Politics

Newsweek - Leading Arizona Republicans want to remove from the state voting register 500,000 people they claim are dead or have moved. Arizona Republican Party head Gina Swoboda, Scot Mussi, president of the Republican-aligned Free Enterprise Club and Steven Gaynor, a Republican who previously ran for office in the state, have filed a lawsuit with U.S. District Court Judge Eileen Willett to order Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to intervene under what they say are breaches of the National Voter Registration Act. The lawsuit claims 14/15 counties in Arizona have "implausibly high" voter registration levels and calls on Fontes to "develop and implement additional reasonable and effective registration list-maintenance programs." It also claims that there are more registered voters than there are residents in the state.

Washington Post - More than 300 House lawmakers were reimbursed at least $5.2 million for food and lodging while on official business in Washington last year under a new, taxpayer-funded program that does not require them to provide receipts. The program, which kicked off last year after a House panel passed it with bipartisan support, was intended to make it easier for lawmakers to cover the cost of maintaining separate homes in D.C. and their home districts. But critics argue that its reliance on the honor system and lack of transparent record-keeping makes it ripe for abuse.