Florida: Governor mistaken for dead in 2006 vote – required to cast provisional ballot | Reuters

Florida’s governor, who is leading a disputed purge of voter registration rolls, had to cast a provisional ballot in 2006 because officials mistakenly thought he was dead, election officials said on Thursday. Governor Rick Scott was required to use a provisional ballot in the 2006 primary and general elections because Collier County election officials had received a Social Security Death Index Death Record that led them to believe he had died on January 27, 2006. In fact the deceased was Richard E. Scott, who had the same birthday as the governor, December 1, 1952. The governor’s full name is Richard Lynn Scott. Election officials verified that Scott was among the living and his ballots were counted.

California: Uncounted ballots will settle Shasta County elections | Redding Record Searchlight

An estimated 13,075 ballots, the vast majority vote-by-mail, have yet to be counted in Shasta County, putting the results of some supervisor races in question. “We are all on pins and needles,” said Cathy Darling-Allen, the county clerk and registrar of voters. The vote-by-mail ballots were dropped off last week at polling stations around the county and the clerk’s office, she said. Poll workers reported around 5,478 absentee ballots turned in at polling places around the county. Others were dropped off at the clerk’s office on election day or were older and had yet to be counted. Shasta County also has 575 uncounted provisional ballots, according to the California Secretary of State’s count of unprocessed ballots Monday afternoon. Darling-Allen said her office had counted around 5,200 mail-in ballots turned in to poll workers so far.

California: 15 races are still unresolved after Tuesday’s primary | latimes.com

Days after Tuesday’s primary election, four congressional and 11 Assembly races — as well as Proposition 29, a proposed cigarette tax — still are undecided. In most of the candidate contests, it’s not yet clear who finished second — a crucial position in the state’s new “top-two” elections system. The 15 unsettled races, one of which hung by two votes Friday, represent a significant jump from the typical three or four in past elections, according to Allan Hoffenblum, who publishes the nonpartisan California Target Book of state contests. They’re a product of the new primary system and freshly drawn voting districts. “Now we’ve got a whole smorgasbord of interesting contests,” Hoffenblum said.

California: Uncounted ballots keep California in limbo | Mohave Daily News

The waiting is the hardest part. With more than 830,000 primary ballots still uncounted, many candidates and campaigns in California remained on pins and needles Thursday awaiting the results of undecided races. Proposition 29, the proposal to increase taxes on tobacco products to pay for cancer research, was among the contests that remained too close to call. Election officials warned that more of the same could occur after November’s general election, when the stakes are even higher, due to California’s all-paper voting system and meticulous legal requirements for counties that tabulate results. More than half of California voters now cast ballots by mail, requiring elections officials to verify signatures and voting status. Ballots delivered to polling places on Election Day cannot be verified and counted until after polls close at 8 p.m. In addition, thousands more voters cast provisional ballots when their eligibility is in question, they move, or lose their vote-by-mail ballot.

Voting Blogs: Rhode Island voter ID followup | Justin Levitt/Election Law Blog

Rick links to an excellent Providence Phoenix article on the Rhode Island voter ID law.  It’s a great in-depth look at the political calculus.  But the lede poses a question — “how is it that one of the bluest states in the nation enacted a law so red?” — that may set the piece in a misleading light. The question seems to presume that Rhode Island’s new law is the same as the restrictive laws recently passed in, say, Kansas or Tennessee or Texas or Wisconsin. It’s not. As the article itself notes (buried in the political who-dun-it), Rhode Island not only phases its requirement in over several years, but also allows eligible voters without one of the specified photo ID cards to vote a ballot that will count.  In Rhode Island — as in Florida — voters without photo ID vote a provisional ballot, and if there’s no other reason to think the ballot is invalid (including a signature match to the registration form), the ballot counts.

Ohio: Longest election in Hamilton County history finally decided | Cincinnati.com

Tracie Hunter is a week or so away from becoming Hamilton County’s newest juvenile court judge after a recount Thursday confirmed she won the 2010 election. The final count put Hunter, a Democrat, 74 votes ahead of Republican John Williams in an election that is believed to be the longest in county history. Hunter trailed Williams by 23 votes after the election on Nov. 2, 2010, but a court order to count about 300 contested provisional ballots gave her the victory. “It has been a long struggle,” said Hunter’s lawyer, Jennifer Branch. “But it was worth the effort because we Americans believe every vote should count.”

