Iowa: Lawmakers advance online voter registration bill | Associated Press

Legislation that would allow online voter registration in Iowa advanced in the state Senate Wednesday. The bill received preliminary backing in a Senate subcommittee was set to go to the full State Government Committee for approval. Under the proposal, the Iowa Secretary of State would oversee an online voter registration system that would be available by 2015. Sen. Jeff Danielson, D- Cedar Falls, said he wants to make registration more “customer-friendly,” while still ensuring that the system is secure. Those registering would have to supply identifying information and meet voter eligibility standards. “We think government can adopt some of those business practices and be more customer-friendly, but also recognizing that there is an inherent right to vote,” Danielson said. Sen. Jake Chapman, R-Adel, declined to approve the bill in subcommittee, but said he thought it was moving in the right direction.

Connecticut: State launches online voter registration | Journal Inquirer

Elijah Alvarez of Vernon became one of the first people to use the state’s new online voter registration system Tuesday. Alvarez, 17, set up his tablet computer, grabbed his driver’s license, and was ready to go. It took minutes. “Very easy,” Alvarez said afterwards. He’ll be 18 this month. And once his registration application is approved by his town’s registrars of voters, he’ll be able to vote in the November election. At the same time, Lisette Rodriguez of East Hartford, who is 20, used the program to change her voting address to reflect a recent move from Church Street to Tolland Street. They were the first two to use the online voter registration system after it was announced Tuesday by Secretary of the State Denise W. Merrill.

Ohio: Attorney General Mike DeWine rejects petition for Voter’s Bill of Rights referendum | cleveland.com

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine on Thursday rejected a Democratic-backed petition for a statewide referendum on a Voters Bill of Rights, saying proponents’ summary language was misleading. Proponents of the proposed constitutional amendment, which include the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, say they plan to move quickly to submit new summary language along with another 1,000 signatures as a first step toward putting the measure on the November ballot. In a release, DeWine said the summary language, which would describe the proposed amendment to voters, ran afoul of federal law in two places.

Louisiana: Secretary of State speaks of number, cost of elections | Press Herald

Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler has worked hard to add a new dimension to his job, while streamlining and updating the whole voting process. “Louisiana ranks third in the country of eligible voters registered to vote,” Schedler told a gathering of businesspersons and elected officials Friday. “In our state, 84 percent of eligible voters are registered to vote.” While a good percentage of persons are registered to vote, the problem, Schedler said, is “nobody shows up to vote.” One reason? “We have way too many elections in Louisiana,” he said. From January 2005 to December 31, 2010, Louisiana held 70 elections, according to the Legislative auditor. It was the highest number of any state.

Idaho: Online Voter Portal Proposed | Times News

One Idaho lawmaker’s push to create an online voter registration portal received mixed reviews and immediate opposition Monday at its first introduction hearing. State Rep. Mat Erpelding, D-Boise, presented the bill to the House State Affairs Committee that would allow voters to register to vote online, a method available only in handful of states like Utah and Arizona. “What you find across the country … you have a younger voting generation who are accustomed to online registration or online banking or online everything,” Erpelding said. “So there’s an expectation that we move toward a more digital system.”

Editorials: Legislature can end debate on Minnesota online voting registration | Star Tribune

A Ramsey County District Court clock has been ticking since mid-December on a lawsuit filed by a handful of Republican officials challenging DFL Secretary of State Mark Ritchie’s authority to institute online voter registration, which he did in September. The Legislature ought to beat Judge John Guthmann to the punch. Soon after they reconvene on Feb. 25, legislators ought to give Ritchie the legal green light he may or may not have had last fall. Voters, election administrators and taxpayers benefit from the convenience, accuracy and cost-saving efficiency of online registration. Ritchie, who plans to leave office at the end of this year, maintains that he has always had the law on his side. He cites a law enacted in 2000 allowing government agencies to switch to electronic records and to allow for electronic signatures on forms and documents. His application of that law to voter registration caught legislators by surprise and was met with bipartisan skepticism and the lawsuit.

Maryland: Experts remain concerned about Maryland election fraud threat | Baltimore Sun

By now, just about everyone connected to the Internet is familiar with this process: Required to fill out and sign a form of some kind, you ask for and receive a hyperlink via email. You open the link, find the form you need (perhaps a pdf), download it, print it, fill it out and mail it off. That’s a common practice, though increasingly old-school by today’s online standards. There doesn’t seem to be anything particularly risky about the transaction; few would think twice about conducting business that way. But while integrity is important in all transactional realms, it rises to precious when we’re talking about voting. And that’s why a similar process, new this year and slated to be part of Maryland’s primary election in June, has some civic-minded computer security experts sounding alarms about the potential for fraud. … The three experts who wrote to the board about this in 2012 were David Jefferson, a computer scientist based at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California; J. Alex Halderman, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan; and Barbara Simons, a retired IBM computer scientist and an expert on electronic voting. They are part of network of vigilant computer security experts who independently assess state elections systems and report their concerns.

