Archive for October 2019

New court-ordered legislative lines in Virginia now split the Christopher Newport University campus in Newport News, forcing the city’s registrar to get creative in figuring out which students belong on each side of the line in what could be a high-stakes election next Tuesday.

A Greenville, NC city council candidate has been disqualified because he actually lives across the street from the district he seeks to represent – a fact that he did not know and was not discovered until months after he launched his campaign.

The power outages in California’s Bay Area and elsewhere – aimed at reducing fire risk – are creating challenges for local election officials in places like Nevada County trying to keep the lights on, literally and figuratively, for voters in 2019.

Advocates are disputing the rejection by Fairfax County, VA of a large number of George Mason University student voter registrations, saying the local registrar isn’t giving students the opportunity to fix address issues before Election Day.

Illinois’ Cook County (Chicago) has launched a new program to make ballots and other voting materials available in eight new languages in an effort to reach more voters. It’s a recognition that federal law is an important first step but doesn’t always reach all voters to need language assistance.

Richland County (Columbia), SC is set to ring in the New Year in an unusual way: with a special election – leading to concerns that neither voters nor election workers will want to come to the party.

A new compromise bill in Pennsylvania would make several significant changes to the Keystone State’s elections while freeing up $90 million for new voting technology.

You hear a lot lately about efforts to “harden” the voting process – but that’s usually a metaphor for jurisdictions focused on election security. In Washington State and elsewhere, ballot drop boxes are literally hardening elections and taking what the world can dish out in order to keep votes safe.

Starting next weekend, New York State voters will have the opportunity to cast their votes in person before Election Day – though the rollout has raised some issues that the state hopes to address before next year’s presidential election.

The 2019 election is an off year in most places, but three states (Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi) have statewide elections that include the office of Secretary of State. electionline’s Mindy Moretti has a preview of all three races in this week’s newsletter.