Expanding Voter Access

Last week LWVUS was proud to attend the 7th Annual Summit of our long-time partner, the

"Public outrage is on the rise after more information about the Office of Elections management failures on General Election Day is documented. Hundreds of people at 24 precincts around Oahu waited as long as three hours to vote because of ballot shortages. In some cases, people left without voting because they could not wait."

"Florida Governor Rick Scott ordered his top elections official on Wednesday to figure out what caused long lines at polling stations and delays in ballot counting in the battleground state on Election Day."

"The League of Women Voters of Hawaii is calling on the Hawaii State Legislature to take steps to remedy problems in voting operations that surfaced in the 2012 elections."

"...Rep. Darryl Rouson announced Wednesday he will submit a bill to expand early voting in response to long lines and delays in Florida's vote counting during last week's election."

"A week after Florida's electoral system melted down, there is growing consensus that the state must reform its election laws to avoid similar problems in the future. ... Meanwhile, civic and political activists have promised to pressure lawmakers until they rescind the 2011 changes. Led by the Florida League of Women Voters, the group on Tuesday urged the formation of a task force to identify and eliminate hurdles to voting."

"A coalition of voter protection groups gathered on the steps of the Miami-Dade and Orange County courthouses Monday urgently calling for an independent task force be created to investigate what went wrong in Florida on Election Day and the early voting period. 'It is clear that Florida’s 2012 election process was shameful and unacceptable,' said Maribel Balbin, president of the Miami Dade League of Women Voters."

"'El Paso is not alone in low voter turnout, because Texas also lags behind other states,' said Linda Krefting, president of the Texas League of Women Voters... 'The states that have consistently high voter turnout have voter-friendly election procedures, and the Texas Legislature could adopt comparable procedures,' Krefting said. 'Same day voter registration which allows voters to register on election day is common in states with consistently high voter turnout.' ... 'Texas needs to make sure that voter registration at DPS offices is simplified and registrations are processed appropriately.'"

"The US Supreme Court decided to take up the issue of voting rights for minorities, a group that has historically faced discrimination at the polls. ... Elisabeth MacNamara, president of the League of Women Voters, called the decision to review the act's constitutionality a 'huge step in the wrong direction.'"

"The Davidson County Election Commission 'utterly failed' as hundreds of voters experienced problems at the polls last week, the leader of a voter advocacy group said Monday. ... Mary Mancini, executive director of Tennessee Citizen Action, said a hotline set up at her organization's MetroCenter office received more than 600 calls on Nov. 6. Callers complained about long lines; poll workers running out of provisional ballots, change-of-address forms and other documents; precincts not having adequate staffing; poorly trained poll workers; incomplete voter rolls, and other problems.