Australia: Lawyers criticise ‘hopeless’ High Court challenge to new Senate voting laws | ABC

Lawyers for the Commonwealth have labelled arguments for a High Court challenge to new Senate voting laws as “hopeless”. Family First senator Bob Day is fighting the reforms, which do away with group voting in the Upper House and make it more difficult for micro-parties to be elected. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull argued the legislation — under which voters will be encouraged to vote for at least six potential senators above the line — was “good for democracy”. But Senator Day said the Government was wrong to say the laws put power back into the hands of voters.

Minnesota: Election-year session sees election-reform bills | Capitol Report

Irony alert: Election-reform bills proposed this session must pass through legislative panels led by lawmakers who’ve decided they aren’t going to run in the next election. The chairs of the House committee and Senate subcommittee overseeing proposed changes to Minnesota elections both said last month (before the March 1 precinct caucuses and the March 8 start of session) that they won’t be on the ballot for re-election in November. Rep. Tim Sanders, R-Blaine, chair of the House Government Operations and Elections Policy Committee, made his announcement in late February, and Sen. Katie Sieben, DFL-Cottage Grove, chair of the Senate Rules and Administration Subcommittee on Elections, announced in early February.

Australia: Paving way for early election, Australia passes voting reforms | Reuters

Australia’s Senate on Friday passed voting reforms after a marathon session lasting over 28 hours, clearing the way for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to dissolve both houses of parliament and call an early election to end a hostile Senate. Independent and minor party senators elected at the last election in 2013 have stalled key aspects of the government’s agenda, including changes that would make higher education and health care more expensive and limit access to welfare. The Senate voting reforms would make it harder for smaller parties to enter parliament through vote sharing deals. Turnbull is now seen as likely to opt for a rare double dissolution election, which sees both houses of parliament face voters, arguing that it will clear the Senate of obstructionists and allow long-stalled economic reforms.

Editorials: Everything you don’t understand about Australian senate voting reform (and are afraid to admit) | Van Badham/The Guardian

Student politics is brutal but its lessons are thorough; by the age of 19, I’d learned how to pull knives out of my back without wincing, how to count a senate-style multi-candidate preferential ballot and that a true politician will do anything – anything – to be re-elected. I’ve been reminded of these last two valuable lessons in the context of the agreement the Greens and Nick Xenophon have made with the Coalition to change Australia’s senate voting system, and of an admission that Malcolm Turnbull made on radio last week that contained nothing short of a threat to the existence of the Australian senate cross-bench should they not give him his way on some union-busting legislation. One can imagine Canberra has had a most talkative long weekend.

Australia: Election experts predict Senate changes will encounter High Court challenge | Sydney Morning Herald

Senate voting changes, if passed in their current form, are almost certain to incur a High Court challenge, polling experts have warned. Veteran psephologist Malcolm Mackerras said the voting changes – which would clear the way for a snap double-dissolution election likely to clean out the current crossbench – stemmed from a “filthy deal” between the Greens and the Liberal Party, “led by the unelected, dud Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull”. Greens senator Lee Rhiannon questions Glenn Druery when he appeared before the Senate voting reform committee on Tuesday. Photo: Andrew Meares Mr Mackerras faced a truncated hearing of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters along with fellow psephologist Antony Green, the ABC election expert, constitutional expert Professor George Williams and University of Tasmania academic Dr Kevin Bonham.

Australia: New Senate voting rules could be ready for July election, says electoral commission | The Guardian

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) says it could implement new Senate voting rules within 100 days, clearing the way for the system to be implemented in time for a July double-dissolution election. On Tuesday the AEC commissioner, Tom Rodgers, told a truncated inquiry into the voting overhaul the “three-month clock” would begin as soon as legislation was passed but “the AEC stands ready to deliver an election whenever the government call it with the legislation that’s in force at the time”. “If I get less time or resources, internally that’s not going to be a pretty look but we will deliver a successful election,” Rodgers told the joint select committee on electoral matters.

