November 5, 2009

The District of Columbia, not commonly associated with innovative government, showed itself to be a real leader today with passage of far-reaching election reform legislation. The DC Council's vote today for the Omnibus Election Reform Act puts the District in the lead of states and localities with progressive election administration.read more >>

November 1, 2009

SEATTLE — At a time when voters in many states are using petitions to qualify ballot measures on issues from gay rights to property rights, a legal dispute over the identity of 138,000 petition signers here is raising new questions about privacy, free speech and elections in the Internet age.read more >>

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. troops and other American voters overseas will get more time to send in their ballots and more electronic access to voting forms under legislation Congress passed Thursday.

The bill, called the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, aims to remove some of the hurdles that have caused thousands of overseas ballots to be lost or uncounted in past elections.

The measure was attached to a $680 billion defense policy bill that the Senate approved Thursday on a 68-29 vote. The bill now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature.read more >>

October 2, 2009

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- A court decision that bars exit polling within 100 feet of New Jersey polling places is unlikely to stand because federal courts around the country have consistently rejected such restrictions, according to legal and polling experts.

New Jersey is the only state to keep exit pollsters and journalists from approaching voters within 100 feet of a polling place.read more >>

September 10, 2009

The Mayor's Plan, "Easy to Vote & Easy to Run" Will Also Eliminate Barriers that
Discourage Residents from Voting and Will Reform New York’s Antiquated Ballot Access
Laws

Mike Bloomberg announced his "Easy to Vote & Easy to Run" plan to transform the City's
election system over the next four years. The plan will make it easier for New Yorkers to
participate in the democratic process by reforming New York's antiquated ballot accessread more >>

September 10, 2009

Diebold announced last week that it has sold its United States voting machine division to its main rival, Election Systems & Software.

Given Diebold’s troubling record, it is hard to lament its departure from American elections, but this sale could make a bad situation worse. Regulators should take a hard look at the anticompetitive implications. And Congress, the states and cities need to push a lot harder for fundamental reforms in the voting machine business and the way Americans vote.read more >>

Looking Abroad For Answers On Voter Registration
Advocates Find Models For Reform From Australia To Peru, But The Public Remains Apathetic

National Journal

Monday, July 20, 2009
by Eliza Newlin Carney

As lawmakers on Capitol Hill mull the best way to overhaul the voter registration system, advocacy groups that endorse fixes are pointing overseas for answers.read more >>

"Schumer, Chambliss & Nelson Announce Bipartisan Bill To Guarantee Military Ballots From Overseas Never Go Uncounted"

The following press release arrived via email (with no mention of a expected broader VRM legislation):read more >>

There They Go Again: Fixing the Primary Process

By Dan Balz
Sunday, June 28, 2009
The Washington Post

There is no end to the complaints about the way the two political parties select their presidential nominees. As the litany goes, the process begins too early, gives undue influence to a handful of small, unrepresentative states and has encouraged a disorderly leapfrogging by other states that has resulted in an unseemly, virtual national primary early in the season.read more >>

Voting Rights Protections Still Necessary

New America Media
Op-ed
June 23, 2009

Editors Note: On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. At stake was Section 5 of the Act, which requires a number of states and many local governments, mostly in the South, to seek federal permission before changing their voting procedures. NAM contributor Judith Browne-Dianis writes that 44 years later, those restrictions are still neccessary.read more >>

Justices Exempt Texas District From Voting Rights Act

The New York Times
June 22, 2009

read more >>

Promises, Promises: Polling places lack access

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

By KIMBERLY HEFLING
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON — Despite high-profile promises over the past 25 years, many disabled Americans still are unable to fully participate in their democracy.read more >>

Groups raise ante on immigration reform

The Washington Times

Thursday, June 4, 2009

By Stephen Dinan

President Obama's nomination of a Hispanic woman to the Supreme Court does not give him extra breathing space to put off a contentious fight on immigration, Hispanic groups and immigrant-rights advocates said Wednesday.read more >>

On Monday, I identified four problem areas to watch out for on Election Day: 1) lines at the polls, 2) voting equipment, 3) voter registration lists, and 4) provisional and absentee ballots. While machine breakdowns and polling place lines got the lion's share public attention on Election Day, a closer look reveals that voter registration was the election administration issue of 2008. Looking forward, it is imperative that policymakers consider changes to voter registration that would eliminate unnecessary barriers to participation and reduce the need for provisional ballots.read more >>

August 12, 2008

Policito.com - Encouraged by the U.S. Supreme Court, conservatives are launching a wholesale legal assault on campaign finance laws.

And among the leaders is a man once charged with enforcing those laws: former Federal Election Commission Chairman Bradley Smith.

His goals are big. He doesn't want to just scale back the laws; he wants to pretty much wipe them out.read more >>

Part of the Brennan Center's Voting Rights and Elections Series

Website providing latest news and research on state-level issues

A Project Vote web site dedicated to tracking election administration and election reform bills

The National Institute on Money in State Politics is a nonpartisan 501(c)3 tax-exempt charitable organization dedicated to accurate, comprehensive and unbiased documentation and research on campaign finance at the state level.

"Indecent Disclosure" discusses problems with obtaining meaningful data on independent expenditures from the various state disclosure agencies.