Detroit News: A Democratic group has filed a third voting rights lawsuit against the state of Michigan, targeting Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson about an automatic registration law.The lawsuit argues that the treatment by Michigan’s automatic registration law of people … Continue reading
Category Archives: election administration
Based on social science of the “primacy effect” giving candidates listed first on the ballot a benefit, a federal district court has struck down Florida’s law dictating ballot order of candidates based on the winner of the last governor’s race … Continue reading
Detroit Free Press: With absentee voting skyrocketing since voters approved a ballot proposal last year allowing for its expansion, clerks across the state are worrying about counting ballots next year, when a record turnout is expected for the presidential race.Some … Continue reading
Looks like more chicanery from Georgia election officials: Georgia election officials have opened an investigation into two prominent critics of the state’s new touchscreen voting machines, secretary of state Brad Raffensperger’s office confirmed Wednesday.Those critics called the investigation an attempt … Continue reading
AP: More than 234,000 voters in Wisconsin would be made unable to cast their ballot unless they register again before the next election under a lawsuit filed Wednesday that liberals fear could dampen turnout among Democrats in the 2020 presidential … Continue reading
WaPo: The federal government should start vetting companies that sell election systems as seriously as it does defense contractors and energy firms, a top election security group argues in a proposal out this morning.Under the proposal from New York University’s Brennan Center … Continue reading
Reid Wilson in The Hill. … Continue reading
Bloomberg: Digital voting machines were promoted in the wake of a similarly chaotic scene 19 years ago: the infamous punch-card ballots and hanging chads of south Florida that tossed the presidential contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore into … Continue reading
WaPo: County election websites in two battleground states are highly vulnerable to hacking by Russia or another adversary that might seek to disrupt the 2020 vote by misleading voters about polling locations or spreading other false information. About 55 percent of county … Continue reading
Miles Parks for NPR. … Continue reading
AJC: A glitch with Georgia’s new voter check-in computers caused delays in most of the six counties testing it, causing some precincts to stay open late to accommodate voters who left without casting their ballots.The problem occurred in at least … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
Release: Using data from the 2018 midterm elections, the Bipartisan Policy Center today released the largest-ever observational study on wait times in polling places. The research, conducted with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found that the overall average wait time to vote … Continue reading
AP: Legislation headed toward the governor’s desk in Pennsylvania on Tuesday would deliver the biggest changes to state election laws in decades and provide aid to counties for much of the cost of new voting machines as a bulwark against … Continue reading
ProPublica: In the glare of the hotly contested 2018 elections, things did not go ideally for ES&S, the nation’s largest manufacturer of voting technology.In Georgia, where the race for governor had drawn national interest amid concerns about election integrity, ES&S-owned technology … Continue reading
AP: If the FBI discovers that foreign hackers have infiltrated the networks of your county election office, you may not find out about it until after voting is over. And your governor and other state officials may be kept in … Continue reading
APG: Gov. Tony Evers has rescheduled the special election for Wisconsin’s northern 7th Congressional District to take place on May 12, with the special primary set to coincide with the Feb. 18 spring primary.He also called on the Legislature to … Continue reading
Indy Star: An Indiana nonprofit has filed a federal complaint against the Indiana Election Commission and Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson over the state’s lack of voting machines that produce a paper trail.On Thursday, Indiana Vote by Mail and five Indiana … Continue reading
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: A conservative group is seeking to quickly remove thousands of people from the voting rolls who election officials believe have moved.The question over how to treat as many as 234,000 voters comes as Wisconsin emerges as one of the … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
NYT: Ohio, where the Democratic presidential candidates are set to debate Tuesday, is both a battleground state and the site of some of the country’s strictest voting laws, from voter ID requirements to a “use-it-or-lose-it” provision that lets officials drop voters … Continue reading
This is a good introduction to the issue, which has divided some voting rights and voting integrity folks. … Continue reading
SacBee: A Republican attorney filed a lawsuit on Tuesday demanding that two California agencies develop a better system to verify the citizenship of people who register to vote through the Department of Motor Vehicles.In the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court … Continue reading