Australia: Former Australian Electoral Commission official says Senate voting change is ‘incoherent’ | The Conversation

A former official of the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), Michael Maley, has attacked the government’s planned reform of Senate voting as internally inconsistent. Maley says the scheme proposed will create an anomaly never previously seen at Senate elections – identical preferences for candidates may produce a formal vote if the elector expresses them “above the line”, but an informal one if they are expressed “below the line” because the ballot paper would be insufficiently completed. Maley had a 30-year career at the AEC and was deeply involved in the 1983 drafting of the current provisions governing Senate elections. He was the recognised in-house expert on the Senate electoral system. He has lodged a submission for the brief inquiry into the government’s legislation, which is being done by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters.

Australia: Coalition amends Senate voting reform bill to ensure election night ballot count | The Guardian

The Turnbull government has moved to amend its electoral legislation two days after it was introduced to parliament, after concerns preliminary Senate results would no longer be available on election night. The Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese said the legislation had been rushed and the amendments “exposed how bad this dirty deal is”. The bill introduced to the lower house on Monday included new procedures for the scrutiny of Senate votes, with the assistant returning officer being required to count the number of ballot papers without inspecting them. “There will no longer be requirements to reject informal Senate ballot papers or count first preference votes prior to transmission to the Australian electoral officer,” the government’s original explanatory memorandum said.

Australia: Malcolm Turnbull moves to overhaul Senate voting system before election | The Guardian

Malcolm Turnbull is moving quickly to overhaul the Senate voting system before this year’s election, declaring the end of secretive preference deals that have allowed backroom operators to “game” the system. The prime minister said the legislation – introduced to the parliament on Monday with the backing of the Greens and the independent senator Nick Xenophon – would empower voters to decide how their preferences flowed in upper house elections. The bill has been referred to the joint standing committee on electoral matters with a reporting deadline of 2 March, paving the way for a debate and decision in the Senate before parliament rises for the pre-budget break.

Japan: Abe wants electoral reform reflected in next lower house election | Japan Today

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday it is desirable that the next House of Representatives election be held after implementing proposed electoral system reform aimed at addressing vote weight disparities between constituencies in urban and rural areas. “It is important that such reform be reflected firmly when the next election is held,” Abe said at the lower house Budget Committee. Abe made the comment amid speculation that he may dissolve the lower house for a snap general election to coincide with a House of Councillors election this summer in what would be a “double election.” However, the premier has not ruled out the possibility of dissolving the lower chamber before the proposed reform takes effect.

Mississippi: Election-Law Reform May Actually Happen in Mississippi | Jackson Free Press

Election-law reform has been a slow process in Mississippi, but with the help of a bi-partisan committee’s report, that could change soon. Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann formed a committee of legislators, circuit clerks, election commissioners and other citizens to review the state’s election code. The 2016 Election Law Reform Committee met from June through September 2015 and published a report of their recommendations on Jan. 19. The committee suggests several changes to Mississippi’s election code, including online voter registration, campaign-finance reporting and election official conduct. Hosemann views the changes as “phase two” of election-law reform that he says started with the voter-ID laws that went into effect in 2014. Hosemann told the Stennis Press Forum on Feb. 1 that the committee looked at several other state election laws to help inform their recommendations.

Canada: Liberals’ no-referendum stance on electoral reform appears to soften | Ottawa Citizen

Another Liberal MP responsible for electoral reform won’t absolutely rule out a national referendum to change how Canadians vote. “It’s not something that we’re ruling in or ruling out,” Mark Holland, parliamentary secretary to Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef, told reporters Wednesday. His remark follows a recent, similar comment from Monsef. Compare that with the statement by Government House Leader Dominic Leblanc in late December that seemed to categorically reject the possibility: “Our plan is not to have a national referendum. Our plan is to use Parliament to consult Canadians,” said Leblanc. “That’s always been our plan, and I don’t have any reason to think that’s been changed.”

