Election

A 12 year old's analysis of the election

Washington Post -The Supreme Court cleared the way Thursday for a provision of Arizona law that requires proof of citizenship to register to vote in some circumstances, the first time the high court has weighed in on a voting dispute in the run-up to the presidential election.

The high court’s 5-4 action follows an emergency appeal by the Republican National Committee and lawmakers in Arizona, which is considered an important swing state in the upcoming election. Polls show a tight contest there between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump. As is typical in emergency orders, the majority did not explain its reasoning for allowing the citizenship requirement to take effect for state voter registration forms.

The order means Arizona election officials must reject state registration forms if voters don’t provide documentation of citizenship. However, the justices kept on hold provisions of the law that could have disqualified certain voters from casting ballots in a presidential contest or by mail. That means Arizona voters can still register using a federal form and vote in the presidential contest.

Guardian - Conservative activists in Georgia have worked with prominent election deniers to pass a series of significant changes to the procedures for counting ballots in recent weeks, raising alarm about the potential for confusion and interference in the election certification process in a key swing state this fall.

Since the beginning of August, the five-member state election board has adopted rules that allow local election boards to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” into election results before they are certified, and to allow any local election board member “to examine all election related documentation created during the conduct of elections prior to certification of results”. The same rule also requires local boards to reconcile any discrepancies between the total number of ballots cast and the number of voters who check in. If it can’t reconcile the numbers, the board is authorized to come up with a way to figure out which votes count and which do not.

At its upcoming meeting in September, the board is also expected to approve a measure that would require local officials to hand-count ballots to check the machine tabulations. Experts have warned that hand-counts are unreliable, costly and time-consuming.

NBC News - The Democrats’ most vulnerable senators skipped the convention to campaign in their home states.

NPR -  The U.S. Supreme Court has for now granted a Republican request requiring Arizona voters to submit proof of their U.S. citizenship when using the state’s registration form. The win is partial and more than 40,000 voters whom the GOP tried to block from voting could still cast a ballot in November.