|
|
| |
"The core of our American democracy is the right to vote. Implicit in that right is the notion that that vote be private, that vote be secure, and that vote be counted as it was intended when it was cast by the voter. And I think what we're encountering is a pivotal moment in our democracy where all of that is being called into question." ( more here)
Kevin Shelley, former
California Sec. of State
|
|
|
 |
|
Home » News » Related Voting Topics
| Election Observation Mission Final Report
OSCE / ODIHR
March 31st, 2005
In response to an invitation from the Government of the United States of America, the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) conducted an Election Observation Mission to the November 2004 elections.
A number of issues were identified, particularly in the context of the ongoing electoral reform process, which merit further consideration. |
| Calls for Leash on Voter Data
story here
June 15th, 2004
A California privacy task force said on Tuesday that the state should tell voters that it is selling voter registration information to political parties and database marketers, and that the state should take steps to safeguard how private companies and organizations use the information.
|
| Deja vu at the Florida polls?
story here
June 15th, 2004
After the 2000 presidential-election debacle in Florida, state and county election officials there agreed to examine whether the names of more than 19,000 people should be restored to the voter rolls because most of them may have been mistakenly identified as convicted felons and thus ineligible to vote.
|
| Rights Group Demands Corrections' Help On Ex-Felons, Voter Rolls
story here
June 15th, 2004
MIAMI A civil rights group is asking a court to step in and help former felons in Florida get their voting rights back before the November election.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed an appeal Tuesday with the First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee. They argue that the Florida Department of Corrections "evaded its legal responsibilities" by failing to help inmates navigate the complicated process of restoring their civil rights before they left prison.
|
| HelpingAmericansVote.org Launches Voter Information Service
story here
June 15th, 2004
WASHINGTON, June 15 /PRNewswire/ HelpingAmericansVote.org today launched a new non-partisan, online information service for early voting and vote-by-mail. The service offers a way for private-sector groups corporations, associations, affinity groups and others to help employees and customers learn more about early voting (in-person or by mail). It provides voters with simple, easy-to-understand instructions and official state-approved forms using existing e-mail and corporate communications systems.
|
| Ballot design causes over-voting problems
story here
June 15th, 2004
CHARLESTON - Ballot designs that split Democratic secretary of state candidates into two columns likely caused over-voting problems in several counties during last month's primary, Secretary of State Joe Manchin told a legislative interim committee meeting Sunday.
|
| Florida Faces Election Fracas
story here
June 14th, 2004
Thousands of eligible Florida voters may be removed from the rolls in this year's election because of a faulty database aimed at convicted felons. Despite protests from critics and nervous election supervisors, the state will continue with plans to implement the system.
|
| Lawsuit Seeks Access to Voter Purge List in Florida
story here
June 14th, 2004
While omitting a name from a mailing when it closely matches one appearing on a suppression file probably would indicate good judgment on the part of a direct marketer, it's another story when it comes to a state purging names from its voter rolls.
|
| Voting centers to return
story here
June 13th, 2004
Larimer County voters will be casting ballots at vote centers again this year rather than at precinct polling places.
The vote-center system, which was introduced in November, will be used in the Aug. 10 primary and Nov. 2 general elections, said Larimer County Clerk and Recorder Scott Doyle.
|
| Taxpayers paying for state's attorneys in fight over felon list
story here
June 12th, 2004
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The state has agreed to spend at least $125,000 on private attorneys to fight for a law restricting the release of voter records.
Records show that Secretary of State Glenda Hood's office will pay $425 an hour to a Miami attorney, plus $300 an hour for six more lawyers to fight for a statute that Attorney General Charlie Crist has said is probably not worth defending.
|
| Lawyers enlisted in voter battle
story here
June 12th, 2004
Tallahassee · The state has agreed to spend at least $125,000 on private attorneys to fight for a law that restricts the release of voter records, even though Attorney General Charlie Crist has said the statute is probably not worth defending.
|
| Release the felons list
story here
June 12th, 2004
Floridians should have no doubt that state election officials want every vote to count. But for all their count-every-vote rhetoric, those officials continue to display all-too-cavalier thinking. Their refusal to release the list of 47,000 potential felons, many of whom could be mistakenly purged from voting rolls, is the latest case in point.