Editorials: Government has to make voting easier | The Washington Post

Once the recount was over on Monday, control of Virginia’s Senate was determined by a margin of less than a dozen votes in a special election in which a mere 20 percent of registered voters participated. This wasn’t the first time a high-stakes race depended on an unhealthily small sliver of the electorate. Maybe only so many people will ever bother with a state senate special election. But registration and turnout would be a lot higher across the board if voting in the United States weren’t a Kafkaesque exercise. Government has got to make voting easier. The first thing politicians can do is stop trying to make it harder. GOP lawmakers should end efforts to limit access to the ballot box with restrictive and unnecessary voter identification laws, for example. Then they should fix the things the government was already doing wrong. That’s where a report President Obama commissioned after the 2012 presidential election comes in. The commission included Mr. Obama’s top campaign lawyer — and that of Mitt Romney, his 2012 rival. The result could easily have been a collection of useless platitudes. Instead, the bipartisan panel offered a set of serious changes that could, if state and local election officials took them up, make a big difference.

Editorials: Who Registers to Vote Online? | Michael P. McDonald/Huffington Post

A sensible election administration reform is quietly sweeping the nation. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 18 states have implemented or recently adopted online voter registration, either initiating a new registration or updating an old one. Twelve other states have legislation winding its way through the legislative process. The reform is bipartisan in that both Democratic- and Republican-controlled state governments have adopted it, from Arizona to Maryland. Legislators are attracted to online voter registration because it offers substantial election administration savings. Arizona, the first state to adopt online voter registration in 2002, reports that over 70 percent of registrations are now conducted online. The old paper system cost 83 cents to process each registration form, compared to 3 cents for the online system. The online system is more reliable than the paper system, reducing data entry errors that can disenfranchise voters and introduce other election administration costs when communications — such as absentee ballots — from election officials to voters are sent to a bad address. With state and local governments strapped for cash, online voter registration can reduce election administration costs by millions of dollars while simultaneously improving the integrity of the system. And for those who are concerned about fraud, federal law requires first time registrants to provide identification before they are allowed to vote.

Voting Blogs: So Yesterday: “The (Rather Outdated) Case Against Early Voting” | Election Academy

Earlier this week, law professors Eugene Kontorovich and John McGinnis contributed a piece to Politico Magazine making The Case Against Early Voting. … This piece isn’t unique; indeed, the proposal to expand early voting seems to have struck more of a nerve than the endorsement of online voter registration. But this piece is especially curious because it seems to focus on one criticism of early voting that was more prevalent years ago – namely, the loss of the experience of a single day of voting. … This argument, which was popular a decade ago, is undercut by research by Paul Gronke and othersshowing that early voters are not only more partisan but less undecided, meaning that they have no interest in “taking in the full back and forth of the campaign.” It also flies in the face of voters, well, voting with their feet by choosing to cast ballots outside of the traditional polling place. There are, to be sure, evidence-based arguments that early voting isn’t the turnout machine it’s often sold to be – indeed, Barry Burden and three colleagues have a provocative new paper that suggests that early voting actually DECREASES turnout in the absence of opportunities for same-day registration. There is also a growing realization of the need to do cost-benefit analyses of lengthy voting periods and identify the best time to open the process when significant numbers of voters are ready to take advantage of early voting.

Minnesota: Legislature to consider online voter registration bill | Pioneer Press

Democratic and Republican lawmakers agree that online voter registration is a good idea — if it is done right. At least, that consensus emerged Tuesday during a House Elections Committee hearing on a bill that would authorize online registration and absentee ballot applications. Registering online is “user friendly, cheaper and more reliable” than filling out paper applications, said Rep. Steve Simon, DFL-Hopkins, the committee chairman and bill sponsor. Minnesota voters already can register electronically. Secretary of State Mark Ritchie started accepting online registrations in September. So far, about 2,500 voters have registered on the new website.

Nebraska: Online voter registration in Nebraska? | KMAland

A bill before the Unicameral would enable Nebraskans to register to vote online, 24-7. Nebraska Secretary of State John Gale, who oversees the state’s elections, says he’d support the move onto the Internet and once the website is created, it would be a relatively quick, simple process for the user to get registered. “You have to have a driver’s license and that driver’s license has to be a Nebraska license that’s identifiable through the Department of Motor Vehicles,” Gale says. “From that information, we can capture accurately the exact legal name, the driver’s license number, and the signature. It’s so critical that we have the signature for purposes of comparison when people go to vote.” The bill, LB 661, is being sponsored by Senator Bob Krist of Omaha.