Tammy Patrick: Fortunately, Deputy Post Master General Ronald Stroman and Election Mail Management Specialist Dan Bentley understand that tens of millions of American voters receive their ballot not by a poll worker, but from their postal carrier; and that delivering … Continue reading
WRAL: Activists and computer scientists have raised questions about the process used to certify new voting machines in North Carolina that, for weeks, the State Board of Elections hasn’t answered.The board’s chairman and its executive director say answers are coming … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
WaPo: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell came out Thursday in support of providing states with an additional $250 million in election security funding, an abrupt turnaround after more than a year of opposition from the Kentucky Republican on the issue.McConnell, … Continue reading
WaPo: Democrats are pressing hard this week in what could be their final chance to pass legislation aimed at protecting the 2020 contest against Russian hackers.Senate Democrats have failed for months to force Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to allow a vote on … Continue reading
Helpful info from VoteRiders. … Continue reading
CNN reports. … Continue reading
AP: A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Friday challenging the security of voting machines in Tennessee’s largest county and calling for a switch to a handwritten ballot and a voter-verifiable paper trial.U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker ruled that the lawsuit … Continue reading
Carolina Public Press: North Carolina’s recent decision to certify new voting systems for use next year did not follow state law, according to a letter that a group of experts on election security and administration sent to the N.C. Board of Elections … Continue reading
ProPublica: States that received the reports found them riddled with errors and unhelpful for assessing actual election security. The work done by NormShield — called “Rapid Cyber Risk Scorecards” — had tested online government material not associated with elections. In … Continue reading
This is a big deal, and no surprise given the earlier ruling (except that it came very quickly after the rejection of the motion to dismiss). The real question is whether the Sixth Circuit, which is becoming increasingly conservative, will … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
Detroit News: Local officials bracing for an influx of absentee voters are urging Michigan lawmakers to give clerks more time to process mail-in ballots and avoid logjams that could delay election night reporting results. But a top lawmaker in Michigan’s Republican-led … Continue reading
WaPo: It’s not just a question of paper ballots. The offices charged with administering elections across the country are falling short on a slew of basic cybersecurity measures that could make the 2020 contest far more vulnerable to hacking, according to … Continue reading
Release: Thirteen U.S. states closed a staggering 1,688 polling locations in just six years, according to a new report from The Leadership Conference Education Fund. The report, “Democracy Diverted: Polling Place Closures and the Right to Vote,” notes that 1,173 … Continue reading
M. Keith Chen, Kareem Haggag, Devin G. Pope, and Ryne Rohla have posted this draft. Here is the abstract: Equal access to voting is a core feature of democratic government. Using data from millions of smartphone users, we quantify a … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
Pam Fessler reports for NPR. … Continue reading
Not ready for prime time. … Continue reading
Des Moines Register: Democratic National Committee officials said Friday they will recommend scrapping Iowa’s plan to hold virtual caucuses in 2020, citing substantial security threats. “We concur with the advice of the DNC’s security experts that there is no tele-caucus system … Continue reading
TPM: One of the disputes fueling the war over Ohio’s purge process was resolved Thursday, with the announcement of a settlement in years-long litigation related to the purge regime.Under the settlement, some voters who were removed from the rolls this year and in purges … Continue reading
AJC: To find a clue about what might have gone wrong with Georgia’s election last fall, look no further than voting machine No. 3 at the Winterville Train Depot outside Athens.On machine No. 3, Republicans won every race. On each … Continue reading
Clarion Ledger: Voters who cast ballots for one party in the Aug. 6 primary may have improperly voted for a different party in Tuesday’s runoff due to machine malfunctions, according to the Hinds County GOP. Pete Perry, Hinds County Republican Party chairman, … Continue reading
Reuters: T he U.S. government plans to launch a program in roughly one month that narrowly focuses on protecting voter registration databases and systems ahead of the 2020 presidential election.These systems, which are widely used to validate the eligibility of … Continue reading
LA Times deep dive on Dean Logan. … Continue reading
AP: Georgia voters who want hand-marked paper ballots are challenging the new election system state officials are rushing to implement in time for next year’s presidential primaries, saying the new touchscreen machines remain vulnerable and their results unverifiable, even though … Continue reading
Texas Tribune: After losing his last chief election officer over a botched review of the state’s voter rolls, Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday appointed a new secretary of state: Ruth Ruggero Hughs.Ruggero Hughs is moving from the Texas Workforce Commission, which she … Continue reading