Arizona: Petition drive seeks to block ‘bad’ election laws | Camp Verde Bugle

Voters apparently are going to get the last word on controversial changes in state election laws pushed through by Republicans at the end of last session. Backers of a referendum drive turned in 146,028 signatures on petitions to block the changes from being implemented as scheduled on Friday. If the Secretary of State determines there are at least 86,405 valid signatures — and a likely legal challenge falters — the law will remain on hold until voters can ratify or reject it at the 2014 election. “It’s not every day that voters get the opportunity to refer a bad piece of legislation to the ballot,’ said Julie Erfle who chairs the campaign. The last successful referendum drive was in 1998.

Arizona: Senator begins campaign to counter election referendum | Havasu News

Calling a referendum drive misleading, a state senator has launched a campaign to keep voters from overturning extensive changes to voting laws made by the Republican-controlled Legislature. Sen. Michele Reagan, R-Scottsdale, wants to collect funds to counter the petition drive that would force a public vote on the provisions of HB 2305. The provisions range from allowing election officials to stop sending early ballots to some voters, to putting potential new legal hurdles in the path of people who want to propose their own state laws and constitutional amendments. Reagan said each of the sections helps ensure the integrity and fairness of elections.

Arizona: Lawmaker wants to block public vote on ballot changes | AZ Daily Sun

Calling a referendum drive misleading, a state senator has launched a campaign to keep voters from overturning extensive changes made by the Republican-controlled Legislature to voting laws. Sen. Michele Reagan, R-Scottsdale, wants to collect funds to counter the petition drive to force a public vote on the provisions of HB2305. These range from allowing election officials to stop sending early ballots to some voters to putting potential new legal hurdles in the path of people who want to propose their own state laws and constitutional amendments. Reagan said each of the sections helps ensure the integrity and fairness of elections.

Arizona: Opponents try to force vote on election changes | Associated Press

A group opposed to a new law overhauling the early voting process in Arizona and making it more difficult for third-party candidates to get on the ballot has filed for a citizen’s referendum. The Protect Your Right to Vote Committee filed the referendum on Monday. If it collects 86,405 valid signatures by Sept. 12 the law will be put on hold until the November 2014 general election.

Maine: Run-Off Elections, Ranked Choice Bills Fail in Legislature | Rockland Free Press

In recent years, support has surfaced for run-off elections in Maine. Under such a system, the winning candidate would be required to receive a majority of the votes rather than a plurality. For instance, in three out of the past five gubernatorial elections, the winner was elected with less than 40 percent of the vote due to the increased presence of third-party and independent candidates. In 2010, candidates Libby Mitchell and Eliot Cutler split the moderate and liberal vote down the middle, resulting in a win, with 38 percent of the vote, by the ultra-conservative Paul LePage. This session a number of bills were submitted that would have implemented a form of run-off elections. Rep. Jeff Evangelos (I-Friendship) submitted a bill that would have required another election to be held if no candidate received over 50 percent of the vote. Under that two-round system, the two candidates with the most votes would be on the ballot for a second election. The Maine Secretary of State’s office testified neither for nor against the bill, but stated that holding a second election would pose a significant difficulty for the state and municipalities as the schedule for tabulation and recording the official vote tally would leave insufficient time.

Albania: Elections will test EU ambitions | European Voice

The people of Albania are to vote on Sunday (23 June) in an election seen as an important test of the country’s ambitions to join the European Union. The vote will come four days before an EU summit at which national leaders are expected to give the go-ahead for Serbia and Kosovo to advance to the next stages of their attempts to join the EU. Those votes of confidence will contrast with the slow progress that Albania has made since it applied for membership in 2009. At the start of the election campaign, the European Commission criticised the Albanian government for planning to call a referendum to push through reforms demanded by the EU.

