The Philadelphia Daily News reports: Mayor Street has decided to fight in court to uphold contribution limits on candidates for mayor and City Council, meaning the restrictions that had been imposed will remain in effect for now. ...

Common Pleas Court Judge Allan Tereshko earlier this month tossed out the city's campaign-finance law, saying that only the state had the authority to regulate campaign contributions.

The city's filing of a notice of appeal yesterday imposes an automatic stay on Tereshko's order, which means the limits will remain in effect until the issue is resolved by appellate courts.

State law imposes no limit on campaign contributions, and past mayoral elections have seen contributions of $50,000 and higher. -- Philadelphia Daily News | 12/27/2006 | Campaign $ limits in effect as city appeals ruling

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The State House News Service reports: A divided ethics commission decided last week not to subpoena records from the conservative Maine Heritage Policy Center to determine if the organization’s efforts on behalf of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights qualified it as a political action committee – a designation that would allow people to get a better look at its finances.

Instead, the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices voted to require the think tank to file a less-restrictive campaign finance report used by some other nonprofits that got involved in political campaigns during election season. ...

Under law, political action committees, or PACs, are defined as groups whose “major purpose” is advocating the passage or defeat of a ballot question. They have to raise money on behalf of a cause and spend in excess of $1,500 to promote it. PACs have to file regular campaign finance reports listing who contributed money and how they spent it. ...

The vote, however, was tied, with the two Democratic representatives on the commission voting for further investigation and one Republican and the independent member voting against. The fifth member, Jean Ginn Marvin, a Republican, removed herself from the discussion because she’s on the board of the Maine Heritage Policy Center. -- keepMEcurrent.com - Government News - Current Publishing, LLC

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TPM Muckraker reports: A Florida-based Republican political firm with circumstantial ties to at least two nasty robocalling efforts this year isn't quite as obscure as we thought.

In the last days of the 2006 elections, Direct Strategies, Inc. of Tallahassee saw its name connected to dirty-tricks robo calls in Nebraska and Pennsylvania. Run by two state-level GOP operatives, the firm did not appear to cut a swaggering figure in national politics.

Here's the thing: according to filings with the state of Florida, "Direct Strategies, Inc." doesn't exist. It voluntarily dissolved in April 2005. In its place rose a new company, "Dutko Direct Strategies, Inc.," which appears to be controlled by one of Washington's largest lobby firms. ...

The robo calls in Nebraska and Pennsylvania which have been mentioned in relation to "Direct Strategies" were reported to be deliberate attempts to mislead their recipients to believe they originated from Democratic campaigns. The calls were made repeatedly to the same households, and sometimes in the early morning or late at night. -- TPMmuckraker December 26, 2006 05:10 PM

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The Tampa Tribune reports: An unlikely lawmaker is taking the lead to change Florida law to restore voting rights to convicted felons.

Orlando state Sen. Gary Siplin, a convicted felon himself, has sponsored Senate Bill 466, which automatically restores voting rights a year after the felon's sentence is completed.

Florida is among three states that don't automatically restore voting rights. The issue gained steam during the 2006 governor's race with both Gov.-elect Charlie Crist and Democrat Jim Davis advocating changing it.

An Orlando jury convicted Siplin in August of third-degree grand theft for having his legislative staff members work on his 2004 Senate re-election campaign on state time. He was sentenced to three years of probation and community service and continues to serve in the Legislature while appealing his conviction. -- Lawmaker: Give Felons Voting Rights

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AP reports: A major voting machine company owned by Venezuelan investors said Friday it plans to sell its U.S. subsidiary, ending a federal investigation into alleged ties between the company and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

In March 2005, Smartmatic Corp. acquired Sequoia Voting Systems Inc., which produces touch-screen and other machines and is one of the largest voting equipment makers in the U.S.

The U.S. government began informally reviewing the deal earlier this spring after a request by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., who cited a potential risk to the integrity of U.S. elections.

Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica, who has dual Spanish-Venezuelan citizenship, later called for an official investigation to clear the company. He and other company officials insist the Venezuelan government has never had any stake in Smartmatic, which is headquartered in Boca Raton, or in Oakland, Calif.-based Sequoia. -- Venezuelan co. to sell U.S. subsidiary - Yahoo! News

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AP reports: As candidates prepare for the 2008 presidential campaign, the Internet is the new Main Street. An estimated 70 percent of adults in the United States travel the digital highway, still a cheap and largely unregulated medium.

Reaching those potential voters and donors has become an important part of modern politicking. Candidates aggressively compete for the talents of the most creative geeks in politics and develop new ways to exploit the Net.

Republicans have mastered e-mail as the new form of direct-mail campaigns, raising money and pushing a GOP message. Democrats have excelled at raising cash through small-scale donations and making the Net their version of talk radio. ...

McCain, the potential front-runner for the 2008 GOP nomination, is among the most tech-savvy could-be White House candidates today. He has retained many hands from his 2000 bid and has recruited some of the top names in online campaigning. -- Candidates turn to Web to reach voters - Yahoo! News

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The Washington Post reports: For a quarter of a century, Carmen Scialabba labored for Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), helping parcel out the billions of dollars that came through the House Appropriations Committee, so when the disabled aide needed a favor, Murtha was there.

In 2001, Murtha announced the creation of Scialabba's nonprofit agency for the disabled in Johnstown, Pa. The next year, with Scialabba still on his staff, Murtha secured a half-million dollars for the group, the Pennsylvania Association for Individuals With Disabilities (PAID), and put another $150,000 in the pipeline for 2003, according to appropriations committee records and former committee aides. Since then, the group has helped hundreds of disabled people find work.

But the group serves another function as well. PAID has become a gathering point for defense contractors and lobbyists with business before Murtha's defense appropriations subcommittee, and for Pennsylvania businesses and universities that have thrived on federal money obtained by Murtha.

Lobbyists and corporate officials serve as directors on the nonprofit group's board, where they help raise money and find jobs for Johnstown's disabled workers. Some of those lobbyists have served as intermediaries between the defense contractors and businessmen on the board, and Murtha and his aides. -- Nonprofit Connects Murtha, Lobbyists - washingtonpost.com

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AP reports: The Nebraska Public Service Commission is investigating allegations about automated phone calls targeting former congressional candidate Scott Kleeb during the last days of the campaign.

The investigation ultimately could lead to allegations that federal laws were broken.

Kleeb, a Democratic ranch hand, lost to Republican state Sen. Adrian Smith in the race for the 3rd District seat.

Kleeb's offices were flooded in the final days of the race with complaints from people upset about receiving repeated, automated phone calls with poor-quality recordings of Kleeb's voice. -- Nebraska probes election calling

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The FEC announces: The complaint alleged that the Leadership Forum was established to help specific Republican House candidates in the 2004 elections and it had become a political committee by accepting contributions and making expenditures for the purpose of influencing specific federal elections. The Commission's investigation found no evidence that The Leadership Forum received contributions or made expenditures that would require registration as a political committee. -- FEC Completes Action on Two Enforcement Cases

Comment: Brett Kappel emailed me about this with the tag line, "527s not dead yet." Somebody who has more time than I do to parse this stuff may be able to explain to me and you why the Leadership Forum did not get fined, but the Swift Boaters and MoveOn.org Voter Fund did.

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Election Data Services reports on its website: New Census Population Estimates document for the first time the significant loss of population in Louisiana due to the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe. The loss of population will also lead to a loss of representation in Congress, according to a study by Election Data Services Inc. that was released today. Louisiana is now projected to lose a congressional seat, based on the new data.

The 2006 population estimates shift two more seats between four states, compared to last year’s study of the 2005 estimates (see Election Data Services Inc., “Five States Would Gain Seats if Congress Were Reapportioned with 2005 Population Estimates,” December 22, 2005). “Changes affecting three of the four new states were expected,” noted Election Data Services’ president, Kimball Brace, “but Louisiana’s loss was a new twist in the numbers.”

