Melgren ordered the commission to carry out “forthwith without further delay” his March 19 directive. The judge wrote that the commission and its supporters had not shown that the public interest is best served by suspending his ruling.

“Public interest is best expressed through laws enacted by the public’s elected representatives,” Melgren wrote in a nine-page ruling. “The people of Arizona and the representatives of Kansas have decided that the public interest of their residents is in preventing voter fraud and protecting public confidence in the integrity of their elections.”

…Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach told The Associated Press said it’s significant that the judge found that the harm to Kansas and Arizona outweigh the alleged harm to the federal agency.

“It is shocking that the federal government waited 49 days and refused to comply with a federal court order,” Kobach said. “The rule of law requires parties to comply with a federal order. Here we have the federal government thinking it can defy a federal court order.”

“Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett announced Tuesday that Carol Hannah of Bullhead City was convicted of a felony last week for voting in both Arizona and Colorado.

Hannah was accused of receiving a Colorado early ballot from Adams County by mail and returning it in October 2010. She subsequently cast a ballot at a polling place in Bullhead City.

Millions of South Africans have cast their ballots in the first nationwide elections to include voters born after the end of apartheid in 1994.  Link

Are you ready?

If you are a South African citizen 18 years or older and have registered to vote, remember:

Voting stations are open from 7am to 9pm on Wednesday.

You must vote where you registered. SMS your ID number to 32810 to confirm your correct voting station. SMSs cost R1. Or you can check your registration details on the IEC’s website.

Take along your green bar-coded South African ID book, or a smart ID card, or your temporary identity certificate.

The voting process

1. Entrance: When you get to the entrance of the voting station, the door controller will tell you when it is your turn to enter.

2. ID Document: You will be directed to the voters’ roll table where IEC staff will look at your ID book or temporary ID certificate and check for your name on the voters’ roll.

If you are not on the voters’ roll, but have proof that you have registered, such as a registration sticker, the presiding officer must validate your proof of registration. If the officer is satisfied with the proof, you will have to complete a VEC4 form (national elections) or MEC7 form (municipal elections) and will then be allowed to continue as an ordinary voter.

3. Inked thumb: IEC staff will ink your left thumb. This is special ink that will not wash off for several days. It will show everyone you participated (and prevent people from voting more than once). Your ID book will also be stamped to show you have voted.

Fearing the will of the people.

The measure supported by Angle’s political action committee, Our Vote Nevada, would require voters to have photo identification to cast a ballot. It also would require election officials to issue free cards to anyone who does not have valid photo identification issued by a government entity.

One lawsuit challenging the initiative was filed on behalf of two voters by lawyers with ties to the Democratic Party.

The other was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Some discount the possibility of voter fraud because they are shocked that someone would brazenly break the law and risk jail over an election.  We’ve heard voter fraud deniers claim that voter impersonation is a dumb way to try to steal an election and the chances of getting caught make it particularly dumb.

What these deniers do is discount the criminal mind.  Because the deniers are law abiding, they think everyone else is a rational law abiding citizen.  Evil or wrongdoing are unfamiliar behaviors. 

But here is yet another example of election fraudsters making irrational, illegal and easy to catch decisions, this time in Alameda County where a candidate filed papers with a phony address of residence.

Six years later, in 1991, I immigrated to the United States because of a brutal civil war that had roots in Doe’s ruthless intolerance of opposition. I made a home in Nashville while watching the on-off war continue another 14 years before Liberia elected Africa’s first female president in 2005.

After 21 years of sitting idle through U.S. presidential elections that brought Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to power twice and Barack Obama’s first term, I finally became a U.S. citizen shortly before the last general election. And without a vote, I watched as Nashville re-elected Phil Bredesen as mayor, followed by elections of Bill Purcell and current Mayor Karl Dean.

The people we choose, now and in local general elections in August, will help determine how we administer justice. In some way, almost every family will be touched by decisions they make regarding public safety, crime and punishment, and how our communities grow.

Early voting results in Davidson and surrounding counties were encouraging, but too many Americans take for granted the opportunity to exercise their right to vote in a democracy.

Voting matters. In some parts of the world, people die because there is no tradition of free and fair elections.

Interesting graphics and data highlighting polarization in Wisconsin.  There is a reason why Republican Governor Walker is involved in a 47-47 deadlock and the gubernatorial race is just starting.  Not many undecideds.

All Congress has to do, in other words, is get its act together and fill the gap the court tore in the law. A bipartisan group of lawmakers has been trying. In the House, F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), who oversaw the 2006 reauthorization of the act, has led the effort, helping to draft a sensible compromise.