Editorials: Wyoming ballot access should be fair, but not easy | Star Tribune

The recent failed effort to repeal a new state law limiting the duties of the state superintendent of public instruction reiterated a long-held belief: Wyoming’s referendum laws are among the most stringent in the nation. State lawmakers should consider whether the laws are too stringent. At the same time, let’s not go too far. California’s proposition system is a prime example of direct democracy run amok, where, as a result of unintended consequences, public power has often rendered the state’s Legislature ineffective. Wyoming’s is a republican form of government in which we elect — and therefore trust — our citizen Legislature to make decisions for us. This isn’t a pure democracy where we get a say on every issue. Imagine how messy state government would become if every issue were put to a vote. Trouble is: Where do we begin to ease the restrictions? It appears to be the proverbial chicken-and-egg issue.

United Kingdom: Scottish independence: Bid to give prisoners voting rights thrown out by MSPs | BBC

A bid by two MSPs to give prisoners the chance to vote in next year’s Scottish independence referendum has been thrown out by a committee of MSPs. The Lib Dems’ Alison McInnes and Green Party MSP Patrick Harvie argued it was wrong for all prisoners to be automatically disenfranchised. But their amendments to the Referendum Franchise Bill were defeated in the Referendum Bill Committee. Scots will take part in the referendum on 18 September 2014. The committee also agreed that 16 and 17-year-olds, who will receive the right to vote for the first time, would have until 10 March next year to sign up to the electoral register. The Scottish government has consistently opposed giving prisoners a say in the vote.

Wyoming: Tough to get referendum, initiative on Wyoming ballot | Laramie Boomerang

Sponsors of an effort to repeal a new state law say they were so rushed by Wyoming’s referendum deadline that they didn’t have time to count how many signatures they had collected on the petitions they submitted this week. “The referendum process needs to be changed,” said Jennifer Young, of Torrington, who was among those submitting petition signatures Tuesday, minutes before the deadline. “It’s designed for the people to fail and the legislators to not lose a bill they want.” Wyoming’s referendum process is among the most restrictive in the nation, meaning residents have little chance of reaching the statewide ballot with their cause, public policy advocates say. In the last 30 years, only one referendum on a new state law succeeded in making the general election ballot. It failed at the polls.

Voting Blogs: Heavy Lifting: San Francisco's Voter Guide is One for the Books | Election Academy

It certainly doesn’t stack up to David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged or Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, but this fall’s voter’s guide in San Francisco will certainly help prop open just about any door. The voter’s guide for the 2013 fall election will clock in at more than 500 pages. The phonebook-sized guide is courtesy of a city law that requires the full text of a referendum, as it was presented during the signature drive, to appear in the voter’s guide. The legal text for the referendum — regarding the height of a condo project — includes numerous pages of text from the city’s planning commission, board of supervisor meeting testimony and environmental studies. “If printed with the referendum, this would be San Francisco’s largest voter guide,” explained Jon Arntz, director of elections for San Francisco.

Arizona: Lawmakers propose more requirements to put referendums on ballots | East Valley Tribune

A senate panel voted Wednesday to throw some additional hurdles in the path of Arizonans who want to write their own laws.
Existing law already has a set of requirements for putting a measure on the ballot to propose a new statute or constitutional amendment. These include for who can circulate petitions, what has to be on each page and how many names can be on each sheet. SB 1493 adds some new ones, including a mandate to organize petition sheets by county of residence of signers, by the circulator on that signature sheet, and by the name of the person who notarized each. But the real change is that the legislation says that both election officials and courts, in reviewing the validity of petitions, must void those that are not in “strict compliance” with all legal requirements. That change is significant.

Florida: Dolphins Vote Won’t Count But Will Be Counted | CBS Miami

Nearly 60,000 people voted absentee or early on whether the Miami Dolphins should get tourist taxes for a major facelift of Sun Life Stadium. But the legislature nixed the deal last Friday when the Speaker Will Weatherford, a Pasco County Republican, refused to allow it to be brought up. The election in Miami-Dade was called off as of the end of the day Friday. So what would become of all those votes? Would they be counted, revealed, thrown out? At Miami-Dade Elections headquarters there was confusion. No one could recall an election – already underway – being cancelled. Elections officials waffled. The ballots might be kept secret. They might be released. They might be destroyed. Mayor Carlos Gimenez put an end to the confusion Tuesday in an interview with CBS4′s Gary Nelson.