Overall, the 2006 estimates show that seven congressional seats in 13 states have already changed at this point in the decade, if the U.S. House of Representatives was reapportioned with the updated numbers. Six states—Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, and Utah—would each gain a seat and Texas would gain two seats if the House was reapportioned with census population estimates for July 1, 2006, according to Election Data Services’ analysis. Seven states would lose seats—Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The states of Georgia, Nevada, Louisiana, and Massachusetts are new states on the list of changes, compared to the 2005 study. --

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The Chicago Tribune reports: Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes' ill-fated 2004 U.S. Senate campaign has agreed to pay $76,500 in civil fines to settle Federal Election Commission complaints for violations involving campaign contributions and reporting, FEC officials said Tuesday.

The violations include accepting campaign contributions in excess of what was allowed by election law to retire campaign debt, failure to adequately report the campaign's debt and failing to get rid of contributions that the FEC determined were illegal, agency officials said.

Hynes, who won election to a third term as comptroller last month, finished second to Barack Obama in the March 2004 Democratic U.S. Senate primary. Candidates in the primary were allowed to raise up to $12,000 from individual donors--six times the normal limit--under recent federal campaign finance law changes aimed at making it easier to compete with wealthy self-funded candidates. ...

The FEC said that even after the primary contest had ended, Hynes continued to raise money at the higher level to retire his campaign debt, even though the higher limits ended once he was no longer a candidate. -- Hynes' Senate campaign will pay FEC to settle complaints | Chicago Tribune

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The Kansas City Star reports: The Federal Election Commission on Wednesday fined Freedom Inc., the Kansas City political club, $45,000 for its involvement in Emanuel Cleaver’s 2004 race for Congress.

The FEC said Freedom was registered as a state political committee but had not registered to engage in federal races, such as Cleaver’s campaign for the 5th District congressional seat. Cleaver won the election. ...

The commission said Freedom spent more than $45,000 on advertising, yard signs and voter guides that expressly advocated Cleaver’s election. -- Kansas City Star | 12/21/2006 | Freedom Inc. fined for Cleaver campaign

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The New York Times reports: A three-judge panel on Thursday overturned a key segment of the campaign finance law that banned issue advertisements paid for by corporate or union money in the critical weeks before federal elections.

The case, which was heard by a special federal court panel in Washington, now heads to the Supreme Court. If upheld, the ruling would unravel one of the tougher restrictions on the use of unregulated donations that interest groups pumped by the millions of dollars into political commercials.

The case was brought by Wisconsin Right to Life, which has been fighting the restrictions since 2004, claiming they infringe on its First Amendment guarantee of free speech, among other grounds.

Using its corporate treasury, the group had paid for advertisements denouncing Senate filibusters of judicial nominees and urging viewers to contact either Senator Russell D. Feingold, who was up for re-election that year, or the state’s other Democratic senator, Herb Kohl, who was not. -- Court Overturns Limits on Political Ads, Part of the Campaign Finance Law - New York Times

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The San Francisco reports: California's Indian tribes, which have poured millions of dollars into political battles, lost an effort to be protected from campaign disclosure laws Thursday when the state Supreme Court ruled they can be sued for violations despite their status as sovereign nations.

The 4-3 ruling allows a state agency to pursue a lawsuit against a Southern California tribe for failing to promptly report $8.5 million in contributions to political committees and candidates from 1998 to 2002. The tribe could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has consistently curbed states' attempts to take tribes to court.

The ruling "fails to follow established federal law,'' said Richard Milanovich, chairman of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuila Indians. The tribe owns two casinos in Palm Springs.

Courts have granted tribes immunity from most types of lawsuits in state court, in recognition of their sovereignty and need for self-government. But the California justices said the tribes' status was outweighed in this case by the state's constitutional authority to maintain a "republican form of government'' free from corruption. -- Ruling on campaign disclosure Tribes can be sued for late gift reports

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CQ Politics.com reports: The Center for Political Accountability announced today that three leading public companies – Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ - news), Monsanto (NYSE: MON - news), and General Dynamics (NYSE: GD - news) – have agreed to disclose some or all of their political spending made with corporate funds. Monsanto and General Dynamics also agreed to establish board oversight of their political spending. Verizon reports that their board already receives reports on these contributions annually, and will continue to do so.

Verizon, Monsanto, and General Dynamics join 12 other major companies that adopted political transparency and accountability policies during the 2005 and 2006 shareholder resolution seasons.

