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Election 2016

Early Voting: Welcome to Massachusetts

Election Law Society · October 27, 2016 ·

By: John Jongbloed

This year’s election cycle will be the first in which Massachusetts citizens are permitted to participate in early voting in state elections. This recent development in Massachusetts’ election law is accompanied by several other changes and results from the enactment of An Act Relative to Election Laws, 2014 (HB 3788). More specifically, the reform bill provides for early voting in biennial state elections between eleven and two days before election day.

[Read more…] about Early Voting: Welcome to Massachusetts

California Secretary of State Certifies VoteCal Ahead of 2016 General Election

Election Law Society · October 26, 2016 ·

By: Chelsea Brewer

On September 26, 2016, the California Secretary of State, Alex Padilla, announced that he certified VoteCal as the State’s centralized system of record for voter registration. The online database seeks to ease the voter registration process by providing citizens a single online database where they can register to vote, check their registration status, find their assigned polling places, and more. Just in time for the November 2016 General Election, voters will even be able to confirm that their absentee mail-in ballot or provisional ballot was counted by their respective county elections officials. This is especially significant given states’ interest in preserving voter confidence in electoral administration in the face of skepticism about whether all votes are actually counted. VoteCal will also facilitate upcoming innovations in California election law after the November General Election, which include Election Day voter registration and the New Motor Voter Act.

[Read more…] about California Secretary of State Certifies VoteCal Ahead of 2016 General Election

How reliable are Virginia’s voting machines?

Election Law Society · October 24, 2016 ·

By: Venu Katta

It may be tempting to think that the United States, the land of smartphones and supercomputers, would have commensurate levels of technology when it came to voting. Dispelling this, sadly, does not require us to look very far. Meet the WINVote touchscreen voting machine.

image

Created and implemented in the early-2000s (and without any form of update since 2004), the WINVote machine is essentially a glorified laptop running Windows XP that also features a touch display. Its USB ports are physically unprotected, the wireless encryption key is set to “a-b-c-d-e,” the administrator password to access the machine (which is unchangeable) is “admin,” and there exists no auditable paper trail after an individual has voted. Oh, and it’s prone to crash. A lot. All of these, among other concerns, combined to lead security experts to term it “the worst voting machine in the U.S.”

[Read more…] about How reliable are Virginia’s voting machines?

William & Mary Adjunct Professor Jack Young quoted in USA Today

Election Law Society · October 22, 2016 ·

William & Mary Adjunct Professor Jack Young quoted in USA Today on Bush v. Gore comparison to 2016 race. To read the article, click here.

Connecticut Becomes Fifth State to Make Automatic Voter Registration Change

Election Law Society · October 12, 2016 ·

By: Cristina DeBiase

In recent years, states have passed laws making it harder to vote through restrictive provisions, such as requiring photo ID, limiting early voting, eliminating same-day registration, or all of the above. Since the 2010 midterm elections alone, nearly half of the states have placed additional restrictions upon voting. Looking forward to November 8, 14 states have new laws that will curtail voting rights for the first time in a presidential election.

[Read more…] about Connecticut Becomes Fifth State to Make Automatic Voter Registration Change

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