Texas Bill to Exclude Judicial Partisan Races from Straight-Ticket Device

Texas legislators began pre-filing bills for the 2013 session on November 12, 2012. State Senator Dan Patrick (R-Houston) pre-filed a bill to exclude partisan judicial races from the straight-ticket device. Bills that are pre-filed do not yet have a bill number, nor is the text available on the state legislature’s web page, as far as is known. The Texas legislature convenes January 8, 2013.

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer Introduces Bill to Require Certain States to Expand Number of Voting Machines

On December 5, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer introduced a bill to require certain states to expand the number of vote-counting machines. The bill doesn’t have a bill number yet, but it would require the Attorney General to obtain data about which states had precincts in which voters had to stand in line for more than an hour, and require those states to solve the problem. The bill would only apply to federal elections. See this press release from Boxer’s office. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the news.