Tag Archives: tvnw

Baltimore’s elections board recertified the results of the April primary election Wednesday after an unusual intervention by state officials. The updated vote totals didn’t change the outcome of any race. Any candidate who wants a recount now has three days to make a request. Anyone who wants to challenge the outcome of the race in court has seven days to file papers. State officials ordered Baltimore’s election results decertified this month after city officials said they found 80 provisional ballots that had not been analyzed. The state review, which lasted more than a week, turned up other problems: Officials concluded that roughly 1,650 ballots were not handled properly. The last step before finalizing the figures was analyzing 555 uncounted provisional ballots that state officials said had not been analyzed or counted. Officials had previously said they thought 465 provisional ballots had been overlooked.

Ohio: Federal judge blocks Ohio law that eliminated ‘Golden Week’ voting | Cleveland Plain Dealer

A federal judge on Tuesday struck down a state law that eliminated “Golden Week,” several days when Ohio voters could both register to vote and cast a ballot. The 2014 law violates both the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Watson wrote in his opinion siding with Democrats who challenged the law. The state will appeal the ruling, a state attorney general spokesman said. If the ruling stands, Ohio voters will have 35 days to cast a ballot this November instead of 28 and will be able to register to vote and cast a ballot at the same time. In 2014, the American Civil Liberties Union challenged the law on behalf of the Ohio chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and League of Women Voters and several African-American churches. A federal district court judge struck down the law, but the state was granted a stay. Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted and Statehouse Republicans argued that Ohio provides 28 days of absentee voting by mail and in-person, making it one of the most expansive voting systems in the country.

Virginia: Justices Let Court-Imposed Redistricting Stand in Virginia | The New York Times

The Supreme Court on Monday left in place a court-imposed congressional redistricting map in Virginia, dismissing a challenge from three Republican congressmen. The court’s brief, unanimous decision said the members of Congress had not shown that they had suffered the sort of direct and concrete injury that gave them standing to sue. The court, therefore, did not rule on the larger issues in the case, Wittman v. Personhuballah, No. 14-1504, which concerned the role race may play in drawing legislative maps. “We cannot decide the merits of this case unless the intervenor members of Congress challenging the district court’s racial-gerrymandering decision have standing,” Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote for the court. “We conclude that the intervenors now lack standing. We must therefore dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction.”

Wisconsin: Testimony in Voter ID lawsuit offers insight into real motives for law | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

It may not be dubbed the Trial of the Century but whatever ruling comes out of the lawsuit against Wisconsin’s Voter ID law may well have an impact that lasts as long. Testimony from a wide range of experts, county clerks and other relevant parties is being heard by U.S. District Judge James Peterson. The suit was brought by One Wisconsin Now and Citizen Action of Wisconsin Education Fund, with the argument that Republican officials passed the law and other related rules as an intentional means of disenfranchising minority and Democratic voters. More than the witnesses called by the plaintiffs, it is in the testimony of those people called to defend the new rules that we get the most insight into the massive rift of understanding between the sides. It also has highlighted the very disparities they’ve set out to defend. A political scientist testifying on behalf of the state claimed that the state’s free ID program could “potentially” mitigate the negative effects of the law, specifically on black voters, who are more than five times as likely as white voters to go through the process to receive a free ID in order to vote. Why make people jump through the extra hoop in the first place, though? There still are no documented cases of voter fraud. This “solution” in search of a problem has only disenfranchised otherwise eligible voters, as evidenced by several of the people who testified about the problems and barriers they faced in trying to receive even those free IDs.

Austria: Far-right presidential candidate dismisses voter fraud claims | The Guardian

The failed far-right contender in Austria’s presidential election has urged his supporters to accept the result despite some in his party alleging fraud. “We should all pull together,” Norbert Hofer said at a Freedom party (FPÖ) meeting in Vienna on Tuesday. “There are no signs of electoral fraud.” In the immediate aftermath of the vote, FPÖ leaders and activists had cried foul over the narrow result, with the Green-endorsed independent candidate Alexander Van der Bellen winning by only about 31,000 votes. Even before it emerged that Hofer had lost out on the presidency due to Van der Bellen’s strong performance in the postal vote, the party’s secretary, Herbert Kickl, had said that absentee votes had in the past shown up “inconsistencies”. “Accomplices of the current political system could potentially use the opportunity to adjust the result in favour of the system’s representative, Alexander Van der Bellen,” Kickl said.

