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II. Election News This Week
- This week, six Democratic members of Congress called on Fla. Gov. Rick Scott to suspend the state’s current voter purge. According to the Associated Press, the members of Congress send a letter to Scott questioning the time and the accuracy of the effort to purge voters identified as non-citizens.
- On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit with the Minnesota Supreme Court to keep a proposed constitutional voter ID amendment off the November ballot. According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune the petition claims the wording of the ballot question is misleading and unclear. Supporters say the language is as straightforward as possible, considering it boils a complicated piece of legislation down to a single sentence.
- Pending a signature from Gov. Bobby Jindal, voting hours in Louisiana will shorten by an hour for Saturday elections beginning in 2013. The legislation is supported by Secretary of State Tom Schedler. Currently polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. some of the longest polling hours in the country.
- Maryland is currently working on an online ballot-marking tool that could be used by all absentee voters, now just military and overseas voters. State Sen. Edward Kasemeyer has requested an opinion from the state’s attorney general whether or not the elections board should see federal and state certification for the tool.
- Elections officials in Wisconsin had to remind voters that it’s illegal to post photos of their ballots to Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media this week after several party leaders posted photos of their recall ballots online.
- Personnel News: After serving as deputy registrar for a number of years, Robert McDowell has stepped into the role of acting Democratic registrar of voters in Kent, Conn. Also in Connecticut, longtime Registrar of Voters Rose Scarpa was not voted to the November ballot in Millford so her tenure will end in January. Florida State Rep. Rich Glorioso is stepping down from his position in the statehouse to join the race for the Hillsborough County supervisor of elections. Vicki Davis, Martin County supervisor of elections was recently sworn in as the new president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections. Longtime Cambria County, Pa. Elections Director Fred R. Smith is retiring June 12. Smith first joined the elections office in 1977 as an assistant election supervisor and was promoted to director in 1981. Arapahoe County, Colo. Clerk and Recorder Nancy Doty is running for a seat on the county commission in the June 26 primary.