Michigan: Voting rights activists threaten state with lawsuit | Michigan Messenger

A coalition of groups, including Demos, Project Vote, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCRUL), and the NAACP, sent a letter to Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson last week alleging that the state is in violation of federal law requiring voter registration at public assistance offices.

… Nicole Zeitler, an attorney with Project Vote, told the Michigan Messenger that the state is not following the law. “The NVRA requires the state to do more than simply make voter registration ‘available’ at public assistance agencies,” she said. “

Agencies must affirmatively offer a voter registration application form with EVERY application for benefits, recertification, and change of address form, whether or not the client asks for one. Michigan DHS policy, on the other hand—in violation of the NVRA—is to ONLY offer a form IF someone specifically requests one. Furthermore, our field investigations found that only 1 in 4 clients who did request a form received one.”

Cambodia: Mounting election concerns | AIPA

Concern mounted yesterday over the lack of funding available for the upcoming 2012 commune and district elections, as representatives from the government’s National Election Committee held a press conference to appeal for more backing. “Up until now, the Royal Government has yet to dispense any funds for the NEC, not even one hundred riel,” Committee chief Im Sousdei said during a speech in Phnom Penh.

“The NEC has budgeted US$23 million for the administration of the elections, which will be held on January 29 of next year,” he said, adding that the NEC was planning to open an additional 790 polling stations, bringing the total nationwide to 18,126.

Koul Panha, executive director of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections, yesterday echoed the NEC’s anxieties, calling an adequate budget “very important” for the process of voter registration.

Michigan: Rock the Vote urges Michigan to allow online registration – Secretary of State expresses concerns about security | Detroit News

Michigan is failing to engage young voters because it lacks online registration and some of its laws are too restrictive, according to a group whose aim is to get more youths to vote. Rock the Vote said the younger generation is comfortable with online access for everyday tasks and the current voting laws are outdated. Its study called for the state to update its laws.

"Today's generation uses technology to register for classes and pay for taxes," said Heather Smith, president of Rock the Vote. "It would seem quite normal that we'd also be able to fill out a voter registration form with technology."

Florida: Secretary Of State Pens Incomplete Defense Of Controversial Voting Law | TPM

Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning wrotein an editorial on Thursday that the Justice Department had determined "all 76 provisions" of Florida's new elections law were not discriminatory, except for the four controversial parts of the law he didn't want the department to review.

In fact, Browning retracted his submission of four controversial provisions of Florida's new election law from the pre-clearance process at the Justice Department after the agency started asking questions.

Florida instead took the more expensive route of asking a federal court to decide whether additional provisions -- including one that reduces the early voting period from 14 days to eight; another that requires voters who moved from another county to cast provisional ballots; one that requires third-party groups registering voters to turn in all forms within 48 hours -- passed the smell test.

Voting Blogs: Children and Dead People Are NOT Voting in Utah | Utah Data Points

In a blog post Monday, my colleague Adam Brown analyzed the publicly available Utah voter file with the catchy headline, “Are children and dead people voting in Utah?”  Later in the day he posted a follow up with this headline: “Which counties have more registration errors?” Voting by dead people and children is not a problem in Utah.  These so-called “registration errors” are better termed anomalies.

The blog posts, the brief summary on the Tribune’s Political Cornflakes blog, and the hype on KSL radio missed a lot of nuance. For example, KSL had a story during its 8-9 am drive-time show on Tuesday morning that reported on the posts.  They introduced the story with this (at 31:09 in this mp3 file): “Our top local story this hour. This is something like you’d expect from Chicago.  Dead people staying on the voter registration rolls.”  Later on in the hour (at 46:33 in the mp3 file), KSL introduced Adam for a brief interview with this: “Well, there are either a whole bunch of long-living residents in Utah or some dead people are registered to vote…So, is this like Chicago?” Adam’s actual interview wasn’t quite as dramatic, but he referred to “incomplete record keeping,” his surprise at finding “several thousand people born in the 1800s registered to vote,” and how “carelessness” creates “opportunities for abuse.”

