Wisconsin: Wisconsin Governor Walker Signs Voter ID Law, Angering Democrats | Suite101.com

Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker signed a bill that will require voters to produce a photo identification card (Wisconsin issued driver's license, passport, military ID, or student ID with certain details) at the polls. Poll workers will begin to ask voters for identification on January 1, 2012, but it will not be required by law until the spring elections of 2012.

The primary rationale for the law, according to Republican proponents, is to combat voter fraud. Democrats, however, feel that the law is a political move to limit the vote of their biggest constituents.

 

Editorials: Scot Ross: Why voter ID bill may be unconstitutional | CapTimes

We believe Wisconsin’s new voter ID law is overly burdensome on voters and that the state is simply unequipped to administer this law and ensure legal voters will not be disenfranchised or subject to a poll tax. We continue to confer with legal counsel about what potential legal challenges can be made against Gov. Scott Walker’s voter suppression bill.

The bill originally was based on Indiana’s voter ID bill. According to the U.S. Supreme Court case upholding Indiana’s bill, the lower court found that “99 percent of Indiana’s voting age population already possesses the necessary photo identification to vote under the requirements.” The Supreme Court concluded that Indiana’s law was constitutional, specifically because so few Indianans were without the state-issued photo identification.

Wisconsin: Wisconsin governor signs controversial voter ID law | Reuters

The Republican governor of Wisconsin signed a bill on Wednesday that will require voters in the state to show photo identification when they go to the polls.

The measure, which Democrats characterize as a voter suppression effort but Republicans defend as a protection against fraud at the polls, will take partial effect just as nine state senators — including six of Governor Scott Walker’s Republican allies — face recall challenges in mid-July.

Malta: A ‘No’ vote will kill tolerance and diversity in Malta – Alternattiva Demokratika | Independent online

A ‘No’ (to the introduction of divorce) result in the upcoming referendum will put the principles of tolerance and diversity at stake, said EU and International Affairs spokesperson for Alternattiva Demokratika Arnold Cassola, yesterday. He was speaking during a press conference held outside the university gates.

AD reminded people that Malta joined the EU in 2004 and urged the Maltese people to live up to the European Union’s motto ’United in diversity’ during this Saturday’s referendum. People should be tolerant to other people’s beliefs, even if they are different. Prof. Cassola said that ‘Yes’ votes are also a hope towards restoring the concept of equality among all Maltese citizens and not privileging those who can get a divorce from abroad, as is the current situation.

Editorials: Our view: Walker signing law we don’t need | LaCrosse Tribune

With the stroke of a pen today, Gov. Scott Walker will officially solve a problem that we don’t have. If you listen to Walker and some fellow governors, they’re protecting the integrity of elections and preventing voter fraud.

If you ask most everyone else, it’s a slick way of making it more difficult for people to vote — especially people who are less likely to vote for Walker and his Republican colleagues.

Editorials: Vote-killing regulations in Florida | TBO.com

“It doesn’t matter who the losing political party is. The scheme is an affront to democracy.”

Florida Gov. Rick Scott hates regulations. Indeed, the phrase “job-killing regulations” has become a virtual motto. But while he has little use for rules intended to protect the public health, consumers or the environment, he doesn’t object to “vote-killing” regulations.

The governor last week signed legislation aimed at making it tougher for the young and the poor to vote. The legislation prevents people who have moved from another county from changing their address at the polls, as they have been able to do for 40 years. They now will be forced to cast a provisional ballot.

Editorials: League of Women voters response to Florida Election Bill | Lehigh Acres Citizen

The League of Women Voters of Florida is gravely disappointed by Governor Rick Scott’s decision to approve HB 1355, a controversial elections bill that the League considers an assault on voters.

By signing HB 1355, the governor indicated his support for burdensome and unnecessary regulations that will make it more difficult for eligible voters to get registered and cast a ballot in the state of Florida.

Our League president Deirdre Macnab said that Gov. Scott is taking Florida back in time today, with his approval of cumbersome regulations that will make it harder for eligible Floridians to be engaged and active in their government. She said this is extremely disappointing in a state like Florida, which had made many improvements to its electoral system in recent years.

North Carolina: Election Bills give 2012 edge to GOP in North Carolina | NewsObserver.com

North Carolina had the closest governor’s race in the country in 2008, and only Missouri had a closer presidential contest. Both went the Democrats’ way, in large part because of the unprecedented effort in the state by the campaign of presidential candidate Barack Obama. The Obama campaign had a paid staff of 400 with 47 storefront offices.

The effort included a major push to sign up voters early and get them to the polls – particularly African-Americans and college students of all colors. But the Republican legislature is intent on throwing a wrench into the Democratic machine to make sure there is no repeat next year.

Wisconsin: Senate passes Wisconsin voter ID bill, sends to Walker | Wisconsin Law Journal

The state Senate gave final legislative approval to a bill that would require Wisconsin voters to show photo identification during a ragged session Thursday, clearing the way for Gov. Scott Walker to sign the measure into law next week.