Editorials: Florida voting reforms should reflect reality | Miami Herald

There will be an abundance of issues competing for state lawmakers’ attention when they convene starting Tuesday for the 2016 legislative session. Voting reform, however, is not among them. Not unexpected — after all, it is an election year — but it’s too bad all the same. Florida, in some ways, remains a regressive state when it comes to making voting convenient, secure and easy to access for those who are eligible. Too much of such stagnation is mired in politics and policies calculated to disenfranchise some Floridians, be they ex-felons who must petition the state to regain their ability to vote, students who couldn’t find a voting site on major campuses or African-American voters who have seen early-voting sites curtailed in their neighborhoods. And then there are the lines, the interminable lines that, in 2012, made Florida pretty much irrelevant in the presidential election. It’s time for state legislators to take more of their cues from their constituents, who increasingly are not waiting to schlep to the polls on Election Day — a long-enduring but increasingly archaic event that pays homage to the country’s agrarian roots. But farmers no longer need an entire day to travel by horse to the county seat to vote.

Italy: Prime Minister Renzi makes progress with constitutional reform | Reuters

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Monday moved one step closer to passing a constitutional reform aimed at streamlining the lawmaking process when the lower house of parliament approved the bill in its fourth reading. Renzi has staked his political future on the reform to cut the size and powers of the upper house Senate. The Chamber of Deputies approved it by 367 votes to 194. Under the lengthy procedures required for constitutional changes, both houses now must pass the reform again. It will then face what promises to be a fiercely contested national referendum which Renzi hopes to hold in October.

Canada: Federal Liberals rule out referendum on electoral reform — despite recent precedent | National Post

Justin Trudeau and his party swept into power in October’s election on a series of big promises, including a pledge 2015 would mark the last election under first-past-the-post. Since the Liberals have formed government, enacting some of those plans — whether it’s a pledge to bring in 25,000 Syrian refugees or withdraw fighter jets from the battle against Syria — is turning out to be harder than expected. Now, the sunny plan to create a more democratic democracy is casting a shadow over those lofty ambitions. Despite calls from both the left and right that any changes to how Canadians elect their government require the direct input of the people, Government House Leader Dominic LeBlanc said Sunday that’s not in the cards. “Our plan is not to have a national referendum, our plan is to use parliament to consult Canadians,” Leblanc said during an interview on CTV’s Question Period. “That’s always been our plan and I don’t have any reason to think that’s been changed.”

Canada: Conservatives vow to block electoral reform without referendum | The Globe and Mail

The Conservative Party is vowing to use any means necessary, including a Senate blockade, to keep the Liberal government from forcing through electoral-reform legislation without first holding a referendum. “The entire Conservative caucus, both in the House and the Senate, will be opposing any radical changes to the electoral system without a referendum” Don Plett, the Conservative Whip in the Senate, said in an interview Wednesday. “We would look at all avenues” to stop such a bill, interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose said. “My hope is that the Liberals will come to their senses.” The Conservatives are up in arms over a recent declaration by Liberal House Leader Dominic LeBlanc that electoral reform, which would replace the existing first-past-the-post system of electing MPs with some form of proportional representation or a ranked ballot, will simply be passed as a law by Parliament.

Canada: Did Justin Trudeau rule out one potential plan for electoral reform? | Macleans

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to study electoral reform, but comments on the topic this week raised questions about whether he has already ruled out one version of it. Trudeau told the Canadian Press on Wednesday that he doesn’t like the idea of “disconnecting any MPs from specific groups of citizens or geographic location.” “The fact that every single politician needs to earn the trust of a specific group of constituents who cover the broad range of Canadian public opinion strengthens our democracy,” Trudeau said in a long interview with CP’s Ottawa bureau.