Under the policies, each company will post a complete list of corporate political contributions on its website and disclose the guidelines for their political giving. In addition, Monsanto and General Dynamics will join Verizon in establishing annual oversight of the corporate political contributions process at the Board level. -- Verizon, Monsanto, General Dynamics Adopt New Policies for Political Spending - Yahoo! News

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AP reports: The Democrat who narrowly lost to a Republican in the race to replace Rep. Katherine Harris (news, bio, voting record) asked Congress on Wednesday for an investigation.

The state has declared that Democrat Christine Jennings lost to Republican Vern Buchanan by 369 votes. But 18,000 Sarasota County electronic ballots did not record a choice in the race, and Jennings contends that the number is abnormally high and that the machines lost the votes.

She filed with the House clerk an official contest of the election results in Florida's 13th Congressional District.

She said she will ask Congress to consider ordering a revote if her legal challenge in Florida fails. She is seeking to obtain the programming code for the touch-screen voting machines to determine whether a bug or malicious programming could have lost votes. The state has found no evidence of malfunction. -- Congress asked to intervene in Fla. race - Yahoo! News

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Wired News reports: The brains behind a doomed antispam service are turning their technology into an online swarming tool for activists, hoping to subject politicians and government agencies to the kind of mass pressure Blue Frog once inflicted on spammers. ...

Now founders Aran Reshef and Amir Hirsh are reincarnating their software to turn armies of internet users into political activists. Their new Collactive platform takes the drudgery out of grass-roots action, letting armchair activists fill out online petitions, file comments in rule-making proceedings, send letters to their representatives in Congress and seed collaborative web forums with sympathetic news items -- all with the push of a button.

The Collactive software is offered as a generic distribution to organizations, who then configure it for a particular political issue and give it to users as a downloadable software package or Firefox plug-in.

Once it's installed, the organizers can send alerts to users or update the software with scripts that know how to take particular actions, such as automatically filling in feedback forms on a politician's website. End users can also forward e-mail alerts to their friends, who have the option of installing the software themselves and joining the network. -- Wired News: Spammer Slammer Targets Politics

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The Stamford Advocate reports: The U.S. attorney's office and state attorney general have cleared former U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont and his supporters of any role in the crash of U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman's campaign Web site hours before last summer's Democratic primary.

"The investigation has revealed no evidence the problems the Web site experienced were the result of criminal conduct," said Tom Carson, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor.

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal confirmed the joint investigation "found no evidence of tampering or sabotage warranting civil action by my office." Both men declined to provide additional information, such as what might have happened to the site. -- The Advocate - Lamont camp cleared in hacking of Lieberman Web site

Thanks to DailyKos for the link.

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The Kentucky Post reports: Kentucky is one of only a dozen or so states where voters can, with one flick of the wrist, cast their votes for all the candidates of one party.

It's called straight-ticket voting, and it's practiced by thousands of the faithful in the Democratic and Republican parties. But if Secretary of State Trey Grayson has his way, it would become a relic of the past.

Grayson , the state's top election official, pushed legislation during the last session of the General Assembly to prohibit straight-ticket voting, but it didn't make it out of committee, he said. He is considering pursuing it again during the next session, which starts in January.

Grayson, a Republican from Boone County, said he'd rather not give voters the option of picking multiple candidates with the push of one button, despite the likelihood that it could shorten lines at the polls. -- The Cincinnati Post - Straight-ticket voting may end

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The Yakima Herald-Republic reports: A newly released study says the election system in this mostly Hispanic town unfairly keeps Hispanics off the City Council.

And, while Sunnyside's city manager called the research flawed and "bogus," one of the nation's top voting-rights advocates thinks the report is on to something.

The research, part of a Whitman College report titled "The State of the State for Washington Latinos: 2006," concludes that the city's at-large elections violate the federal Voting Rights Act by establishing barriers to political representation of Hispanics.

In other words, the research states that allowing every Sunnyside voter to vote for all seven council seats produces different results than if the city were divided into voting districts. -- Yakima Herald Republic Online - Home Page - Yakima, Washington News, Classifieds, Information, Advertising

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AP reports: The U.S. Department of Justice is intervening in a federal lawsuit in which five American Indians are challenging Fremont County's system of holding at-large elections.