|
| Open Voter Purge List
story here
June 12th, 2004
Florida's flawed election of 2000 put a cloud over the presidency and made the state the laughing stock of the nation. One reason: A wildly inaccurate voter purge list that mistakenly identified 8,000 Floridians as felons thus ineligible to vote and that listed 2,300 felons, despite the fact that the state had restored their civil rights.
|
| Will there be observers in Miami-Dade?
story here
June 11th, 2004
LESS than six months away from the U.S. presidential elections in November, the voting system in the state of Florida - where the last election became a farce - is as much of a disaster as it was in 2000.
|
| . . . and make it public Our position: Taxpayers deserve full access to names of suspected felons purged from rolls.
story here
June 11th, 2004
Deep in the bowels of a 103-page election-reform bill, state lawmakers three years ago pulled the wool over taxpayers' prying eyes.
Clever wordsmiths exempted the names of suspected felons on state voter rolls from public scrutiny. Oh, political-action committees, government officials, political parties and politicians retained unfettered access. Just not the unwashed masses whose interests lawmakers are elected to preserve and protect. The law said they could look at the names, but not take notes or copy the documents.
|
| Election certified, protested
story here
June 11th, 2004
Jasper County voters, politicians and election officials are still trying to figure out what went wrong with Tuesday's primaries and why.
An avalanche of problems came cascading down around the heads of election officials and candidates on Tuesday, and on Thursday there was talk of a possible protest and call for new elections.
|
| Voter-list lawsuit still alive
story here
June 10th, 2004
A lawsuit seeking access to the state's suspected-felon purge list moved a step forward in Leon Circuit Court on Wednesday, when Judge Nikki Clark decided enough gray legal areas existed not to dismiss the suit out of hand.
|
| Controversy surrounds purge
story here
June 10th, 2004
State officials told Florida's supervisors of elections Wednesday they have set up a call center and Web site to help with the tedious task of verifying the accuracy of a list of 47,000 potential felons who could be purged from the state's voter rolls.
|
| Purging of rolls to go slowly
story here
June 10th, 2004
KEY WEST - Election supervisors from across the state said Wednesday that they plan to independently verify whether someone is ineligible to vote because of a felony conviction.
|
| Jasper council incumbents ousted
story here
June 10th, 2004
Two Jasper County Council members were defeated in their Tuesday bids for re-election and Councilwoman Gladys Jones will face Samuel Gregory in a runoff, according to unofficial final tallies.
|
| Voting problems could spawn lawsuits
story here
June 10th, 2004
The nonprofit group that wants to repeal South Dakota's law that requires voters to show photo identification at the polls plans to file lawsuits in federal courts in Rapid City, Pierre and Sioux Falls
|
| 'Or' could stop release of state felon voter lists
story here
June 10th, 2004
TALLAHASSEE A single word in the Florida Constitution could be enough to block Cable News Network and journalists across the state from investigating a controversial list of 47,000 suspected felons on the state voter rolls.
|
| Policy on Felons and Voting Is Still Unclear in Florida
story here
June 10th, 2004
KEY WEST, Fla., June 9 - County elections supervisors peppered state officials on Wednesday with questions about purging felons from their voter rolls, suggesting at a meeting here that numerous attempts to clarify Florida's policy had not ended confusion on the issue.
|
| FDLE offers supervisors guidance on voter list purge
story here
June 9th, 2004
KEY WEST, Fla. - State officials told Florida's supervisors of elections Wednesday they have set up a call center and Web site to help them with the tedious task of verifying the accuracy of a list of 47,000 potential felons who could be purged from the state's voter rolls.
|
| Pandemonium rules in Jasper
story here
June 9th, 2004
Hundreds of Jasper County voters who cast absentee ballots in Tuesday's primary may see their votes nullified and voided, Election Commission members said.
The commission began challenging absentee ballots Tuesday afternoon based mostly on incorrect requests for absentee ballot applications.
|
| GOP 1st District primary still too close to call
story here
June 9th, 2004
TRENTON, N.J. The Republican primary contest to see who runs against popular Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews was dead even Wednesday.
