Beth Clarkson is a Kansas mathematics professor who has been struggling for years to get the documents from various Kansas governments to test her theory that Kansas vote-counting machines yield faulty counts. See this story.
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On July 20, a Canadian Appeals Court upheld a Canadian election law that bars Canadian citizens from voting if they have lived permanently outside Canada for more than five years. The lower court had struck the law down. The case will probably be appealed to the Canadian Supreme Court.
There is no such law in the United States, and some U.S. citizens have lived in foreign countries for up to fifty years or more and yet continue to vote absentee. But U.S. citizens can’t vote absentee if they move to a U.S. possession.
See this story. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
Ann Arbor, Michigan has partisan elections for city office. On the evening of July 20, the city council voted down a proposal to let the voters decide if non-partisan elections should replace them. Supporters of non-partisan elections may do a city initiative, however. See this story.
In the 1970’s, the Human Rights Party, which was a ballot-qualified party in Michigan, won several seats on the Ann Arbor city council, but now the council is entirely composed of Democrats.
On July 21, the North Carolina Senate passed HB 373. This is the bill that moves the 2016 North Carolina presidential primary from February to March 15. The bill has no impact on the primary for other office, which would continue to be in early May. Thanks to Josh Putnam for the news.
A recent Los Angeles School Board runoff election in one district had an usual feature: a private group had said every voter who voted in that particular race would have his or her name entered into a lottery, and the winner would get $25,000. This Los Angeles Times story describes the event. The initial winner is a woman who declined the money, so the lottery organizers then drew a second name. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.