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Yesterday, the Census Bureau released its latest minority language determinations under Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act. These determinations set the list of jurisdictions for which voting materials must be made available in languages other than English. That full list – and a few key deletions – is included in today’s post.

Election Day 2016 brought many surprising results – but in the tiny Kansas town of Frederick, the surprise was that the election returns showed that the town would continue to exist despite a lack of support from its nine(!) residents. What’s more, it now appears the votes to keep the town alive came from people who don’t live there, thanks to an error at the polls.

It’s no secret that Election Day 2016 has been the subject of much unhappiness in the last several weeks, but a story by Mindy Moretti in the latest edition of electionlineWeekly looks at a new poll by the Democracy Fund that has good news – plus some insights – about voters’ experiences on November 8.

Election results are still being finalized in many places – and fought over in others – but in New Mexico, longtime Bernalillo County (Albuquerque) election official Maggie Tolouse Oliver will be sworn in as New Mexico’s Secretary of State next week after winning a special election to finish out the last two years of the term.

After several successes in 2016, supporters of automatic voter registration (AVR) are looking ahead to more states joining the list in 2017 – but those hopes suffered a setback yesterday when the Illinois House was unable to join the Senate in overriding Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of an AVR bill. It will be interesting to see what this means for AVR legislation nationwide in the post-2016 legislative environment.

My friend and colleague Merle King from Kennesaw State University sent me the attached yesterday – and it was so good I had to share. Recounts are in the news again – and Merle has a fantastic take (focusing on the difference between hunting and fishing licenses) that will clarify the issues involved, helping you separate signal from noise in the next few weeks.

Regular readers of this blog, and people who know me generally, have probably gathered that I am an overall positive person who tends to look for a way to say “yes” to almost anything. But the last week or so has been so frustrating that I’d like to present a series of questions below – the answer to every one of which is a firm NO.

With Election Day behind us and Thanksgiving ahead, my plate is going to be full – figuratively and literally! – this week so the blog will be taking a short break until Monday, November 28.

My friend Mindy Moretti was her typical whirling electiongeek dervish self on Election Day, and now that the dust has settled she’s rounding up all the news from around the country in this week’s electionlineWeekly. This year’s edition is enlivened by a new species of selfies taken by voters nationwide!

Last week, I wrote about the Election Day struggles in Durham County, NC – but now a close race for Governor and a few other statewide offices has Tar Heel election officials contemplating what’s next in resolving the outstanding contests. Our election system is big enough that trouble always seems to find someone in a national election … and this year, trouble is traveling Tobacco Road.