State voting laws
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  State voting laws
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Author Topic: State voting laws  (Read 1619 times)
greenforest32
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« on: April 18, 2012, 09:28:25 AM »
« edited: June 04, 2014, 11:59:15 PM by greenforest32 »

Thought it would be interesting to have a thread on state election and voting laws.

One relatively new development is online voter registration: http://www.ncsl.org/legislatures-elections/elections/electronic-or-online-voter-registration.aspx

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greenforest32
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« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2012, 09:50:23 AM »
« Edited: April 18, 2012, 09:54:42 AM by greenforest32 »

Absentee/Early Voting laws (July 22, 2011)

http://www.ncsl.org/legislatures-elections/elections/absentee-and-early-voting.aspx



Colorado is heading towards becoming the third all-mail voting state I think: http://www.governing.com/topics/politics/colorado-collects-popular-votes-mail.html

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http://www.governing.com/blogs/politics/Colorado-Mail-Voting.html

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66.7% of active registered voters have requested permanent mail-in voter status as of March 2012: http://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/VoterRegNumbers/2012/March/TotalPMIVRequests.pdf

Vote by mail is increasing in California too as you can see from these 1962-2010 stats: http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/hist_absentee.htm

37.5% of registered California voters have requested permanent vote-by-mail status as of November 2010: http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/vote-by-mail/pvmb-voter-survey-1992-2010.xls
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tpfkaw
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« Reply #2 on: April 18, 2012, 09:52:10 AM »

All-mail voting is of course the most conducive to fraud since the counting can be done in total secrecy.
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greenforest32
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« Reply #3 on: April 18, 2012, 10:27:28 AM »

All-mail voting is of course the most conducive to fraud since the counting can be done in total secrecy.

Secrecy = what? Counting by election officials? How is that any different than how they count all paper ballots?
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tpfkaw
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« Reply #4 on: April 18, 2012, 10:38:47 AM »

All-mail voting is of course the most conducive to fraud since the counting can be done in total secrecy.

Secrecy = what? Counting by election officials? How is that any different than how they count all paper ballots?

At least in Massachusetts, the voter puts his/her own vote in the ballot box, in full view of the (volunteer) election officials, who then count the ballots immediately after voting ends.  It's very difficult to have counting fraud unless all the volunteer election officials are in on it (which is not unheard of, certain Boston precincts occasionally break 100% turnout).  You essentially have to take their word for it much more in an all-postal situation.
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greenforest32
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« Reply #5 on: April 18, 2012, 11:04:03 AM »

All-mail voting is of course the most conducive to fraud since the counting can be done in total secrecy.

Secrecy = what? Counting by election officials? How is that any different than how they count all paper ballots?

At least in Massachusetts, the voter puts his/her own vote in the ballot box, in full view of the (volunteer) election officials, who then count the ballots immediately after voting ends.  It's very difficult to have counting fraud unless all the volunteer election officials are in on it (which is not unheard of, certain Boston precincts occasionally break 100% turnout).  You essentially have to take their word for it much more in an all-postal situation.

There is some level of control given up in any election system. The system I could see having the lowest possibility for counting fraud is for each voter to independently watch their ballot be counted and have full access to the tallying system to double-check (pre and post election). That seems relatively easy to achieve with internet voting but even then, I doubt everyone would check.
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Seattle
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« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2012, 01:18:03 PM »

My only issue with all mail voting is that the results of marginally close elections can take several days (like Murry v Rossi) to complete.
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bgwah
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« Reply #7 on: April 19, 2012, 11:29:42 PM »

I like all mail voting.
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greenforest32
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« Reply #8 on: May 08, 2012, 02:52:19 PM »

Same-day voter registration: http://www.ncsl.org/legislatures-elections/elections/same-day-registration.aspx

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greenforest32
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« Reply #9 on: May 12, 2012, 11:04:46 PM »
« Edited: June 07, 2013, 03:25:43 PM by greenforest32 »


Wow, maybe Montana is up there too: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20120511/NEWS01/205110318

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greenforest32
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« Reply #10 on: June 07, 2013, 04:59:33 PM »
« Edited: June 07, 2013, 05:01:26 PM by greenforest32 »

Bump with some updates.

Same-day registration (As of June 7, 2013) - California, Connecticut, and Colorado have recently passed same-day registration with CT's law taking effect July 2013, CO's law sometime later this year, and CA's perhaps in 2014. Maryland also passed same-day registration during its early voting period (but not on Election Day itself) though it won't take effect until January 2016. Democrats in the Nevada state legislature passed a law much like Maryland's but Governor Sandoval vetoed it. Delaware is also considering same-day registration this legislative session.