United Kingdom: British emigrants lose supreme court EU referendum vote bid | The Guardian

Britons who have lived abroad for more than 15 years will not be allowed to vote in the EU referendum, the supreme court has ruled. The highest court in the country upheld earlier rulings of the high court and court of appeal against Harry Shindler and Jacquelyn MacLennan, who were challenging the law. The ruling confirms the decision that the UK’s voting regulations do not unlawfully interfere with the right of freedom of movement within the European Union and that the government is entitled to set an arbitrary time limit on residence. Delivering the ruling, Lady Hale, deputy president of the supreme court, said: “The question is not whether this particular voting exclusion is justifiable as a proportionate means of pursuing a legitimate aim. The question is whether EU law applies.”

National: More than 30 states offer online voting, but experts warn it isn’t secure | The Washington Post

The popularity of voting online is growing and will be in place for the presidential election in more than 30 states, primarily for voters living overseas or serving in the military. But security experts and some senior Obama administration officials fear there is not enough protection for any ballots transmitted over the Internet. They are warning…

Connecticut: DMV, Merrill Agree On Streamlined, ‘Automatic’ Motor Voter Registration System | Hartford Courant

The Department of Motor Vehicles and secretary of the state have worked out previous differences and signed an agreement to implement a “streamlined motor voter system” that will automatically register eligible citizens to vote when they go to DMV for a driver’s license or state-issued identification card. The Department of Motor Vehicles and secretary of the state have worked out previous differences and signed an agreement to implement a “streamlined motor voter system” that will automatically register eligible citizens to vote when they go to DMV for a driver’s license or state-issued identification card. The “memorandum of agreement,” signed Monday by DMV Commissioner Michael Bzdyra and Deputy Secretary of the State James Spallone, says the new system, under which the DMV customer would be registered to vote unless he or she specifically declines by choosing to opt out, would begin operating by August 2018. Under the current program, the DMV customer is registered to vote only if he or she actively chooses that option.

Kansas: Judge rules Kobach must register 18,000 suspended Kansas voters | The Wichita Eagle

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to register about 18,000 rejected voters who filed applications at Department of Motor Vehicles offices but didn’t provide the proof of citizenship Kansas law requires. Kobach said he’ll file an emergency appeal to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. Judge Julie Robinson ruled the Kansas proof-of-citizenship law conflicts with the federal motor-voter act, which was passed by Congress to make it easier to vote by requiring motor-vehicle offices to also offer voting registration. Robinson approved a preliminary injunction requiring Kobach to register prospective voters who were rejected since 2013 because they didn’t file documents proving their citizenship. They could vote in federal elections – U.S. House, Senate and the presidency – in this election cycle. The case centers on a Kansas law Kobach authored that requires applicants to provide documented citizenship proof. For most voters, that means either a passport or birth certificate – along with proof of marriage- and divorce-related name changes for women.

Maryland: State review finds ‘significant’ irregularities in Baltimore election | Baltimore Sun

About 1,000 more votes were cast during Baltimore’s primary election than there were voters who checked in at the polls, an ongoing state review has found. State elections officials said Thursday that workers examining Baltimore’s election have uncovered “significant” problems. They have found more than 450 provisional ballots that were not considered by election judges. And nearly 800 provisional ballots — given to voters whose eligibility is in question — were improperly counted before eligibility was verified, officials said. Most of the problems were caused by untrained judges scanning ballots into the system that they shouldn’t have, said Linda H. Lamone, Maryland’s elections administrator. The state might not get to the bottom of every problem, she told the State Board of Elections. “There will be precincts that cannot be explained,” Lamone said. “We don’t know what happened. The numbers simply don’t match.”

Montana: US judge strikes down Montana campaign contribution limits | Associated Press

For a second time in four years, a federal judge ruled Tuesday that Montana’s campaign contribution limits are unconstitutional — a decision that could open the way for a flood of money from political parties just three weeks before the June 7 state primary. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell was a clear setback for state Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl, who has defended the strict limits that voters enacted in 1994. Lovell said Montana officials did not prove that the limits “further the important state interest of combating quid pro quo corruption or its appearance.” Motl urged restraint by political parties that can now contribute unlimited amounts of cash to candidates. Lovell expressed no opinion on what contributions should be for individuals and political action committees and left the question to the Montana attorney general.