Malaysia: Road Map For Automatic Voter Registration Needed – Saifuddin | Bernama

A road map needs to be instituted to enable Malaysians reaching the age of 21 to be automatically registered as voters, said Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah. He said that he was not only in favour of this but also reducing the voting age to 18.

"Though these are not possible for the next general election, nevertheless, a road map needs to be in place to realise these matters.

"To have a great decracy, we need as many people as possible to come out and vote. To achieve this, we must make it easier for the people to do so (vote)," he said at the Electoral Reform and Purification of Democracy Forum organised by the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (Abim) and the Abim Lawyers Group (GPA) at Kolej Dar Al-Hikmah here today.

Angola: Vice-minister presses for stronger engagement in electoral register update | Angola Press

The Angolan vice-minister of Territory Administration for Institutional and Electoral Affairs, Adão de Almeida, Saturday in Luanda appealed to all citizens to participate in raising civic awareness on the electoral register update.

“Electoral register is a commitment with peace and democracy, therefore everyone who likes peace must participate in the process. We are all devoted to consolidating peace and promoting the development of democracy in Angola,” said the Government official.

Tunisia: Tunisians slow to register for ballot | AFP

Only about half of potential voters in Tunisia have registered to cast their ballot in October polls, the first since the January ouster of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, early figures showed Sunday. Just over 3.7 million of an estimated seven million potential voters had added their names to the roll, a member of the independent election commission, Larbi Chouikha, told AFP ahead of the close of registration at midnight (2300 GMT).

The provisional figure, which does not include an estimated 700,000 to 800,000 Tunisians of voting age abroad, represented about 52 percent of potential voters still in the country. The commission will release official figures on Tuesday. Registration opened on July 11 and was supposed to close on August 2, but was prolonged due to a slow turnout.

Ghana: Biometric voter registrarion without verification is a meaningless exercise | Ghana Online

Ghana is almost certainly gearing towards a revision of our voters’ registration and the Electoral Commission has been mandated and resourced to introduce biometric registration in the last quarter of the year. The fact that our current voters’ register has outlived its usefulness is well known and agreed upon by many political analysts. The fact also that the government has allocated GHS50 million to the Electoral Commission to implement biometric registration is equally known.

What is however uncertain is the kind of biometric technology the Electoral Commission is going to deploy and whether the biometric register that will be created will be able to stop multiple voting. Biometric verification is any means by which a person can be uniquely identified by the evaluation of a biological trait such as fingerprints, hand geometry, earlobe geometry, retina and iris patterns, voice waves, DNA or signatures.

Voting Blogs: Controversial Changes to Florida Election Law Remain in Question | Project Vote Blog

Today, Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning announced that the Justice Department approved part of a controversial new election law that is being challenged by Project Vote and the ACLU. The critical portions of the bill relating to restrictions on early voting and voter registration drives remain in question.

Browning took the most controversial elements of the law to a federal court in Washington D.C. instead of the Justice Department, a move that he claims was to avoid “outside influence” at the hefty expense of taxpayers.

Malaysia: Biometric voting: ‘No way Election Commission is ready’ | Free Malaysia Today

The Election Commission (EC) is unlikely to be ready to introduce the biometric voter system if the general election is held in November this year.
This is the view of Port Dickson assemblyman M Ravi. Speaking to FMT, he said: “I can say the biometric system won’t come into effect if Parliament dissolved in November.

“Yesterday, it was reported that EC deputy chairman Wan Ahmad Wan Omar said the EC will explain biometric system to all parties concerned before implementing it. The EC expects to do this by year-end. “But I believe by the time the EC completes the explanation, the 13th general election will be over.”

Oklahoma: Cherokee Councilors boycott special meeting | Native Times

Failing to make quorum, the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council did not take action on potential amendments to the tribe’s election code at a special meeting Friday afternoon.

Twenty minutes before the meeting’s scheduled 3 p.m. start time, principal chief candidate and Tribal Council member Bill John Baker, along with councilors Tina Glory-Jordan of Hulbert, Okla., Chuck Hoskin Jr., of Vinita, Okla., Jodie Fishinghawk from Stilwell, Okla., and Curtis Snell from Rose, Okla., issued a statement through Baker’s campaign that they would not be attending the special council. The five called the meeting illegal due to the presence of proposed election law amendments on the agenda that had not been vetted by the council’s rules committee.

