The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly for October 20-26 2014

Anticipating election challenges, both parties have hired armies of lawyers ahead of next month’s elections. Matthew McKnight considered the impact of recent Supreme Court decisions in voting rights cases. Following the Arkansas state supreme court ruling that the State’s voter ID law was unconstitutional, county election officials are scrambling to make last minute changes, redoing things they’ve already done in order to get the proper information to polling sites. Los Angeles Supervisors approved a $15-million contract with Palo Alto consultant Ideo for the design of a new voting system. The Florida Supreme Court has set the day after the opening of the 2015 Legislature for a pivotal hearing into whether the state’s redrawn congressional districts are valid. According to a a highly-critical report released by the Rutgers School of Law in Newark, emergency measures intended to allow people to vote in the days immediately following Hurricane Sandy violated New Jersey state law. Richard Hasen considered Justice Ginsburg’s scathing dissent in the Supreme Court decision to allow Texas’ Voter ID for this election. Wisconsin’s voter ID law has been put on hold for the fall election, leaving local election officials to make adjustments less than a month before voters go to the polls. Voters in Brazil return to polls for a run-off between the top two candidates from last month’s Presidential election and Ukraine’s election website was hacked in advance of this weekend’s parliamentary elections.