Let Me Vote - Count My Vote (93)
Maryland Restores Voting Rights to 40,000 Felons
Written by Pema Levy | Mother Jones
In a dramatic vote to override the governor's veto, the Maryland state Senate on Tuesday voted to restore voting rights to felons on probation or parole, giving approximately 40,000 felons the right to vote.
Will the GOP Strip and Flip the 2016 Election?
Written by Mimi Kennedy, Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman | Reader Supported News
It is 2016. The votes (80% of them electronic) have been cast all across the United States. Except in Hawaii, the voting stations are now closed.
I GOT THE HORSE RIGHT HERE! 2016 PRIMARY TRACK CONDITIONS
Written by Mimi Kennedy
If you know Guys & Dolls, you’re already singing the rest of this line: “His name is Paul Revere, and there’s a guy that says, when the weather’s clear, ‘Can do!’” - http://www.musictory.com/music/Guys+And+Dolls/Fugue+For+Tinhorns )
Hand Counting Paper Ballots Is Not Impossible
Written by Mimi Kennedy
Find out. Learn how. Empower your activism for democracy. Citizen jurors sustain our legal system. Any system is corruptible. But governments corrupt when citizens withdraw from the process. And we have withdrawn from – been kicked out of – our vote-count. First, we must return to paper ballots.
Nearly 900 absentee ballots in Summit County thrown out for lack of postmark; elections board to hold hearing to question postal officials about issue
Written by Stephanie Warsmith | Akron Beacon Journal
You filled out your absentee ballot and put it in the mail. You assumed it would be postmarked and arrive at the elections board in time to be counted.
For nearly 900 voters in Summit County, that assumption was wrong.
U.S. Justice Department threatens to sue Alabama over voting law
Written by Ryan Phillips | Birmingham Business Journal
The U.S. Department of Justice in September notified Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange that it would file a lawsuit against the state of Alabama for failure to enforce various sections of the National Voter Registration Act.
Amid voting rights criticism, Alabama partially backs off controversial plan to close driver license offices
Written by Vanessa Williams | The Washington Post
The governor of Alabama has partially reversed a decision to close more than 30 government offices that issue driver licenses and photo IDs, following weeks of criticism by civil rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers who say the action would make it harder for some black residents to get the identification needed to vote.
Caravan hits Black Belt region to protest AL satellite DMV office closings
Written by Michael Doudna | WFSA
The "No Closings Caravan" began it's journey Thursday across Alabama's poor Black Belt region to protest the closing of 31 satellite driver's license offices after state budget cuts. The journey started in Union Springs before moving on to Tuskegee and hitting three other Black Belt counties later in the afternoon.
Montgomery council grills election board head on voting site shifts
Written by Bill Turque | The Washington Post
Montgomery County Board of Elections President Jim Shalleck acknowledged Thursday that the Republican-controlled panel’s decision to move two early voting sites reduced the total number of registered voters living within five miles of an early balloting location.
Alabama Makes Photo IDs Mandatory for Voting, Then Shutters DMV Offices in Black Counties
Written by Andrea Germanos | Common Dreams
The 'decision to cut out ID services to almost all counties with a majority black population is discriminatory and wrong,' says ACLU of Alabama. "Every single county in which blacks make up more than 75 percent of registered voters will see their driver license office closed," writes columnist John Archibald.
More...
Virginia Finally Drops America’s ‘Worst Voting Machines’
Written by Kim Zetter | Wired
If you voted in a Virginia election any time between 2003 and April of this year, your vote was at serious risk of being compromised by hackers.
Sen. Jon Tester's Native American Voting Rights Act would help cut suppression of Indian vote
Written by Meteor Blades | Daily Kos
As I've noted on many previous occasions, ever since every American Indian was supposedly given citizenship and the right to vote in 1924, state and local authorities have sought to find ways to suppress that vote. Gerrymandering, at-large districts, fewer polling stations open for fewer hours and located too far from the populations that are supposed to use them, denying the use of tribal IDs for voting purposes and other methods have been successfully employed to reduce the Indian vote.
Voting rights to be restored for tens of thousands of felons in California
Written by Malaika Fraley | Contra Costa Times
Los Angeles County probation Chief Jerry Powers said he hasn't heard the question over allowing low-level felons to vote posed better than by his 12-year-old son: "Dad, what part of voting makes us less safe?"
Florida Supreme Court orders new congressional map with eight districts to be redrawn
Written by Mary Ellen Klas | Tampa Bay Times
On Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court struck down the state's GOP-drawn congressional map and ordered that eight seats need to be redrawn for the 2016 election.