In British Columbia, Canada, some Liberal Party officials are calling for online voting in upcoming provincial elections. Iowa’s new Secretary of State is urging the Governor-elect to rescind an order restoring the voting rights of ex-felons, and Ohio’s new Secretary of State took office today.
And in Washington State, sponsors expect passage of a bill allowing all overseas and military voters to cast their ballots via fax or e-mail.
All this and more in today’s Voting News below.
CA: Humboldt County officials prepare for the budget hits
Crnich said she’d like to bring the board a formal request for the option to do a vote-by-mail special election in order to save about $100,000 — about 40 percent of what it could cost to hold the election. Read More
CO: Attorney general opens election probe
Saguache County swore in six newly elected officials Tuesday while the Colorado Attorney General’s office confirmed they were investigating complaints about the election. Read More
IA: Ex-felons may have a tougher time voting in Iowa
Secretary of State Matt Schultz wants Governor-elect Terry Branstad to void an order automatically restoring felons’ voting rights after serving time. Read More
KS: Kan. election bill to cover mail – El Dorado, KS – El Dorado Times
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Wednesday he will include provisions dealing with mail-in ballots as part of his plan to enact the nation’s toughest election fraud law. Read More
LA: Civil rights group: La. violating voting law | shreveporttimes.com | Shreveport Times
Louisiana departments aren’t complying with a federal law that requires public assistance agencies that serve low-income residents to offer them voter registration, a civil rights group said Wednesday. Read More
MN: Legislature needs to pass measure to fund recount on Faribault Daily News
During the recount after the November election, the state and local governments came up with a plan for the counties to do the recounts and to be reimbursed by the state at a rate of 3 cents a ballot. It didn’t cover the cost of the recount, however, a fact that has led the Secretary of State to push the Legislature to pass a bill funding the full cost. Read More
MT: Online Exclusive: Legislative Roundup – TheWesternNews.com: Local/State News
Hearings are also slated for bills to raise the age of compulsory school enrollment, to allow electronic voter registration and to legalize hunting with a hand-thrown spear. Read More
MT: Washburn wants more stringent rules to vote – The Bozeman Daily Chronicle: News
As the law now reads, people can prove they are eligible to vote in Montana by showing bank statements, paychecks or similar documents. Washburn’s bill, House Bill 152, would require people to present a Montana driver’s license, Montana identification card or tribal photo ID to register to vote. Read More
NC: Be skeptical of both sides in debate over N.C. voter ID law
Although the empirical evidence does not tell us whether voter ID laws are good or bad, it does suggest that we should be leery of the major arguments from both sides of the aisle. When Republicans say that fraud is rampant or that voter ID laws will increase trust in the system, be skeptical. Likewise, when Democrats argue that voter ID laws will depress turnout in large and meaningful ways, be skeptical. Read More
NE: Update: Suttle Says Mistakes Were Made in Busing Efforts
A statement released Thursday afternoon by Mayor Jim Suttle’s office states “Mayor Jim Suttle learned that Forward Omaha – one of the groups opposing the recall of Mayor Suttle – made an error in judgment relating to their efforts to oppose the January 25th Recall Election.”
It goes on to state: “The decision to bus potential voters to the election commissioner’s office was done as part of Forward Omaha’s efforts to assist individuals without transportation in their attempt to vote. The other facet of Forward Omaha’s actions was the recruitment and training of Election Day get out the vote (“GOTV”) workers. Hiring people to work on Election Day is a long-running and common aspect of modern political campaigns. Unfortunately, someone from Forward Omaha decided to combine the dual efforts to assist voters and recruit Election Day workers. This was a mistake.” Read More
During the first village board meeting of the year on Monday night, the Rockville Centre Board of Trustees voted to consolidate its 22 election districts — with voting locations throughout the village — to a single voting location, the Recreation Center on Oceanside Road, for the upcoming village election on June 21. Read More
OH: Husted takes over as Secretary of State
As Ohio looks to be the heart of it all in the 2012 Presidential election, Secretary Husted wants to ensure a fair, transparent, and efficient voting process in which all Ohioans, and voters across the nation, can be confident. Read More
TX: Capitol Digest: Panel picked for Neil ballot inquiry; ban sought on K2
Texas House Speaker Joe Straus named members of the special committee that could help decide the contested race for state House of Representatives District 48.
Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, defeated Republican challenger Dan Neil in November by 16 votes, and her victory stood after a recount, though the margin fell to 12 votes. Neil since has contested the election, and the matter could be decided by the House. Read More
Reed’s other proposal is a perennial, because lawmakers are immune to change. Ballots in Washington take forever and a Sunday to tally because the state foolishly allows voters to postmark them by Election Day. A better idea is to have ballots received by Election Day. Then Washington can join the rest of the country reporting useful results that week. Read More
WA: Better chance this time for vote-by-mail, supporters say | Political Buzz
Olympia Rep. Sam Hunt says he thinks the odds are better this year for his renewed attempt to make the whole state vote by mail. Elections officials in Secretary of State Sam Reed‘s office, too, are optimistic the effort will succeed. Read More
WA: Overseas ballots might be e-mailed – Northwest McClatchy – bellinghamherald.com
Hurst’s proposal last year for voters overseas to send their ballots electronically passed the House 96-0. But Sen. Eric Oemig blocked it from a vote, heeding the complaints of election-security advocates worried e-mail voting would leave elections vulnerable to hackers.
Seattle-based Voter Action and national group VerifiedVoting.org wrote in a letter to lawmakers Wednesday, “It will be a long time before e-mail or any other form of Internet voting is reliable enough for America’s voters.” Read More
During her career with the city of Martinsburg, Sharon Flick has seen a lot of changes, from typewriters to computers and paper ballots to electronic voting. Read More
WI: Election Board: Hard To Get ID Ready By April – Politics News Story – WISC Madison
State election officials said that it will be nearly impossible to train poll workers on voter identification requirements by spring. Read More
WI: Our view: Voter ID fixes nonexistent problem
Everyone supports clean elections. It is a fundamental and critical part of democracy. But simply requiring people to show a photo ID will not fix problems with people voting in the wrong precincts or prevent someone from voting twice. Read More
WY: Wyoming HD45 residency issue draws sometimes contentious debate
The debate over who should represent House District 45 began Wednesday, as Seth Carson and Matt Greene faced off before a special legislative committee.
The committee was convened after Carson, a Democrat who lost last November to Greene, his Republican opponent, challenged that Greene had not been a resident of House District 45 for a year preceding his election, as required under the Wyoming Constitution. Read More
The new dynamics of the St. Croix Board of Elections were in full display Wednesday during its first meeting, as talk centered around election reform and the best way to accomplish it. Read More
Internet Voting Watch
Canada: Online voting would boost participation in elections: Christy Clark
Online voting would bring more people into the political process, B.C. Liberal leadership hopeful Christy Clark told an all-candidates gathering in Vancouver on Wednesday night.
“The public is increasingly disengaged from government,” Clark told a well-heeled, mainly under-40 crowd of about 1,000 people at an event organized by Build 2030 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Read More
Canada: CambridgeTimes Article: Council brings back voter task force
In the hope of getting more voters to the polls in 2014 and making it easier to cast a ballot, Cambridge council is re-establishing its Voters to Vote task force.
“In bringing this forward now, I’m hoping to give the task force as much time as possible to do its job,” said Coun. Ben Tucci in introducing the motion.
The city is already looking at several alternate ways of increasing voter turnout, including online voting. Read More
Canada: B.C. Liberal hopefuls show general support for online vote – The Globe and Mail
Several candidates vying to become B.C.’s next Liberal premier are rallying around a proposal by Christy Clark to look at online voting for the next provincial election. Read More
Canada: Recount could set precedent – 570News
Retired University of Waterloo professor Bob Williams says the province will have to watch today’s events closely because they could become a landmark in our use of electronic tabulators for elections.
The expert in municipal affairs says ambiguities over manual election counts could be sorted out manually. But the introduction of new technology has changed the game considerably.
“The idea that the municipalities use a tabulator to produce the results and the fact that that produced exactly the same results twice but now a judge says ‘oh that’s not good enough, when it’s close we can’t trust it,’ I think we’re opening up a whole new range of considerations that go far beyond Ward 9 in Kitchener,” Williams states. Read More
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