The department filed notice Thursday that it is intervening in the case for the limited purpose of defending the constitutionality of the federal Voting Rights Act.

Five members of the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, sued Fremont County last year. They claim the county's system of holding at-large elections violates Voting Rights Act by impermissibly diluting the American Indian vote.

The Mountain States Legal Foundation, based in Lakewood, Colo., is defending Fremont County. In its answer to the lawsuit filed late last year, the foundation argued that it would be unconstitutional to hold Fremont County to the section of the Voting Rights Act which prohibits practices that dilute minority voting. -- Feds intervene in Indian voting case

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AP reports: State attorneys Thursday withdrew a motion to dismiss a lawsuit calling for a new election in a long-contested Southwest Florida congressional race.

Democrat Christine Jennings' lawsuit claims ATM-style, touch-screen voting machines in Sarasota County lost up to 18,000 votes in the congressional contest to replace U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris. State officials declared Republican Vern Buchanan the winner of the 13th District seat by a margin of just 369 votes.

The Department of State decided that trying to get the case thrown out wasn't the most efficient use of resources, said Secretary of State spokeswoman Jenny Nash. ...

Jennings' lawyers are now focusing on a Tuesday hearing to persuade a judge to give them access to the source code that runs the electronic voting booths used in the contested election. Voting machine manufacturer Elections Systems & Software has argued in court that the software is a trade secret. -- State Drops Motion In Jennings Lawsuit

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Kagro X writes on DailyKos: Recent speculation in both the WaPo and Time have sparked a mini-panic, by positing that Sen. Tim Johnson's medical condition could embolden the Senate Republicans to either make an outright attempt to thwart the transfer of control of the chamber to the new majority, or at least set themselves up for such a grab should Johnson (or any other Democrat) be replaced by a Republican during the session.

Here's how it sets up, in the Time article, by Karen Tumulty:

The incapacitation of South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson has put all eyes in Washington on what is normally a little-noticed Senate vote now scheduled for Jan. 4. It is called the "organizing resolution," and is the bit of internal housekeeping that determines how committee memberships will be allotted between the two parties, as well as who will get to serve as chairman and ranking members of each of the panels. These resolutions traditionally stand until the next Congress, even if the makeup of the chamber shifts to put the other party in the majority, which is why precedent would seem to dictate that the Chamber would stay in Democratic hands, even if Johnson is replaced by a Republican. [...]

-- Daily Kos: Could Johnson's absence throw the Senate into chaos?

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AP reports: Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and MoveOn.org Voter Fund, two outside groups that played key roles in the 2004 presidential election, reached an agreement with the Federal Election Commission to pay nearly $450,000 for various violations.

The two groups, along with the League of Conservation Voters, settled charges that they failed "to register and file disclosure reports as federal political committees and accepted contributions in violation of federal limits and source prohibitions," the FEC said in a statement Wednesday.

The commission approved the three settlements on a vote of 6-0. ...

The FEC concluded that the three 527 organizations violated campaign finance laws because they expressly stated their desire to influence the presidential election in their fundraising, their public statements or their advertisements. Such activity, the FEC said, could only be conducted by political committee registered with the FEC that abide by contribution limits and public disclosure requirements. -- BostonHerald.com - National Politics: Political groups to pay campaign fines

Rick Hasen has an analysis of the agreements here. Bob Bauer had this short analysis (with more to come later on the blog or in court, I expect).

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Brett Kappel emails: Tomorrow the FEC will vote on the attached statement of policy, which requires PACs to use greater precision when describing disbursements. The policy contains a short list of acceptable descriptive terms for PAC disbursements. More importantly, the policy contains an extensive list of descriptive terms that will no longer be acceptable. I am advising my PAC clients to consult this list when preparing the PAC's Year-End Report due on January 31, 2007.

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AP reports: Gov. Mike Huckabee can take in unlimited donations at a fundraiser set for Saturday in Little Rock because his political action committee is registered in Virginia, where there is no cap on donations. Arkansas limits donations to a PAC to $5,000 per year.

