Tag: voting

No Surprise: Burma Army Leads Stilted Elections

The first round of Burma (Myanmar)’s three-phase elections began on December 28, 2025, under a framework imposed by the military junta that seized power in January 2021. With major opposition parties barred, voting canceled in 65 of the country’s 330 townships due to ongoing fighting, and further cancellations expected, the military-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party is leading, an outcome critics say was predetermined.

The results defy logic. If the people wanted to be ruled by generals, they would not have been fighting the military for the past eight decades in what is widely recognized as the world’s longest-running conflict.

Opposition groups argue the vote is neither free nor fair and serves to legitimize continued military rule through tightly controlled elections that exclude major parties and suppress dissent, prompting several groups to call for a boycott.

The military government said more than six million people voted in the Dec. 28 first phase, claiming a turnout of about 52 percent of eligible voters in participating areas and calling it a success. The Union Election Commission said the USDP won 38 seats in the 330-seat lower house, with results still pending.

Party leader Khin Yi, a former general and police chief closely aligned with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, was declared the winner in his Naypyitaw constituency. Naypyitaw is the military-built administrative capital established after the coup.

According to a senior USDP official speaking anonymously, the party has secured 88 of the 102 seats contested in the first phase, including 29 constituencies where it ran unopposed. The Shan Nationalities Democratic Party and the Mon Unity Party each won one seat. The official also claimed the USDP captured about 85 percent of contested regional legislature seats, though full results will only be known after later phases.

Myanmar’s parliament consists of two houses with 664 total seats, and the party controlling a combined majority can select the president and form a government. Under the constitution, the military is guaranteed 25 percent of seats in each chamber, giving it decisive built-in power regardless of election outcomes. Only six parties are competing nationwide with any realistic chance of parliamentary influence, with the USDP far ahead of its rivals.

Voting is being held in three phases because of ongoing fighting across the country. The first round covered 102 townships, with additional voting scheduled for Jan. 11 and Jan. 25, while 65 townships are excluded entirely due to conflict. Although thousands of candidates from dozens of parties are nominally contesting seats, political competition remains tightly restricted.

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Maine Democrat Gov. Janet Mills’ Administration Gave No-Bid State Contracts to Somali NGO That Allegedly “Registered Migrants to Vote” — Organization Later Caught in Medicaid Fraud Scandal

The walls are closing in on Maine’s migrant-industrial complex — and the trail leads straight back to Democrat Governor Janet Mills and her administration.

According to reporting from The Maine Wire, dozens of federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) swarmed multiple locations in Lewiston this week tied to Somali-run nonprofits, Medicaid billing operations, and political operatives with deep connections to Maine Democrats.

HSI confirmed it is “actively conducting audits of businesses in Maine to protect America from fraud & ensure businesses only employ legal workers,” adding that hiring unauthorized workers “undermines national security.”

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Ohio Activists Submit Signatures For Referendum To Block Lawmakers’ Move To Roll Back Marijuana Legalization And Restrict Hemp

Ohio activists announced on Monday that they’ve met an initial signature requirement to launch a campaign aimed at repealing key components of a bill the governor recently signed to scale back the state’s voter-approved marijuana law and ban the sale of consumable hemp products outside of licensed cannabis dispensaries.

Ohioans for Cannabis Choice said they’ve submitted a batch of 1,000 signatures to get the referendum process started. If the signatures are certified by the secretary of state, the campaign will then need to submit a total of about 250,000 signatures to make the ballot.

The proposed referendum would repeal the first three core sections of SB 56, a controversial bill that Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signed into law earlier this month that he says is intended to crack down on the unregulated intoxicating hemp market. But the legislation would do more than restrict the sale of cannabinoid products to dispensaries.

The law also recriminalizes certain marijuana activity that was legalized under the ballot initiative voters approved in 2023, and it’d additionally remove anti-discrimination protections for cannabis consumers that were enacted under that law.

The governor additionally used his line-item veto powers to cancel a section of the bill that would have delayed the implementation of the ban on hemp beverages.

“We’re saying no to SB 56 because it recriminalizes the cannabis industry,” Wesley Bryant, a petitioner with the referendum campaign who owns the cannabis company 420 Craft Beverages, said. “SB 56 is a slap in the face to voters who overwhelmingly voted to legalize cannabis in 2023.”

Advocates and stakeholders strongly protested the now-enacted legislation, arguing that it undermines the will of voters who approved cannabis legalization and would effectively eradicate the state’s hemp industry, as there are low expectations that adults will opt for hemp-based products over marijuana when they visit a dispensary.

The pushback inspired the newly filed referendum—but the path to successfully blocking the law is narrow.

