The Voting News Weekly: The Voting News Weekly for August 18-24 2014

The Los Angeles Ethics Commission has authorized an investigation into various ways to increase turnout, including cash incentives like a lottery. Arapahoe County Colorado is piloting risk-limiting post election audits this week in preparation for a statewide rollout by election day 2017, as required by the state legislature.  A  circuit court judge ruled that Florida’s flawed congressional districts may remain in place for two more years and newly drawn boundaries for seven north and central districts don’t have to take effect until 2016. The judge in Chris McDaniel’s lawsuit challenging his Republican primary loss to incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran expressed doubts Wednesday that a trial can be finished before the Nov. 4 general election. Brian Beutler considers the outrage among some conservative pundits over voter registration efforts at the scene of protests in Ferguson, Missouri. The NAACP has appealed a federal judge’s decision to allow elections to proceed under the sweeping changes made to North Carolina voting laws in 2013. A group of government ministers and officials with strong ties to the security forces are threatening to seize power if an election impasse that has paralyzed the country is not resolved soon. In many Australian cities, business owners and landlords have the right to participate in local elections and conservatives are now pushing a controversial bill that would require them to cast ballots in city council and mayoral races and Indonesia’s supreme court rejected an appeal by Prabowo Subianto over alleged voting irregularities, removing any uncertainty around the victory of Jakarta Gov. Joko Widodo.