Virginia: New Concerns Over Voter ID Bill as Signing Deadline Looms | NBC29

The clock is ticking for Governor Bob McDonnell to make a decision on a controversial voter ID bill.  He has until Friday to sign House Bill 9, which would change how voters without proper ID cast their ballots.  Proponents of the bill say it would reduce fraud, but critics call it a way to keep elderly and young voters home on Election Day. “I’m looking now at whether or not I should sign it,” Governor McDonnell said.  “I want to make sure we have fair and honest elections. I don’t want to have anybody unduly burdened with the bill.”        However, Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta says it’s electoral boards like hers that will see a burden.

Ohio: GOP leaders withdraw state Supreme Court lawsuit over provisional ballot rules | The Republic

Republican lawmakers on Friday dropped their lawsuit against the state’s elections chief over the handling of provisional ballots after a federal judge threatened them with contempt of court. Secretary of State Jon Husted had defended his decision to require county election boards to follow U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley’s decree instead of state law when counting the ballots. At issue were requirements for providing identification when a voter has to cast a provisional ballot, typically a ballot cast in the wrong precinct. Senate President Tom Niehaus and House Majority Leader Lou Blessing sued Husted, a fellow Republican, last month, arguing he was violating the state constitution by his orders to the county election boards.

West Virginia: Voting machine problems cause election night confusion in Brooke County West Virginia | wtov9.com

Elections officials in Brooke County were counting ballots well into Wednesday morning because of problems with two voting machines. Brooke County Clerk Sylvia Benzo said she lost track of time as poll workers tried to sort through election night confusion. Benzo said there was a problem in one of the Follansbee precincts early on that elections officials knew they would have to remedy. But there was another issue with a voting machine at a Weirton precinct. “I didn’t know about the one with the problem in Weirton until later in the evening, and that one ironed out and we were able to upload that information into our system and that one was OK. But this last machine that had a total of 12 votes left on it, we couldn’t get those off of there,” Benzo said.

Florida: Election officials frustrated with reform law’s implementation | electionlineWeekly

In 2011 Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed into law sweeping election reform legislation that limits third-party registrations, decreases the length of time for early voting and creates more reasons to cast a provisional ballot. At the time the governor signed the legislation into law, many supervisors of elections throughout the Sunshine State were concerned about the impacts the new law could have not only on their offices, but also on voters. Now, just about a year later, some of those concerns, in the eyes of the people responsible for administering elections, seem justified. “Several of the changes were very unpopular with supervisors of elections, but at the end of the day, barring court intervention, we must implement any new laws passed by the legislature and signed by the governor,” said David Stafford, supervisor of elections for Escambia County.  Stafford is also the current president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections. “That said, as an association we will continue to advocate for changes to Florida’s statutes, including provisions contained in HB 1355, to improve the administration of elections in our state,” Stafford said.

Virginia: Voter ID bill may be dead until next year | Examiner.com

When asked whether he would put his name next to the controversial voter ID legislation passed by the General Assembly that would require voters without identification to cast provisional ballots, Gov. McDonnell made no signs of committing one way or the other on Sunday. Legislators reasonably rejected the governor’s proposed amendment earlier in April that would have required members of the electoral board to compare the signature in a voter’s registration file with the signature on a provisional ballot to confirm the identity of the voter. This scheme would have undoubtedly led to a host of other problems in the voter confirmation process. Some have suggested that the entire point of the McDonnell amendment was to eliminate the bill.

Editorials: Voter ID – what lurks in Minnesota’s proposed amendment | Mike Dean/TwinCities.com

As the saying goes, “the devil is in the details.” Unfortunately, Kent Kaiser’s piece (“Photo ID: An end to ‘same-day’ registration in Minnesota? Not true,” April 17) attempts to distort what is actually lurking in the voter ID constitutional amendment. Under current Minnesota law, this proposed constitutional amendment to change Minnesota’s election system would force every person who registers in the polling place on Election Day to submit a provisional ballot; that is, they would not be allowed to cast a real ballot. This fundamental change is required because the amendment says that “All voters must be subject to substantially equivalent eligibility verification prior to a ballot being cast or counted.” While most people understandably won’t grasp the implications of this statement when they read the ballot question, an election official understands that immediate eligibility verification is not possible. Practically speaking, for voters who need to update their voting address on Election Day and others doing same-day registration, election judges would have to check multiple databases to verify their name, address, date of birth with the state’s department of public safety, department of health, national death registry and the federal social security office.

