 2010-14 which has been prepared in consultation with all the stakeholders including all political parties, civil society and media.
He informed the Prime Minister that the Computerized Electoral Rolls are being prepared in collaboration with NADRA and current door to door verification throughout Pakistan is underway until September 2011, and that final Computerized Electoral Rolls will be ready by April 2012. Secretary Election Commission thanked the Prime Minister for extending full support to make Election Commission of Pakistan an autonomous. Read More