VA Gov plans literacy test for ex-felons. TN to fix retroactive voter purge.

Illinois SBE open source campaign finance reporting software will save state money and is flexible...Will Sarasota voters ever get what audits audits they voted for 4 yrs ago?... Tennessee -Proposes Bill to fix voter purge that impacted long registered voters...VA Gov McDonnell in hot water over nonviolent felons' rights...Two Problems with the New Challenge to Section 5 of Voting Rights Act...The comment period for UOCAVA Pilot Program Testing Reqs (online voting) ends April 15...Facebook joins in UK's voter registration drive...Sudan has 2nd day of voting for first election in nearly 25 years...

CA: San Mateo County, California, Ponders Alternate Voting Systems
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/04/08/san-mateo-county-california-ponders-alternate-voting-systems/

CO: Election reform mishap
http://www.eptrail.com/ci_14846219?
Election reform may be coming next year, but let`s get more input from the county clerks charged with implementing the law. That way, no one can accuse the Speaker of a last-minute election manipulation

FL: THE ELECTION AUDIT- Vs. THE AUDITED (Elections)Video
http://www.blip.tv/file/3465010/
Augi talks about the Sarasota Florida Election Audit process, will the voters ever get what they voted on and passed.. 4 years and running..

FL: Two elderly women allege voter fraud in Haines City (absentee ballot fraud)
http://www.newschief.com/article/20100411/NEWS/100419996/1021

GA: Walker County Board of Elections unanimously votes to consolidate voting precincts; opponents vow fight (18 precincts down to 11)
http://romenews-tribune.com/view/full_story/7031626/article-Walker-County-Board-of-Elections-unanimously-votes-to-consolidate-voting-precincts--opponents-vow-fight-?instance=home_news_lead_story

GA: Lobbyist disclosure the focus of Georgia ethics reform
http://politicalactivitylaw.com/2010/04/11/lobbyist-disclosure-the-focus-of-georgia-ethics-reform/

IL: Good News from the SBE (r/e their campaign disclosure software project)
http://blog.champaigncountyclerk.com/2010/04/12/good-news-from-the-sbe/
...Most important, the code belongs to the government, can be changed as desired, and will have no licensing costs in the future. A great example of how software development in house can be a win-win for everyone.

MN: Charter wants another perspective
http://www.republican-eagle.com/event/article/id/65806/
Before dancing any closer toward endorsing ranked-choice voting the Red Wing Charter Commission wants to hear from an opponent of the alternative voting system.

NC: Burke County elections director resigns
http://www2.morganton.com/content/2010/apr/11/burke-county-elections-director-resigns/
Beam said the elections office is a shoestring operation, but it's gotten to the place where the shoestring is going to break.

NY: 'Illegal' raise for elections board commissioners returned
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20100411/NEWS01/4110342
In 2008, the Republican and Democratic commissioners of the Dutchess County Board of Elections gave themselves what County Executive William Steinhaus called "illegal" raises of $4,827 each — which they ultimately had to give back. Then, in 2009, according to county documents, they tried to do it again but were unsuccessful.

OH: Voting glitch sparks complaint *
Programming error blamed for wrong ballots
http://www.tdn-net.com/main.asp?SectionID=152&SubSectionID=255&ArticleID=105787
...the error occurred due to a programming irregularity on the master encoder.
...
Quillen said he discovered that when elections workers encoded the individual voter card and selected precinct first, then party affiliation, the card was encoded accurately with a ballot that contained both state issues and candidates.

But, when elections workers encoded the individual voter card and selected party affiliation first, then precinct, the encoder defaulted to a non-partisan selection for party affiliation, which resulted in a ballot that listed only state issues, but no candidates.

OH: Brunner calls for open primary system
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/04/10/brunner-calls-for-open-primary-system.html?sid=101

MT: Absentee ballots grow in popularity in Montana
http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/government-and-politics/elections/article_995e80f6-4394-11df-af3a-001cc4c03286.html

NC: Two Problems with the New Challenge to Section 5
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/comments/articles.php?ID=7231
...On Wednesday of last week, private citizens and a private organization in Kinston, North Carolina filed a complaint challenging the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

NC: Potential 3rd party targets 3 Democrats
http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/04/12/433487/potential-3rd-party-targets-3.html

NM: Dem Party won’t share voter database with Luján challenger
http://www.nmpolitics.net/index/2010/04/dem-party-won%E2%80%99t-share-voter-database-with-lujan-challenger/
The Democratic Party of New Mexico is denying a request from House Speaker Ben Luján’s primary challenger to access the party’s voter information database, but it claims that isn’t tantamount to endorsing Luján.
...
The database, called Vote Builder, is owned by the national Democratic Party

TN: Proposed Bill Would Fix Purged Voter Threat (video available)
http://www.wsmv.com/politics/23105576/detail.html
CAMDEN, Tenn. -- A Channel 4 I-Team investigation found valid voters in danger of being purged from the rolls because of minor omissions made on registration forms decades ago.
...
He's (Rep. Gary Odom, D-Nashville) proposing a change to state law that says registered voters can't be purged if their form is found to be deficient years later, and it would take effect immediately.