Editorials: No vote for you: How Idaho lawmakers are silencing the vote of the people | Arbiter Online

The Idaho Legislature altered ballot measure rules earlier this year, making a successful petition campaign more difficult to achieve. Starting July 1, when Senate Bill 1108 goes into effect, it will be harder for Idahoans to gather enough signatures to place initiatives and referendums on the ballot. Governor C. L. “Butch” Otter signed a bill into law on April 2 thatwill require petitioners to gather six percent of registered voters’ signatures from a minimum of 18 districts. Currently, petitioners must collect six percent of registered voters’ signature statewide. SB 1108 originally required each signature sheet to be separated by legislative district, but the statehouse quickly pushed through Senate Bill 1191 last month to remove that stipulation.

Egypt: Women’s Groups, Secularists Attack New Election Rules | Businessweek

Egyptian secularists and rights groups criticized election laws approved by parliament that allow parties to use religious slogans in campaigns and drops a requirement to put women candidates high on their lists. The Islamist-led Shura Council, the upper house of parliament and the only one functioning after courts shut down the lower chamber, yesterday approved a political rights law that dropped a ban on religious slogans. It was replaced by a clause that prohibits slogans involving “gender and religious discrimination.” The council also gave initial approval for amendments to election laws that could give women lower positions on electoral lists. The assembly’s Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee agreed that each candidate list should include at least one woman, without stipulating how high she should be placed. The previous version required at least one female candidate in the top half of the list.

Iceland: Experiment with crowd-sourcing constitution just died | Quartz

When Iceland decided it needed a new constitution, it took the novel approach of giving all of Iceland’s people a say. Alas, that constitution is now dead—or at the very least in a long, deep coma. The rise and fall of the world’s first crowd-sourced constitution begins in the wake Iceland’s 2008 bankruptcy, when its government decided that a new constitution was in order. (The old one is based on Denmark’s and the two countries share a somewhat tortured relationship.) And who would write it? The good people of Iceland, the government decided, as it faced widespread protests about the way the financial crisis was handled. This effort saw 950 Icelanders chosen by lottery to offer their thoughts on how the process should work. An elected constitutional council then solicited feedback from citizens through social media. The council published a draft based on this feedback.

Zimbabwe: Elections not possible in June — Analysts | Zimbabwe Mail

President Robert Mugabe’s plans to hold elections by June 29 continue to draw suspicion with analysts saying the dates are not tenable as long as critical political and other reforms have not been implemented. But other analysts said implementation of reforms should be speeded up as it would be impossible to do that after June 29 when Parliament is automatically dissolved in accordance with the Constitution. Mugabe last week indicated in an urgent High Court chamber application that following the adoption of a new draft constitution in the recent referendum, harmonised elections will be held by June 29.

Voting Blogs: Can California’s New Primary Reduce Polarization? Maybe Not | The Monkey Cage

According to many pundits and scholars, closed primary elections are a major contributor to the ideological polarization in Congress and state legislatures. By partitioning voters into two ideologically-sorted electorates, they argue, closed primaries incentivize candidates to adopt the positions of voters in their party rather than of their constituency as a whole. As a result, they elect representatives who consistently toe the party line and resist compromise. Advocates of reform, from academics like Morris Fiorina to practitioners like Arnold Schwarzenegger, therefore argue that replacing closed party primaries with a more open nominating process will reduce polarization and its offspring—gridlock and a noxious political atmosphere—by helping moderate candidates. Are these claims about the consequences of reform valid?

District of Columbia: Elections Board says it lacks funds to improve on questionable track record | Washington Examiner

The District Board of Elections Chairwoman Deborah Nichols accused the mayor’s office Tuesday of “nickel-and-diming the electorate” by underfunding next month’s special election by more than $200,000 of its requested budget. The city has allocated $832,788 for the April 23 special election, which features a seven-person contest for an at-large D.C. Council seat and referendum that would give the city budget autonomy. The Board of Elections said it requested $1,046,800. Election officials said they needed money to ensure that election facilities and other expenses get paid. Additionally, further funding could be used to publicize the special election to improve voter turnout or to improve pay for election workers.