If activists reach the signature threshold by the deadline three months from now, which coincides with the same day the restrictive law is to take effect, SB 56 would not be implemented until voters got a chance to decide on the issue at the ballot.

“In filing our petitions today, we are taking a stand for Ohioans against politicians in Columbus and saying no to the government overreach of SB 56,” Bryant said.

A summary of the referendum states that “Sections 1, 2, and 3 of Am. Sub. S. B. No. 56 enact new provisions and amend and repeal existing provisions of the Ohio Revised Code that relate to the regulation, criminalization, and taxation of cannabis products, such as the sale, use, possession, cultivation, license, classification, transport, and manufacture of marijuana and certain hemp products.”

“If a majority of the voters vote to not approve Sections 1, 2, and 3 of the Act, then the enacted changes will not take effect and the prior version of the affected laws will remain in effect,” it says.

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Burma Election Phase 1: No Hope for Federal Democracy With Opposition Banned

The Burma (Myanmar) election leaves observers asking whether it can truly be called a legitimate election when opposition parties and much of the population are prohibited from participating.

Burma’s military junta held the first round of its 2025 election on December 28, marking the first vote since overthrowing the country’s democratically elected government in 2021. Participation was sharply limited, with only about one-third of eligible voters casting ballots. Voting took place only in areas under military control, effectively disenfranchising large segments of the population living in conflict zones that comprise roughly 70 percent of the country’s territory.

As voting began, the Union Election Commission announced that nine additional townships had been added to the list where voting could not take place due to ongoing armed conflict. The newly excluded areas included three townships in Chin State, two in Sagaing Division, and four in Rakhine State, bringing the total number of townships entirely excluded from elections to 65, up from 56.

The UEC also confirmed that Phases 1 and 2 could not be held in 51 village tracts in Karenni State, and that Phase 3 elections scheduled for January 25 would not take place in 10 village tracts in Pekhon Township. In total, 134 townships are now affected either fully or partially, setting a record for the highest number of areas where elections could not be conducted in Burma’s history.

The election is being held in three phases across 265 of 330 townships, with the second round on January 11 and third round on January 25. Final results are expected to be announced by the end of January 2026.

One Yangon polling station recorded turnout of just under 37 percent, well below participation levels in the 2020 election won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy. In Karenni State and other areas controlled by revolutionary forces, residents rejected the process, saying the election is neither free nor fair and excludes large portions of the population displaced by war.

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Fulton County’s 315,000 Admission Goes Well Beyond Just “Unsigned Poll Tapes” – Including Illegal Tabulation, Rule Violations and Open Records Deception

During a December 9 hearing before the State Election Board (SEB), the attorney for Fulton County’s Board of Registration and Elections (BRE), Ann Brumbaugh, “did not dispute” the fact that over 315,000 ballots in Fulton County were missing signatures on the poll tapes, as required by Ga. Comp. R & Regs. 183-1-14-.02(15) and O.C.G.A. § 21-2-483(h).

This was in response to a complaint submitted to the SEB in March 2022, 33 months prior to the SEB hearing.

In addition to the poll tapes being unsigned, another egregious and concerning discovery was made: the poll tapes were altered to make it appear as if the machines they came from were the ones from the precincts where the ballots were scanned at.

Concerning Response to Open Records Requests

Prior to the December 9th, 2025 admission, and even the March 2022 complaint, Fulton County had a different response.

In an Open Records Request submitted by the Election Oversight Group for the poll tape records that were subject to the March 2022 complaint, Fulton County Attorney Steve Rosenberg responded in writing so there was “a record of our response.”

In the response, Rosenberg states that “the zero tapes are printed on paper that resembles old-style receipts” and that “they fade and they fade even more when handled.”

He then states that they’ve received “a number of requests for these and other poll tapes” and that “over time, the zero tapes have become almost completely faded” and then says that he provided what they maintain and can locate “that still has some printing on it.”

Then he claims that the “consolation is that the Secretary of State’s office maintains the originals” and says that a request should be sent to their office.

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Arizona Ballot Measure Seeks To Roll Back Marijuana Legalization

A newly filed ballot initiative in Arizona would repeal of key provisions of the state’s voter-approved marijuana legalization law by eliminating commercial sales, while still permitting possession and personal cultivation.

The “Sensible Marijuana Policy Act for Arizona” is being spearheaded by Sean Noble, president of the political strategy firm American Encore. Paperwork to register the initiative was filed with the secretary of state’s office this month.

This year has seen a series of attempts to roll back adult-use legalization laws, with anti-cannabis activists in Maine recently approved for signature gathering for a similar ballot initiative and a Massachusetts campaign clearing an initial signature threshold for their version that will first put the issue to lawmakers before it potentially heads to the ballot.

