Latest news with #ElectionAssistanceCommission
Wall Street Journal
4 days ago
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Texas Wins on Mail Ballots and State IDs
Is mass mail voting here to stay? It certainly looks that way: Last year 30.3% of voters cast ballots by mail, down from 43% in 2020, but higher than before Covid. That's according to a recent report by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, which also says 580,000 mail ballots, or 1.2%, were rejected, half for signature problems. That's an argument for voting in person, as well as for states to button up their absentee rules. Yes, Democrats will shout 'voter suppression,' but then they'll likely lose in court. Last week a panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2021 Texas law that generally requires mail voters to verify identity via a state ID number or the last four digits of a Social Security number (SSN4).
Yahoo
01-08-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lt. Gov. Henderson grants DOJ public voter info after letter questions maintenance of voter registration rolls
SALT LAKE CITY () — After the U.S. Department of Justice requested voter information from Utah's Lieutenant Governor, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson has publicly released her response letter, which contains information about how Utah's voter registration records are maintained. On July 15, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to Lt. Gov. Henderson, requesting information about how Utah complies with the statewide voter registration list maintenance provisions of the National Voter Registration Act. The DOJ was concerned about how Utah removes voters from its rolls. The DOJ requested a list of election officials who were responsible for voter registration from November 2022 through the end of voter registration for the November 2024 general election, as well as a copy of the current Utah statewide voter registration list. The DOJ also stated that the most recent report from the Election Assistance Commission's Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS) was missing data from many Utah counties, and so they also requested that missing information be provided. In particular, only four of Utah's counties provided information about voter registration removals, none of Utah's counties provided information about duplicate voter registrations, most counties did not provide information about confirmation notices that were mailed to registrants, and most counties did not provide reasons for why voters were removed from registration rolls. Heber City Council candidate previously arrested for trespassing at Lagoon now facing child abuse charge On Thursday, Lt. Gov. Henderson with all of the requested information, except for any information that was personally identifying of voters. In response, Henderson wrote that the state of Utah is in compliance with federal election law, including NVRA, and that Utah has 'safe, secure, and timely safeguards and processes for maintaining voter registration lists,' which are outlined in . 'Utah has a robust process for voter list maintenance and monthly certification from county clerks to ensure maintenance is being done,' Henderson wrote. 'The Lieutenant Governor provides and maintains a statewide voter registration database that county clerks use to register voters and update existing voter registrations. Clean voter rolls are the foundation for secure elections and therefore need to be routinely and systematically updated.' As to why information was missing from the latest EAVS report, Henderson stated that it is because of the limitations of the state's 25-year-old legacy system. That system cannot provide aggregated reports of this kind of information for every county, and instead it is stored within each individual voter record. As such, the Lt. Governor's office reportedly spent the last two weeks manually compiling the requested data. Henderson also said that Utah is in the process of upgrading their election system to a 'modern system with enhanced reporting capabilities,' which will be in place by the beginning of 2027. Judge dismisses SUWA lawsuit that attempted to stop Utah from suing federal government for public land The letter includes tables of data from November 2022 to November 2024 of voter registration removals by county and by reason for removal, merged voter records by county, and returned confirmation cards by county. You can view those tables . The most prominent reasons that voter registrations were removed were because of annual processing (52,761 records removed statewide), because the person died (32,803 records removed statewide), and because the person moved out of the county they were registered in (20,998 records removed statewide). A total of 4,683 duplicate records were found statewide, and those records were merged in order to correct the error. Salt Lake County had the most duplicate records, with 1,304 records merged. Across the state, 269,799 voters were sent confirmation cards, and 108,699 were marked by clerks as returned, which means that 45.4% of confirmation cards were returned. The DOJ reported that there was a discrepancy in the numbers, and Henderson explained that the discrepancy was because the data was incomplete. The DOJ also specifically