Zimbabwe: Referendum marred by intimidation and arrests | guardian.co.uk

Elections are in the air in Zimbabwe. A referendum on the new constitution was held this weekend and the general election is due before the end of October. But the signs all suggest that the upcoming vote will take place under conditions not dissimilar to 2008, when elections were characterised by widespread intimidation and political violence. Yesterday the office of the prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, was raided by police, who arrested four officials – apparently for impersonating officers. A prominent human right lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, was also arrested for “defeating the course of justice”.

Editorials: Reflections From Egypt: What is “True” Democracy? | Paul S. Ryan/CLC Blog

My participation in Legacy International’s Legislative Fellows delegation to Egypt this week has included a great deal of discussion regarding what constitutes “true” democracy.  The Egyptians we’ve met have used words including “true” and “pure” to describe the democracy we have in the U.S., contrasting our system with the political system that’s been built in Egypt since the 2011 revolution, which is widely perceived by Egyptians to fall short of “true” democracy. Yes, Egypt has held parliamentary, presidential and constitutional referendum elections over the past two years, but the legitimacy of the government remains in question.  Egypt’s first post-revolution parliamentary and presidential elections were held before a new constitution was drafted, under election laws that were issued by the interim “caretaker” Egyptian Military-based government but later declared unconstitutional by Egypt’s High Constitutional Court.  Egypt’s new constitution was written by a government elected under the unconstitutional election laws, a government dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood.  In addition to the laws under which the elections were conducted being declared unconstitutional, many believe fraud was committed during the elections, including ballot box stuffing and fraudulent counting and reporting of votes cast. In short, the government of President Morsi, the new constitution and the election process itself have been heavily criticized not only by non-Islamist parties and their supporters, but also by many who actually voted for President Morsi and other Muslim Brotherhood candidates.

Zimbabwe: Arrests Overshadow Referendum Vote | allAfrica.com

Aides to the Zimbabwean prime minister have been arrested on unknown charges. The news came as vote counting was under way in a constitutional referendum. The three senior aides to Prime Minister Tsvangirai were arrested on Sunday. Later, Alex Magaisa, another of Tsvangirai’s advisors, told the AFP news agency that police gave no reason for the arrests. “They raided the house of the principal director responsible for research and development in the PM’s office,” said Alex Magaisa, an advisor to Tsvangirai. “He was arrested as well as his two subordinates. We don’t know the charges, but they picked up computers and a camera.” Beatrice Mtetwa, a leading human rights lawyer, was also detained.

Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe moves toward elections after vote on Mugabe’s powers | Reuters

Zimbabweans look set to endorse a new constitution curbing the presidency, early results showed on Sunday, in a step toward elections to determine whether Robert Mugabe adds to three decades in power. While the vote on the constitution, which will limit the number of times a president can serve, was largely free from violence, police raided an office of Mugabe arch-rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and arrested five people. Early results posted outside polling stations showed voters had overwhelmingly backed the new document as expected, although polls were marked by low turnout. Both Mugabe and Tsvangirai, rivals in the election expected in the second half of this year, had backed the new constitution. After a violent and disputed vote in 2008, Mugabe was pushed into a power-sharing deal with Tsvangirai, who made the referendum a condition of that deal.

Zimbabwe: Rights groups plan to boycott Saturday vote monitoring to protest bans on activists | The Washington Post

Scores of in independent civic, pro-democracy and rights groups said Tuesday they will boycott monitoring upcoming voting for a referendum on a new constitution unless the state election commission withdraws bans on activists that affect several key local organizations. The commission has so far refused to accredit as poll monitors the members of the Zimbabwe Association of Human Rights and says any groups under police investigation will also be barred access to the March 16 polling. At least four main groups have been raided by police searching for alleged subversive materials this year. None has been convicted of any wrongdoing.