Virginia: U.S. judge upholds Virginia voter ID law | Richmond Times-Dispatch

A federal judge has upheld Virginia’s voter ID law challenged by the Democratic Party of Virginia and two voters alleging the Republican-controlled state legislature enacted it to curb the number of young and minority voters. “Mindful that the court’s mission is to judge not the wisdom of the Virginia voter ID law, but rather its constitutionality, this court cannot say that plaintiffs have met their burden of proof in showing by a preponderance of the evidence that the Virginia voter ID law … contravenes the Voting Rights Act, the First Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, the Fifteenth Amendment, or the Twenty-Sixth Amendment,” U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson wrote Thursday. Hudson’s ruling concluded: “While the merits of this voter identification law, and indeed all aspects of Virginia’s voting regime, can be reasonably debated, it remains true that Virginia has created a scheme of laws to accommodate all people in their right to vote. From in-person voting, to an absentee option, to provisional ballots with the ability to cure, and the provision of free voter IDs, Virginia has provided all of its citizens with an equal opportunity to participate in the electoral process.”

Wisconsin: Federal judge hears challenge to Wisconsin election laws | Associated Press

Wisconsin Republicans were “giddy” about a voter identification requirement enacted in 2011 that they saw as an opportunity to drive down Democratic turnout at the polls, a former chief of staff to a GOP state senator testified Monday in a federal trial targeting that law and others. The lawsuit targets more than a dozen changes to Wisconsin’s election law passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Gov. Scott Walker since 2011. Two liberal advocacy groups and affected voters argue the changes are a violation the federal Voting Rights Act, the First Amendment and the equal protection clause. Their attorney, Josh Kaul, said in opening statements that evidence will show the changes create a “torturous” process making it harder to vote for college students as well as blacks, Hispanics and other minorities who tend to support Democrats.

Kenya: Opposition vows to continue protests | Deutsche Welle

Images of police violence against demonstrators, viewed widely on social media, have caused international outrage. Protestors are calling for reform amid accusations that the Election Commission is biased. The political impasse in Kenya shows no signs of abetting as both sides of the political divide stand by their positions regarding the future of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). Opposition politicians and protestors continue to demand the body’s disbandment, accusing it of bias towards President Uhuru Kenyatta. But the ruling Jubilee coalition has ruled out dissolving the IEBC. On Monday, protests against IEBC were brutally quashed by anti-riot police, injuring several people and prompting international condemnation.

Macedonia: Court halts early election in blow to ruling party | Financial Times

Western mediators welcomed a decision by a Macedonian court to strike down plans for early elections, in a blow to the ruling VMRO party which was the only major party registered to participate. The Balkan country’s constitutional court ruled on Wednesday that the dissolution of parliament had been unconstitutional, in effect halting preparations for the poll on June 5. The elections were planned as part of an EU-mediated agreement to resolve a year-long crisis. It began when the opposition alleged that Nikola Gruevski, former prime minister, and his counter-intelligence chief had arranged the wiretapping of thousands of people, enabling them to influence the media, courts and elections.

National: Voting has gotten tougher in 17 states, and it could alter elections | Los Angeles Times

Morris Reid did not expect any problems when he went to his local polling station outside Raleigh, N.C., to vote in the 2014 midterm. Yet the long-time voter, a 57-year-old Democrat, found he could not cast his ballot. A poll worker told the African American jail superintendent he was registered in another county. Reid was certain there had been a mistake – he’d instructed the Department of Motor Vehicles to update his voter registration when he moved three months before – but he drove five miles to another polling center, only to find he was not registered there either. After a third trip, he cast a provisional ballot, which ultimately did not count thanks to a new North Carolina law that eliminates out-of-precinct voting. “I couldn’t exercise my right to vote,” he said. “And that’s the way it was.”

Editorials: Prepare for voter whiplash | Renée Loth/The Boston Globe

Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have both complained that voting and delegate selection rules in the various primary states are “rigged” or “corrupt” because they favor establishment candidates who know how to play by the complex rules. The two men are right in one regard: America operates under a crazy quilt of voting requirements, with each state making its own laws for different populations and with challenges to those laws whipping back and forth through the courts. But if the primaries have frustrated the candidates, try being a voter in November. In 17 states, voters will face restrictive new requirements for the first time on Election Day. Several states will now require various forms of identification. Georgia, Alabama, Arizona, and Kansas will even require proof of citizenship. Different forms of ID will be required in different states: Some will accept a bank statement or utility bill, others want to see a passport or birth certificate. Texas, notoriously, will accept a gun license but not a college ID card. If you don’t have the proper ID, different procedures apply. Some states require prospective voters to sign an affidavit attesting to their eligibility; others hold the ballot as provisional and only count it if the voter returns to the local election office with proof of eligibility. Then there are new rules for early voting, same-day registration, and mail-in ballots. Confused yet?