Editorials: New York Needs To Bolster Its Voting System | Blair Horner/WAMC

During the 2012 election, far too many Americans voters had to stand in long lines for hours in order to cast their ballot.  Voters who were stuck waiting were all too frequently lower-income and non-white.  The President promised to act, in order to ensure that such a disgraceful situation would never happen again. The President convened a blue-ribbon panel jointly headed by the top lawyers for the Obama and Romney campaigns.  Last week, the panel issued its findings.  The report, The American Voting Experience: Report and Recommendations of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration, called for – among other proposals – expanded early voting, online registration, and a goal of ensuring that no voter waited on line for more than 30 minutes to cast their ballot. The report was the result of a six-month-long study.  The panel held public hearings as well as meetings with experts and election administrators. The report’s findings came as New York is once again debating how to strengthen its democracy.  And while most of that debate has been over weak ethics laws and a “pay-to-play” political culture, the state’s obstacles to voting is another big problem.

Editorials: Michigan legislature should act on online registration, no-reason absentee voting | Barb Byrum/MLive.com

Voting is one of the greatest privileges of being an American. The right and the ability to cast our ballots on Election Day is what help us shape our community, our nation and our future together. As our Constitution assures us, as Americans, voting is how we build a more perfect union. Unfortunately, a presidential Commission on Election Administration recently found that voting remains more difficult and time consuming than necessary. After six months of research, the bipartisan panel also found that Americans from all backgrounds – Republicans, Democrats and independents – want election reforms and a “modern, efficient and responsive” voting experience. Other states have been paying attention. They’re taking steps to help more Americans vote. Michigan, on the other hands, lags far behind and it’s time for policymakers and elected leaders in the Legislature to take action.

National: Bipartisan election commission releases list of suggested fixes | The Washington Post

A bipartisan commission recommended a series of steps Wednesday to make it simpler to cast ballots in the next election, but largely avoided the most politically contentious issues in a debate over voter access that has become deeply partisan. Concluding a six-month review, the Presidential Commission on Election Administration said in its report that jurisdictions should expand online voter registration and early balloting, update electronic voting equipment as first-generation voting machines grow obsolete and share voter registration records across state lines to protect against fraud.

Editorials: American elections need help. Here’s how to make them better | Nathaniel Persily/Washington Post

Earlier Wednesday, the Presidential Commission on Election Administration released its Report and Recommendations (pdf) to improve the voting experience in the United States.  Unlike many others that have entered this fray, this commission was unanimous and bipartisan in its recommendations.  Of particular interest to readers of this blog: the commission relied heavily upon the expertise of the nation’s top political scientists and election administration experts. Although the most infamous problem that gave rise to the commission’s creation was the problem of long lines on Election Day, the Executive Order creating the commission tasked it with a wide range of election administration problems.  The roughly 100 pages of recommendations and best practices in the report are equally broad ranging.

Editorials: Commission Wants to Make Voting More Like Disneyland and Less Like the DMV | Ben Jacobs/The Daily Beast

If a presidential commission has its way, the traditional Election Day is dead. The “traditional election day model 12 hours from x in morning to x at night is not feasible,” Bob Bauer, one of two co-chairs of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration, said in a panel at George Washington University School of Law on Wednesday, just hours after presenting the commission’s report to President Obama. The commission–popularly known as the Bauer-Ginsberg Commission after its two chairs, Bauer, a top Democratic lawyer, and Ben Ginsberg, the leading Republican election litigator—delivered its recommendations unanimously in a report commissioned in the aftermath of numerous reports of long lines and delays during the 2012 election. The commission dodged issues normally associated with partisan battles, such as voter ID and the Voting Rights Act. Instead it focused on the nuts and bolts of how to get voters in and out of their polling places quickly and efficiently, setting a standard of a half-hour as the longest anyone should wait to vote.