The Arizona measure is distinct from those proposals in at least one significant policy area: It would not take away the rights of adults to grow up to six cannabis plants for personal use.

Also, it explicitly preserves components of the law aimed at expunging prior marijuana records.

Like the anti-cannabis proposals in other states, possession would remain lawful if voters chose to enact the initiative—and Arizona’s medical marijuana program would remain intact—but the commercial market for recreational cannabis that’s evolved since voters approved an adult-use legalization measure in 2020 would be quashed.

“For adults that want to consume cannabis, they will be able to do that,” Noble told the Arizona Daily Star.

But the GOP operative—who has worked with Republican legislators on efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and played a role opposing a failed attempt to legalize for adult use in 2016—said declining revenue and advertising rules he perceives as insufficient to deterring youth use puts the campaign at an advantage among voters.

A findings section on the latest initiative states that “the proliferation of marijuana establishments and recreational marijuana sales in this state have produced unintended consequences and negative effects relating to the public health, safety, and welfare of Arizonans, including increased marijuana use among children, environmental concerns, increased demands for water resources, public nuisances, market instability, and illicit market activities.”

“Arizona’s legal marijuana sales have declined for two consecutive years, resulting in less tax revenue for this state, while some patients have relied on recreational use of marijuana instead of utilizing the benefits of this state’s medical marijuana program,” it says.

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The Fulton County 2020 Election Bombshell

If you have struggled to find any reason to support the Democratic Party, you are by no means alone. A new Quinnipiac poll revealed last week that 73 percent of voters disapprove of the way the Democrats in Congress are handling their job. Yet, somehow, the party’s candidates managed to overperform its 2024 margins in all five House special elections this year. How did they work this miracle? One clue can perhaps be found in the recent revelations about election “irregularities” in Fulton County, Georgia. During a recent hearing of the Georgia State Election Board (SEB), an attorney for the county admitted that 315,000 illegally certified votes were included in the final results of the 2020 election.

The gory details of this skullduggery were first reported by Brianna Lyman in the Federalist last week on the same day the Quinnipiac poll was released. The facts, which are now no longer in dispute, throw a white hot spotlight on the urgent need for Republicans in Congress to pass a national election integrity law — even if that means killing the filibuster — that the President can sign into law well before the 2026 midterms. The facts also vindicate Trump’s assertion, during his frequently misrepresented telephone call with Georgia’s feckless Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, that an audit of Fulton County’s ballots would easily disqualify far more than the 11,779 votes that decided the state’s election. This is what Trump said:

In Fulton, where they dumped ballots, you will find that you have many that aren’t even signed and you have many that are forgeries. OK? You know that. You know that. You have no doubt about that. And you will find you will be at eleven-thousand seven-seventy-nine within minutes, because Fulton County is totally corrupt and so is she totally corrupt. And they’re going around playing you and laughing at you behind your back, Brad. Whether you know it or not they’re laughing at you. And you’ve taken a state that’s a Republican state and you’ve made it almost impossible for a Republican to win because of cheating, because they cheated like no one’s ever cheated before.

Raffensperger ignored the President. As Georgia’s chief election official, it was his duty to ensure that Trump’s concerns about Fulton County’s ballots were investigated. When the latest revelations came to light last week, Raffensperger issued this tin-eared statement: “Georgia has the most secure elections in the country and all voters were verified with photo ID and lawfully cast their ballots. A clerical error at the end of the day does not erase valid, legal votes.” Wrong. As 11ALIVE reports, “Ultimately the SEB voted 3-0 to refer the case to the Georgia Attorney General’s Office for possible sanctions against Fulton County, as well as requesting a $5,000 fine for each of the missing tabulator tapes — possibly totaling $670,000 or more.”

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Judge Finally Allows Access to Fulton County 2020 Physical Ballots and Related Documents

It has been 1,071 days since the Georgia Supreme Court remanded the VoterGA.org lawsuit back to the lower courts after determining Garland Favorito’s voter integrity group did, in fact, have standing.  That lawsuit was asking the court to unseal the physical paper ballots and allow inspection.

Last year, the Georgia State Election Board also sought to unseal the physical paper ballots when it issued a subpoena to Fulton County demanding the ballots, ballot stubs, envelopes, and digital images.  Fulton County’s Board of Registration and Elections, without a vote from the board, filed a lawsuit challenging that subpoena.

Today, Judge Robert McBurney granted the State Election Board access to the physical ballots and related documents; however, the Board would be on the hook for the estimated $400,000 in “document costs,” as estimated by the county.

Fulton County has until January 7th to provide the State Election Board with the estimated costs.

Fox 5 Atlanta reported:

As 2025 draws to a close, there is no end in sight to the prolonged legal challenges surrounding Fulton County’s 2020 presidential election.