Assembly Republicans passed the measure in a late-night session last week. Republicans who control the Senate brought the bill up for debate on Tuesday. Democrats railed against it into the early morning hours on Wednesday, finally using a procedural maneuver to delay the final vote until Thursday.

Editorials: Statement from Howard Simon on Voter Suppression Act of 2011 Being Signed into Law by Governor Scott | ACLU

If it weren’t so grotesquely un-American, you’d almost want to congratulate them for the audacity and efficiency of the attack. Governor Scott and the anti-civil liberties State Legislature have achieved an astonishing voter suppression trifecta. With just one bill, they made it harder to register to vote, harder to cast your vote, and harder to have your vote counted.

The right to participate in a fair election is the backbone of our democracy, and election laws are supposed to protect that right by making our elections fair and transparent. The current regime in Tallahassee wrongly sees voting as a privilege rather than the fundamental right that it is. They feel free to manipulate the voting process and use election laws as a weapon to against Floridians whose rights are inconvenient to their power.

Editorials: Tallahassee meddling in voting rights – Editorial | MiamiHerald.com

Whatever happens Tuesday when voters are to pick Miami-Dade’s next mayor and two commissioners — plus various proposed county charter changes — will you be able to say that your choices were considered because you voted?

Too few registered voters can say that today. Yet they will be the first to gripe about the winners in the May 24 special election. They’ll complain that county government is broken, and that they don’t vote because the fix is in.

Florida: Florida counties brace for impact of new election-reform law | Electionline Weekly

Following the disastrous 2000 election and the implementation of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), elections supervisors in the state of Florida have been faced with a host of election administration rules and regulation changes every election cycle and 2012 appears like it will be no different.

Today, Gov. Rick Scott (R) signed sweeping election-reform legislation that will decrease the length of time for early voting, create more reasons to cast a provisional ballot and will alter how third-party registrations are conducted.

“As a Supervisor of Elections in Florida, I had secretly hoped that there would be little to no legislation introduced this year that would have a major impact on elections and election administration,” said Linda Harrington, Lee County supervisor of elections.  “We have been dealing with major changes to our election processes and equipment on both the federal and state level since 2002 when the Help America Vote Act was enacted.  I don’t think any of us anticipated the enormity of these legislative changes to the Election Code.”

Florida: Protests grow as Governor considers Florida elections bill | Orlando Sentinel

Update May 20: Judge: No early voting Sunday in Miami-Dade election | MiamiHerald.com.

Gov. Rick Scott has yet to sign a sweeping elections bill that rewrites much of the state’s voting laws, but the measure is already having repercussions in a South Florida mayoral race – and drawing challenges from Democrats in Florida and in Washington.

Elections officials in Miami-Dade have canceled early voting hours for Sunday in anticipation that Scott will sign the bill by Saturday, his deadline for a decision. Among other things, the bill prohibits early voting three days before an election; the Miami-Dade mayoral primary is next Tuesday.

Editorials: John Nichols: Effort to thwart Southern-style voter suppression necessary and appropriate | madison.com

State Senate Democrats used a procedural maneuver earlier this week to block the final roll call on the voter ID bill that Gov. Scott Walker and his allies have advanced in order to game the political process to favor their chosen candidates. The Democratic moves delayed the Senate vote until today, when it is likely that the Republican-controlled Senate will approve what can only be described as an assault on Wisconsin tradition of encouraging high levels of voter participation.

The wrangling of the moment between Republicans and Democrats has made this seem like a partisan struggle. But it is not really that. The Wisconsin Republicans of not too many years ago would have joined Democrats in opposing this bill. That’s because Wisconsin has a history of bipartisan commitment to expanding the franchise, not narrowing it.

Ohio: Ohio House passes election reforms – Democrats call bill an attempt to hinder their voters | The Columbus Dispatch

Elections officials could no longer send absentee ballot applications to all Franklin County voters, and the time for in-person early voting would be significantly reduced under an elections overhaul bill that passed the House today along party lines.

The sweeping bill, which also would attempt to lessen the need to cast provisional ballots, allows election boards to save money through bulk purchasing, and would let voters update registrations online — a “significant move in the right direction to unify our electoral process in the state of Ohio,” said Rep. Robert Mecklenborg, R-Cincinnati.

South Carolina: Haley signs South Carolina bill requiring voters show photo ID | TheState.com

With The Black Eyed Peas blaring, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley signed a bill Wednesday requiring people to show photo identification to vote, as opponents pledged to fight it through the U.S. Justice Department. Haley arrived at the bill signing with the hip-hop group’s “I Gotta Feeling” playing in the background, as Republican legislators and tea party activists crowded around her at the Statehouse.

