Here is a newspaper commentary by Bronxville, New York Mayor Mary C. Marvin, explaining that even though elections for Village Mayors and Trustees are set for only seven weeks from now (March 15), the village still doesn’t know what vote-counting systems it will be using. The mechanical voting machines still exist but it is illegal to use them. The state also says that it is illegal for the village to use old-fashioned paper ballots, for voters who come to the polls. And if the villages uses the kind of paper ballots that are scanned, the scanners are under the exclusive control of the County Board of Elections and the county may charge the village a great deal of money to borrow them.

A bill is pending in the New York state legislature to let villages uses the mechanical voting machines during 2011, but it is apparently unlikely to pass and be signed into law in time to help with this problem.

Bronxville is a village in Westchester County, and should not be confused with Bronx borough in New York city.

On November 2, 2010, the voters of Oklahoma passed a Constitutional amendment to change the state’s Commission on Apportionment. The text of the Amendment, which was question 748 on the ballot, says that the Commission should have as members “One republican and one democrat (sic)” appointed by the Speaker of the House, “one republican and one democrat” appointed by the President Pro Tempore of the State Senate, and “one republican and one democrat” appointed by the Governor.

The state already had such a commission, but before question 748 passed, the old commission consisted of the Attorney General, the State Treasurer, and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Their party membership, or lack of party membership, was immaterial. In practice, however, the old commission, if it still existed in 2011, would have consisted of three Republicans.

The Commission is to draw boundaries for state legislative districts if the legislature fails to do so in the first 90 days of the legislative session that starts in the years after the census. On January 24, an independent voter who is actually a Libertarian, Clark Duffe, filed a lawsuit against the make-up of the commission. The case is Duffe v State Question 748, et al, and is before the Oklahoma Supreme Court, no. 109127. The State Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in some cases that are of importance and that are strictly questions of law, not of facts. A referee will hear the case on February 16 and then prepare a report for the State Supreme Court, which may then either set its own hearing, or else dismiss the case.

It is unusual for any state to pass a law naming two particular political parties and giving them membership on election administration bodies. Generally laws like this don’t name any particular party, but specify that the two largest parties, based on some objective criteria (like the last vote for Governor, or the number of registered voters) should be represented. UPDATE: see this story about the lawsuit.