NCSL 2011 Legislative Action Bulletin

2011 Legislative wrap-up @ the link

Clearly the biggest elections issue in state legislatures in 2011 was voter ID, but there were a handful of other notable trends, even if they largely slipped under the radar of the national media.

Voter ID:  A total of 34 states considered voter ID legislation this year. Four states enacted new laws – Kansas, Mississippi (a citizen initiative, rather than a bill) Rhode Island and Wisconsin. Another four passed laws to make existing voter ID laws stricter – Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

Voter ID bills in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio remain pending in 2011 and will carry over into 2012 if they do not receive a failing vote before the end of the year. Bills in Alaska, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Nebraska and New York will also carry over into the 2012 legislative session.

Redistricting panel OKs AZ congressional map lopsided towards Democrats

Commission Chairwoman Colleen Mathis, a political independent, sided with Democrats Linda McNulty and Jose Herrera in approving the plan. Herrera said it creates a map with four districts with a Republican voter edge, two that should be safe for Democrats and three districts in which the number of voters in each party are close enough to make them politically competitive.

But Republican Scott Freeman, visibly angry about the move, said the numbers tell a different story. He said the final version adds enough Democrats to those supposedly competitive districts to essentially give Democrats the edge. “The scales are being manipulated to get a desired political result,” he said.  The full story at the link.

The reaction of the Left is summed up with this headline and link at the Huffington Post:  ‘Stunning’ Redistricting Vote May Upset Arizona’s Republican Edge

FEC votes unanimously to clear Representative Buchanan of wrongdoing

In a final report on its investigation dated Jan. 25 but not released until Wednesday, the FEC’s general counsel wrote that because of “significant concerns” about the credibility of Sam Kazran, Buchanan’s former business partner and chief accuser, it was recommending the FEC take no action against the congressman.  Full story at the link

Now, lets see if DOJ does the right thing and drop the criminal investigation into campaign finance violations.