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II. Election News This Week
- A day after Duke University refused to provide a list of students living on-campus to the Durham County board of elections, the county and university have come to an agreement for how students living on campus can verify their residency for same-day registration. Instead of providing the county with a list, the university registrar will send an email to all on-campus students that attests to their address which the student may then show a poll worker for proof-of-residency. In addition to sending the email, the university will set up a “print station” outside the on-campus early voting site so students can print their verification emails. The university had cited privacy concerns as their reason not to provide the county with the list.
- When Californians called a state voter information hotline on Monday they were told that voter registration for the Nov. 6 general election was already closed. Problem is, voter registration doesn’t close until Oct. 22. According to Shannan Velayas, the incorrect information, which was removed, was only on the rollover line.
- But officials in California shouldn’t feel alone. The Maricopa County, Ariz. elections department listed the incorrect date for the upcoming general election on voter ID cards. The date is listed correctly — November 6 — in English, but incorrectly — November 8—in Spanish. The problem was traced to voter ID cards that were distributed from the elections office and not those that were mailed. According to a local television station, the county believes that only about 50 people received the incorrect information.
- And then there’s this. As we previously reported, there were some issues during New York City’s September primary, many of them stemming from redistricted voters turning up at the wrong polling place. The New York City Board of Elections took a lot of heat for this (among other things), but it turns out they may not have been entirely at fault. During testimony before the city council, which has introduced several pieces of legislation to help prevent future problems, Dawn Sandow, deputy director of the BOE said that following an investigation 186 poll site change notices were found stashed in the locker of a U.S. Postal Service employee.
- Personnel News: On her 86th birthday, after almost 30 years in the Kansas secretary of state’s office, Madeline Cowell dotted her last i and crossed her last t as a part-time proofreader in the office. Ron Clevenger has joined Hart InterCivic as a vice president of sales.
- Get Well: Electionline wishes a speedy recovery to Washoe County, Nev. Registrar Dan Burk who is recovering from surgery. According to KTVN, Burk is scheduled to be back on the job in about two weeks, just in time for the election. In the mean time, Luanne Cutler, assistant to the registrar, is serving as senior deputy registrar.
- In Memoriam: Texas State Sen. Mario Gallegos Jr. died this week while recovering from a liver transplant. He was 62. Although not an elections administrator, many may remember Gallegos who famously had his hospital bed moved into the Texas Statehouse in 2007 so that he could vote against a Republican-backed voter ID law.