Tennessee: Money, votes and liquor in Pigeon Forge | Knoxville News Sentinel

On Thursday, residents of this city — and some nonresidents who are registered owners of real estate — will vote on whether or not liquor by the drink will be allowed to stay. The campaign signs for and against the measure say much about the divisiveness of the issue here. Anyone who came to the Election Commission office to early-vote could not have missed the two large green signs that say “Vote FOR Alcohol Tax Revenue For Our Schools.” They would also have noticed a line of smaller signs in between the two larger ones. The smaller ones are white with black lettering. Some say “Vote NO for real liquor control.” Others say “Our Kids Are Not For Sale.” If you favor liquor by the drink, you may see the two larger signs as symbolizing a tidal wave of progress, which — according to that view — needs to sweep over isolated pockets of a last-century attitude that the smaller signs represent. Or, if you oppose the liquor proposal, you might view the smaller signs as symbolic of native guerrilla fighters, defying a well-funded mercenary invasion that is symbolized by the larger signs, and already has a foot in the door.

Switzerland: Voters Tighten Limits on Executive Pay in Switzerland | NYTimes.com

Swiss citizens voted Sunday to impose some of the world’s most severe restrictions on executive compensation, ignoring a warning from the business lobby that such curbs would undermine the country’s investor-friendly image. Thomas Minder, an entrepreneur and member of the Swiss Parliament who turned a personal fight against Swissair into a nationwide referendum against “rip-off merchants,” spoke to the news media on Sunday. The vote gives shareholders of companies listed in Switzerland a binding say on the overall pay packages for executives and directors. Pension funds holding shares in a company would be obligated to take part in votes on compensation packages.In addition, companies would no longer be allowed to give bonuses to executives joining or leaving the business, or to executives when their company was taken over. Violations could result in fines equal to up to six years of salary and a prison sentence of up to three years.

Switzerland: Swiss Vote for Tough Limits on Executive Pay | TPM

Swiss voters voiced their anger at perceived corporate greed Sunday by approving a plan to boost shareholders’ say on executive pay. Some 67.9 percent of voters backed the “Rip-Off Initiative,” with 32.1 percent against, according to the official count broadcast by Swiss public television station SRF. The outcome of the referendum was considered a foregone conclusion after opinion polls in recent months showed strong public support for the initiative. News last month that the outgoing board chairman of Swiss drug maker Novartis AG, Daniel Vasella, was to receive a leaving package worth 72 million Swiss francs ($77 million) further fired up public sentiment against “fat cat” bosses. Vasella later said he would forego the deal, but by that time the incident had dashed opponents’ hopes of stopping the initiative. “Today’s vote is the result of widespread unease among the population at the exorbitant remuneration of certain company bosses,” Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga told a news conference in the capital Bern hours after polls closed.

United Kingdom: Scottish Government ‘happy’ to accept Electoral Commission’s independence referendum question | The Courier

The Scottish Government has agreed to change the question it will put to voters in next year’s independence referendum, after concerns were raised its preferred version could be biased towards a yes vote. First Minister Alex Salmond had proposed to ask: “Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?” However, the independent elections watchdog, the Electoral Commission, said using the phrase “Do you agree” was commonly felt “to be biased towards a yes outcome and potentially leading people towards a yes vote”. The Scottish Government has accepted the commission’s recommendation that the question should instead be: “Should Scotland be an independent country? Yes/No.”

United Kingdom: Independence Referendum: Electoral Commission call on David Cameron to show what a No vote would mean for Scotland | Daily Record

Election watchdogs have rocked the referendum debate by demanding David Cameron spell out what voting No would mean for Scotland. The Electoral Commission threw down the gauntlet yesterday to the Prime Minister on more powers for Holyrood. In their recommendations for how the historic vote should be run, they urged both the UK and Scottish Governments to outline their plans for the aftermath of the referendum. As revealed by the Record earlier this week, the experts rejected Alex Salmond’s preferred question for the crunch ballot. They said his wording – “Do you agree Scotland should be an independent country?” – would unfairly encourage people to vote Yes. Instead, they suggested a more neutral wording – “Should Scotland be an independent country?”