Early Voting News: Week of March 28th, 2005

Kansas
The Witchita Eagle reports that early voting is becoming more popular in Kansas. In Sedgwick County, early voting sites are chosen because they are conveniently located and have "large parking lots." The include the Kansas Coliseum and the Zoo. (ED: This contrasts to the decision of other states, such as Florida and Georgia, to only allow early voting at official governmental office.) Election officials in Sedgwick County also believe that in-person early voting is increasing in popularity, relative to by-mail early voting.

Early Voting Rates in 2004: Map

A first draft of a map of early voting rates in 2004. The grey states have either not certified results or don't have results in the Secretary of State's office, and are making us go county by county. Any assistance in filling in the map would be appreciated!

Postal Voting in the UK

This post will summarize ongoing events and publications regarding postal voting and "absent voting" in the UK.

The UK Election Commission proposed an extension of "postal voting" to local elections in 2003, after a vote modernisation report (here) found that postal voting worked well and two public opinion studies (here and here) found that the public liked alternative, convenient voting schemes.

The Guardian provides a nice summary of the Commission's report. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/apathy/story/0,12822,1009974,00.html

3/17/2005 Jonathan Gass off of the election law listserv posts this story about possible postal voting fraud in Birmingham: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,1428939,00.html

3/23/2005: Rick Hasen has a follow up: an election judge in Birmingham condemned the postal voting system as an "open invitation to fraud." The link is here: http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4295616

Early Voting News: Week of March 21st, 2005

Colorado

A bill allowing early voting, along with other voting reforms, is moving through the state legislature, according to the Denver Post.

Florida
Florida is also apparently considering 'super precincts' for voting, as is Tennessee. The same arguments are being used in the state: election administration will be cheaper and more accurate. The Florida Today argues that such precincts will bias the election against older, infirm, and rural voters.

Georgia
The editor of the Atlanta Constitution argues that extended absentee balloting, proposed for up to 45 days in current legislation, only rewards "lazy voters" and encourages fraud.

Massachusetts
The Massachusetts League of Women Voters is urging no-excuse absentee voting in that state. They argue it will increase turnout (Ed: contrary to the scholarly research showing that it has little impact on turnout.)
http://www.berkshireeagle.com/Stories/0,1413,101~6283~2779217,00.html
Acccording to a story in the Providence, RI paper, a bill has already been proposed in the legislature:
http://www.projo.com/massachusetts/content/projo_20050324_mavote.2483dbd.html

Tennessee
The state legislature is considering a bill that will allow the creation of "vote centers" instead of traditional polling places, with early voting starting 20 days (rather than the previous 15). The bill allows counties to dramatically reduce the number of polling places available to citizens. Some rural legislators and county officials oppose the move.
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_3637691,00.html

Back from a recent conference, and close to finishing the map of early voting rates by state. The MapPoint software is misbehaving; perhaps I'll have to use part of this summer to finally learn ArcView GIS.

My college doesn't have a site license to Adobe Acrobat, so we're using a package called PDFCreator which my RA is having a hard time figuring out.

Early Voting Blog

This is a blog for information regarding early voting, including vote by mail, absentee balloting, and in person early voting.

Check back soon for up to date news entries, research reports, and other information of interest to the election reform community.