Same-day registration states consistently have higher turn-out:



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Online voter registration (As of June 7, 2013) - Now available in 12 states with 6 more states recently passing legislation for it or working on implementation. Map (grey = not available, white = in process, green = available):



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Early/absentee voting (As of June 7, 2013) - Washington state is now completely vote-by mail like Oregon. Colorado's same-day registration bill referenced above also has a provision to mail ballots to every registered voter, whether or not they requested absentee status (they're still able to vote in-person instead if they prefer). Minnesota passed no-excuse absentee balloting with the bill taking effect in 2014. The Connecticut state legislature recently referred a measure to the 2014 ballot to amend the state constitution to authorize early voting. Early/absentee voting map:



^^ The Northeast does stand out here compared to the rest of the country. I know the Republican/coalition controlled state senate in New York has been blocking early voting and Pennsylvania has a solid gerrymander among other things but Rhode Island and Massachusetts have nothing in the way. No Republican governor like Christie in New Jersey vetoing early voting and yet they have no online voter registration, no same-day registration, and no early voting. Connecticut's been doing a lot better than them at expanding voting rights.

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Automatic voter registration - This is a new area. No state has passed this yet and Oregon is currently considering a bill on it with estimates suggesting the bill would raise the percentage of the voting-eligible population that is registered to vote from about 74% to around 93% and potentially even 95%+ as more agencies besides the DMV share data with the Secretary of State (for reference, this registration percentage number ranges from 59% to 84% among the states with the national average being 71%).

The bill is currently in committee and I'm not sure if it's going to pass this session. Haven't heard anything in about a month and the legislative session ends in about four weeks. On the other-hand, even if it fails here, there will be more and more pushes for this as time goes on and states keep adopting online voter registration, something that links their statewide voter databases to their statewide DMV databases.
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greenforest32
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« Reply #11 on: June 08, 2013, 06:34:35 PM »

The bill is currently in committee and I'm not sure if it's going to pass this session. Haven't heard anything in about a month and the legislative session ends in about four weeks. On the other-hand, even if it fails here, there will be more and more pushes for this as time goes on and states keep adopting online voter registration, something that links their statewide voter databases to their statewide DMV databases.

Should probably mention that these databases are a new thing too. They were mandated by the 2002 Help America Vote Act:

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Not all states have them completed yet either. Just as an example, California's same-day registration law is supposed to take effect once the state has its database up and running: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2012/09/gov-jerry-brown-approves-election-day-voter-registration-bill-.html

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And as bad as things are in 2013, voter registration in the US was (obviously) even worse in the past: http://www.demos.org/registering-millions-success-and-potential-national-voter-registration-act-20

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greenforest32
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« Reply #12 on: June 05, 2014, 12:04:49 AM »

Bump

Same-day registration (As of June 4, 2014) - Republicans repealed same-day registration in Ohio and North Carolina and have referred a measure to the Nov 2014 ballot to repeal it in Montana. Hawaii will have approved it after the Governor signs it (highly unlikely he'll veto), Illinois approved it for 2014 and Delaware passed it in the state house so it could be the next state to approve it.

States with SDR (grey = not available, green = available, white = in-process):



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Online voter registration (As of June 4, 2014) - Recently approved in a few states. Map (grey = not available, green = available, white = in process):



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Early/absentee voting (As of June 4, 2014) - Minnesota's bill is in effect this year and I think the only other change is Massachusetts passing an early voting bill that will take effect in Nov 20142016. Hopefully Connecticut approves that referendum this year too.


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Automatic voter registration - The Oregon proposal passed the state house last year but
failed 15-15 in the state senate as a Democrat (Betsy Johnson) voted with Republicans against it. Oregon has no lieutenant governor or similar office so ties in the state senate can't be broken.

I have heard the Secretary of State would still like to pass the bill in the 2015 session. There was talk of primarying Betsy Johnson but it didn't happen and Republicans aren't running an opponent against her perhaps as thanks for some of her recent votes. However this year's legislative elections have two Republicans in the state senate running for reelection in 55-56% Obama (2012) seats so it's possible Democrats could up their majority in the state senate from 16-14 to 17-13 (maybe even 18-12) if they don't lose any seats of their own. That could put it back on the table in 2015.

Meanwhile, California might vote on automatic voter registration this year?
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