The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly for June 1-7 2015

In an address in Texas, Hillary Clinton called for sweeping changes to elections and voting laws, arguing that measures including universal voter registration and national early voting are necessary to counteract a tide of laws aimed at making it more difficult for some people to vote. Nathaniel Persilly notes that as they consider a major redistricting case, the justices of the US Supreme Court, like most of us, might be surprised to learn that the most basic information as to who is an American citizen cannot actually be found in any publicly available government data set — anywhere. Nevada is keeping its caucuses for selecting presidential nominees, disappointing supporters of several Republican presidential contenders who had hoped to shift the early-voting state to a system of primaries. Vermont became the 14th state to allow same-day voter registration. A federal court concluded for the second time that Virginia’s congressional boundaries are unconstitutional because state lawmakers packed black voters into one district in order to make adjacent districts safer for Republican incumbents. One Wisconsin Institute, Inc., and Citizen Action of Wisconsin Education Fund along with a half-dozen voters have filed a federal lawsuit challenging a host of changes Republicans have made to Wisconsin’s election laws, alleging the provisions burden black people, Latinos and Democratic-leaning voters. Burundi’s opposition parties and civil society groups welcomed a decision to postpone Friday’s parliamentary election, while Mexico has experience experienced severe violence and demonstrations ahead of this weekend’s parliamentary elections.