Feds Deny State Bids to Tighten Voter Registration

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission found Friday that heightened proof-of-citizenship requirements likely would hinder eligible citizens from voting in federal elections, handing down a ruling that denied requests from Kansas, Arizona and Georgia to modify the registration form for their residents.

The decision came just hours before a court-imposed deadline in a lawsuit filed in federal court by Kansas and Arizona that seeks to force the commission to modify state-specific requirements for registering to vote in those states. Georgia, which has a similar voter registration law, is not part of the litigation but was included in the commission’s decision.

Those states have enacted laws requiring new voters to provide a birth certificate, passport or other proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. People who register using the federal form only need to sign a statement, under penalty of perjury, that he or she is a U.S. citizen.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has championed his state’s proof-of-citizenship law to keep non-citizens from voting, particularly those in the U.S. illegally. But critics say voter fraud is extremely rare and contend such laws suppress the vote and threaten to keep thousands of citizens from casting ballots.

Kobach said in an email that he had anticipated the adverse ruling from the commission and the states will now press their constitutional claims before the U.S. District Court in Kansas. He argues the decision is unconstitutional because it prevents Kansas and Arizona from securing their voter rolls.

“The EAC’s reasoning reflects the partisan view of the Obama Justice Department that requiring voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship at the time of registration is undesirable as a policy matter,” Kobach said. “However, the EAC has no authority to second-guess the policy decisions of the sovereign states of Kansas and Arizona.”

In its decision, the EAC found that added documentation burdens do not enhance voter participation and result in an overall decrease in registration of eligible citizens — undermining the core purpose of the National Voter Registration Act.

It cited as evidence the problems Kansas already has experienced with its own enhanced voter registration requirements. The voter registrations of 20,127 Kansans remained on hold Friday because they’ve not yet provided proof of their citizenship to election officials.

States already have other means available to enforce citizenship requirements without requiring additional information from applicants, including access to national databases of birth certificates and naturalization information, the agency noted.

Given the “paucity of evidence” provided by the states regarding noncitizens registering to vote, the new voter registration requirements enacted by the states reflect “legislative policy preferences” and are not based on any demonstrated necessity, the agency said. It also said that the heightened documentation requirements imposed by Kansas and Arizona have led to significant reductions in organized voter registration programs.

“This is a significant decision for all eligible voters underscoring the purpose of the National Voter Registration Act to remove barriers such as documentary proof of citizenship that prevent eligible citizens from registering to vote and voting,” Michelle Kanter Cohen, a lawyer representing Project Vote in the states’ lawsuit in Kansas, said in an email Saturday.

“What we have seen where these laws have been implemented in Arizona and Kansas is that tens of thousands of eligible Americans have been rejected or suspended from the voter rolls, and community voter registration drives have been significantly hampered,” Cohen said.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that Arizona could not refuse to accept the national voter registration form, even though people who use it aren’t required to provide citizenship documents.

Kobach has said that if he cannot get a federal court to order EAC to modify the federal registration form with state-specific requirements, he would institute — on his own authority as Kansas secretary of state — a dual registration that limits Kansans who register with the federal form to voting only in presidential, U.S. Senate and congressional races.

“We applaud the EAC’s decision to uphold this law and protect the right to vote,” said Wendy Weiser, director of the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program at NYU School of Law, which represents the League of Women Voters in the Kansas litigation. “We hope Arizona and Kansas abandon their quest to undermine federal law by making voter registration more complicated.”

© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Newsmax – America

Feds Deny State Bids to Tighten Voter Registration

MEPs vote to tighten anti-tobacco laws, target young smokers

Published time: October 08, 2013 16:39

John Moore/Getty Images/AFP

European MPs have voted to dramatically tighten tobacco laws across the union and have focused much of the legislation on trying to put young people off smoking. But the new measures do not go as far as anti-smoking campaigners had hoped for.

MPs have voted in favor of a ban on menthol cigarettes, although the law won’t come into force for another five years and there will be more negotiations with EU governments before the law is adopted in member states.

Other measures to deter people, particularly the young, from smoking, include putting health warnings on 65 percent of each side of cigarette packs (though not 75%, as originally proposed). Currently health warnings must cover 30 percent of one side of a pack of cigarettes and 40 percent of the other.

There will also be ban on the words appearing on cigarette packs such as “low tar”, “mild” and “light”. The new laws will also apply to roll-your-own tobacco.

Chewing tobacco will also be banned, with the exception of in Sweden, where it is called snus and is relatively popular.

The proposed legislation will also allow member states to introduce plain cigarette packaging if they think the need is justified.