On Tuesday night, the two GOP candidates were separated by 126 votes. But that gap was erased once election officials counted absentee ballots Wednesday morning.
|
| State sued over voters' list
story here
June 9th, 2004
KEY WEST - Florida's $2 million centralized voter database, which is supposed to help weed out felons and people who have died, may have a serious flaw, a New York legal group that is suing the state said Tuesday.
|
| In Florida, Wrestling Again Over Felons and Voting
story here
June 8th, 2004
KEY WEST, Fla., June 8 - Identifying legal voters as felons and purging them from the rolls was one of Florida's biggest stumbles in the 2000 election. Now, some county elections supervisors worry that a new list of 48,000 possible felons might also be flawed and that a new state law makes it too easy to disqualify legal voters.
|
| Today's the day you should help chart future
story here
June 8th, 2004
The law's effects will be fully felt this year, with an estimated 90,000 names being removed from lists that contained fewer than 700,000 names to begin with. Population growth took the number back up a little, but still what would have been a 60 percent turnout on the old rolls now will be about 67 percent.
|
| Nelson joins suit to open records
story here
June 8th, 2004
Thousands of law-abiding Floridians might be denied the right to vote and the outcome of the presidential election could be tarnished unless the public can see lists of convicted felons set for purging from voter rolls, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson warned Monday.
|
| Groups file suit for release of voter rolls
story here
June 8th, 2004
TALLAHASSEE — Florida is about to revisit the agonies of the 2000 presidential election, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson warned Monday as he filed legal papers seeking access to a list of supposed felons to be removed from voter rolls.
|
| State elections chief resigns
story here
June 8th, 2004
Florida's elections chief, who just last month ignited controversy by pushing for a new purge of voters identified as felons ineligible to vote, abruptly resigned from his job Monday.
|
| 4 counties adopt electronic voting They'll have to retrofit new machines by '06
story here
June 8th, 2004
COLUMBUS - Just four of 31 Ohio counties eligible to immediately replace their punch-card ballots and lever machines with electronic voting equipment will move ahead.
That's a far cry from Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell's original goal of deploying modern machines in all 88 counties by the time the first presidential ballot is cast Nov. 2.
|
| Kast Resignation Prompts New Concerns on Florida Voting Purge, Fall Election
story here
June 7th, 2004
Tallahassee, Florida – In the wake of the resignation of the Florida state director of Elections, Ed Kast, People For the American Way Foundation (PFAWF) called for renewed efforts to restore voters wrongly purged from the voting rolls in 1999 and 2000, and called on Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood to delay implementation of a new purge list for the 2004 elections.
|
| Saving the Vote
story here
June 7th, 2004
The late-night jokes have already started. So have the legal battles and, worst of all, the suspicion. Florida is about to screw up another national election.
The best the only course to take is for state officials to throw open the process as much as possible. To do everything within their power to make sure that voters know they will be welcome at the polls and that their vote will count.
|
| Delays, Purge Hit Voter Rolls
story here
June 7th, 2004
TAMPA - For the second straight presidential election, Florida's law against former felons voting, a law grounded in Old South racism, may prevent thousands of people from voting
|
| Deja Vu At The Florida Polls?
story here
June 7th, 2004
After the 2000 presidential-election debacle in Florida, state and county election officials there agreed to examine whether the names of more than 19,000 people should be restored to the voter rolls because most of them may have been mistakenly identified as convicted felons and thus ineligible to vote. (In Florida, convicted felons must apply to get back their voting rights after their sentences are complete, though few manage to do so.)
|
| State senator pushes for restoring felons’ rights
story here
June 6th, 2004
With state and national Democratic leaders concerned about a new purge of felons from voter rolls, state Sen. Mandy Dawson wants the party to support a constitutional amendmentthat would restore felons' rights including the right to vote once they have completed their prison sentences.
|
| Supervisors to discuss voter roll purge controversy in Key West
story here
June 5th, 2004
MIAMI The state's supervisors of elections are concerned about the accuracy of a list of approximately 47,000 potential felons set to be purged from voter rolls, and many said they want the state to work with them to ensure voters aren't disenfranchised in this year's elections.
|
| Groups sue for data on voters
story here
June 5th, 2004
TALLAHASSEE It has been called dangerous, bizarre and even unconstitutional.