Last year, the Republican-led Georgia Election Board reopened an investigation into Fulton County’s handling of the 2020 election.

On Friday, they scored a court victory.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney’s decision grants the election board access to Fulton County’s 2020 ballots and related documents.

Fulton County Chairman Rob Pitts seemed irritated with the decision, telling FOX 5, “This nonsense has to stop at some point.  I assured the public then, reassure the public today, those elections are open and fair and transparent, and every vote was counted.”

This decision from Judge McBurney comes as Fulton County admitted to the State Election Board that it was missing signatures from poll managers on poll tapes for more than 315,000 ballots.

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Fulton County admits 315,000 votes were counted in 2020 election without legal certification in Georgia

Fulton County, Georgia officials have admitted that around 315,000 early votes were counted in the 2020 election despite lacking the proper certification. Less than 12,000 votes separated former President Joe Biden, the winner of the swing state that year, from President Donald Trump.

A Georgia State Election Board (SEB) hearing earlier in December regarding a challenge raised by local election integrity activist David Cross, per The Federalist. Cross had filed the challenge in March of 2022, alleging that Fulton County had violated state election rules in the handling of early voting during the 2020 election season, with hundreds of thousands of vote being counted despite poll workers not signing off on vote tabulation “tapes,” which are critical to the certification process.

Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections Ann Brumbaugh said during the hearing that while she has “not seen the tapes,” the county does “not dispute that the tapes were not signed.” She added, “It was a violation of the rule. We, since 2020, again, we have new leadership and a new building and a new board and new standard operating procedures. And since then, the training has been enhanced. … But … we don’t dispute the allegation from the 2020 election.”

Under Georgia’s election rules, election officials are required to have each ballot scanner print three closing tapes at the end of each voting day, which poll workers must sign or include a documented reason for refusal. Poll workers are also required to start each voting day by printing and signing a “zero tape” that shows voting machines are starting the day with zero votes.

An investigation by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office “sustained” findings that Fulton County “violated Official Election Record Document Processes when it was discovered that thirty-six (36) out of thirty-seven (37) Advanced Voting Precincts in Fulton County, Georgia failed to sign the Tabulation Tapes as required [by SEB rules].” The investigation had also found that officials at 32 sites did not verify their zero tapes.

Cross said at the December hearing, “These signed tapes are the sole legal certification that the reported totals are authentic. Fulton County produced zero signed tabulator tapes in early voting.” He said that he had obtained 77 megabytes of data from the county through an open records request, and that this included 134 tabulator tapes, representing 315,000 votes, none of which were signed.

He noted other irregularities in the election, including polling locations being open “impossibly late hours, like 2:09 am,” and that he had found “duplicated scanner serial numbers, where the memory devices were removed from one scanner and printed on an alternate scanner.”

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Citizens In Eastern Ukraine Will Not Be Allowed To Vote, Zelensky Says

President Volodymyr Zelensky has confirmed that Ukraine and Washington are in talks about holding elections, after earlier this month he much belatedly said while under pressure from Trump that he’s ready to allow national elections, so long as they can be done fairly and freely.

Zelensky indicated current discussions also hinge on the US and other partners helping set the conditions so Ukrainians can vote in safety. He previously stated the country could hold a vote within 60 days – but only if there are security guarantees.

Already over the weekend he erected more barriers to holding a vote, stipulating that citizens in Eastern Ukraine would not be able to participate. 

“Any election in Ukraine can not be held in Russia-occupied parts of the country,” Zelensky has been quoted in international press as saying, and he once again added that a proper voting process can take place only if security is ensured.

He has also lately said that Ukraine’s foreign minister had started the initial work on the infrastructure needed for Ukrainians living abroad to participate.

The four oblasts that President Putin has called “our four new regions” and “our citizens forever” include Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions – and were annexed after a popular referendum during the first year of the war.

Putin has blasted Zelensky’s rule as illegitimate given the canceled elections based on enacting a state of martial law, and President Trump has expressed increasing agreement with this perspective.

Still, Zelensky’s new ‘openness’ with holding an election has been coupled with plenty of caveats and likely immense barriers. For example last week he said—

…that a ceasefire with Russia must be in place before elections can be held in Ukraine, “at least for the duration of the election process and voting”. Ukrainian law forbids wartime elections but US President Donald Trump is pressuring Zelensky, whose term ended last year, to hold a vote.

But Trump this month finally put some real pressure on him, it appears. Given Zelensky had put the brakes on the US-proposed pace plan by definitively rejecting the territorial concessions aspects to the document, the US president’s assessment in a recent Politico interview was blunt and highly critical, going so far as to basically call Ukraine not a democracy.

“They haven’t had an election in a long time,” Trump said. “You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore.”

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