However, lawmakers rejected a proposal by the European Commission to force electronic cigarettes to be sold as medical products, which would have restricted sales. They also did not ban slim cigarettes – smoked by some, particularly women, with the idea that they help with weight loss and are associated with looking attractive.

Amanda Sandford from the smoking and health camping group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), while welcoming the laws, said she would like to have seen them go further.

“We would like to have seen MEPs vote to increase health warnings to 75%,” Sandford told RT. “We’d also like to see e-cigarettes regulated under medical legislation. While e-cigarettes are considerably less hazardous than tobacco products, because they’re not properly regulated at the moment, we can’t be sure they’re entirely safe.”

The vote was preceded by intense lobbying from the tobacco industry and health campaigners on European MPs. Nearly 700,000 Europeans die from smoking-related illnesses each year, with an estimated healthcare cost across the EU of 25.3 billion euros ($ 33.4 billion) annually. Meanwhile, in the UK alone the sale of tobacco products generated £9 billion ($ 14.6 billion) last year, amounting to 2% of all tax revenue.

There will now be further negotiations between EU health ministers, which may mean MEPs will be able to avoid a second vote and fast-track the legislation to become law before the May 2014 European elections.

Britain has already said that e-cigarettes will have to be licensed as a medical product from 2016. E-cigarettes replicate the action of smoking without using tobacco and instead turn nicotine and other chemicals into vapor.

While sales of e-cigarettes have boomed since smoking was banned in public places in the EU over six years ago, campaigners say their growing popularity is dangerous.  They say they could encourage non-smokers and children to start the habit and undermine years of anti-smoking campaigns.

The European Commission also stated that cigarette packs must be big enough to make sure that the new larger warnings are fully visible. They recommended that manufactures must produce a minimum of 20 cigarettes per pack. However in the UK and Italy 10 is the minimum size.

Their recommendation will doubtless please health campaigners in the UK, who are calling for a ban on so-called ‘kiddy packs’ of 10 because they can be brought with pocket money.

Sandford also said that standardizing packs to 20 may encourage some people to give up smoking.

“Having a minimum pack size may help smokers who are trying to quit, particularly poorer smokers, because having to pay out for a pack of 20 cigarettes may make them think twice about the need to smoke,” she said.

An estimated 4 percent of children in England between the ages of 11 and 15 years old are believed to be smoking at least once a week.

But a lobby group called the Freedom Organization for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco (FOREST) argues that around 2 million people in the UK buy their cigarettes in packs of 10 because that is all they can afford, or are trying to cut down, and there is no evidence that forcing people to buy a pack of 20 will reduce smoking. The FOREST campaign is funded by the tobacco industry.

RT – News

MEPs vote to tighten anti-tobacco laws, target young smokers

Assad"s forces battle to tighten control of central Syria

1 of 3. A damaged car is seen in the Al-khalidiya neighbourhood of Homs June 30, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Yazan Homsy

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN | Sun Jun 30, 2013 4:33pm EDT

AMMAN (Reuters) – President Bashar al-Assad’s forces pounded Sunni Muslim rebels in the city of Homs with artillery and from the air on Sunday, the second day of their offensive in central Syria, activists said.

They said rebels defending the old center of Homs and five adjacent Sunni districts had largely repelled a ground attack on Saturday by Assad’s forces, backed by guerrillas from the Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah, but reported clashes and deaths within the city on Sunday.

Mohammad Mroueh, a member of the opposition “Homs Crisis Cell” said at least 25 loyalist troops including four Hezbollah fighters had been killed in Homs in the previous 24 hours. Such reports are difficult to verify in Syria, where independent media cannot usually report freely.

The offensive follows steady military gains by Assad’s forces, backed by Hezbollah, in villages in Homs province and towns close to the Lebanese border.

Opposition sources and diplomats said the loyalist advance had tightened the siege of Homs and secured a main road link to Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon and to army bases in Alawite-held territory near the Syrian coast, the main entry point for Russian arms that have given Assad an advantage in firepower.

At least 100,000 people have been killed since the Syrian revolt against four decades of rule by Assad and his late father erupted in March 2011, making the uprising the bloodiest of the Arab Spring revolutions against entrenched autocrats.

The Syrian conflict is increasingly pitting Assad’s Alawite minority, backed by Shi’ite Iran and its Hezbollah ally, against mainly Sunni rebel brigades supported by the Gulf states, Egypt, Turkey and others.

Sunni Jihadists, including al Qaeda fighters from Iraq, have also entered the fray.

ALARM

The loyalist advances have alarmed international supporters of the rebels, leading the United States to announce it will step up military support. Saudi Arabia has accelerated deliveries of sophisticated weaponry, Gulf sources say.

Opposition activists said a woman and child had been killed in a strike by government aircraft on the old city of Homs, home to hundreds of civilians.

