While the Blog Was Sleeping: Catching up on Stories for the New Year

[Image courtesy of yemista]

Now that the “long winter’s nap” is over and the New Year is with us, I thought I’d share the stories that I’m using to come back up to speed as I practice writing 2014 on my checks:

Kansas is going to begin using state birth records to verify the citizenship of still-unregistered voters caught on the suspension list – a practice which some are hailing as a commonsense approach and others a potential equal rights violation for women and individuals born out of state;

Missouri has launched a new online tool for voters to complete a voter registration form (including address changes) – but at least one county clerk is concerned that signatures collected as part of the new program could make petition verification more difficult;

A leading Iowa Democratic legislator is planning to push for online voter registration – as questions arise about whether federal funds should have been used to pay for the state’s ongoing voter fraud investigations;

Former Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White lost his appeal to overturn his conviction on charges he voted from an address where he did not live;

New Hampshire will soon consider a constitutional amendment that would allow 17-year olds to cast ballots in primaries if they will turn 18 before the general election;

Pennsylvania is moving closer to eliminating straight-ticket voting – and will be asked yet again to consider adopting online voter registration; and

West Virginia is sending postcards to about 335,000 voters asking them to verify and/or update their voting addresses in an effort to improve the quality of the state’s voting rolls.

You can bet that you’ll see these stories again in 2014 – but for now, welcome back to the blog and here’s to another year of election geekery!