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 31, 2009

U.S. Assistant Atty. Gen. Thomas Perez ushers in an era of 'transformation and restoration' with pledges to fight housing bias, hate crimes and predatory lending, among other things.

The nation's top civil rights attorney vowed Friday to step up enforcement of laws against housing bias, hate crimes, racially targeted predatory lending and other discriminatory acts in what he called a new era of "transformation and restoration."read more >>

LOS ANGELES — A group working to produce an open and transparent voting system to replace current proprietary systems has published its first batches of code for public review.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 >>

October 02, 2009

The Sentencing Project and two national civil rights organizations have asked an international human rights body for a hearing on felony disenfranchisement laws in the United States and other countries.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 18, 2009

An Indiana law requiring voters to show identification, declared constitutional by the United States Supreme Court just last year, was struck down Thursday by a state appellate court.

The state court said the law violated the Indiana Constitution by not treating all voters equally.

The legislature passed the voter ID law in 2005, and it was challenged in federal court. The Supreme Court upheld it in April 2008, but that July the League of Women Voters brought a new suit in state court.read more >>

As Congress reconvenes, it faces a daunting portfolio of critical issues to attend to with 2009 drawing to a close. The headlines will be dominated by partisan maneuvering on the big-ticket items of health care, the financial system and energy. But Congress can and should in a bipartisan manner address another critical issue that is often overlooked outside of an election year: how to make our election system work for all eligible Americans. Right now it doesn’t, and the core culprit is the way that we register voters.read more >>

September 10th, 2009

Certain interesting election law bills in Congress have gained a few co-sponsors since Congress came back into session.

HR 2499, the bill to set up a vote on Puerto Rico’s future status, now has 164 co-sponsors, up one since last month.

HR 2894, Rush Holt’s bill for better vote-counting machines, now has 89 co-sponsors, up six since last month.

HR 3025, to require bipartisan commissions in each state to draw U.S. House boundaries, has not gained any co-sponsors since last month and still has 22.read 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 >>

The Financial Truth Commission

July 29, 2009

Congress has pledged to reform the banking system, but too often over the past year lawmakers have chosen instead to shield the financial industry, a big campaign contributor, from accountability.

So the public has every right to ask whether the newly formed Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission — created by Congress to investigate the meltdown — can be counted on to put the public interest ahead of political loyalties, professional ties and ideological biases.read more >>

League claims Indiana BMV rules make voting tougher

July 20, 2009

By CHARLES WILSON
The Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS — New ID requirements for Indiana driver’s licenses will increase the burden already placed on voters by the state’s strict voter ID law, the League of Women Voters says.read more >>

Grant Makers Step Up Advocacy Efforts to Help Disadvantaged People, Report Says

July 15, 2009

Foundations are stepping up their advocacy efforts to help the poor and other disadvantaged people, according to a report released today by the Foundation Center.read more >>

Civic Summit in Minneapolis aims to build citizen muscle

Opinion
Pioneer Press
07/11/2009

For good and for ill, we can't tell you what a tweet-up is, and we sometimes daydream of a master switch that would shut off all hand-held e-mail devices, just for the sake of a break. But we are intrigued and hopeful that a gathering of Web-connected, device-wielding civic engagement types in Minneapolis this week will raise the citizenship bar for all of us.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

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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 >>