Posts by Doug Chapin

A quick followup on three different recent stories – Maine’s ranked choice voting, North Carolina’s legislative districts and the U.S. Virgin Islands’ residency dispute – finds that recent developments in each jurisdiction have moved each plot line to a next step if not any closer to resolution. That’s somewhat typical in disputes like these, which often seem to make more news than progress.

Mindy Moretti has a piece in the latest electionlineWeekly about an Iowa program that provides counties with an an award-winning Ohio app to assess and improve the accessibility of polling places for voters with disabilities – along with the tablets to run it.

Larry Norden has a new piece in Slate responding to reports of Russian “spearphishing” attacks on state and local election officials. He says Congress needs to increase funding and support for state and local election officials. He’s right.

Two news stories out of New Jersey yesterday – involving keys and a basketball game – highlight the adage that “there is no small stuff in elections”, especially when it comes to polling places on Election Day.

Advocates and election officials alike are looking for more details after a report yesterday that as many as 17,000 voters may not have made it onto Philadelphia’s voter rolls despite filing timely applications.

Minnesota’s new state government finance bill has a nice provision for the state’s localities: a $7 million fund to assist with acquisition of new voting equipment.

Back in March, a federal court sent the EAC a “hot potato” – a request to clarify the scope of the Executive Director’s authority in a dispute over state-specific proof of citizenship instructions on the federal registration form. Yesterday, the agency returned the hot potato to the court, indicating that it was still divided on key aspects of the dispute.

Rhode Island is one step closer to joining the list of states with automatic voter registration after its State House unanimously passed an AVR bill yesterday – despite concerns about some agencies’ capability to handle the data involved.

The U.S. Supreme Court announced yesterday that it was granting certiorari (agreeing to hear) an Ohio case regarding voter list maintenance. Here a re a few quick notes on what’s next and what it might likely mean.

Yesterday, the Illinois House unanimously approved a new automatic voter registration bill and sent the changes back to the Senate for final approval before trying once again to get the Governor’s signature. His veto (and the failed override attempt) stopped the last version – but supporters on both sides of the aisle are hopeful this time the bill will be fully enacted into law.