requested that the Lt. Governor provide the number of voters identified as ineligible to vote for reasons of being a non-citizen, being found to be incompetent, and having a felony conviction. Of that, 4 voters were removed from voter registration records in the time period of November 2022 to November 2024 because they were non-citizens. Zero voters were removed from voter rolls due to incompetence, and 4,225 voters were removed because of felony convictions. Latest headlines: 25 people injured due to turbulence on Delta flight released from hospital, what happens now? Harmful algae blooms warning for Jordan River, Utah Lake FIRE START: Little Pole Fire starts in Box Elder County, reaches 100 acres Lt. Gov. Henderson grants DOJ public voter info after letter questions maintenance of voter registration rolls Governor Cox declares state of emergency for escalating wildfires, suppression costs surpass $100M Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 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Fox News
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Over 158 million Americans voted in 2024 as Trump reclaimed the White House
More than 211 million people were active registered voters for the 2024 general election. And over 158 million voters cast ballots in last year's presidential election. Those figures are according to a report issued to Congress by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), which has been conducting election administration and voter surveys of federal elections for two decades. The commission touts that it "provides the most comprehensive source of state- and local jurisdiction-level data about election administration in the United States." More than 85% of voting-age Americans registered as active voters last year — the highest level on record, according to the report. And voter turnout was the second highest in the past five presidential elections, trailing only the 2020 election. The turnout of 64.7% of the citizen voting age population in the U.S. was a slight 3% drop compared to four years earlier. Nearly three-quarters of those who voted last year cast their ballots in person — with 35.2% voting in person ahead of Election Day and 37.4% voting on Election Day. According to the report, 30.3% voted by mail. That's a drop from the 43% who voted by mail during the 2020 election, which, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, was the highwater mark for mail-in balloting. But the report noted that the percentage of people who voted by mail in 2025 was "still larger than the percentage of the electorate that voted by mail in pre-pandemic elections." President Donald Trump won back the White House in last year's election, with Republicans taking back control of the Senate and holding on to their razor-thin majority in the House.
Politico
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Politico
How Americans voted in 2024
TOP LINE More than 211 million Americans were registered voters ahead of the 2024 general election — with 158 million of them casting ballots — and a new report from the Election Assistance Commission breaks down how they did it. The EAC filed the report to Congress last week, due after every general election, and it's full of insights and trends compiled from election officials across the country. Overall turnout decreased by 3 percentage points from 2020, and only six states had increased turnout, according to the report. Still, nearly 65 percent of the citizen voting age population participated in the election, 'the second-highest turnout in the last five presidential elections.' Mail-in voting also decreased to about 30 percent in 2024, down from the 2020 uptick of 43 percent sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic. More than 70 percent of voters cast their ballot in person, with about 35 percent of those voters casting ballots early and more than 37 percent voting on Election Day. Almost 15 million mail-in ballots — about half of the ballots in the 36 states that allow the practice — were returned at drop boxes, a 10 percent increase from the 2022 midterms. The percentage of younger poll workers has been steadily decreasing since 2020. In 2020, 15 percent of poll workers were between 26 and 40. In 2022, that percent dropped to about 10 percent, and it again dropped to 9 percent in 2024. Meanwhile, poll workers age 71 and older have made up an increased percentage. In 2020, that age group accounted for 20 percent of poll workers, and in 2024 that number jumped to more than 28 percent. A plurality of poll workers — about 30 percent — were between 61 and 70 in 2024. The 2024 election was the first for more than 15 percent of poll workers. And while recruiting poll workers has gotten easier since the 2020 election, '47.9% of jurisdictions reported facing significant challenges in recruiting and retaining' poll workers in 2024, the report says. Read the full Election Administration and Voting Survey here. Happy Monday, I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend. Reach me: ahoward@ or @andrewjfhoward. Days until the AZ-07 primary: 8 Days until the 2025 election: 120 Days until the midterms: 484 Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You'll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day's biggest stories. CAMPAIGN INTEL MEGABILL MESSAGING — Republicans just delivered President Donald Trump a 'big, beautiful' legislative win. Now they're fretting it will lead to some ugly electoral losses, your host reports, along with POLITICO's Lisa Kashinsky and Elena Schneider. Republicans are walking a tightrope as they return to their districts to start selling the sweeping policy package. They're going to lean into the megabill's popular provisions, like eliminating taxes on tips, while trying to escape unpopular reductions to safety-net programs. … Democrats believe Trump's tax-and-spend megabill gives them a heavy cudgel ahead of the 2026 midterms. Now they have to effectively wield it as they try to reclaim the House, Elena reported Thursday. 