The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly for March 2-8 2015

President Obama and a host of political figures from both parties came to Selma Alabama to commemorate the 50th anniversary of one of the most searing days of the civil rights era, to reflect on how far the country has come and how far it still has to go. Congressional Democrats have written a letter urging the Government Accountability Office to review the status of voting machine technology and the potential problems posed by using outdated equipment. The U.S. Supreme Court appeared skeptical of a voter-approved plan that stripped Arizona state lawmakers of their role in drawing congressional districts in an bid to remove partisan politics from the process. Lawyers argued that Florida’s congressional redistricting maps should be rejected because they are the product of a shadowy process infiltrated by Republican political operatives in violation of the law against partisan gerrymandering. Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler has raised concerns about the the state’s AVC Advantage voting machines that are entering their third decade of service. In North Dakota, student leadership and university officials debated a bill that would create a new student identification option for voting amid questions of student safety and over whether it creates a special class of voters. The Oregon Senate has sent a bill calling for automatic voter registration to Governor Kate Brown, who was a champion of the legislation as Secretary of State. A report commissioned by the New South Wales Electoral Commission warned cyber attacks could be waged against iVote, an electronic system that will allow eligible people to vote in the March 28 election using the internet or a phone and following delays in announcing the results of El Salvador’s parliamentary elections, officials have alleged that the process of transmitting the votes electronically was sabotaged.