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Sen. Evan Bayh, a Democrat, criticized the Supreme Court for its Monday decision to uphold a voter-identification law in Bayh’s home state of Indiana.

The law requires voters to present photo identification at their polling places. Bayh told PBS talk-show host Tavis Smiley that the requirement, which the court supported on a 6-3 vote, will disenfranchise too many minority, disabled and elderly voters.

Bayh rejected the notion that the law is necessary for security reasons. “[I]n the absence of voter fraud, I just don’t see the reasoning for this,” he said.

Categories: Indiana, Producer's Picks, Evan Bayh, Civil Liberties, Government Reform, Courts, Voting Rights

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House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., questioned the merits of a federal mandate to change the way states conduct elections. While he doesn’t necessarily object to federal involvement in the issue, he said, “This is neither wise nor the responsible thing for us to do” before the November election.

Categories: Missouri, Roy Blunt, Government Reform

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Two deaths in Congress earlier this year have left open two Republican seats that will be filled in Dec. 11 special elections — one in Ohio and one in Virginia. Ed Morrissey of Heading Right Radio interviewed both GOP candidates this week.

Ohio state Rep. Bob Latta is running to fill the 1st District seat left open by the death of Rep. Paul Gillmor. Twenty years ago, Latta ran for that seat when his father retired after 30 years in Congress but lost the primary by 27 votes to Gillmor. Latta has served in the legislature since then but will be term-limited out of office this year.

“Unfortunately, term limits does not add stability to the system,” Latta said in a recorded interview when quizzed about that subject. “We lose a lot of folks that have great knowledge in certain areas … in the legislature.”

Morrissey also interviewed Rob Wittmann, who is running to replace Jo Ann Davis in Virginia’s 1st District.

Producer’s note: Through a partnership with BlogTalkRadio, AirCongress is promoting federal policy and political content produced by the company’s Internet-based talk-show hosts.

Categories: Politics, Government Reform, Bob Latta, Paul Gillmor, BlogTalkRadio, Jo Ann Davis

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NEW YORK — At the Networked Journalism Summit here today, Jacob Soboroff of the election reform group Why Tuesday mentioned a video encounter he had with Democratic presidential candidate Joseph Biden Jr. at a Cosi sandwich shop in Washington.

Earlier this year, Why Tuesday asked all of the presidential candidates to submit videos outlining their plans for election reform. There have been no takers so far. But Soboroff had a videocamera with him at lunch that day, so he put the question to Sen. Biden of Delaware, who at first resisted the idea of an on-camera interview but later relented.

“You wanna reform elections, support my total public financing of elections,” Biden said. “The amount of money in these campaigns is obscene.” He also called for mandatory paper receipts to confirm ballots cast on e-voting machines, among other ideas.

UPDATE, 10/24: Democratic candidate Christopher Dodd was put on the election reform spot after a debate in South Carolina during the summer, and Why Tuesday just put the video online. “Each state wants to do this differently,” Dodd said. “Standards ought to be the same. But allowing states to decide how best their people want to cast their ballots is something I’d be reluctant to say that the national government ought to tell everybody exactly how you’re going to vote.”

I’ll update this post with more video links as they become available.

UPDATE, 11/4: Why Tuesday now has video thoughts about election reform from 10 of the 16 presidential candidates — six Democrats and four Republicans.

The latest videos are from: Democrats Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson; and Republicans Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo.

None of the Republican frontrunners — Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney — have taken the Why Tuesday challenge. The group also has video of GOP candidate Fred Thompson walking away from an opportunity to answer questions from Why Tuesday’s Soboroff.

UPDATE, 11/15: Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Edwards have taken the Why Tuesday challenge, bringing the overall response to 12 out of 16 candidates.

Categories: Producer's Picks, Politics, Technology, Joseph Biden Jr., Government Reform, Voting Rights

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California Republicans don’t like the winner-take-all approach in presidential elections, so they are working to get an initiative on the ballot next June to change the rules.

Under the Presidential Election Reform Act, presidential candidates would win the electoral votes in each district where they win the popular vote. California’s current system, like those in most states, is based on the statewide vote. In other words, the candidate who wins the popular vote for the entire state wins all of the electoral votes.

The bid by Republicans to change the rules via ballot initiative does not sit well with Democrats, whose candidates have won all of California’s electoral votes (currently 55) in the past four presidential elections. One group, the Courage Campaign, is working with bloggers and other online Democratic activists to fight the initiative.

Online videos are one facet of the Courage Campaign’s fight. The latest video, released yesterday, attacks Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for failing to take a position on the ballot effort or even to read it so far. The satire features a Simpsons-style Schwarzenegger repeating the phrase, “I was elected to lead, not to read.”

The closing message: “Tell Arnold: Read and lead. Stop the Republicans from stealing the White House on June 3rd.”

Categories: Politics, Technology, Presidency 2008, History, Government Reform

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