“Pennsylvania may soon embrace online voter registration”

…Twelve states already have online paperless voter registration. Four other states have passed legislation facilitating online registration but have not begun registering voters electronically yet, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a bipartisan research organization.   Several factors are driving the trend, such as the cost savings for states and improved accuracy of voter rolls, said Jennie Drage Bowser, senior fellow, legislative management program with the conference. 

….”This is as secure as the paper system,” Mr. Smucker said. “The paper system requires input on those two items and that is manually verified. It is as secure if not more secure.”  Why did this bill pass unanimously when the voter ID debate was extremely controversial?  “The voter ID argument has been very sharply partisan, and the online voter registration has not been,” said Ms. Bowser, noting that many Republican-leaning “red states” such as Arizona, South Carolina and Utah have online registration.

Link to story.

Georgia: Feds Delay Decision On Macon-Bibb (non-partisan) Voting

The deadline for federal authorities to stop controversial changes to
election law in Macon and Bibb County has been greatly extended, casting
a shadow of uncertainty over the community’s most important local
election in decades.  In February, Democrats cried foul when the
GOP-controlled legislature voted to make most local elections in
Macon-Bibb nonpartisan, a change they say will help Republicans win
seats in the new consolidated city-county government that takes control
in 2014. 
Link to story.

“MALDEF President Claims ABCUSD Board of Education ‘Under Represents Latinos”

“Currently, no Latinos sit on the seven-member ABC Unified District School Board of Education located in southeastern Los Angeles County, even though a quarter of the district’s registered voters share that ethnic background.


Two weeks ago, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund filed a landmark lawsuit against the ABCUSD claiming that the well-respected public school system violated the California Voter Rights Act of 2001.”

Link.

“Legislators refer big changes in elections to Montana voters”

Come 2014, it’s up to voters to decide the fate of Montana’s primary election system and late voter registration date. The
Montana House and Senate cleared two referendums last week that could
change the state’s voting laws. The measures passed largely along party
lines, with Republicans voting in favor. Senate
bills 408 and 405 are the same proposals that led Senate Democrats to
pound on their desks and shout at the Republican Senate president
earlier this month as they sought to halt legislation’s passage.  Link

“Trial begins for officials accused in Obama, Clinton ballot petition fraud”

“The trial is underway for a former Democratic official and a Board of Elections worker who are accused of being part of a plot that has raised questions over whether President Obama’s campaign — when he was a candidate in 2008 — submitted enough legitimate signatures to have legally qualified for the presidential primary ballot.”

Link.

Gambling Man in Iowa

The Democrat candidate for Iowa Secretary of State has injected himself into a casino debate:

“Political operative Brad Anderson claims he works to improve wellness in Iowa. Apparently improving wellness is accomplished by bringing another smoke-filled casino to state. Anderson, along with the political consulting form he works for, Link Strategies, is running the “ote Yes campaign for the Warren County casino. Brad Anderson also wants to be Iowa’s next secretary of state.

The bio on his campaign website states Anderson ‘continues to advise campaigns and assist local communities on referenda to create jobs, improve wellness, make communities safer, and improve conservation and water quality’. Other than the possibility of creating jobs, it’s hard to see where any of that applies to Anderson’s current work.”

“Vote Fraudster Lobbies Against TX Election Bills”

 Link: “Busefink was in charge of ACORN’s infamous 2008 voter registration drive, in which only 450,000 of some 1.3 million claimed registrations turned out to be legitimate new voters. A full 400,000 of those registrations were thrown out; the rest were duplicates or voters who’d moved.


Busefink and supporters such as the ACLU of Texas, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and Texas AFL-CIO, were writing in opposition to three bills.”

Intervenor Defendant in Shelby: Rape Charges

“Calera pastor involved in Shelby County’s Voting Rights Act case faces rape charge.”  Birmingham News.


“News organizations from throughout the United States as well as some from overseas interviewed Jones about Shelby County’s challenges to the Voting Rights Act. He is one of several intervening defendants in the case under representation from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.”