Editorials: Virginia Voter ID bill reduces access | HamptonRoads.com

America has had a few episodes of voter registration fraud – people being paid to fake signatures to satisfy voting requirements. Election mischief, like the annual robocalls that remind people to vote on the wrong Tuesday, is much more commonplace. Voting officials also regularly find signs that election machines have been tampered with. In Virginia, as the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported recently, there’s an ongoing state police investigation into fraud by individual voters, most of them felons who hadn’t had their rights restored but tried to vote anyway. None of these problems would be addressed by the voter ID legislation passed by the General Assembly earlier this year. Last week, the legislature rejected amendments to ease restrictions that, in the governor’s words, seem specifically designed to disenfranchise certain voters.

Florida: Election law review will extend into July | AP/MiamiHerald.com

A federal court review of Florida’s new election law will extend into July, just a month before the Aug. 14 primary. A Department of State spokesman on Monday said Florida is prepared to use two election laws if the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., doesn’t rule before the primary. A judge last week issued a schedule that doesn’t require final briefs to be filed until July 9.

Rhode Island: State holds presidential primary, tests voter ID law | Boston.com

Rhode Island voters casting a ballot in the state’s presidential primary Tuesday will be asked to show identification in what is the first statewide test of a new voter ID law. Turnout is expected to be light as the Republican primary race winds down and President Barack Obama stands unchallenged on his party’s primary ballot. Most polling places will open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m., an hour earlier than in past elections. Lawmakers voted last year to close the polls earlier to speed up election results and give election workers a break. “People who regularly vote later in the day should plan accordingly,” said Chris Barnett, a spokesman for Democratic Secretary of State Ralph Mollis.

Virginia: Governor weighs options on voter ID restrictions | HamptonRoads.com

Gov. Bob McDonnell faces a tough choice on legislation to tighten requirements for voter identification: veto the bill after his attempt to soften it failed, or let it reshape election law without his preferred modifications. McDonnell has said he’s concerned that the bill, in its present form, could “disenfranchise people whose votes would have otherwise counted.” As written, the legislation would require voters without valid identification to cast a provisional ballot. They would then have to confirm their identity with election officials for the ballot to count. The General Assembly last week rejected McDonnell’s key amendments, which would have given election officials the authority to verify identities by comparing provisional ballot signatures to voter registration signatures.

Rhode Island: State readies for statewide test of voter ID law | Boston.com

Janice Brady votes every chance she gets, and thinks a new Rhode Island law asking voters to show identification at the polls will protect the integrity of the state’s elections. That law will have its first statewide test on Tuesday, when Rhode Island holds its presidential primary. So Brady, 69, lined up last week with 25 other residents at the Charlesgate apartments in Providence to get a new voter ID. “It sounds like a good idea to me,” said Brady, who said she has no current driver’s license or other acceptable ID. “I don’t mind showing it.” Voters will be asked to present identification such as a driver’s license, U.S. passport, military ID, Social Security card, birth certificate or even a utility bill or health club ID. Voters who fail to present the necessary identification will only be allowed to cast a provisional ballot, which must be approved by election officials before being counted. Starting in 2014, only identification with a photo will be accepted.

Virginia: Voter ID bill in McDonell’s hands | The Washington Post

Virginia Democrats are urging Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) to veto a pair of voter ID bills after the General Assembly this week stripped out a provision the governor had added to make the measures less stringent. Among the most hotly contested legislation of the session, the bills were touted by Republicans as a way to ensure the integrity of elections but bitterly opposed by Democrats as attempts to suppress the minority vote.

New Jersey: Hudson County elections chief vows to fix “egregious” errors that frustrated voters on Tuesday | NJ.com

The Hudson County Board of Elections will “absolutely” implement some changes to address “egregious” mistakes that were made during Tuesday’s school board election in Jersey City, an official said yesterday. Some Downtown voters said poll workers ordered them to distant polling places and were unhelpful to voters who wanted to vote with provisional ballots. In some cases, including at the Booker T. Washington public housing complex and a senior facility on Pacific Avenue, voters who live in buildings that contain polling places were told to go elsewhere to cast their ballots.