Video footage taken by the activists showed the bodies being carried in blankets and a man holding a wounded child with a gash in his head.

Rebel fighters fought loyalist forces backed by tanks in the old covered market, which links the old city with Khalidiya, a district inhabited by members of tribes who have been at the forefront of the armed insurgency.

“After failing to make any significant advances yesterday, the regime is trying to sever the link between Khalidiya and the old city,” Abu Bilal, one of the activists, said from Homs.

“We are seeing a sectarian attack on Homs par excellence, The army has taken a back role. Most of the attacking forces are comprised of Alawite militia being directed by Hezbollah.”

Alawites belong to an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam and have controlled Syria since the 1960s, when members of the sect took over the army and security apparatus in the mainly Sunni country.

URBAN WARFARE

Homs is a majority Sunni city. But a large number of Alawites have moved there in recent decades, drawn by army and security jobs.

Lebanese security forces said Hezbollah appeared to be present in the rural areas surrounding Homs.

Anwar Abu al-Waleed, an activist, said rebel brigades were prepared to fight a long battle, unlike in Qusair and Tel Kalakh, two towns in rural Homs near the border with Lebanon that fell to loyalist forces in recent weeks.

“We are talking about serious urban warfare in Homs. We are not talking about scattered buildings in an isolated town but a large urban area that provides a lot of cover,” he said.

State media said the army had “destroyed terrorist concentrations” in several districts of Homs and made “big progress” in Khalidiya.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Assad must halt his “brutal assault” on Homs and allow full humanitarian aid access to the country. Gulf countries, which back the rebels, urged Lebanon to stop outside parties interfering in the conflict, a reference to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

The Syrian conflict has aggravated neighboring Lebanon’s own complex sectarian rivalry, triggering fighting between Alawite pro-Assad and Sunni anti-Assad militia in the northern city of Tripoli that has killed dozens.

Syria’s official state news agency said a helicopter carrying Ministry of Education employees heading to a northern area to supervise school exams had been shot down. The seven employees and the helicopter’s crew were killed, it said.

The agency said the plane was brought down as “part of the scheme of the armed terrorist gangs to halt normal life”.

Opposition activists said the helicopter had been carrying supplies to two Shi’ite villages north of the city of Aleppo where Hezbollah fighters had been deployed.

(Additional reporting by Angus McDowall and William Maclean in Dubai; Editing by Andrew Roche)

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Reuters: Top News

Assad"s forces battle to tighten control of central Syria

Assad"s forces battle to tighten control of central Syria

AMMAN (Reuters) – President Bashar al-Assad’s forces pounded Sunni Muslim rebels in the city of Homs with artillery and from the air on Sunday, the second day of their offensive in central Syria, activists said.

Reuters: Top News

Assad"s forces battle to tighten control of central Syria

INTERVIEW: FRENCH PRESIDENT SPEAKS TO RFI: France to tighten spying on jihadis after soldier attack, Hollande tells RFI

The Islamic convert, known as Alexandre, who was charged on Friday with stabbing Private First Class Cédric Cordiez had been spotted as a radical by the intelligence service but that did not prevent the attack.

Dossier: War in Mali

But Hollande, who insists that there were no clues that he might pass from words to action, ruled out a major overhaul of intelligence, saying that what is needed is a tightening up cooperation between domestic and international intelligence services to spot jihadis returning from suspicious activities abroad.

“It’s not true to say that these are isolated acts,” he said, citing the London attack on British soldier Lee Rigby, after which several arrests have been made.

“Some French citizens go to a certain number of theatres of operation, Syria or Mali, and come back with a certain number of proclamations and experience with arms,” the president pointed out, meaning that there is a home-grown threat, “which is not new”, and an external one.

Hollande also commented on:

• Mali – “Mission accomplished, there is no place in Mali where the terrorists can be in control” but some have taken refuge in the Sahel and French troops will stay in the region “at the request of the countries concerned”;


• Algeria – President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in a French hospital since 27 April leading to speculation that he may never return to his job, “will go home when he himself decides, as soon as possible, I hope”;


• Tunisia – Hollande will talk to religious and secular politicians but will not “interfere in Tunisia’s political life”;


• Syria – Bashar al-Assad is responsible for 100,000 deaths in the civil war and should step down but “part of the solution lies with Moscow”, which is supplying the Assad regime with arms.

Excerpts from the interview will be broadcast on RFI’s Paris Live broadcasts on Saturday from 04.00 hours universal time. 

Middle East

INTERVIEW: FRENCH PRESIDENT SPEAKS TO RFI: France to tighten spying on jihadis after soldier attack, Hollande tells RFI