Florida: How a security pro’s ill-advised hack of an elections site backfired | Ars Technica

A Florida man has been slapped with felony criminal hacking charges after gaining unauthorized access to poorly secured computer systems belonging to a Florida county elections supervisor. David Michael Levin, 31, of Estero, Florida, was charged with three counts of unauthorized access to a computer, network, or electronic device and released on $15,000 bond, officials with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said. According to a court document filed last week in Florida’s Lee County and a video it cited as evidence, Levin logged in to the Lee County Elections Office website using the pilfered credentials of Sharon Harrington, the county’s supervisor of elections. Levin, who authorities said is the owner of a security firm called Vanguard Cybersecurity, also allegedly gained access to the website of Florida’s Office of Elections. Levin posted a YouTube video in late January that showed him entering the supervisor’s username and password to gain control of a content management system used to control leeelections.com, which at the time was the official website for the elections office. At no time did anyone from the county authorize Levin to access the site, officials said.

Maryland: State orders Baltimore’s election results decertified, begins precinct-level review of irregularities | Baltimore Sun

State election officials ordered the results of Baltimore’s primary election decertified Thursday and launched a precinct-level review of irregularities. State election administrator Linda H. Lamone said she became concerned when city officials — who on Monday certified their primary election results — later reported they had found 80 provisional ballots that had never been analyzed. Lamone said the state also is concerned about an unusually high discrepancy between the number of voters who checked in at polling places and the number of ballots cast. The number of ballots cast was higher than the number of check-ins, she said. “Baltimore City was not able to investigate and resolve these issues to our satisfaction,” Lamone said. “We are doing a precinct-level review. We are doing this in fairness to the candidates and the voters.”

Missouri: Voters will decide on voter photo ID this year in Missouri | St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Missouri House Republicans voted Thursday to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot later this year requiring photo ID at the polls, but not before Democrats bashed the proposal one last time. The plan has drawn some of the most heated debate of the legislative session. Opponents say the proposed requirement is a ploy to decrease turnout among Democratic-leaning voters. Supporters say it’s needed to ensure in-person voter impersonation fraud doesn’t take place. “The sad part of this is that people in this body think it’s a joke,” said state Rep. Brandon Ellington, D-Kansas City. “They think that when we push these buttons in front of us — the red and green buttons — it has no implications.

Wisconsin: Voters awaiting photo ID would receive a receipt to vote | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Voters who are seeking a photo ID card but not yet received it will be able to use a Division of Motor Vehicles receipt to vote in more cases, under a new rule Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker approved Wednesday just ahead of Monday’s federal trial on the state’s voting laws. The Republican governor didn’t say in his statement whether the rule change is aimed at making the law easier to defend in court. “This action ensures an individual is still able to vote while they work to obtain documentation needed for a free voter ID card,” Walker said in a statement. The DMV is changing the process used to issue receipts to residents who are seeking a photo ID to vote but can’t produce birth certificates or other documents needed to get one in time for an election.

Australia: High court rejects Bob Day appeal and finds Senate voting changes are legal | The Guardian

The high court has unanimously rejected Senator Bob Day’s challenge of Senate voting changes, finding they do not infringe the constitution. The challenge was heard on 2 May and disposed of on Friday, clearing the way for the 2 July election using the new voting system. In a joint judgment, the justices noted that many of Day’s arguments challenged above the line and below the line voting, which had existed since 1983. They said the challenge did not show voters were disenfranchised and “was in truth an argument about the consequences of elector choice” in harming minor parties. The Senate voting changes require voters to vote one to six above the line, or number one to 12 preferences below the line. However, if a voter simply votes one above the line, the vote will still be valid. The vote will be exhausted if candidates in that column are eliminated from the count.

Comoros: Former coup leader elected Comoros president: provisional results | AFP

Former coup leader Azali Assoumani was elected as president of Comoros, according to provisional results released Thursday, after last month’s election was partially re-run due to violence and “irregularities”. In the re-run at 13 polling stations, Assoumani beat Vice President Mohamed Ali Soilihi by 2,271 votes to 1,308, the electoral commission said, confirming his narrow victory in April. Two percent of the electorate were able to vote again Wednesday on Anjouan, one of the three main islands of the archipelago nation set off the east coast of Africa. Hundreds of people waited in line during the day as armed security forces stood guard to ensure polling was smooth. Last month, voting on Anjouan was tarnished by broken ballot boxes, interruptions in voting, accusations of ballot stuffing and some incidents of violence.