National: U.S. Panel Suggests Ways to Reduce Voting Delays | New York Times

A bipartisan panel created by President Obama after many voters waited hours to cast ballots in 2012 on Wednesday recommended ways to keep delays to no more than a half-hour. But changes are up to the states and 8,000 local jurisdictions, where voting laws have been a partisan battleground since the 2000 presidential recount. After surveying local officials, the commission also warned of two potential crises: Voting machines bought a decade ago, when federal funds were made available as a post-recount remedy, are breaking down or obsolete. And local schools, long a favored polling place and accessible to the disabled, increasingly are unavailable as more of them restrict entry in response to shootings like the massacre in Newtown, Conn. Mr. Obama noted in his 2012 victory speech that some voters were still in line that night, even as he spoke, and then announced the 10-member commission a year ago in his State of the Union address. He received the report, six months in the making, at the White House from the panel’s co-chairmen — Robert F. Bauer, a Democrat, and Benjamin L. Ginsberg, a Republican, the top lawyers for his own and Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaigns. The panel also included executives, academics and state and local officials.

National: Bipartisan presidential panel suggests ways to improve elections | Los Angeles Times

States should allow online voter registration and create more opportunities to cast ballots before election day, according to a report issued Wednesday by a bipartisan commission formed to address long lines and other troubles at the polls in 2012. The Presidential Commission on Election Administration made its recommendations in a 112-page report to President Obama. The commission — led by longtime Washington attorneys Robert F. Bauer, a Democrat, and Benjamin L. Ginsberg, a Republican — declared that no one should wait more than 30 minutes to vote and warned of an “impending crisis” as electronic voting machines age. Obama created the group last spring after lines, machine malfunctions and confusion left some voters waiting hours. In his inaugural address at the start of his second term, he called for a panel to find ways to improve the “efficient administration” of elections. The commission stayed true to that prescribed mandate, experts said, largely steering clear of the more contentious debates. The report does not wade deeply into issues involving voter fraud or suppression, voter identification laws or protection for minorities after the Supreme Court struck down part of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.

National: Presidential Commission on Elections Tackles Voting Rights, Technology | Stateline

Local elections officials across the U.S. should expand early voting, allow online registration and do a better job enforcing federal election laws, according to a new report by a presidential panel charged with recommending fixes for election problems that have plagued American voters. Some of the recommendations in the 70-page report, which was presented on Wednesday to Vice President Joe Biden at the White House, are in sync with changes states are already making. In Florida, for example, where “hanging chads” entered the American lexicon in 2000 and there were long lines at polling places in 2012, lawmakers recently reversed a shortening of the early voting period and simplified ballots. The moves by Republican-controlled Florida are part of a broader trend.

National: Obama commission encourages early vote expansion | Associated Press

Responding to frustratingly long lines in the last national election, a presidential commission on Wednesday encouraged expansion of early voting and said no American should have to wait more than half an hour to cast a ballot. The Presidential Commission on Election Administration was presenting President Barack Obama with a list of recommendations to reduce the wait and make voting more efficient. The commission warned of an “impending crisis in voting technology” as machines across the country purchased after the 2000 election recount wear out with no federal funds on the horizon to replace them. “We could have even more problems in the future if we don’t act now,” Obama said after receiving their 112-page report in the White House’s Roosevelt Room. But fixing the problems will be easier said than done, since no federal commission can force changes to balloting run by about 8,000 different jurisdictions. Funds for upgrades are scarce. Not only that, there have been sharp differences in recent years between the parties on what approach to employ. Fights over voting process can — and sometimes have — been as partisan and bitter as those associated with the redrawing of political boundary lines.

National: Presidential Commission Recommends Expanding Early Voting, Online Voter Registration | National Journal

A year after President Obama’s pledge to address voting problems, a commission he established recommends expanding early voting and online voter registration to improve efficiency at polls nationwide. The 2012 election was characterized by stories of voters waiting for hours to cast ballots at some polls in battleground states. The commission’s unanimous conclusion is that “problems that hinder the efficient administration of elections are both identifiable and solvable,” and that no voter should have to wait more than 30 minutes to cast a ballot. The commission also recommended jurisdictions form advisory groups to address the needs of disabled or voters with limited English proficiency; address the “impending crisis in voting technology,” as no federal dollars are set aside to update 10-year-old voting machines; and improve the recruitment and training of poll workers.

National: Presidential panel advises sweeping voting overhaul | The Hill

A panel commissioned by the White House to examine the nation’s voting laws after some Americans were forced to wait hours to cast their ballots during the 2012 presidential election presented President Obama with a report on Wednesday calling for a dramatic overhaul of the nation’s electoral practices. After studying the nation’s election laws for the past six months, the Presidential Commission on Election Administration argued that through “a combination of planning… and the efficient allocation of resources,” local jurisdictions could cut wait times at the polls to less than half an hour. “Problems that hinder the efficient administration of elections are both identifiable and solvable,” the commission wrote in its 112-page report. The panel recommended a dozen major changes to electoral practices, including an expansion of online voter registration and early voting.

