With the early voting period for another election beginning in just the next few days, a new issue for county elections offices to consider: coronavirus. While vote-by-mail is being highly encouraged, election leaders are also getting ready for voters to show up at the polls. It’s not just for the protection of voters; many poll […]
Author: Melonie
he Republican National Committee has jumped into Rhode Island’s legal fight over witness requirements for the signing of mail ballots during the pandemic. Late Sunday night, lawyers Brandon Bell and Joseph Larisa joined lawyers from Arlington, Virginia, in filing a request with the U.S. District Court that both the state and national GOP be given status […]
Rhode Island’s just exited an exclusive club of states requiring mail ballot witness signatures during the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to a suit by the ACLU of RI, Campaign Legal Center, and the Fried Frank law firm in federal court aiming to suspend the practice. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea and the plaintiffs agreed to suspend the […]
Kentucky’s Secretary of State website is suddenly missing absentee ballot content. Kentucky is among the strictest excuse absentee ballot states. I last checked the only URL where the state provided limited information to voters. https://elect.ky.gov/Frequently-Asked-Questions/Pages/Absentee-Voting.aspx Coincidentally (or not) I checked it today on July 29, 2020, yesterday was Vote By Mail Day, to find the […]
A panel of state lawmakers last week unanimously approved allowing the Iowa secretary of state to mail absentee ballot request forms to all active registered voters in Iowa before the Nov. 3 election. The decision was a turnaround from July 1, when the 24-member Legislative Council voted down a Democratic lawmaker’s proposal to allow the mass mailing […]
Republicans once dominated voting by mail in Florida. But that was before President Donald Trump got involved. After months of hearing Trump denigrate mail-in balloting, Republicans in the critical battleground state now find themselves far behind Democrats in the perennial push to urge their voters to cast ballots remotely. While Democrats have doubled the number […]
There’s not a dime for creating a safer and smoother election in the Senate Republican economic stimulus proposal — which has voting rights groups, democracy reform advocates and some election administrators professing outrage and frustration, but not panic just yet. The roughly $1 trillion package, unveiled Monday and blessed by the Trump administration, is essentially […]
Senate Republicans left out funding for mail-in and early voting during the COVID-19 pandemic in their stimulus bill rolled out Monday, prompting backlash from Democrats, election officials and advocacy groups. With less than 100 days to go before Election Day, these officials are concerned that without a new injection of federal funds, state and local officials […]
If you plan to mail in your absentee ballot for the Aug. 4 primary election, you better hurry. With one week left, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is urging absentee voters to “immediately” mail in their ballots to ensure they are counted. Ballots that are received after Election Day won’t be counted. You have […]
Texans have not gotten any relief from some of the strictest vote-by-mail limits in the country, but now they will have the ability to cast ballots in person for almost three weeks ahead of the election. Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday cited the complications of the coronavirus pandemic, which has surged in his state this […]