Canada: Time will tell if Trudeau is free enough from party shackles to pursue electoral reform: Hébert | Toronto Star

It is not just Justin Trudeau’s opposition rivals who were — as the prime minister indelicately put it in a recent interview — left in the dust on election night, a generation of old-school Liberal insiders was, too. For most of the new Liberals in the House of Commons, the names of the party’s veteran power brokers ring only distant bells. Many party fixtures on Parliament Hill are unknown to the new movers-and-shakers of the Trudeau cabinet. The ghosts of a recent Liberal past still haunt the halls of Parliament but they are, for the most part, rattling their chains outside the corridors of power, with few or no IOUs to collect on. Some used to make themselves indispensable by smoothing the Liberal path to well-heeled donors. But such go-between services became obsolete after Jean Chrétien banned corporate donations a bit more than a decade ago.

Voting Blogs: Both Lawmakers and Citizens Push for Voting Reforms Before 2016 Election | Project Vote

In 2015, nonpartisan voting rights group Project Vote monitored 315 bills, introduced by state and federal lawmakers, that could change the way people vote in 2016 and beyond. “It was a historic year in voting rights. Not only did we mark the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, but we also saw citizens and advocates on the ground demanding that our elected leaders restore voting rights protections,” said Project Vote President Michael Slater. “Although there has been a rise in positive election reform proposals, we still have a long way to go, particularly when it comes to protecting voters from new laws that undermine access to the ballot.”

California: Elections summit takes stock of California’s nonpartisan top-two primary reform | California Forward

It’s been five years since voters approved “The Top Two Primary.” California has been taking stock of the open primary election reform, to see if it will be another case of “As California goes, so goes the nation” or a political flop. “I would never have entered this race and would never have won this race if there had not been the top-two primary,” Democratic State Senator Steve Glazer (D-Contra Costa), told the audience at the Nonpartisan Primary Summit. “One of the things the top-two did for me is it gave me some room for me to define what it meant to me to be a Democrat.” Glazer’s win over a more liberal Democrat was the most recent example of the influence this reform is having on California elections. But, is it resulting in reducing partisan bickering and gridlock while making elections more competitive and creating a more moderate and productive Legislature?

South Dakota: Election reform measures headed to 2016 ballot | Argus Leader

South Dakota voters successfully referred two statewide laws passed by the Legislature earlier this year, meaning the laws will not go into effect until voters decide their fate in November 2016. The two laws would have become effective at midnight. One, Senate Bill 69, would have revamped a number of election-related matters and the other, Senate Bill 177, established a youth minimum wage that was one dollar less per hour than the minimum wage established by voters in the 2014 election. Corey Heidelberger, an Aberdeen-based political activist, sponsored both ballot drives. The state Democrats, which have found repeated success with statewide ballot measures, provided manpower to secure the 13,871 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.

China: Hong Kong lawmakers reject Beijing-backed election plan | Associated Press

The Hong Kong government’s controversial Beijing-backed election reforms were defeated in the legislature Thursday but the crucial vote came to a confusing anticlimax as pro-establishment lawmakers accidentally failed to vote for it. After a lengthy debate, 28 lawmakers voted against the proposals, which sparked huge street protests in the southern Chinese city last year. Eight others voted in favor. However, in a bizarre scene moments before the vote took place, most of the pro-establishment lawmakers walked out of the legislature chamber and ended up not casting their votes.

Editorials: Hillary Clinton is politicizing voting rights: The Democratic frontrunner is destroying the chance for election reform by blaming all Republicans. | Richard Hasen/Slate

Hillary Clinton spoke at Texas Southern University last week, where she put forward some good and provocative ideas for improving our elections. She wants Congress to fix the part of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court gutted in 2013. She wants to expand early voting periods nationally to at least 20 days. And most provocatively, she advocates automatic universal voter registration across the country, including a program to automatically register high school students to vote before their 18th birthdays. But the partisan way she’s framed the issue—by blaming Republicans for all the voting problems—makes it less likely these changes will actually be implemented should she be elected president. Instead, she’s offering red meat to her supporters while alienating the allies she would need to get any reforms enacted.

China: Hong Kong Lawmakers Promise to Block Election Plan | VoA News

Political tensions continue to rise in Hong Kong. Pro-democracy legislators are promising to block China’s plan for electoral reform in the territory. The plan calls for electing a city leader from a list of candidates approved by the central government in Beijing. Democracy activists say they will travel throughout Hong Kong over the next several weeks. They want to convince people to support the direct election of Hong Kong’s chief executive. Last year, pro-democracy activists shut down parts of the city for months.

