The Voting Rights Act is outmoded, unworkable

Concerned about the increasing number of absentee voters in Missoula
County – and the potential for fraud, a dozen citizens came to the
Missoula County Elections Office on Friday demanding access to voter
records.

The group, led by Missoula accountant Patty Lovaas,
believes there should be greater scrutiny over the process that allows
voters to receive ballots by mail. Lovaas and her group want to conduct
their own assessment, arguing that absentee ballots have the highest
risk of manipulation.

Lovaas confronted elections administrator Vickie Zeier and Deputy County Attorney Dori Brownlow about opening their records.

Poor old Harold Camping finally has some company.  Camping is
the doomsday prophet who repeatedly predicted the end of the world.
First, we were all doomed in 1994. Then we were all doomed in May of
2011. Then, we all were doomed last Oct. 21.

…Camping is not a Wisconsinite. But there were plenty of other Chicken
Littles here who claimed the advent of Voter ID would be the end of life
as we know it. Opponents — some of whom have sued — say they are
“appalled” at how hard it is to get an acceptable ID, call the
requirement to produce an ID a “poll tax,” “voter suppression,” a return
to “Jim Crow,” shameful, and an attempt to let only a “select club”
vote. In sum, the sky is falling.

Read it all.

The Republic.

With a must-see introduction with limited “blah blah”.  Link here to CSPAN video.
Other funny moments include the “nonpartisan Brennan Center” and the “Washington Post” being cited as credible authorities.

  opinion

link here.

The Acting Director of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) has issued an internal memo formally requesting the Standards Board and Board of Advisors to not conduct official business. 

It might save a few pennies.  Next, the employees at the EAC will need to wear sweaters to work as the heat is turned off.  Fairly soon, there will be more life on Mars than at the EAC.



link here at the NASS website.

There are few people further apart on the issue of new voter photo ID requirements than Laura Murphy and Hans von Spakovsky.

She’s director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office. He’s with the Heritage Foundation and a former Justice Department official under George W. Bush

….The two did agree on one thing — that voter registration rolls are a mess that needs to be cleaned up. They both cited a Pew Center on the States report last week that there are more than 2 million dead people registered to vote, and about 24 million registrations that are invalid or inaccurate

full story at NPR.

Not all of Wisconsin’s Hispanics are up in arms about the new state legislative districts drafted and approved by Republicans last year.

The Milwaukee group Voces de la Frontera is part of a federal lawsuit against the new maps, claiming that they would dilute Hispanic representation in the Legislature.

But another Latino group, Hispanics for Leadership, said Wednesday it would sue the state if lawmakers agree to changes that Voces de la Frontera is suing for.

Zeus Rodriguez said the Leadership group believes the GOP’s maps will help Latinos, not hurt them – because they give Hispanics a decent chance of getting two representatives elected to the Assembly from Milwaukee instead of one.

One of the GOP’s districts at issue is just under 50 percent Hispanic, while another is just over 40 percent. Rodriguez says that’s enough to influence voters to choose Hispanic lawmakers in both districts.

story link here.