“The Tribal Council rules are crystal clear that an issue cannot be addressed by the council unless it has first been considered and passed out of a council committee, “ Baker said in the statement.

Nevada: Misguided voter’s ballot leads to North Las Vegas victor’s wife | ReviewJournal.com

Las Vegas resident Greg Mich'l didn't just wake up one morning and decide to cast a ballot in the contentious Ward 4 City Council race in North Las Vegas. He first had to register to vote.

As we now know, every vote counted in the race between incumbent Richard Cherchio and challenger Wade Wagner. Wagner defeated Cherchio on June 7 by a single ballot. The outcome was further complicated, Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax has stated in an affidavit, after a vote was cast improperly because of a pollworker's error. Cherchio has sued to have the election overturned and a new vote ordered.

But it's Mich'l's vote that has me intrigued. When I interviewed him recently at his home on Villa Pintura Avenue several miles outside Ward 4, Mich'l admitted he wasn't up on all the laws when he registered to vote using his brother's address.

Louisiana: NAACP, Justice Dept. Sue State Over Voter Registration Issues | WDSU New Orleans

The state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Department of Justice said Louisiana isn't doing enough to register minority and low-income citizens. Both groups have sued the state in federal court.

"The allegation is that the Department of Health and Hospitals and Social Service personnel, the Department of Children and Families, did not offer on a routine basis, at least on the secret shopper interviews, the voter registration application," said Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Shedler.

Liberia: Preparing for Voting Amid Security Concerns, Refugee Crisis | VoA News

Liberia's electoral commission is working to safeguard voting along the border with Ivory Coast, where hundreds of mercenaries from the recent Ivorian political crisis are under arrest and thousands of Ivorian refugees are stretching Liberian social services. Liberia has two big votes in the next few months, a constitutional referendum and a presidential election.  With campaigning for both contests well under way, Liberia's electoral commission is working to ensure that voting in areas near the Ivorian border will not be disrupted by instability stemming from the Ivorian political crisis.

"Firstly, when we look at the Ivorian refugees, our primary concern will be one of security concern in terms of mercenaries coming over with the hopes of threatening the process," said James Fromayan who chairs Liberia's electoral commission.

Indiana: Allen County vote-registration transfer on hold | The Journal Gazette

The Allen County Election Board could not agree Wednesday to take over the duties and responsibilities of voter registration, so what happens next falls to the Allen County commissioners.

While two members of the board – Republican County Clerk Lisbeth Borgmann and Republican representative Zachary Klutz – said yes, Democratic member Andrew Boxberger voted no. Per state statute, the vote must be unanimous to become policy. Already dealing with massive budget cuts and facing a presidential election year in 2012, Boxberger said now is not the time for such a transition.

New Hampshire: Attorney General’s office investigating Mont Vernon voter records | NEWS06

The Attorney General’s Office has been asked to investigate the handling of voter records kept in Mont Vernon, hometown of Speaker of the House William O’Brien. Town resident Joyce Cardoza filed a complaint this week after reading news reports that O’Brien’s son Brendan was registered to vote in both his hometown and in Lewiston, Maine, where he attended college and ran for public office in 2009.

Cardoza, a registered Democrat, noted that Speaker O’Brien’s wife Roxanne is one of three supervisors of the checklist who handle voter registration matters. State law requires local election officials to take specific steps to notify officials in a voter’s previous town of a change in registration.

In this case, the registration form young O’Brien filled out when he voted in Mont Vernon in November 2010 never made it to Lewiston. State law requires supervisors of the checklist to send a copy of the registration form to a voter’s previous town if it lies within New England.

Virginia: Judge stays ruling in Norfolk voter registration case | HamptonRoads.com

A federal judge issued a stay to an earlier ruling that would have made voter registration records available to the public. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith ordered the stay after the Virginia attorney general's office filed an appeal. Smith ruled two weeks ago in favor of the voting rights group Project Vote, ordering Virginia to open its voter registration records for public inspection. At that time, Smith placed some restrictions on the open records, saying only applications from July 20 onward would be made available, and Social Security numbers must be redacted.

