On January 21, the Presidential Commission on Election Administration released its recommendations on how to improve the voting process. The Commission relied on the testimony of hundreds of local election officials, and also on scholarly research. It is bipartisan. Perhaps the most interesting recommendation is the Report’s strong endorsement of early voting. Here is Nate Persily’s description of the Report, with a link to the Report itself.
The Republican National Committee meets January 23-24 in Washington, D.C. See NBC’s First Read article at this link (scroll down to the third item, “RNC to Consider Changes to 2016 Calendar.” The party will decide whether to hold its 2016 national convention in either June or July, which would be a substantial change from 2012, when its convention was in September. The party will also decide whether to require that presidential primaries all be held before 35 days, or 45 days, before the convention.
If the party chooses June, and especially if it then chooses 45 days, it could no longer use its presidential primaries in New Jersey, Montana, New Mexico, and South Dakota, unless it can persuade state legislatures in those states to hold earlier presidential primaries. Under current law, those states hold their presidential primaries in June.
The Arizona Secretary of State has released new voter registration data, as of January 1, 2014. For the first time since 1962, Republican registration as a percentage of the total is under 35%. Here are the new figures, which show: Republican 34.86%, Democratic 29.67%, Libertarian .81%, Americans Elect .0098%, all others 34.64%.
The tally does not show the number of registered Greens, because the Green Party is no longer on the ballot, although it hopes to be back on the ballot soon; it is working hard on its petition, which is due February 28, 2014.
The last tally percentages, for October 1, 2013, were: Republican 35.04%, Democratic 29.90%, Libertarian .80%, Green .17%, Americans Elect .0094%, all others 34.08%.
A U.S. District Court in Kansas will hold a two-day trial starting February 11, Tuesday, in Kobach v U.S. Election Assistance Commission, 5:13cv-4095. The issue is whether Kansas and Arizona can require voters in their states who use the federal voter registration form to attach proof of citizenship beyond a signature under penalty of perjury.
The trial will probably produce interesting evidence about whether it is rare or not for a dishonest individual to impersonate someone else at the polls.
The Tenth Circuit will hear Citizen Center v Gessler, 12-1414, on March 17, Monday, at 9 a.m. This is the case over whether the U.S. Constitution protects the right to a secret ballot. The case had originally been filed to block the practice of printing unique bar codes on ballots, so that theoretically election officials could determine how a particular voter voted. But the U.S. District Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution does not protect a secret ballot, so the Tenth Circuit will grapple with that as well.
