#election-administration

#election-administration

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has cautioned councils that they face a "race against time" to prepare for the local elections scheduled for May, amid concerns over administrative readiness and staffing pressures. Speaking at a party briefing on Monday, Starmer urged local authorities to ensure polling stations, voter registration systems, and ballot delivery mechanisms are fully operational. He stressed the importance of maintaining confidence in the democratic process, particularly in light of expected higher turnout in key wards.

The House on Wednesday passed the Save America Act, which would dramatically change voting regulations by requiring proof of citizenship at voter registration and significantly curtail mail-in voting. The legislation, which passed 218 to 213, faces an uphill battle in the Senate, close observers say. I'm skeptical that the Senate will vote on this bill, because this bill goes farther than the bill they've already sent to the Senate, [which] it hasn't taken up, said Shenna Bellows, Maine's secretary of state and a Democratic candidate for governor.

While appearing on former deputy FBI director Dan Bongino's podcast on Monday, the present called on Republicans to nationalize the voting, in at least 15 places, although he did not clarify which ones. The Republicans should say, we want to take over', Trump said in the interview. The constitution confers authority over elections to states, and Trump didn't elaborate on what legal mechanism he thinks nationalizing elections would be possible.

Last week, the Secretary of State's Office - which is run by a DeSantis appointee - issued a directive to the state's 67 county supervisors of elections that changed the process for signature verification. It gives instructions that several supervisors of elections said aren't backed up by state statute or case law established by previous court decisions. The directive included a final sentence that grabbed the attention of its recipients: "Please note that the Attorney General's Office is copied on this email."

In addition to voting in the highly anticipated mayoral race this November, New Yorkers will make another consequential decision this election day. They'll also decide whether the city will begin holding elections only on even-numbered calendar years. While it may sound irrelevant, it's an important yay or nay. The measure, as written in Ballot Proposal 6, would mean that off-year primary and general elections would begin taking place in the same year as the presidential elections.

Our office has received numerous reports from voters that they have received inaccurate text messages from Ballot Now. This has caused voters to believe their returned ballots have not been received or processed by county elections officials, Weber said in a statement. Let me be clear: Ballot Now is not in any way affiliated with the California Office of the Secretary of State, she added.