TX: Starr County employee arrested in connection with impounded ballots *(absentee)
http://www.themonitor.com/articles/grande-37296-arrested-impounded.html
...The employee, 51-year-old Modesta Vela, allegedly failed to sign at least 10 to 20ballots she helped to prepare

VA: McDonnell in hot water over nonviolent felons' rights
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/10/AR2010041001268.html?sid=ST2010041001459 ...McDonnell (R) will require the offenders to submit an essay outlining their contributions to society since their release, turning a nearly automatic process into a subjective one that some say may prevent poor, less-educated or minority residents from being allowed to vote.

National

Comment deadline approaches for UOCAVA pilot testing requirements
The comment period for the UOCAVA Pilot Program Testing Requirements ends Thursday, April 15 at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time. For more information, go here.
http://www.eac.gov/blog-postings/comment-deadline-approaches-for-uocava-pilot-testing-requirements

Supreme Court Sets Conference Date for Case on Felon Voting and Voting Rights Act
http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/04/08/supreme-court-sets-conference-date-for-case-on-felon-voting-and-voting-rights-act/ ...On April 23, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to review Simmons v Galvin, 09-920.

Brief on the DRA published
http://www.brennancenter.org/blog/archives/brief_on_the_dra_published/
...Currently, 5.3 million American citizens are denied this right because of a criminal conviction in their past. Nearly 4 million of those who are disfranchised are out of prison, working, paying taxes, and raising families, yet they are without a political voice.

Taking Politics Private
http://nymag.com/news/politics/powergrid/65364/
...Now comes Citizens United—which allows unlimited direct spending on candidate-centric ads and other communications by corporations, unions, and nonprofits—and it appears that our politics are hurtling rapidly down the road toward near-total privatization.

International

Hong Kong: Plans for manual counting set after poll machines in HK fail
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/188244/plans-for-manual-counting-set-after-poll-machines-in-hk-fail

Hong Kong: Voting in an HK precinct stalled
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20100411-263601/Voting-in-an-HK-precinct-stalled HONG KONG—Voting stalled in a precinct in Hong Kong when a Precinct Count Optical Scan machine kept rejecting a ballot at the second day of automated overseas voting here.
Hong Kong: 2 voting machines malfunction in HK (Smartmatic)
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100412-263733/2-voting-machines-malfunction-in-HK Cold, damp weather blamed

Philippines: LP now focused on guarding votes
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=565425&publicationSubCategoryId=63
MANILA, Philippines - Liberal Party (LP) vice presidential candidate Sen. Manuel Roxas II said the country’s first electronic voting system would be “a big shot in the dark” and as such they are now focusing on protecting the votes.
...
“The machine will not know whether what it’s being fed is a counterfeit or a genuine ballot. They have a stop-gap remedial measure, a handheld scanner, but they can scan one ballot and enter another ballot,” Roxas said. “They must think us fools.”

Sri Lanka: International Observers Call for Electoral Reform in Sri Lanka
http://srilankanewsfirst.com/politics/16869.html

Sudan: Sudan polling extended by two days amid chaos, 'mistakes'
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iHepoHcEPDCh_NGIecqKpSL-f5OA
KHARTOUM — Sudan's national election commission extended voting on Monday from three days to five after logistical problems marred the beginning of the country's first competitive elections in 24 years.

Sudan: Chaos reigns as Sudan begins complex election
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/-/1066/897484/-/1219dguz/-/
Officials had spent months preparing for the polls, but confusion soon erupted on Sunday as centre after centre, sometimes hours into the voting, discovered that voters were using the wrong ballot papers or that names or symbols of candidates were either missing or incorrect.

Given that votes are being cast for two presidents, 24 governors and 26 state and national assemblies, using three different voting systems and up to 12 ballots, things were bound to go awry.

Sudan: Voting Begins in Sudan For the First Time in Nearly 25 Years – Voice of America http://webhay.com/news/?p=21595

UK: Facebook joins in voter registration drive
http://www.politics.co.uk/news/general-election-2010/facebook-joins-in-voter-registration-drive-$1369886.htm
...a new page has been created on Facebook's Democracy UK page from which the millions of UK users can download a personalised voter registration form.

Internet voting watch

Canada: Town to look at possibility of electronic voting for fall municipal election
http://www.emcarnprior.ca/20100409/news/Town+to+look+at+possibility+
of+electronic+voting+for+fall+municipal+election or
http://tinyurl.com/y4f3t9z
Arnprior voters might be able to vote from anywhere at any time (during a designated voting period) in the next municipal election.

India: Online voting for Gujarat civic polls this year
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Online-voting-for-Gujarat-civic-polls-this-year/articleshow/5768739.cms
State election commissioner KC Kapoor heads the team. E-voting will become a reality in the AMC polls in mid-October, followed by municipal corporation polls in Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar in December.

Voting News by Joyce McCloy.
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