The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly for September 22-28 2014

Aging electronic voting machines again threaten controversy and long lines at the polls this November. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has intervened in a lower court case seeking to force Democrats to name a new U.S. Senate nominee. The Maryland Attorney General’s office is appealing a federal judge’s ruling ordering Maryland to use an absentee ballot-marking technology. A federal appeals court is hearing arguments in a case challenging a new North Carolina voting law that critics say will suppress minority voter turnout in November. Ohio officials went to the Supreme Court in an attempt to halt expanded early voting now scheduled to begin Tuesday. Closing arguments were heard in a case challenging Texas’ voter ID law. The Virginia State Board of elections said that over 450,000 voters in the State may lack the proper identification needed to cast a ballot in the November midterm elections under a voter ID requirement that took effect this year. A federal appeals court narrowly decided against hearing arguments on a recently instituted photo identification requirement for the Wisconsin’s voters. A computer error that marred Monday’s New Brunswick election has raised concerns about the risks of electronic voting as many Ontario municipalities are preparing to use the newest ballot-box technologies in next month’s elections and Indonesia’s parliament voted to eliminate direct local elections in a move that critics say is a huge step backward for the country’s fledgling democracy.