Virginia: McDonnell weighs veto of voter ID bill | Washington Examiner

The future of a controversial voter ID bill is in serious doubt after a bipartisan group of Virginia lawmakers rejected Gov. Bob McDonnell‘s proposed changes, daring McDonnell to accept their version of the legislation or veto it. In its current form, the bill requires anyone who forgets to bring proper identification to the polls to fill out a provisional ballot, which would not be counted unless the voter returns with proper ID or sends an electronic copy. McDonnell sought to weaken the bill by allowing election officials to compare the signature on the provisional ballot with a voter registration card on file. But both the House and Senate shot down McDonnell’s amendment during Wednesday’s veto session, leaving the Republican governor with a bill that creates an “unduly burden and barriers to your vote,” he said. McDonnell must now weigh whether to veto or sign a bill he considers “unreasonable.”

Ohio: Juvenile judge race close to conclusion | Cincinnati.com

The winner of the 2010 election for Hamilton County juvenile court judge should be known within a month, when almost 300 disputed ballots are counted. Members of the county’s Board of Elections agreed Tuesday to begin counting the ballots in the next week or so to comply with a federal court order. The election, believed to be the longest in Hamilton County history, was supposed to end 17 months ago but has dragged on because of a court battle over whether to count the disputed ballots. The dispute involves provisional ballots cast in the race between Democrat Tracie Hunter and Republican John Williams, who leads Hunter by 23 votes. Williams’ lead could be in jeopardy if the nearly 300 provisional ballots are counted because most of those ballots were cast in predominantly Democratic precincts.

Virginia: Assembly rejects changes to voter ID bill | The News Desk

State legislators upheld all of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s vetoes Wednesday, but rejected his changes to a voter ID law.  … Both the Senate and the House voted down amendments to a voter ID bill that would let registrars compare the signatures of voters with their original registration signatures to determine if they’re eligible to vote. The bills—one of which was sponsored by Del. Mark Cole, R–Spotsylvania—say that if a voter doesn’t have identification, he or she must vote a provisional ballot, which will be counted later only if the voter provides identification to election officials. McDonnell made several amendments to the two bills, including allowing a registrar to approve a voter by comparing his signature with the signature on file in the registration records. That was done, in part, to help the legislation win approval from the U.S. Justice Department. Both houses rejected the signature provisions.

Editorials: New Virginia voter ID law and voting felons are unconnected but not unrelated issues | Kent Willis/Augusta Free Press

Contrary to what has become a popular conclusion in blogs and editorials, the recent revelations about felons having illegally voted in Virginia is not evidence that the state needs the voter ID law passed this year by the General Assembly. The emerging law – which is still being tweaked by the governor and lawmakers – requires voters who do not have proof of identification when they show up at the polls to cast a provisional ballot. It replaces a law that allowed voters without IDs to sign a form affirming their identity and then cast a regular ballot like everyone else. The purpose of the new law, according to its defenders, is to prevent someone from showing up at the polls and pretending to be someone else. The problem legislators have in defending the law is that no one ever fakes their identity at the polls. In fact, recent studies show that there is so little voter impersonation fraud that the chances of it happening are about the same as being struck by lightning.

Ohio: County ready to count ballots in disputed Hamilton County race | Cincinnati.com

The election that is believed to be the longest in Hamilton County history isn’t over yet. But it’s getting close. A federal appeals court ruling Monday cleared the way to count some 300 disputed ballots in the razor-close election for Hamilton County juvenile court judge, which took place 17 months ago. The decision does not end the long court battle over the ballots, but it requires county election officials to count the ballots, declare a victor and seat the winning judge while the legal fight continues for months, or even years, in the federal courts. The Board of Elections will hold a special meeting Tuesday to discuss how the ballots will be counted and how long it might take. “I think we are all ready to try to get this thing moved to a resolution,” said Tim Burke, the county’s Democratic Party chairman and a member of the Board of Elections.