Huckabee's PAC, Hope For America, has provided money to political candidates in Iowa and Arkansas. Huckabee is considering a run for president in 2008 but he won't be able to use funds from the Hope For America PAC for his race if he announces for that office, Federal Election Commission spokesman Kelly Huff.

Massie Ritsch, a spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, said a prospective presidential candidate who forms an exploratory committee would be able to accept per-person contributions of $2,100 per election cycle.

Huckabee, who leaves office Jan. 9, is charging $500 per person for his Christmas gala. Huckabee's band, Capitol Offense, is to play after the event in a concert that costs $50 per ticket. -- Pine Bluff Commercial Online Edition

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The Frankfort Herald-Leader reports: The state's Legislative Ethics Commission yesterday found enough "probable cause" to hold a hearing to determine whether Democratic state Sen. Daniel Mongiardo violated the law by associating himself with an independent fund-raising committee.

The ethics panel decision came after more than an hour of closed-door testimony by Mongiardo -- who is expected to announce next week that he'll be running for lieutenant governor next year -- and Spencer Noe, general counsel for the Kentucky Republican Party.

The party filed the initial complaint against Mongiardo last summer for his association with DANPAC, which stands for Democratic Activist Network Political Action Committee.

State legislative ethics laws forbid lawmakers from forming "a permanent committee" other than their own election campaign funds. Should the ethics commission find that Mongiardo knowingly violated that law, it could refer the case to the attorney general's office for possible prosecution. -- Lexington Herald-Leader | 12/13/2006 | Panel backs hearing on Mongiardo

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ABC 7 News reports: District officials are reviewing whether $45,000 in campaign donations made to Mayor-elect Adrian Fenty after he won the November election violated city regulations.

The D.C. Office of Campaign Finance says contributions can only be received after the elections to pay off debt.

But Fenty raised an unprecendented $3.8 million for his campaign and he reports no outstanding bills or loans. -- ABC 7 News - City Reviews Post-Election Donations to Fenty's Campaign

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AP reports: Democrat Ciro Rodriguez's victory over seven-term Republican incumbent Henry Bonilla was another blow to Republicans who lost control of Congress five weeks ago. ...

Bonilla blamed the Supreme Court ruling that declared the district's former boundaries unconstitutional and forced a redrawing of the district that added more Hispanic Democratic voters. ...

Bonilla, the only Mexican-American Republican in Congress, nearly avoided the runoff when he came just shy of the 50 percent mark in a Nov. 7 free-for-all special election that included eight candidates. Rodriguez, in second place, advanced to the runoff with Bonilla. ...

The Supreme Court ruled in June that a 2003 reconfiguration of the 23rd District was unconstitutional because it diluted minority votes by splitting Laredo, a city that is almost all Hispanic, into two districts.

A three-judge panel redrew the district in August to restore 100,000 Hispanics to the 23rd District that had been shunted elsewhere. The new district, which stretches from San Antonio south to the Mexican border and almost to El Paso in the west, gave Rodriguez yet another chance at national office and made Bonilla fight a little harder to keep his seat.

The new 23rd district has a voting age population that is 61 percent Hispanic, versus a 51 percent Hispanic voting age population before. -- (5:03 a.m.)" href="http://www.elpasotimes.com/breakingnews/ci_4831001">El Paso Times - Rodriguez wins District 23 runoff (5:03 a.m.)

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The Rocky Mountain reports: A motion filed Tuesday on behalf of Colorado's poor accuses the state Revenue Department of putting up roadblocks that prevent legal residents from getting state IDs and driver's licenses.

The motion filed in Denver District Court asks that the department be stopped from using the so-called two document rule, which plaintiffs claim often requires ID applicants to produce more than two documents. ...

The motion comes weeks after a coalition of attorneys filed a class-action lawsuit, charging that the DMV has implemented illegal and arbitrary rules without warning and public input, as required by Colorado law. According to the suit, the rules prevent the homeless and hundreds of other U.S citizens from obtaining the identification needed to access housing, employment, public assistance, health care and the right to vote and travel. -- Rocky Mountain News - Denver and Colorado's reliable source for breaking news, sports and entertainment: Local

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The Oroville Mercury-Register reports: Approximately 30 demonstrators picketed on Saturday outside the Southside Community Center on Lower Wyandotte Road as Enterprise Rancheria conducted a Disenrollment Appeals Hearing inside. The hearing was conducted for appellants Carolyn Porteous and Darlene Taylor the final two of the 72 total tribal members disenrolled from Enterprise Rancheria.

