Fox News
Voters in many states will have an easier time casting their ballots in 2012, as elections officials are now allowing some people vote via email or iPad devices. They’re also using technology to help count ballots faster and keep track of ballot boxes.
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These new voting technologies will save time and money and perhaps allow more people to take part in the elections process. But some experts worry that security flaws still haven’t been fixed and that federal elections are still decades away from going fully online.
Mississippi voters Tuesday defeated a ballot initiative that would’ve declared life begins at conception, a proposal that supporters sought in the Bible Belt state as a way to prompt a legal challenge to abortion rights nationwide. The so-called “personhood” initiative was rejected by more than 55 percent of voters, falling far short of the threshold needed for it to be enacted. If it had passed, it was virtually assured of drawing legal challenges because it conflicts with the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established a legal right to abortion. Supporters of the initiative wanted to provoke a lawsuit to challenge the landmark ruling.
A group vowing to fight “Islamofascism” has launched a media blitz in Oklahoma supporting a state constitutional amendment that would prohibit the courts from considering Islamic or other international law when ruling on cases in Sooner State courtrooms. The campaign by Act! For America, founded by Lebanese American journalist Brigitte Gabriel, includes a radio ad that began airing Monday, opinion articles and robo-calls from former CIA director and Tulsa native James Woolsey urging residents to vote for the ballot initiative.
The Florida Supreme Court will consider this week whether to restore Proposition C, a ballot measure that would prohibit the government from requiring people to have health insurance or from penalizing them for not having it, a key provision of President Obama’s health care law. The state high court will begin hearing oral arguments Wednesday.
A coalition of same-sex marriage opponents and taxpayer groups is trying to persuade voters to approve a state constitutional convention in the hopes of bringing the initiative petition process to Connecticut.