The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly March 30 – April 5 2015

With roughly two out of every three American adults, or 64 percent, owning a smartphone, Politico considered the ways that this new mobile reality will change the dynamics of the 2016 election cycle. A legislative compromise aimed at professionalizing Connecticut’s election system after a spate of polling mishaps met with approval from registrars and state election officials alike. A bill in the state senate could lead to the end of North Dakota’s unique status as the only state without voter registration. Ohio Governor John Kasich used a line-item veto to eliminate language in a transportation bill that that Democrats and voting-rights activists contended would have discouraged students from voting. The Vermont Senate rejected a last-ditch effort Wednesday to require photo identification at the polls as part of a same-day voter registration bill. An investigation into voting irregularities during the November general election in Virginia has raised serious security concerns about the AVS WinVote touchscreen voting machine used in about one-fifth of the state’s precincts. A UK citizen living in France is running for Parliament to bring attention to a law preventing Britons from voting at home once they’ve been out of the country for 15 years and international observers voiced criticism after the landslide re-election of Uzbek president Islam Karimov.