A Voter ID law has been a republican priority for several years, and
House Speaker Thom Tillis released details on a voter ID bill that is
expected to be debated later this month. In the bill, voters would have to show a government ID to vote, including college ID’s and state issued employee IDs.  Early voting would also be shortened from two and a half weeks to only one week, and Sunday voting would be eliminated.  Full story and video here.

With a near party line vote of 23-7 in the Senate Thursday, all that
remains to block state-funded college IDs as valid identification for
voting in Tennessee is the governor’s signature.  See story here.

It appears to be a bipartisan vote as the 33 seat Tennessee Senate is only controlled by a Republican majority of 20-13.

An example of how things should not work.

New York Times: Voting Irregularities in Kenya Election Are Confirmed, Adding Fuel to Dispute.

“But Mr. Odinga’s lawyers staunchly disagree. They have claimed there was a conspiracy to rig the election, and they have argued that because Mr. Kenyatta skirted a runoff by such a tiny margin, some 8,000 votes out of more than 12 million, the errors that have been discovered are enough to mandate a new election. . . . But if the court rules against Mr. Kenyatta and orders a runoff or a new election, what will his passionate supporters do? Mr. Kenyatta has been charged by the International Criminal Court with crimes against humanity, accused of using his vast family fortune to bankroll death squads during the election chaos of 2007 and early 2008.”

And President Obama congratulates Uhuru on election victory:

“President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto today received a congratulatory message from America’s President Barrack Obama on their election in last month’s general elections.  . . . President Obama said the electoral process and the peaceful adjudication of disputes that ensued are testaments to the progress Kenya has made in strengthening its democratic institutions.  Mr Obama said, ‘Now that your election has been confirmed, you have the opportunity to build on the promise of Kenya’s Constitution and solidify its place as a vibrant and prosperous democracy centered on the rule of law.’”

“Brainard, 51, who won election Tuesday night with nearly 58 percent of the vote for the City Council’s at-large seat, was interviewed and taken into custody at his Redlands home by a Grand Junction police officer just after 6 a.m. Saturday and booked at the Mesa County Jail on suspicion of misdemeanor counts of third-degree assault and harassment. He remained in jail Saturday evening.”

Full story.

Campus life must be awfully boring these days:

“A small group of students and community members gathered on Sproul Plaza Friday afternoon to rally against the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United decision.”

At least the rally was “small.”  It’s hard to imagine even a small group of students spending time to rally against free speech.  College is a place where freedom usually gets lip service as the in-thing.

 Elkin Tribune.

“In these days of deep political division, there aren’t too many issues on which more than 75 percent of the electorate agrees. Requiring voters to show photo identification at the polling place is one of them. . . . A voter ID bill filed this past week by me and three of my House colleagues supports the will of the vast majority of North Carolina citizens, who want to have more confidence in the fairness and integrity of our elections. At the same time, it addresses the reasonable concerns of the 25 percent who oppose a voter ID requirement. . . .  
Through this process, I’m not sure if we’ll change the minds of the any of the 25 percent who have opposed voter ID. But I am confident that when this bill goes into effect, 100 percent of the people who want to vote will be able to cast a ballot.”

“Two local candidates say they have been bullied and intimidated during their campaigns to win seats on the Rockford Board of Education April 9.

According to to Juan Reyes and Alice Saudargas, a combination of threatening phone calls and an arrest are parts of a plan to discredit them with voters.

 Politico.  “For all the talk of the gender gap in American politics, the truth is that the marriage gap is even more profound. In 2012, unmarried women supported Obama over Mitt Romney by 36 percentage points, a massive margin that helped stem other losses. Even though Obama lost the votes of married women by 7 points in 2012, he made up for it with his overwhelming support among unmarried women”

The many ways to obtain photo ID in the Keystone State.

Roll Call has a story on the status of the Federal Election Commission (FEC).  The deadlock and dysfunction part is old news and sour grapes by an activist bureaucracy but now there is talk of the demise of the agency.  

Already short one officer, the Federal Election Commission will soon
have a dubious distinction: As of April 30, all five of its remaining
commissioners will be serving expired terms.  By now President Barack Obama’s failure to fully staff the
dysfunctional agency barely even riles government watchdogs. In theory
composed of three Republicans and three Democrats, the FEC has been
deadlocked for so long that, some argue, the agency could hardly grind
to more of a halt.

…Some conservatives argue that the agency should just be shut down. At
the recent Conservative Political Action Conference held near
Washington, D.C., a panel of three GOP attorneys argued that the agency
has “greatly overreached” its regulatory authority, according to a writeup by the Center for Public Integrity.