National: Youth Vote Faces Challenges With Voter ID Legislation | The Nation
Voter fraud is an “epidemic.” It abounds, stealing elections from rightful candidates and places losers into unearned elected office. Republican dominated statehouses across the country are “combating” this problem through strict voter ID legislation, where a government-issued photo identification is required in order to vote. Seven states have already enacted legislation requiring state-issued photo ID at the polls and many more are pending.
One of the states, Wisconsin, enacted what Milwaukee Common Council Alderwoman Milele Coggs accurately called “the most restrictive voter ID legislation in the country.” It requires photo IDs issued by the state or federal government and only allows a forgetful voter’s provisional ballot to count if they return within three days with a proper ID.
College students are some of the unintended—or intended—citizens affected by the law. They broke for Barack Obama in 2008 by an astonishing 38 points and remained loyal to Democrats in 2010 by wide margins. Read More
Editorials, Florida: Governor Rick Scott wants his name off bad election law | St. Petersburg Times
So the governor wants his name off a lawsuit filed over Florida’s cynical new elections law. Can you blame him?
Gov. Rick Scott — already sued more times than your average crooked contractor — is named in a suit contesting a new law that brings controversial changes in how we vote. How controversial? His office got thousands of e-mails while the bill awaited his signature, most urging him to reject something so fundamentally wrong.
The bill’s supporters kept saying, honest, it’s all about stopping our terrible problem of voter fraud. Except we don’t have a terrible problem of voter fraud. And their specifics were beyond scarce. What the new law will do is make it harder for some citizens — minorities in particular — to vote. How many years would that set Florida back? Read More
Indiana: Election challenge dismissed in Clarksville clerk race | News and Tribune
Clark Circuit Judge Daniel Moore dismissed a case that had been filed by Clarksville Clerk-Treasurer Gary Hall, which claimed Election Day irregularities due to a lack of handicap accessible voting machines at the polls on May 3.
Moore’s decision was a win for Bob Leuthart, who defeated Hall in the Democratic primary by 24 votes. Hall was challenging the results of the election because handicap accessible machines around the county were out of commission on Election Day. A bench trial, which took only about an hour, took place on Friday morning.
John Vissing, Hall’s attorney, based his case on the fact that federal laws passed as a part of the Help America Vote Act require such machines at each polling location. The Clark County Election Board conceded that the machines were not functional. Read More
Blogs, Wisconsin: Wisconsin Clerk: Anger and Lines Greet ID Soft Launch | Rock the Vote Blog
Wisconsin’s recall elections are serving as a “soft implementation” of the new voter ID law, and poll workers and clerks are already expressing concerns about the new process. Even with modest turnout, voters experienced long waits and confusion, alarming clerks for future elections.
The concerns of elections officials and poll workers – including voice fears about long lines stretching from two to three hours, frustrated voters leaving before casting a ballot, anger revolving around poll book signatures and IDs, and drastically understaffed polls – were captured in a letter from the Madison City Clerk, Maribeth Witzel-Behl. Read More
Texas: Senate Bill 100 May Change Voting in Municipal Elections | Examiner.com
Voting in Garland, TX and other cities in Dallas County has gotten a lot more complicated, thanks to Senate Bill 100. The Bill was introduced to the Texas Senate, passed by the Senate and House and was signed into law by Governor Rick Perry on June 17.
Mary Kayser, Garland City Secretary said the purpose of the bill is to adopt voting procedures necessary to implement the federal Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE Act) which is aimed at making the voting process easier and faster for military and overseas voters. Read More
Nevada: Wagner wins recount in North Las Vegas Ward 4 race | ReviewJournal.com
It took election workers just over two hours on Friday to come to the same conclusion they had on election night. Wade Wagner, a 48-year-old dentist, had beaten incumbent North Las Vegas City Councilman Richard Cherchio, 64, by a single vote for the Ward 4 seat.
The result of the afternoon recount, requested by Cherchio, “validates the accuracy” of the June 7 election, said Larry Lomax, Clark County registrar of voters. “Nothing changed,” he said. “Wade Wagner still has one more vote. I’m very confident in the system we use to conduct elections.”
The final tally was again 1,831 votes for Wagner, 1,830 for Cherchio. Read More
India: India, US to take fair poll practices to West Asia, Africa | TMCnet
World’s biggest democracies, India and United States, have joined hands to help building up strong electoral institutions in emerging democracies, especially in middle-east and Africa. As part of the collaboration, the Election Commission’s newly started International Institute for Democracy and Election Management (IIDEM) and Washington DC based International Federation of Electoral Systems (IFES) will work together to strengthen election management capacity in the interested countries.
“We will be training officials from middle-east and African nations in conducting free and fair elections,” chief election commissioner SY Quraishi told HT, a day after US secretary of state Hillary Clinton in Chennai described the commission as a “gold standard” institution. Reaction to her statement, the CEC said, “We feel the credibility and reputation of Election Commission has gone beyond our boundaries”. Read More
Russia: Russian Internet whistleblower goes to court over government failure to act | RIA Novosti
Russian blogger Alexei Navalny has asked a court to declare illegal the failure of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) to act in a case which involves state purchases of electronic equipment, an official said on Friday.
Navalny, who has become well known in Russia for using the Internet to lampoon the country’s ruling elite and expose high-level graft, said on his website he found violations in purchases of electronic voting systems for the Central Election Commission and filed a complaint to the FAS. Read More
Latvia: Polling stations open in preparation for referendum on Saeima’s dismissal | Latvians Online
Polling stations in Latvia and abroad began work July 13 in preparation for a referendum that could result in dismissal of the 10th Saeima. The stations—including 78 abroad—will have information about the balloting process available for anyone interested, according to the Central Election Commission in Rīga.
The polling stations are to be open four hours per day from July 13-July 22. Hours are to be set by local election officials. The referendum is scheduled from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. local time on July 23. Read More
Croatia: Croatian parliamentary elections scheduled for Dec. 4 | SEE news
Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor told reporters after the meeting that the idea was to hold the vote before Dec. 9, when Croatia is supposed to sign an accession deal with the EU, followed by a Croatian referendum on joining the 27-nation bloc. On July 15, the representatives of Croatia’s ruling coalition in Zagreb set Dec. 4 as the date of the next parliamentary election.
Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor told reporters after the meeting that the idea was to hold the vote before Dec. 9, when Croatia is supposed to sign an accession deal with the EU, followed by a Croatian referendum on joining the 27-nation bloc. Read More
The country’s draft constitution is now only expected to be ready for a referendum by December and not September, as originally set at the beginning of this year, a co-chairman of COPAC said on Thursday.
The new charter is meant to clear the way for fresh polls following the country’s bloody 2008 elections, but the drafting process is running months behind after public outreach meetings were repeatedly postponed over outbreaks of violence. Read More