In today's markup of House Resolution 1, the House Committee on Administration defeated on party-line votes all amendments offered by the three Republican members to attempt to fix problems with the bill. The RNLA live-tweeted the markup, and here are some highlights (or, lowlights):

Yesterday was an emotional hearing of the North Carolina election board that generated a fair result, a new election for North Carolina’s ninth Congressional District as a result of ballot harvesting. “Ballot harvesting” is a practice in which paid or organized political operatives collect absentee ballots from voters to whom they have no familial connection and drop them off at a polling place or election office. As happened in North Carolina, critics complain that such actions leave open opportunities for tampering and taking advantage of society’s most vulnerable and those who have no interest in voting.

As we wrote last week, Lawyers Democracy Fund (LDF) has a full analysis of the election administration portions of HR 1 and how they would centralize control of elections and harm election integrity.  LDF has also released a shorter document highlighting the top ten problems with HR 1:

We have written on this blog often on Broward County Florida Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes, but we must admit we were shocked by her statement today. 

On Tuesday, while speaking with reporters, Snipes hinted that she may not be in the job very long and said that it was "hard to rule out race" as a factor in the criticism being lobbed at her. . . .

Snipes argued on Monday that the lawsuits were nothing more than an attack on her integrity.

. . . "I have worked here for about 15 years and I have to say this is the first time that this office or I have been under such attacks," she said.

New Mexico has yet again proven that the feudal system and political corruption is alive and well in the Land of Enchantment. On election night, Republican Yvette Herrell led Democrat Xochitl Torres Small by 1,972 votes and was declared a winner by several news outlets, but then the Dona Ana County Clerk found 8,000 absentee ballots that still needed to be added to the total. By the end of Wednesday, Torres Small had a substantial, 2,700 vote lead over Herrell; therefore making Torres Small the winner, not Herrell.

Today, Jeff Sessions resigned as Attorney General of the United States, and President Trump announced that Sessions' Chief of Staff, Matthew Whitaker, will be the Acting Attorney General.  Under Attorney General Sessions, the Department of Justice has returned to respecting the rule of law and enforcing and supporting the law as written, instead of pursuing a partisan agenda as it did under President Obama.

As we look ahead to Election Day 2018 next week, the RNLA is often asked what we do for elections.  Today, we released a statement on the importance of open, fair, and honest elections:

Election Day 2018 is just a week away, and already there have been reports of serious election administration problems around the country.  Here are a few examples.

The Pew Research Center released a new, extensive poll on election issues today.  This poll shows that Americans still support a requirement that voters show photo voter ID at the polls prior to voting by strong bipartisan margins:

And although about nine-in-ten Republicans (91%) favor requiring a photo ID to vote, a smaller 63% majority of Democrats favor this policy.