The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly for December 14-20 2015

Matthew Peterson the incoming President of the Federal Election Commission has promised a more low-profile approach than his immediate predecessor. Advocates of automatic voter registration with two legislative battles in Oregon and California this year, and a loss in New Jersey turn their attention to 18 states that are considering a variety of similar bills. Ned Foley warns that a 2000-style disputed election is always a possibility. With only seven months left until D.C. voters cast ballots in the 2016 primary, the agency in charge of running the city’s elections remains without top leadership — and on Wednesday struggled to explain whether it has the money to buy new voting machines it says it needs. After eight rulings by the Florida Supreme Court and an admission of guilt by legislators, the Senate redistricting trial ended Thursday with a Tallahassee judge asking the parties to tell him their top choices for a new Senate map. Facing a potential court battle that could go on for years, Na‘i Aupuni announced this morning that it will cancel the Native Hawaiian election and proceed to a four-week convention in February. On the same day a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging the voter ID requirements, the court also allowed a lawsuit to proceed that claims that Republican-drawn legislative district maps are unconstitutional. Voters in the Central African Republic appear to have overwhelmingly approved a new constitution aimed at stopping more than three years of violence between Muslims and Christians and Spain faces its most uncertain national election in 40 years today.