Archive for April 2015

Absentee voters in Lone Rock, MT will have the opportunity to “vote early, vote often” – and do it legally – because they will be receiving three separate ballots from three separate local districts for the May 5 election.

Florida’s OVR bill took another detour yesterday when the state House added a “data integrity” amendment county officials oppose and then promptly adjourned in a budget dispute with the Senate. All eyes now turn to Senate passage – and the Governor.

This week, the EAC takes another step toward restoring full function by convening the two Boards created by the Help America Vote Act. These Boards are valuable both as sources of guidance to the EAC but also support for the EAC with policymakers and the public.

The League of Women Voters California Educational Fund is hosting a series of four webinars this week aimed at sharing research-based and user-tested best practices for voter guides. They’re worth a listen for anyone interested in helping voters succeed.

A new California Department of Finance report – which counties had been anticipating in hopes of relief from over $100 million in unpaid election costs – instead recommends that counties save money by moving to vote by mail. Needless to say, the counties aren’t happy.

Kentucky law professor Josh Douglas’ piece extolling the virtues of checklists in election administration is a fantastic resource – especially in describing the hows/whys of checklists – and an encouraging example of a growing multidisciplinary approach to elections.

Colorado’s new Secretary of State is earning kudos from both sides of the aisle for his cooperative and low-key approach to the job after the more tumultuous term of his predecessor. It’s paying off so far – and could be a trend to watch in other states, too.

A new settlement in the early voting dispute between activists and the Ohio Secretary of State establishes a compromise that will expand evening and weekend voting while allowing the SoS to preserve uniformity and eliminate simultaneous registration and voting.

Bexar County, Texas recently debuted an email balloting system for military voters that uses one-time email addresses for the return of voted ballots. It’s the latest evidence that some kind of online voting is closer than most people expect.

Stanford Law student Matthew Higgins has a new piece suggesting that applying disclosure proposals to enforcement of Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act could help election officials and outside groups better cooperate to assist limited English proficient voters.