Wednesday, November 11, 2009

On Veterans Day, Americans honor those who have fought for this country and also those who are deployed. As a retired flag officer, I find my thoughts especially focused on my brothers and sisters in uniform far from home. As they risk their lives every day to safeguard our freedom, another routine sacrifice is often overlooked: the guarantee that their votes will be counted. read more >>

November 4, 2009

Advice to readers about the coming orgy of analysis about the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial elections: Ignore it. Disquisitions on The Meaning of It All for President Obama or the 2009 results as a harbinger for Congress in 2010 have scant basis in reality.

Over-interpreting election results is an occupational hazard for political reporters. This problem is particularly acute in the year after a presidential contest, when we are suffering from a bad case of electoral withdrawal.read more >>

November 3, 2009

Linda Graham helped register voters like Florence Dziamniski in 2008. Here, Dziamniski fills out a voter registration form outside a senior citizens home in Clairton, Pa.

In this lull between major elections, advisers from recent Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns have joined together to try to come up with a better way to register voters. read more >>

October 29, 2009

The nation’s largest voting machine manufacturer, Election Systems & Software, announced last month that it was buying the United States voting machine division of Diebold, its main competitor. The sale could mean that nearly 70 percent of the nation’s voting precincts would be served by a single corporation. That raises serious antitrust questions and serious concerns about the vulnerability of future elections.read more >>

On Sunday, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a voter registration bill that allows 17 year olds to pre-register to vote. With the governor's signature, California becomes the eighth state to allow 16 or 17 year olds to pre-register, with registrations automatically becoming active when they reach voting age. Such a uniform advance vote registration age makes it much easier to initiate comprehensive voter registration and education programs in high schools and at the DMV.read more >>

Jocelyn Benson, a Harvard-educated law professor at Wayne State University and nationally recognized expert on election law, has announced that she is running for the Democratic nomination to succeed Republican Terri Lynn Land as Michigan’s next secretary of state. She will be making a tour of the state Tuesday and Wednesday to go public with her campaign.read more >>

Monday, Sept. 21, 2009

The Sale Of Diebold's Election Business Has Alarmed Civic Watchdogs

To some election law experts, dire warnings by vocal activists that faulty voting machines are threatening democracy tend to ring false.

After all, questionable machines are only one of the many problems plaguing an election system that's outmoded, decentralized and chronically underfunded. The best machines in the world won't help if local election officials can't hire and train enough poll workers and clean up their error-riddled voter registration lists.read more >>

September 18, 2009

WASHINGTON — The House voted Thursday to deny any federal money to the nationwide community organizing group Acorn, and the Senate reaffirmed its opposition as well after embarrassing videos of a few of the group’s workers became public.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 >>

Our view: Ruling against campaign finance reform should not deter Maryland

September 2, 2009

Efforts to reduce the influence of big-money special interests in state elections suffered a setback late last week with the decision of a federal judge to throw out Connecticut's landmark campaign finance law on the grounds it put third-party candidates at a disadvantage.read more >>

BY: CHRISTIAN SMITH-SOCARISread more >>

Feingold, Conyers Continue Effort to Restore Voting Rights for Millions of Americans

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 >>

Who are the court's true extremists?

Star Tribune
by E.J. Dionne

This week's hearings on Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court represent the opening skirmish in a long-term struggle to challenge the escalating activism of an increasingly conservative judiciary.read more >>

Suit claims Indiana among states violating federal 'motor voter' law

Low-income residents being left out, advocacy groups says

Register Everybody

Roll Call
Editorial
June 29, 2009

Among the developed countries of the world — and even some less-developed ones — the United States has the lowest voter registration rate with just 68 percent of registered voters actually signed up to do so.

What’s more, as voting experts assert, registration is the single largest cause of problems on Election Day.read more >>

Locke Urges End to GOP Block on Census Nominee

June 24, 2009
By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Commerce Secretary Gary Locke on Wednesday urged Congress to immediately end a GOP block on President Barack Obama's nominee to lead the 2010 census, saying continued delays are putting the high-stakes head count at risk.read more >>

Justices Let Stand a Central Provision of Voting Rights Act

The New York Times

June 23, 2009
 

read more >>

Online voter registration passes Senate

by Jeff Mapes, The Oregonian
Monday June 22, 2009

Oregon appears headed toward becoming the fourth state in the country to allow residents to register online to vote.

The state Senate, on a 19-6 vote, approved a bill authorizing electronic registration. House Bill 2386 returns to the House, where it passed in March, for approval of minor amendments.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 >>

Redistricting drive could reshape politics

William March
Tampa Tribune
Sunday June 7, 2009

TAMPA - To the average citizen, it sounds like the most boring subject in government - a movement to reform the process of drawing legislative district boundaries.

That movement, however, could reshape Florida politics.read more >>

A new study by the Pew Research Center found that participation rates among African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans all rose between 2004 and 2008, leaving the share of the electorate accounted for by white voters at an all-time low of 76.3 percent.

African American women voted at higher participation rates than any other racial or ethnic group, according to the study, which was based on an analysis of Census data. The study found that 68.8 percent of eligible black women voted in the last election, an increase of 5.1 percentage points.read more >>

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate chairman on Tuesday urged Attorney General Eric Holder to sue any states that aren't helping needy citizens to register to vote.

Federal laws call for state agencies to try to register people to vote when they are distributing aid, such as food stamps and unemployment benefits.read more >>

Throughout the north side of Pittsburgh, one of the city's three major Black districts, they lined up before dawn, hundreds deep in the 47-degree weather as if they were waiting for history to be made. Even after the polling places opened into an instant crawl, they kept coming.

And they kept coming all day.read more >>