Archive for September 2014

Minnesota is the latest state to join a multistate voter registration exchange – a move that will improve list quality and afford eligible but unregistered voters a chance to join the rolls.

A three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated Wisconsin’s voter ID law – setting off a series of races against time as supporters and opponents try to resolve the controversy in their favor before Election Day.

New York City’s Board of Elections is once again the subject of controversy for its rule prohibiting multilingual pollworkers from assisting voters unless it’s in certain languages and an approved bipartisan pair of workers is present.

A local Mississippi race is tied – and will be decided by a coin flip or some other random method – if a single voter who cast an affidavit ballot without ID doesn’t come forward soon. It’s a terrific story that raises small yet important questions.

Arizona and Kansas implemented dual-track voting as a response to their dispute with the federal government about proof-of-citizenship. The impact on voters is still unknown (only 22 primary voters in both states) – but the fiscal impact on election offices is quite clear.

What do you do when large numbers of ballots are returned with no votes recorded in one or more contests? In Florida, one potential solution being discussed involves offering a “no selection made” option – though support isn’t unanimous. It’s also not clear it would help.

Downloads of the Federal Post Card Application by military and overseas voters are down this cycle – but federal officials believe that is a direct result of the growth of state online voter registration systems.

Ohio’s long-running dispute over early voting keeps running, as a federal district court re-expands early voting and allows counties to set even more generous local schedules – a ruling that raises legal questions that will be challenged on appeal.

Ongoing open source voting technology efforts in Travis County, TX and Los Angeles, CA offer the promise of a new approach that could not only save money for counties of all sizes but also redefine the relationship between election offices and vendors.

Yale’s Heather Gerken has a great new take on the PCEA based on a panel at the American Political Science Association over Labor Day weekend.