Demonstrators came to show support for Porteous and Taylor. Both women were former tribal members of the Enterprise Rancheria and were disenrolled in May of 2004, after the spoke against the disenrollment of 70 tribal members, according to former Enterprise Rancheria Vice Chairman Robert Edwards.

"Carolyn and Darlene were disenrolled when they spoke out on behalf of the 70 members disenrolled from Enterprise Rancheria the previous November of 2003," Edwards said. "This is just another example of the intimidation tactics exercised by Enterprise Rancheria's tribal leaders and how freedom of speech is expressly prohibited or with consequences."

Both Carolyn and Darlene were very vocal in their criticism of tribal government when they denied the suspended 70 members their right to vote in the Recall Election scheduled for September of 2003, Edwards said. During that same time period in 2003, Carolyn Porteous confronted the responsible tribal officials when they changed the tribal constitution in a manner not consistent with tribal law in order to ultimately affect the outcome of the vote at the Disenrollment Hearing held in November of 2003, Edwards said. ...

Enterprise Tribal chairwoman Glenda Nelson has said they disenrolled the tribal members to keep the tribe unified, as the divisiveness was splitting the tribe. -- Oroville Mercury Register - Appellants disenrolled for speaking out

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The AP reports: Alabama Democrats aren't likely to go along with a proposal at the Democratic National Committee that would give extra convention delegates to states that move back their presidential primaries, the state party chairman said.

At the urging of the state Democratic and Republican parties, the Legislature has moved up Alabama's presidential primary in 2008 from June 3 to Feb. 5. The Rules Committee of the Democratic National Committee has given preliminary approval to a plan that would award additional convention delegates to states that don't move up their primary as Alabama did or that move back their primary after moving it up..

State Chairman Joe Turnham said getting extra convention delegates "pales in comparison" to letting the people have a choice in the primary.

When Alabama's presidential primary was in June, the nominations for both parties were wrapped up before Alabamians went to the polls, and candidates largely ignored the state. Since the Legislature moved up Alabama's primary, several potential candidates from both parties have visited the state. -- Alabama not likely to swap primary date for delegates

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The Orlando Sentinel reports: For the first time in more than a dozen years, black leaders are actively organizing to get county and city officials to take notice of their needs.

They say they are frustrated with a system that treats blacks like second-class citizens. Multimillion-dollar pedestrian bridges are being built in generally affluent areas while black communities are left to deal with poor drainage, crumbling or simply dirt roads and lax policing, they say.

Even when improvements are made, they are more likely to be funded with federal block-grant money, not local tax dollars, they say. ...

What's needed is a change in the way Seminole County commissioners are elected, Clayton said. Now, the five commissioners are elected countywide; single-member districts would provide the best chance for blacks and other minorities to have a voice, he said.

NAACP members are gathering information on single-member districts from surrounding counties, including Osceola, where a federal judge ruled the current system of countywide elections violates the U.S. Voting Rights Act because it dilutes the county's Hispanic vote.

A plan for Seminole County will be presented soon, Clayton said, and he hopes his group can work with county officials to get a single-member-district plan on the ballot. -- Black leaders in Seminole want county to listen - Orlando Sentinel : News Black leaders in Seminole want county to listen - Orlando Sentinel : News

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The San Jose Mercury News reports: Malfunctions by electronic voting machines in the Nov. 7 election were mostly caused by poll workers, all of whom were new to the system, according to a preliminary report released this week.

The report, which will be presented to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors today, touches on some successes and struggles that came with using eSlate voting machines for the first time.

``The eSlates appear to have performed well,'' Supervisor Mark Church said. ``There were no malfunctions that we're aware of. Overall, the election went smoothly for San Mateo County.''