Project Vote had sued the Norfolk and state voter registrars after a number of Norfolk State University students had their voter registrations rejected during the last presidential election. The Norfolk registrar denied the group access to the records, citing Virginia election law.

Arizona: Voter registration website back online | Tucson Sentinel

Arizona's voter registration website is back online, an evening release from the Department of Transportation said. The website had been down throughout business hours on the last day to register before the state's Aug. 30 primary elections. Voter have until midnight Monday to register using the online system, including changing addresses.

If you're not registered to vote for this month's primary election, you'll have to sign up in person. The state's EZ Voter website was down Monday, the deadline to register, a spokesman for the Secretary of State's office said. Due to storms in Phoenix on Sunday night, the state's online voter registration system will be unavailable for a undetermined period, said Matthew Roberts, a spokesman for Secretary of State Ken Bennett. Monday is the last day to register for the Aug. 30 primary.

New Mexico: Secretary of State Dianna Duran ruffles feathers | latimes.com

Dianna Duran, New Mexico's secretary of State who took office in January, sounded a tad pugnacious in March when she reported that 117 foreign nationals with phony Social Security numbers had registered to vote and 37 had cast ballots in elections. There was, she said, "a culture of corruption" in the state.

Duran, who had ordered her staff to check 1.16 million voter registration records against motor vehicle and Social Security databases, also raised eyebrows by referring 64,000 voter registration records to the state police, citing irregularities.

No one has been charged with a crime, and Duran, a former Republican state senator and county clerk, has since taken fire from Democratic legislators, public interest groups and news organizations that say she has overstated her case, scared voters and withheld proof of her claims.

Maine: Election Day registration supporters battle opponents’ stagecraft | Sun Journal

Supporters of a people's veto campaign to restore Election Day voter registration were obviously concerned when Secretary of State Charlie Summers announced last Wednesday that he was holding a news conference to discuss what his office described as "preliminary findings regarding voter fraud allegations."

The group's anxiety was partially attributable to fears that Summers may have discovered voting impropriety within Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster's mysterious — some say dubious — list of 206 out-of-state college students. But more worrisome to the coalition was the scene that unfolded the next day in Summers' office.

A throng of television cameras, radio and print reporters awaited his remarks. Supporters of same-day voter registration knew that visuals of Summers in his office would appear on that night's newscasts, that afternoon's newspaper websites and in print the next day.

Maine: Same Day Voter Registration and Charlie Webster’s Infinite Wisdom | Price on Politics

I have been avoiding this topic for the past couple of weeks because it has received plenty of coverage, but given GOP Chairman Charlie Webster’s latest actions, it was time for a college student’s take on the matter. For the past four years I have been a registered Republican in a college town and as frustrating as it often can be to go up against the liberal leanings of the area, restricting voting access is wrong and will not change the outcome of elections.

I am from Maine and have voted since I was 18, and never once was it in my hometown. I follow the local politics of the area I reside in and am most informed about the issues of that area. While I am not one of the students Webster has decided to target, I still take issue with his accusations. I’d also be curious to know where LePage’s children voted during their time (paying in state tuition?) attending college in Florida. If we are heading down this road, why not look at Maine citizens voting in other states while attending school. Does this concern Webster? No, because to him they represent one less liberal voting in a Maine election.

Editorials: North Carolina Voter ID bill down, but not out | The Asheville Citizen-Times

North Carolina is safe, for the moment, from what appears to be little more than an attempt to disenfranchise people who might vote Democratic. But, as Andrew Jackson once put it, “eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty.”

The House fell five votes short Tuesday of the three-fifths vote needed to override Gov. Bev Perdue's veto of a bill requiring North Carolinians to show a photo identification in order to vote. But the GOP performed a parliamentary maneuver to keep the bill alive through the remainder of the 2011-12 session.

Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Cornelius, was unhappy. “I am hopeful that North Carolinians will continue to express their support for this critical issue and that their representatives will respond appropriately,” he said after the vote.