National: Election fraud feared as hackers target voter records | The Hill

A series of data breaches overseas are spurring concerns that hackers could manipulate elections in the United States.Since December, hundreds of millions of voters in the U.S., the Philippines, Turkey and Mexico have had their data discovered on the web in unprotected form. In some instances, legitimate security researchers found the information, but in others, malicious hackers are suspected of pilfering the data for criminal purposes.The data breaches are raising questions as the U.S. considers whether to move toward electronic balloting. More people than ever are using the internet to register to vote and to request mail-in ballots. Some states have even become vote-by-mail only in recent years. “If you can’t keep the voter registration records safe, what makes you think you can keep the votes safe?” asked Pamela Smith, president of election watchdog Verified Voting.For a politically inclined hacker, insecure voter data could “very easily” create a pathway to “massive” voter fraud, said Joseph Kiniry, CEO of Free & Fair, which advocates for secure digital election systems. “If you can go in there and delete rows based on someone’s name or political affiliation, we will have a massively screwed up election process on the day,” he said.

National: Election Assistance Commission Advisory Board Disagrees With Director Over Citizenship Rule | NPR

It looks like more bad news for the new executive director of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Brian Newby is already being sued by the League of Women Voters for his decision earlier this year to allow Kansas and two other states to require residents to show proof of citizenship when they register to vote using a federal form. The move effectively reversed a long-standing EAC policy. Now, the EAC’s advisory board — composed of election officials from around the country — has approved a resolution saying that such changes should be made by the commissioners themselves. The resolution, passed by a 13-7 vote during a two-day board meeting in Chicago, is only advisory, but clearly shows dissatisfaction with Newby’s actions. Commission Chairman Thomas Hicks says it’s now up to the commission to take the recommendation “under advisement” and decide what to do.

Indiana: Software glitch leaves 2,012 votes incomplete in Hancock County primary | Indiana Economic Digest – Indiana

Catastrophic. Marcia Moore summed up Tuesday’s election in one word. Sitting in the basement of the Hancock County Courthouse Annex on election night, the county clerk shook her head in disgust. Software glitches. Equipment failures. More than 2,000 ballots with errors. Sixteen local contests were left in limbo Tuesday night after election workers learned late in the day that a software error caused entire races to be left off voters’ ballots at five of the county’s 12 polling sites, Moore said. And there’s no way to identify or alert the 2,012 voters who didn’t have a say in those races — a fact Hancock County attorney Ray Richardson said will likely trigger a special election to start the process over. … The software error was one of a number of problems that plagued the local election, Moore said.

Louisiana: Suit: Louisiana voter registration law is discriminatory | Associated Press

A century-old Louisiana law discriminates against foreign-born, naturalized U.S. citizens by arbitrarily subjecting them to “heightened” voter registration requirements that don’t apply to native-born citizens, civil rights groups claim in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday. Attorneys from the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Fair Elections Legal Network are seeking a court order blocking enforcement of the state law, which has been on the books since 1874. Their class-action suit claims the law is unconstitutional because it requires naturalized citizens to provide documents proving their citizenship when they register to vote, while other residents simply must swear that they are citizens on the voter registration application.

Missouri: Voter ID requirement gets final go-ahead in the Missouri Legislature | St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A measure laying out photo ID requirements at the ballot box won final passage in the Missouri Legislature on Wednesday. The bill still needs either Gov. Jay Nixon’s signature or, if he vetoes the bill, a successful veto override in the Legislature. It would take effect only if voters approve to a change to the state constitution. A separate resolution putting the proposed constitutional change on the ballot this year is awaiting approval in the Senate. Both pieces of legislation advanced out of the House early in the legislative session, but they had been stalled in the Senate until this week.

Virginia: GOP lawmakers to sue over felons’ voting rights | Associated Press

Republican lawmakers in Virginia will file a lawsuit challenging Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s decision to allow more than 200,000 convicted felons to vote in November, GOP leaders said Monday. Republicans argue the governor has overstepped his constitutional authority with a clear political ploy designed to help the campaign of his friend and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the important swing state this fall. “Gov. McAuliffe’s flagrant disregard for the Constitution of Virginia and the rule of law must not go unchecked,” Senate Republican Leader Thomas Norment said in a statement. He added that McAuliffe’s predecessors and previous attorneys general examined this issue and concluded Virginia’s governor can’t issue blanket restorations.

Serbia: Opposition Maintains Pressure over Election Flaws | Balkan Insight