Pennsylvania State Senator Jane Orie has been charged with tampering with evidence, and faces sixteen felony charges. She also still faces a retrial in charges filed last year, in which the prosecutor believes state employees worked on her re-election campaign on state time. See this story. Orie has been a Pennsylvania state legislator since she was first elected in 1996. She is a Republican from Allegheny County and an attorney. One of her sisters is a Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice.

On August 30, a U.S. District Court Judge listened to testimony in Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted. Michael Johnston of the Ohio Libertarian Party, testified for the plaintiffs, and a representative of the Secretary of State provided testimony on the other side. The judge indicated he expects to issue a ruling by Friday, September 2. The issue is whether the new Ohio ballot access law is constitutional, and also whether due process prevents the Secretary of State from eliminating the four ballot-qualified minor parties on such short notice. The 2011 session of the legislature had passed a new law to replace the law held unconstitutional in 2006, but the new law still requires as many signatures as the old law, and sets an early February petition deadline for petitions to qualify a party.

Guy Padraic Hamilton-Smith and Matthew Vogel have published a 24-page study that shows a link between recidivism and the policy of not permitting ex-felons to register to vote. It can be read at this link. At least 5,300,000 individuals in the United States have lost their voting rights due to the policy of some states of not letting ex-felons register.

The study concludes, “Taken as a whole, our findings indicate that states which permanently disenfranchise ex-felons experience significantly higher rates of repeat offenses than states that do not.” Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.