'There's almost nothing about this bill that I'm going [to] have a hard time explaining to the district,' said Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), who represents a district Trump won by 9 points. 'This is a giant tax giveaway to wealthy people. Everyone fucking knows it.' MUSK EFFECT — Elon Musk declared the launch of his new political party on Saturday, a project he has repeatedly floated in the weeks since his explosive breakup with Trump — but provided no details as to how he planned to jump through the hoops necessary to establish a viable alternative, my colleague Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing reports. DEMS IN DISARRAY — 'Can Democrats Find Their Way on Immigration?' by The New York Times' Lisa Lerer, Jazmine Ulloa and Reid J. Epstein. While 'there is party-wide agreement that Democrats have a problem on immigration and border security, there is no consensus on how to fix it,' they write. 2028 WATCH — California Gov. Gavin Newsom will meet with voters across South Carolina in a two-day trip through the state, further fueling speculation that the Democratic governor is preparing for a 2028 presidential run, POLITICO's Jacob Wendler writes. … ''I'll Think About It.' Andy Beshear Mulls 2028 Run While Raging Against Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill,'' by Vanity Fair's Chris Smith. 'But if I'm somebody who could maybe heal and bring the country back together, I'll think about it after next year,' Beshear said. … 'Centrist Rep. Don Bacon is done with Congress — but open to a potential presidential bid,' by NBC's Scott Wong and Frank Thorp V. 'If there's an opportunity and I can make a difference, a unique difference, I would like to keep serving. I just don't want to do two-year elections,' Bacon said. IN FLORIDA — 'Miami postponed its 2025 elections. Why did the city do it?' by the Washington Post's Sabrina Rodriguez. Read more about the move, which took place late last month, from POLITICO's Kimberly Leonard. BIDEN BOOKS — 'How Hunter Biden Helped Derail His Father's Re-Election,' Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf write in an excerpt from their new book, published in the Wall Street Journal. NEVER TOO EARLY — 'Amanda Gorman says she 'absolutely' wants to run for president in 2036,' per NBC News. STAFFING UP — Democratic pollster Adam Carlson is launching his own firm, called Zenith Research. CODA — QUOTE OF THE DAY: 'It is a group of Democrats who, unfortunately, seem to think that poor people are stupid,' Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday, talking about changes to Medicaid.
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Boone County Clerk Lisa Bruder attends D.C. election conference
Boone County Clerk Lisa Bruder recently visited Washington D.C. at the invitation of Secretary of State Diego Morales for a national conference on election integrity. Bruder was among 11 Hoosier county clerks to attend the conference sponsored by Election Assistance Commission and VSTOP, Voting System Technical Oversight Program. Clerks from all over the nation shared best practices for election system testing and management to ensure reliability, transparency, and integrity of elections and election system testing, according to conference literature. Morales paid for the Hoosier clerk's trips and said the conference focused on election integrity, safeguarding elections, and building stronger partnerships with the Donald J. Trump administration. Bruder said discussion also focused on engaging local voters, increasing voter turnout, and election accessibility locally, among other topics. 'I feel like I've come away with a better understanding of the tools and resources available to counties, and I had a great time getting to know the other clerks,' Bruder said. Discussions included the use of technology, such as electronic voting machines, during elections. Boone County has for years used electronic voting machines and ballots, but a contingent of conservative voters lobbied unsuccessfully to have the county return to paper ballots for the 2024 presidential election. One of their concerns was possible voter fraud. The Boone County Election Board refused the request for paper ballots. And Bruder, in an abundance of caution, asked VSTOP to audit the county's 2024 primary election for accuracy and transparency. VSTOP scrutinized contested races and found the primary to be 99.9% accurate, the highest score possible without testing every category, Bruder said. Bruder said she is committed to transparency and continuous improvement.