Ohio: GOP leaders sue over provisional ballots | The Marietta Times

Ohio’s elections chief is violating the state constitution by requiring county election boards to follow a federal court decree instead of state law when it comes to counting provisional ballots, GOP lawmakers alleged in a lawsuit Monday. At issue are requirements for providing identification when a voter has to cast a provisional ballot, typically a ballot cast in the wrong precinct. A 2006 state law laid out the requirements for when such ballots are counted, starting with voters who have only the last four digits of a Social Security number as identification. In general, state law is more restrictive than the federal decree when it comes to prohibiting provisional ballots. For example, the law doesn’t allow provisional ballots for votes cast in the wrong precinct because of a poll worker’s mistake, whereas the decree would allow such votes to be counted.

Editorials: McDonnell’s wise move on Virginia’s voter ID bill | The Washington Post

Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell has moved to gut an obnoxious bill, championed by Republican lawmakers, that would have needlessly stiffened voting requirements for Virginians. The governor’s level-headed move has annoyed his fellow Republicans, but it has also reaffirmed his reputation as a conservative who has governed mainly as a pragmatist — a reputation that propels him to the short list of Mitt Romney’s putative running mates. Although he didn’t veto the bill, Mr. McDonnell offered a series of amendments whose effect will be to render the legislation all but moot. That’s a good thing, because the voter ID bill is a gratuitously divisive measure whose only effect would have been to invalidate ballots cast by thousands of poor, young, elderly and minority voters. Under a state law that has worked well for decades, Virginia voters who lack identification may cast ballots anyway, providing they sign an affidavit attesting to their identity. Falsifying the affidavit is a felony under state law.

Virginia: Governor proposes changes controversial voter ID bill | WTVR.com

Governor Bob McDonnell has made a some changes to that controversial voter ID legislation passed by the General Assembly. Some had feared the changes might keep the elderly and minorities from casting their ballots. In fact, voter Rhonda Acholes said she has was worried the changes could affect elderly folks in her community. For example, the measure states that a voter who shows up with no ID at the polls would have to cast a provisional ballot — and then show up later with an ID to prove their identity. Acholes feared some people would view the changes as a hassle and, in turn, be deterred from going to the polls.

Pennsylvania: Voter ID bill causes concern among Bucks County’s senior citizens | Bucks News

“We never should have to fight for our right to vote,” said Martha Miller of Bristol. Miller was among a group of concerned residents who addressed the board of county commissioners on April 4. Miller told the commissioners that fighting for their right to vote is precisely what many elder and low-income Bucks County residents will have to do now that the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed the Voter ID Bill in March. When the bill becomes the law in time for November election all voters will be required to present photo identification at the polls. Those who do not produce identification will be allowed to cast provisional ballots and will be required to send in an identification document within six days after the Election Day.

Voting Blogs: Provisional Ballots: Information Can Help Rescue “Lost” Voters | Election Academy

This week’s Pew Dispatch looks at provisional ballot data from the 2011 election in Ohio. Here’s what the analysis found:

Provisional ballot use increased in 72 counties, remained the same in seven counties, and decreased in nine counties. While the number of overall provisional ballots grew in 2011, the proportion of provisional ballots counted decreased. The study found that most of the provisional ballots were rejected for one of three reasons:

  • + 40.2 percent were rejected because the voter was not listed as registered to vote in Ohio;
  • + 21.2 percent were rejected for voting at the wrong precinct and wrong polling place; and
  • + 16.2 percent were rejected for voting at the wrong precinct within the correct polling place [often called the “right church, wrong pew” problem – ed.].

Guam: Governor Vetoes Election Reform Bill; Democrats May Try Override | Pacific News Center

As promised, Governor Eddie Calvo has vetoed election reform bill 413. The governor cited provisions in the bill that call for a recount of the 2010 election as his reason for vetoing it saying that these provisions are a continuation of “mischief” caused by the Guttierez camp during the election. Meanwhile the Democratic Party’s Executive Director Carlo Branch called it ironic that the governor would veto the measure on a day he himself has deemed as transparency day.  Governor Eddie Calvo vetoed the election reform bill or bill 413 last Tuesday but the legislature has yet to receive an official veto transmittal. The governor says that he vetoed the bill because of the provisions that call for an audit of all absentee and provisional ballots cast something he says amounts to an attempted recount of an election that has already been certified.