Early Voting update: Week of June 13th 2005

From the wires and blogs:

Mexico

The Mexican Congress is considering whether the more than 20 million expatriates, most of whom reside in the United States, should be able to cast an absentee ballot in the July 2006 presidential election.

See the story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Louisiana

HB 336 has passed both the House and Senate, and eliminates the requirement that voters give a reason to vote other than on election day. Louisiana will also rename absentee voting as "early voting." The reason provided for the legislation: increase turnout! See the Shreveport Times story.

Pennsylvania

The Morning Call (Lehigh Valley, PA) calls for election reforms intended to boost turnout, including no excuse absentee balloting, thus ignoring longstanding findings that such reforms do not actually increase turnout!

Wisconsin

A voting reform bill has been introduced on the floor of the Wisconsin house. From Wisconsinpolitics.com:

To help ease Election Day pressures, the Governor called for Wisconsin to join the 23 other states that already allow for early voting. Municipalities will be allowed to start counting ballots before Election Day; however, no election results would be released until after the polls close.

The early voting period will mirror the timeline for absentee voting in Wisconsin, but early voting will also be allowed to take place on weekends.

While early voting will be available at municipal clerks’ offices, the Governor’s early voting proposal will also allow municipalities to establish satellite early voting locations at places such as grocery stores, shopping malls, libraries, community centers, and senior centers. Voters may also cast their ballot by mail.