Follow Friday, the Sequel: More Sites for Election Geeks

[Image courtesy of life123.com]

Last Friday, I provided you with my short list of blogs I visit every day for news about what’s happening in the world of elections. This week, here’s a list of sites I keep in my bookmarks for quick answers to my election-geekiest questions:

U.S. Department Voting Section – Federal election laws always seem to be in the news these days; if you want to find copies of those laws or information about the U.S. Government’s efforts to enforce them this is a terrific site to bookmark.

All About Redistricting – Loyola Law School’s Justin Levitt has created a really nice one-stop page for state-by-state news about the line-drawing process in all fifty states.

United States Elections Project – How many people voted in 2010 vs. 2008? George Mason University’s Michael McDonald knows; his site is home to a treasure trove of statistics about registration and turnout that are a popular resource in the field.

The Verifier – VerifiedVoting.org has created the nation’s best source for information about what voting machines are used where.

State Recount Laws – Recent elections have taught us that close elections – and recounts – are never far away. Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota has compiled a searchable database of information about the details of recount laws across the nation. CEIMN also offers a database of post-election audit laws for those states that have enacted them.

Ballot Access News – Richard Winger is a one-man encyclopedia about the struggles of third-party and independent candidates to get onto voters’ ballots. The site is an online archive of Winger’s newsletter, but the search function is easy to use and always returns more useful information than you could have hoped for.

Federal Voting Assistance Program – FVAP administers military and overseas voting for the U.S. Department of Defense and is the authority on the laws and regulations that affect this process. The clickable state voting information map is a nice and easy way to learn how military/overseas voters can request, receive and return their ballots.

Overseas Vote Foundation – OVF is a private organization that, like FVAP, fights for the rights of military and overseas voters to cast timely and valid ballots; today, their website has lots of valuable information – especially the searchable Election Official Directory which provides contact information for election administrators nationwide.

National Association of Secretaries of State and National Association of State Election Directors – These two sites are a good window into the world of state election officials; in particular, they provide membership lists of secretaries of state and election directors that are a quick resource if you are trying to get in touch.

Have another site you find useful? Contact me and it could appear on a future Friday!