Editorials: Inside the ‘Lines Commission,’ an Answer for Elections? | Jeffrey Toobin/The New Yorker

The world’s greatest democracy is not so great at running elections, as we all saw in 2012. There were, among other things, long lines at polling places, botched registrations, and mysterious rules on absentee ballots. As President Obama declared victory on election night, he wanted to do something about these problems. He appointed a (very) bipartisan commission, chaired by two self-described “partisan hacks”: Robert Bauer (Obama’s personal lawyer and his one-time White House counsel) and Benjamin Ginsberg (the national counsel to the Romney campaign and many other Republican causes). Wednesday, after six months of work, the “lines commission,” as it’s known, released a hundred-page report. Notwithstanding the strong party affiliations of its leaders, the group was unanimous in its recommendations. Its an unexpectedly bold document, especially in light of the strong partisan differences over voting these days. Every since the Republican landslides of 2010, states have been tightening the requirements to vote, and Democrats have cried voter suppression. The commission avoids the especially controversial issues of photo-identification requirements and the future of the Voting Rights Act, but it strikes out in a clear pro-voting direction.

Minnesota: State already working on shorter voter lines | Grand Forks Herald

Long lines at U.S. polling places could be shortened if state and local governments take actions such as allowing early voting and online voter registration, a presidential commission said Wednesday. Good ideas, Deputy Minnesota Secretary of State Beth Fraser said, adding that Minnesota already is making progress in key areas. Secretary of State Mark Ritchie implemented online voter registration last year, although Republican legislators, and some Democrats, say he should have received their approval before it launched. And Minnesota takes a baby step toward early voting with “no excuse” absentee balloting starting this year. Fraser said Minnesotans can expect their legislators to discuss allowing voters to cast ballots at city or county elections offices before Election Day itself.

Massachusetts: State On Cusp Of Passing Major Voting Rights Expansion | ThinkProgress

For as liberal as its politics is, Massachusetts has been surprisingly conservative in its voting rights laws. Unlike blood-red states like Utah and Louisiana, the Commonwealth does not allow early voting. Nor does Massachusetts allow residents to vote absentee without a certain excuse. Voters can’t register online. And for anyone who hasn’t registered to vote within 20 days of the election, they are barred from casting a ballot.

Nebraska: Bills would require voter ID in some cases | Beatrice Daily Sun

Nebraskans could register to vote online and would have to present a photo ID in certain situations under a pair of bills that will have a public hearing next week. Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha has introduced three bills relating to elections and voting on behalf of Secretary of State John Gale. The Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee will hear testimony on the bills on Thursday. One of the bills would allow Nebraskans with a driver’s license or state identification card to register to vote or to update their voting information online. Thirteen states have online voter registration, Gale said.

Massachusetts: State Senate approves bill to allow early voting | Boston Globe

Massachusetts residents would be able to cast ballots up to 10 days before an election and register to vote online and on Election Day under a bill overwhelmingly approved Thursday by the Senate. The bill, which passed on a 37-1 vote, would allow early voting in all state and federal elections and primaries. Voting would begin 10 business days before an election and end two days before Election Day. The House last year approved an early voting bill that would allow voters to cast ballots up to two weeks before a presidential election. A joint House and Senate conference committee will have to iron out the differences between the two bills and a final version sent to both chambers for approval. Both bills would allow early voting to begin with the 2016 elections. Gov. Deval Patrick has said he ‘‘loves the idea’’ of early voting.

Massachusetts: Senate bill would allow 10-day early voting period | Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Massachusetts voters would have the convenience of casting ballots during a 10-day period before Election Day in state and federal elections, , starting with the 2016 presidential election, under a bill scheduled for a vote in the Senate Thursday. The legislation also would set up a new online voter registration system. The bill, put out by the Senate Elections Committee this week, would allow early voting at least at one site in every city or town for 10 business days before Election Day. The bill calls for the online voter registration system to be in place by August 2015.

Michigan: Snyder: State of State won’t repeat pledge for easier absentee, voter registration | The Detroit News

Gov. Rick Snyder will set the tone for his re-election campaign and preview upcoming budget battles in tonight’s State of the State address. He is expected to talk about education, discuss what to do with a projected $1 billion surplus, renew the quest for more permanent road repair money and dwell on his accomplishments. What won’t be included is a repeat of his pledge from last year to join Secretary of State Ruth Johnson in seeking no-reason absentee voting and online voter registration — initiatives that are not popular among the Republican legislative majority. “I don’t think that’s something I’m going to emphasize because there was some effort to do that last year that didn’t work,” Snyder said in an interview Tuesday at the North American International Auto Show. “There’s a limited opportunity window, and given that it’s an election year, I think there are other things that will be priorities.”