Voting Blogs: Elections, Meet Academia; Academia, Meet Elections | The Canvass

“Elections are the way we measure the democratic process,” said Kathleen Hale, associate professor at Auburn University in Alabama. “As technology changes, and the pace of change accelerates, having top skills in the part of our government that measures democracy is critical.” Her university and a number of others are doing their part to help measure democracy better—and otherwise help improve the election process. If you’re a legislator from Alabama, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Virginia and a few other states, count yourselves lucky. These states already get help from academia to improve election management.

US Virgin Islands: Senators question Elections board members, vow changes | Virgin Islands Daily News

Senators grilled Elections board members and staff Tuesday night about the 2014 primary, General and run-off elections. Senate President Neville James said at the beginning of the Committee of the Whole hearing that the purpose of the meeting was to talk about the issues that came up during the 2014 election cycle, and not to discuss election reform. He said election reform would be a topic for a future hearing. During Tuesday’s committee meeting, senators often were frustrated by the lack of a unified voice from the Elections board members. Sen. Kenneth Gittens said every time someone made a statement, some board members would be nodding in agreement and some would be shaking their heads in disagreement. “Not even a choir singing here today, everyone with their own sheet of music,” Gittens said.

Mississippi: Senate Elections Committee: where bills go to die | Jackson Clarion-Ledger

In the Mississippi Senate, elections bills aren’t sent to the Senate Elections Committee for debate and passage. They’re sent there to die. Senate Elections didn’t even hold a meeting this legislative session. Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and Senate Elections Chairman Chris McDaniel, R-Ellisville, have been at political odds for years, and McDaniel has been back-benched. When Reeves routes a bill to Elections, it’s “double-referred” to other committees first. The bills don’t clear those committees, so McDaniel’s doesn’t even get a crack at voting on them. If there is by chance an elections measure that Reeves might consider, he routes it to another committee.

Illinois: State lawmakers tackle election reform | The Daily American

State lawmakers are trying to remedy what they see as a broken election system that takes too long, is too invasive and has too much influence from corporate donors. Both Republicans and Democrats have introduced a group of bills to change ballot procedures, primary dates and campaign finance rules. Rep. Scott Drury, D-Highwood, introduced two of the bills, which would change the primary date for state and federal elections and allow for an open ballot. Drury’s House Bill 193 would change the primary election date to the fourth Tuesday in June. He said he heard complaints from both constituents and lawmakers about the long political process that he sees as flawed.

North Carolina: House members file redistricting bill to ban ‘irregularly shaped’ boundaries | News Observer

A bipartisan group of N.C. House members filed the second of two proposals Monday to create a nonpartisan redistricting process. House Bill 92 would be modeled on an Iowa plan that lets lawmakers vote on redistricting proposals drafted by legislative staffers. It would take effect for the next round of redistricting, after the 2020 U.S. Census. The group Common Cause North Carolina, which advocates for election reforms, is pushing for the bill. “For decades, North Carolina’s flawed redistricting system has resulted in gerrymandered districts that deprive voters of having a real voice in their elections,” executive director Bob Phillips said in a statement Tuesday. “We applaud these Republican and Democratic lawmakers for working together to pass reform that would protect the fundamental right of voters to choose their representatives.”

Italy: Renzi wins key battle as Senate approves election reform bill | Europe Online

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi won a key political battle on Tuesday after the Senate approved an election reform bill that had been bitterly resisted by dissenters within his ruling Democratic Party (PD). The so-called Italicum law is designed to put an end to political instability in Italy, a country that has had 63 governments in 69 years of republican history. Senators backed it in a 184-66 vote, with 2 abstentions, the chamber said on its website. Renzi celebrated the vote on Twitter. “Courage pays, reforms are going ahead,” he wrote on the micro-blogging website.