But a Florida law that prohibits individuals from copying or writing down names of the state's registered voters which is now being challenged in court is needed to protect voter privacy, state election officials and key state lawmakers insist.
|
| Warren addresses still pose election problems
story here
June 5th, 2004
WARRENTON - The Warren County elections office appears to have cleared up its database troubles - at least for the moment - but board members expressed anxiety about dealing with voters who do not know their precinct.
|
| Give us an honest vote in Florida
story here
June 3rd, 2004
We confidently predict that the outcome of the 2004 presidential election will not hang on paper ballots' "hanging chads" in Florida. We are immensely troubled, though, that the Nov. 2 Election Day winner could be determined by denying the vote to thousands of Floridians, predominantly African Americans, who will be purged wrongly and in our view illegally from the voter rolls.
|
| People For the American Way Foundation Protests New Voter Purge
story here
June 1st, 2004
People For the American Way Foundation (PFAWF) is protesting Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood’s order for rapid implementation of a new purge list with the names of 47,000 Floridians, while thousands of voters remain wrongly disenfranchised from the purge lists implemented in the 2000 and 1999 elections. Foundation President Ralph G. Neas said voters wrongly stripped from the rolls in past elections should be restored before the same mistakes are made again, and he offered the foundation’s help.
|
| Use Care in Voter Purge
story here
June 1st, 2004
About 47,000 registered voters in Florida are in jeopardy of being disenfranchised because state records show they are convicted felons who haven't had their civil rights restored.
|
| Florida Campaigns Aim to Assure Black Voters
story here
May 30th, 2004
SAWDUST The party had barely begun when Shirley Green Knight arrived with her opticalscan voting machine, lugging it out of a pickup truck and stationing it between the DJ and the food tent. The sight was no longer strange to the people of Gadsden County, where Knight, the elections supervisor since 2001, attends most communal gatherings with the machine and a gently pleading message: Your vote will count this time, so please, please come out.
|
| Purging ethics from voter rolls?
story here
May 29th, 2004
After an elderly aunt saw Neil Armstrong walk on the moon and plant an American flag, she turned to us and said: "That's just one of those make-believe picture shows. Don't let what you think you see mess up your mind."
|
| CNN asks Florida court for ineligible voters list
story here
May 29th, 2004
WASHINGTON (CNN) As Florida county election boards review a list of thousands of potentially ineligible voters including some who may be felons CNN is suing the state, claiming the public and media should also be able to review the list.
|
| More Florida Voting Fiascos Possible, Groups Warn
story here
May 29th, 2004
MONTREAL, May 29 (IPS) - Some five-dozen residents of the U.S. state of Florida appeared in a hearing before Governor Jeb Bush in March to explain why they should be allowed to regain certain civil rights, including the right to vote.
|
| Paper Ballots Available Only in Limited Cases
AP
May 29th, 2004
SANTA FE?? ??? Voters cannot obtain a paper ballot in Tuesday's primary election just because they have doubts about electronic voting machines, according to Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron.
|
| More Florida Voting Fiascos Possible, Groups Warn
by Marty Logan, IPS News
May 28th, 2004
Some five-dozen residents of the U.S. state of Florida appeared in a hearing before Governor Jeb Bush in March to explain why they should be allowed to regain certain civil rights, including the right to vote.
But those citizens were ?berated about their personal debt? to society or ?because they mistakenly voted? in a previous election, says one eyewitness to the hearing.
Everything comes into play, from what medication a person is taking... it's truly shocking and gut-wrenching,? says Courtenay Strickland of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
|
| 2004 Voters' Bills of Rights for New Mexico
story here
May 28th, 2004
You have the right to vote—it’s the law, and you have the proof in your hands! You’ll notice letters and numbers after each of your rights listed below-those codes tell lawyers and poll-workers where to find the actual New Mexico statute that protects your right to vote! These rights are guaranteed to properly registered and qualified voters. You have the right to bring this bill of rights with you into the polling area-if you feel your rights have been violated, please call the Election Protection lawyer hotline toll free: 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
|
| Alabama Provisional Ballots
story here
May 28th, 2004
Provisional ballot
Anna Neville, chairman of the board of registrars, said a new federal law, Help America Vote Act, makes it easier for voters to go ahead and vote even if they show up at the wrong polling place.
The act was passed as a result of the "hanging chads" and vote county controversy in Florida after the last presidential election.
|
| Election reform matters in the long run
story here
May 27th, 2004
The 2000 presidential election uncovered many flaws with the election system in Florida and other states. In a near unprecedented display of bipartisan cooperation, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act in 2002 that will change the way we run elections in this state and, indeed in all states. It received support from civil-rights groups, advocates for the disabled and government oversight groups.
|
| Coalition fears major voting problems will recur
story here
May 26th, 2004
WASHINGTON - Problems that voters encountered in Florida and elsewhere in 2000 are likely to recur this fall unless Congress, states and voters fix them quickly, a coalition of voters' rights groups warned Wednesday.
|
|
 |
|
|
