Recent election reform news

State of Ohio House's Republicans are attempting to rush through a bill (HB 159) that would make the current burden on eligible Ohio voters more onerous, requiring that in-person voters present one of four specified forms of government-issued photo identification.
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/comments/index.php?ID=8199

A State of Ohio photo ID bill hearing will take place at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 22, 2011 before the House Committee on State Government and Elections
http://www.aclu.org/voting-rights/photo-id-bill-would-disenfranchise-ohio-voters

Citizen redistricting: Public Mapping Project is an open-source software package that enables anybody to create districts for any state
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-rigged-redistricting-process/2011/03/18/ABmFxAs_story.html

During Rock the Vote's fourth year of participating in the SXSW Festival, they conversed with the musicians and asked questions
http://www.blog.rockthevote.com/2011/03/sxsw-rocks-the-vote.html

It isn't too often that a top Federal Election Commission official fesses up to not enforcing campaign finance laws, but that's exactly what Donald McGahn, a Republican commissioner of the FEC, did Saturday.
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2011/03/federal-election-commissioner-donald-mcgahn-criticizes-overreach.html

State of Florida Legislature proposals for an expanded, and then split-up, Florida high court
http://www.gavelgrab.org/?p=18965

The US Supreme Court let stand a lower court decision affirming the constitutionality of limits on the sums political parties can spend in coordination with their candidates; it declined to hear an appeal in a lawsuit by former Rep. Joseph Cao, Republican-Louisiana, and the Republican National Committee
http://www.gavelgrab.org/?p=18959

State of Indiana election law bills that are technically dead this year-- House Democrats boycotted-- include a bill to require birth certificates for presidential candidates, a bill to eliminate the straight-ticket device, and a bill to provide that the open primary should become a secret open primary (currently, any voter can choose any party’s primary ballot, but the voter on primary day must publicly disclose which ballot he or she is requesting; the bill would make that decision private).
http://www.ballot-access.org/2011/03/21/indiana-legislature-shut-down-by-boycott-of-all-house-democrats

  

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