Photo ID and ending the splitting of Nebraska electoral college votes is on the agenda in Nebraska.  Link to story.

There seem to be real problems in Fulton County, Georgia with the proper administration of elections.  None of these issues were widespread elsewhere in Georgia.

Georgia Secretary of State says the county’s elections board is not
cooperating with his investigation of the county’s management of recent
elections and refuses to turn over requested documents.

Why is Secretary Kemp investigating?

On Election Day in November, Fulton County polling sites faced a slew
of problems: outdated voter registration rolls, broken machines and
even power outages. One polling location in south Fulton opened late
because the polling managers there did not have the correct keys to
unlock the voting machines.

This is a reminder that often local problems with long lines and
dysfunctional administration of elections is a local problem, not some
policy issue on the federal or state level or inherent racism.  Sometimes it is just incompetent poll workers, lack of training, unreliable voting equipment, and the lack of management skills in local election offices.  It is encouraging to
see the Georgia Secretary of State try to bring some sunshine to the failures in the hope that the investigation will identify the
fundamental reasons for the breakdown in Fulton County and provide possible solutions to guarantee clean and competently run elections.

The eligibility of more than 30 Richmond County voters is being
challenged because they don’t appear to live where they are registered. Most of the voters were registered to vote from vacant lots or
business addresses… which can be considered voter fraud if the voters
don’t actually live there.  Link

Link to excellent PolicyMic analysis of the top Senate races in 2014.  Some of the ground is favorable to Republicans but the candidates need to be smart.  The environment of the races (whether the wind is at their back or in their face) is yet to be determined.

A reader emails: “who says recounts don’t count….GOP technically has control due to renegade Dems, but this is another example of courts intervening to decertify a previously certified winner.”

The link.

The legislative process begins with the Senate leader laying out the parameters of the voter ID bill.

Sen. Phil Berger, the top leader in
the N.C. Senate, says any new law requiring voters to show
identification at the polls should include a photo ID requirement. 

“It
does not have to be a drivers license as far as I’m concerned,” Berger
said. “For me, there are two requirements. One, that it’s a photograph
— a government issued some sort of photograph. And two, that the bill
will meet the constitutional standards that have been laid down.”

The outline of Florida Governor Scott’s election reform package is here. 

What jumps out at you is the new flexibility introduced into the system and how it allows the Florida local election officials to respond to low turnout elections with a minimal days of early voting and smaller early voting sites and then similarly respond to high turnout elections with an increased number of days and larger early voting sites.  All at the discretion of local election officials.  Apparently, the old system was very regimented with a set number of hours and type of early voting sites as dictated by the state legislature.

• More Early Voting Days – Increase the number of days available for
  early voting. We should allow Supervisors of Elections the flexibility
  to offer anywhere between eight and 14 days of early voting. Hours of
  operation should range between six and 12 hours a day.  This should
  include the Sunday before Election Day, allowing Supervisors the option
  to accommodate the needs of their community as they requested in
  committee meetings this week.  This would also allow the greatest access
  to early voting ever in Florida history – at up to 168 hours.
•  More Early Voting Locations – Work with Supervisors to allow more
  and larger early voting locations to help reduce wait times, long lines,
  and to better convenience voters.
•  Shorter Ballot – Reduce the length of the ballot, including the description of proposed constitutional amendments.

This is a true reform giving the local election officials wide discretion to react
to varying levels of turnout on the ground and meet the needs of
citizens.

The nationalization of
local elections by the federal government would never allow the flexibility of election officials
to respond to local turnout situations by increasing or decreasing early voting days, hours, or building size based on the actual turnout or election.  It would simply be cookie-cutter, one size fits all.

A voter ID bill that would require identification at the polls will again be up for consideration this legislative session.  The
bill, which was filed by Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz, would
require a state-issued or student ID to vote and would implement several
other voting reforms including adding a written, rather than spoken,
oath requirement for people vouching for other peoples’ identities.

Full story

I received this email from a legislative observer in Richmond where the James O’Keefe video capturing voterfraudster/thug  Pat Moran discussing how to doctor a utility bill became the basis for a real voter ID law in Virginia.  The observer writes:

“Senator Black in committee today read verbatim from the transcript of the fraud video and then the Senator showed how a utility bill could be fraudulently altered with Microsoft. We now have Exhibit A, B, and C for photo ID bills for this session. He had Governor McDonnell’s name fraudulently interposed on his utility bill and a Senate subcommittee had some fun with the issue.”

Virginia needs a real voter ID law, like the one that passed in South Carolina and the federal court approved.  As we saw, even someone like Pat Moran knows how to beat the system.

 AP.