News

By John Washburn  
This article was posted at Washburn's World and is reposted here with permission of the author.

by Catherine Dolinski, The Tampa Tribune
 

TALLAHASSEE — What's the use of paper ballots if no one looks at them? That is the question that election watchdogs continue to press, even as the state's election supervisors race to implement the 2007 election law requiring every Florida county to vote on paper ballots.

Minnesota continues to improve its election transparency and accountability standards with passage of an innovative law allowing losing candidates to call for manual recounts in select precincts. Called the “partial discretionary recount,” the law believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, is a cost-effective way for candidates to have the election results in specific precincts verified.

While Court Leaves Door Open For Future Challenges to Restrictive ID Laws, Center Calls on Lawmakers Across Country to Enact Laws That Protect the Right to Vote

Today the Brennan Center for Justice criticized the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to uphold Indiana's voter identification law  the strictest in the country  but noted that the decision did not give other states a blank check to block eligible voters.  The Brennan Center called on lawmakers across the country to reject similar laws and to pass affirmative legislation protecting the right to vote.

By SaveOurVotes.org      Yesterday the Maryland General Assembly approved the Fiscal Year 2009 budget, including funding to move Maryland by 2010 to a less expensive, recountable voting system based on optically scanned paper ballots. This highly popular switch, favored by nearly two thirds of voters statewide, was enacted last year in matching bills sponsored by Sen. Edward Kasemeyer (D - Baltimore and Howard Counties) and Del.