Church, along with Supervisor Rose Jacobs-Gibson, formed a subcommittee to examine the introduction of the machines after dozens of people raised concerns about their purchase in August. The machines, made by Austin-based Hart InterCivic, were purchased to comply with the Help America Vote Act of 2002. -- MercuryNews.com | 12/12/2006 | Workers to blame in voting problems

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The Asheville Citizen-Times reports: The voting rights of potentially thousands of people depend on a decision expected this month from the top elected leader of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Principal Chief Michell Hicks is reviewing legislation passed by Tribal Council on Thursday that made changes to the 13,500-member tribe’s controversial absentee ballot law. Hicks has the power to veto the bill.

The chief normally has 30 days to consider legislation but because the tribe’s law prohibits changing election rules during an election year, he must make a decision before Dec. 31.

Paxton Myers, executive administrator for Hicks, said today the chief will “take his time” on reviewing the legislation. Hicks, Tribal Council members and some school board members are up for election next year. -- CITIZEN-TIMES.com: Cherokee chief has veto power over absentee voting law

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The Bowling Green Daily News reports: Four separate bills have been filed designed to provide convicted felons with a way to reclaim their voting rights.

The bills handle this process in several ways; one suggests that immediately upon completion of their sentence rights could be restored. Another suggests rights be renewed after they've finished parole. Both would require constitutional amendments. A third, filed by Rep. Rob Wilkey, D-Scottsville, allows for the record to be expunged of one or a series of class D felonies. This, if passed, would restore that person's voting rights and their right to own a firearm.

Wilkey said his is probably the most conservative of all the bills. It only applies to people convicted of nonviolent and nonsexual offenses. ...

A person convicted of a felony must wait five years after the adjudication of their offense and go before a judge to have the record expunged, which allows them the right to vote and to carry a gun, he said. -- Bowling Green, KY, Kentucky Daily News

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AP reports: A circuit judge on Monday ordered the Noxubee County Election Commission to certify results from the Nov. 7 general election.

The local certification must be done by 5 p.m. Tuesday, under the order of Circuit Judge Robert Bailey. Bailey issued the ruling after a hearing in Meridian.

After the Noxubee results are in, the state Board of Election Commissioners can certify the re-election of U.S. Sen. Trent Lott and U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering, both Republicans who start new terms in January. Lott already has been chosen Senate minority whip by his GOP colleagues in Washington.

Noxubee County had not certified the returns because absentee ballots were seized by authorities amid allegations that Ike Brown, a Democratic activist in Noxubee County, had witnessed an absentee ballot for a deceased voter. Brown says the incident was a clerical error. -- Judge orders Noxubee Co. to certify election results

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The Rapid City Journal reported last Thursday: A federal judge has ordered the city of Martin to redraw the boundaries of its city-council districts because the existing districts violate the voting rights of American Indians.

In a decision issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier of Rapid City said Martin must submit a proposal for redrawing the council-district boundaries by Jan. 5. The American Civil Liberties Union, which sued the city on behalf of two Indian voters, will have until Jan. 25 to file its response to the city's plan.

The judge will then make the determination of whether the city's plan is a legally acceptable remedy.

Martin is in Bennett County, which is adjacent to Rosebud Sioux and Pine Ridge Indian reservations in southern South Dakota.

The judge said evidence shows that about 36 percent of the city's voting-age population is Indian, and those Indian voters are spread evenly among the existing three council wards. However, candidates preferred by Indians rarely win city council elections in Martin, Schreier said. -- The Rapid City Journal

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Raw Story reports: Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and other so-called '527' nonpartisan groups are likely to soon face significant fines from the Federal Election Commission, according to a story in today's edition of Roll Call.

America Coming Together, a more Democrat-leaning group, and others were cited as facing fines after two years of FEC scrutiny, in an article written by Matthew Murray. During the 2004 presidential election, complaints had been filed against the groups for violating campaign finance laws. Texans for Truth, Progress for America Voter Fund, Leadership Forum, the Media Fund, the Joint Victory Campaign, Economic Freedom Fund and Majority Action were other groups confirmed to be likely targets of fines for their conduct in 2004.

One observer of the process commented to Roll Call that fines were unlikely unless major infractions were alleged to have occurred, as the FEC's current philosophy emphasizes the pursuit of "big fish." -- The Raw Story | Swift Boat Vets, related groups to face big fines

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