Election Administration-Protection

NY1 by Susan Jhun

For most of the country, Election Day was an historical event, signaling a significant change to our country's political character. But, as NY1's Susan Jhun explains in the following report, for disabled voters who have had trouble voting in the past, Election Day was just more of the same.

Disabled voter T.K. Small describes his experience at the polls on Election Day as "somewhere between dreadful and horrible."  read more »

The AM Law Daily by Daphne Eviatar

While the final tallies in this year's presidential election may not have been clouded by controversy--as they were in 2000 and, to a lesser degree, 2004--that doesn't mean there aren't nagging questions about who got to vote and how the votes were counted.

"Overall, the election ran smoothly in many places, with huge voter turnout," said Wendy Weiser, director of voting rights and elections at the Brennan Center for Justice in a statement released after the election. "But while a lot of people voted, a lot of people also had problems at the polls."  read more »

Wired by Kim Zetter

When problems occur in elections, it's often not until after the polls close that information about them begins to trickle out.

This is the period when officials are scanning and counting mail-in ballots, completing tabulations, determining which elections may require a recount, and beginning their canvassing to certify the election results.  read more »

Wired by Kim Zetter

Voters around the country are experiencing problems this morning as voting machines break down and long lines form.

There are only a few surprises among the issues voters are reporting, since we've seen many of the same problems in past elections.  read more »

New York Times by Ian Urbina

Many of the states that allowed early voting this year experienced few delays on Election Day, and now federal election officials, lawmakers and voting experts say people in every state should have the same privilege.

There is also increasing support for broadly expanding voter registration rolls, possibly by having the federal government require the states to make registration automatic for all eligible voters. Supporters say universal registration could reduce registration fraud and the confusion at the polls that results when voters are purged from the rolls.  read more »

MSNBC by Alan Boyle

November 5, 2008

Registering to vote online ... coping with masses of mail-in ballots ... voting during an "Election Week" rather than a single Election Day: These are all features that came into play during this year's historic balloting, and they point to the next step in the evolution of the electoral process.

On the day after Election Day, experts on voting technology were quick to explain what went right and what went wrong this time around - and whether it's possible to fix our clunky voting system.  read more »

Time by Mark Thompson

November 4, 2008

After the embarrassing irregularities of the 2000 vote — hanging chads, anyone? — Congress resolved to ensure that they wouldn't happen again and spent $2 billion on new-generation voting machines.  read more »

Washington Post by Gary D. Robertson

RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina's system of publicly financed judicial campaigns remained intact Monday after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge over a provision for additional funds in expensive races.

The justices declined, without comment, to consider the constitutionality of a voluntary program passed by the Legislature and that took effect in 2004.  read more »

Wired.com by Kim ZetterI'm receiving e-mail from a number of readers who have not received absentee ballots they requested or who mailed in their ballots but had the ballot returned to them by the postal service.
A reader has pointed me to this site for overseas voters, which discusses back-up ballots for those who requested an absentee ballot but did not receive one. The rules vary state by state but in some locations you can actually fax your back-up ballot to election officials.
 read more »

New York Times by Ian Urbina

Millions of voters will encounter an unfamiliar low-tech landscape at the polls on Tuesday. About half of all voters will vote in a way that is different from what they did in the last presidential election, and most will use paper ballots rather than the touch-screen machines that have caused concern among voting experts.  read more »