“It’s another great day in the state of South Carolina,” Haley said to cheers and applause. “We are going to make sure we maintain the integrity of the election system. We’re gonna do it by saying, if you can show pictures to buy Sudafed, if you can show a picture to get on an airplane, you should be able to show a picture to make sure we do what is incredibly inherent in our freedoms and that’s the ability to vote.”

Florida: Proposed bills would make voting harder for many Floridians | Sun Sentinel

College students seeking to vote at their campus precinct will find it harder to do. So will women who’ve changed their name but not re-registered before an election. The time for early voting would be cut from 14 days to six.

Groups like the League of Women Voters will find it tougher to register voters. And citizens attempting to amend the constitution will have to gather more than 600,000 signatures in two years instead of four.

Florida: With presidential election looming, Florida election law rewrite moves forward | jacksonville.com

With a fast-approaching presidential election expected to bring more than 8.5 million Floridians to the polls, the Legislature is battling over sweeping changes to nearly every aspect of state election law.

Supporters tout the changes as fighting fraud. Opponents say they are disenfranchising. And the people charged with counting ballots wonder why lawmakers are trying to reinvent the wheel in the first place.

Florida: Florida House passes elections law overhaul | St. Petersburg Times

The Florida House passed a sweeping overhaul of election laws Thursday that Republicans say will streamline voting machinery and Democrats say will make it harder for people to vote in the nation’s biggest battleground state in 2012.

Passage on a 79-37 party-line vote followed two days of intensely partisan debate — a harbinger of next year’s presidential election when Florida’s newly increased 29 electoral votes and all 160 legislative seats will be at stake in a pivotal reapportionment year. But the closest that any Republican lawmaker came to stating the obvious — invoking President Barack Obama’s name — was a passing reference to preventing “the Chicago method” of voting more than once.

Editorials: Election bills rap democracy: Public short-served by GOP legislation | OrlandoSentinel.com

Time to stop calling the gang running Florida’s government conservative. They’re busy concocting a liberal dose of new regulations that would serve their fortunes first, and Floridians dead last.

It amounts to their ripping apart election laws that have made it easier for Floridians to vote, and replacing them with laws that could stack the deck — election outcomes — in the Republicans’ favor.

Florida: Florida Legislature passes dramatic overhaul of state election law | South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Florida lawmakers passed a dramatic overhaul of state election law Thursday night, a move that GOP legislators say will bring integrity to the process and one that Democrats counter will disenfranchise voters across the state.

The measure, a major rewrite to the laws that govern the state’s elections, passed 79-37. Among other things, the measure (HB 1355) would limit voters’ ability to change their address at the polls, change third-party voter registration rules and make it more difficult for citizen groups to put amendments on the ballot.

Editorials: Howard Troxler: Florida Legislature cracks down on … voting? | St. Petersburg Times

Having solved all other problems, the Florida Legislature now turns to the most dangerous threat of all …Voting. No kidding. The 2011 Legislature is considering, and its committees have approved so far, bills that would:

• Cut Florida’s early-voting period (nearly one out of five ballots were cast early in 2010) from two weeks to one.
• Bar anyone who has moved or changed a name, such as newly married women, from updating their information at the polls on Election Day and receiving a regular ballot. They would have to cast “provisional” ballots instead.
• Crack down on, and expand penalties for, groups that try to register new voters — which used to be considered an all-American activity.
• Make it even harder for citizens to change the Florida Constitution by setting an earlier expiration date for petition signatures.

Florida: Voter-rights activists pan Florida election measure | TBO.com

For more than a decade, lawmakers have been tweaking election rules to improve on Florida’s ham-fisted history of counting ballots. This year, an election law rewrite is moving through the state House that voter-rights activists have assailed as “good old-fashioned voter suppression” and “Jim Crow tactics.”

The legislation was described as a cleanup bill in advance of the 2012 elections that is “important to ensure the integrity of the political process and our elections in Florida,” said sponsor Dennis Baxley, a Republican from Ocala.

Tennessee: Tennessee Attorney General’s Opinion Flags Voter ID Bill | Nashville Public Radio

A proposal to require Tennessee voters to present a photo ID at their polling place ran into a speed bump at the state capitol Wednesday. Tennessee’s attorney general issued an opinion saying that the Voter ID bill would likely be found unconstitutional.

Representative Craig Fitzhugh, the House Democratic Leader, was one of the lawmakers who requested the Attorney General’s opinion. “I mean it’s a violation of both the U.S. Constitution and the Tennessee Constitution.”

Florida: Critics lash Florida elections bill as ‘voter suppression’ | St. Petersburg Times

The latest House makeover of Florida election laws stirred intense controversy Thursday as unions and grass roots political groups complained that it would suppress 2012 voting in a state Barack Obama won in 2008.

By a 12-6 party-line vote, the House State Affairs Committee approved the new bill, setting up a vote by the full House. Similar legislation will be taken up Friday by the Senate Rules Committee.