Florida: Floridians Protest New Voting Law | BET

Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr. and leaders in Florida have embarked on a two-day campaign to build awareness among African-American voters and local lawmakers in the state about the impact that the proposed new voting regulations would have on minorities and low-income people.

“The irony is we fight wars for democracy abroad and declare war on democracy at home,” Jackson said during a news conference before a rally at the New Covenant Baptist Church of Orlando Monday night. “All we really want is an even playing field.”

Rev. Randolph Bracy, whose church hosted the Monday night rally, said that Jackson will be a key catalyst in getting people to think about this issue and recognize what’s at risk. The rally sought to “wake up the community” and was the first of what Bracy hopes will be several more voter awareness events and activities. Similar rallies took place Monday morning in Eatonville and in Tampa Tuesday afternoon.

Solomon Islands: Electoral Commission Receives New Advisors | Solomon Islands News

The Solomon Islands Electoral Commission through RAMSI's and Solomon Islands Government's legal framework on reform and capacity building has received new advisors to help on electoral reform.

The Electoral Commission this week received one operations advisor, two new graduates and a program manager to the Electoral System Strengthening Program (ESSP) to be based at the Electoral Commission Office. A legal advisor is expected to join the office in mid August. Chief Electoral Officer, Mr. Polycarp Haununu, welcomed the advisors into the office on Tuesday.

Saint Kitts and Nevis: NGOs National Observer Group highlights irregularities in Nevis Elections | SKNVibes

In an interim report on the July 11, 2011 Nevis Island Elections, the local Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) Observer Group stated that despite the generally peaceful nature of the campaign and the electoral process, a number of irregularities were observed. The first noticeable irregularity noted was that voters had difficulty finding their polling stations or their names on the partial Electoral List inside the polling stations, and this caused several of them to be disenfranchised.

“We welcome the generally peaceful nature of the campaign and the electoral process. At the same time, we were saddened by the fact that a number of Nevisians were disenfranchised, and persons known to be permanent residents in St. Kitts were able to participate in the elections are voters.

“There remain shortcomings with the voters’ registration, based on the number of people with voter cards but missing from the voters’ register. This needs to be urgently addressed,” the report states.

Maine: State GOP Chair: Students Who Vote And Pay Out-Of-State Tuition Are Committing Voter Fraud | TPM

Maine Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster is claiming that college students who pay out-of-state tuition rates and vote in state are committing voter fraud. At a press conference at the Maine State House, Webster gave the media a list of over 200 students -- their names redacted -- who paid out-of-state tuition rates but were registered to vote in the state.

Webster said he came up with the list because of opposition from voter rights groups to a law passed by the Republican-led legislature in June which banned voter registration on Election Day. A coalition of groups have launched a petition drive to overturn the law.

One problem. The University of Maine only allows individuals who previously lived in Maine -- those who aren't just living into the state to attend school -- to pay a discounted in-state tuition rate.

Kentucky: Kentucky Legislators to look at homeless voter issue | cincinnati.com

Secretary of State Elaine Walker and Boone County Clerk Kenny Brown will address state legislators Tuesday afternoon on the issues surrounding homeless voter registration. They will speak before the Interim Task Force on Elections, Constitutional Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs to talk about the concerns raised over a memo last month from the Kentucky Board of Elections on the process for homeless voter registration.

Committee co-chairman Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, said he called the meeting with Walker and Brown to help lawmakers decide whether legislation will be necessary to allay concerns. “I want to have a committee hearing about it so we can look at potentially addressing it in the next session,” Thayer said.

The June 30 homeless voter registration memo from Board of Elections Executive Director Sarah Ball Johnson to all county clerks drew the objection of Boone County Clerk Kenny Brown.

Zambia: Electoral Commission completes the correction of anomalies on the Zambian voter register | Lusaka Times

The Electoral Commission of Zambia ECZ has completed the correction of anomalies on the voter’s register. And the commission is finalizing the voter’s register in readiness for this year’s tripartite elections.

ECZ Chairperson Irene Mambilima says the voters’ register is now in its final stages. She was speaking in an interview with ZNBC News in Lusaka on today. Justice Mambilima says preparations for the elections are on course.