Voting rights bills and lawsuits megathread (Updated: April 27th 2020)

[KingSweden]

I’m still surprised GA has AVR

I'm more surprised that Mississippi allows ballot initiatives

It’s not a big thing in the South, so yeah. Surprising.

[KingSweden]

This OH initiative applies to Congressional districts, I presume? I know there was movement around LDs some time ago

[KingSweden]

There are redistricting ballot petitions in Michigan, Ohio, Utah, Colorado, South Dakota, Missouri, Oklahoma.  Is it expected most of these will pass?  For Dems, MI/OH would be great, UT/MO would be nice, SD/OK irrelevant.

Actually, our state legislature districts are gerrymandered to hell and back. It might not have an impact on the federal level, but a redistricting initiative passing would make democrats a lot more competitive at the state level.

Um SD hasn’t voted democrat since 1964 so no matter what you do the legislature will always be republican till major population growth happens.

Grown ups are talking

[KingSweden]

Washington Senate Democrats unveil a massive voter access improvement package.

snip

Here is an article about it: https://thinkprogress.org/washington-democrats-ambitious-new-voting-rights-agenda-120f776f9843/

Most of the attention is going towards the proposed Voting Rights Act, which is mainly intended to force local governments to change the way they elect politicians. For instance, there are a number of cities/towns where minorities have less representation than they should mainly due to polarized voting and at-large seats. This bill would make it easier and less costly to sue for relief.

The automatic voter registration bill would only apply to people with commercial licenses, as WA apparently can't verify if people are citizens or not (at least that is the justification they offer). I'm not sure if this AVR bill includes other state agencies.

I'd say same-day registration is probably one of the best provisions, but I wonder how that works here. Doesn't WA conduct all-mail voting? How many places can people in each county vote in-person?

Same day and AVR will not achieve much. That’s the downside to not verifying citizenship status (it’s not that they can’t it’s that they won’t). However I do believe there was discussion of making all the Mail ballots postage prepaid, which should marginally help turnout outside of Seattle

[KingSweden]

WA State Democrats are in the process of passing their voting reform packages this week

[KingSweden]

yayyyy +11111

Finally some movement on election reform. New Jersey should be the next big one this year, hopefully well before November so at least some of the reforms can be in place for the election.

I should mention I’m unimpressed by what WA Dems are doing, but better than nothing

[KingSweden]

yayyyy +11111

Finally some movement on election reform. New Jersey should be the next big one this year, hopefully well before November so at least some of the reforms can be in place for the election.

I should mention I’m unimpressed by what WA Dems are doing, but better than nothing

What other reforms would you like included?

I'm assuming that what they announced was not watered down, in which case pre-registration for 16/17 year olds, same-day registration and limited auto-reg (commercial licenses only), along with the state VRA for reforming local govt elections, is still in effect.

In general I like all of that, but there are a couple things I wish they'd do: (1) Verify citizenship status to enable full auto voter reg, and (2) Prepaid mail ballot postage so people don't have to look around for stamps and such to send in their ballots. I believe Oregon had at least considered this, but I don't think they did it.

You hit the nail on the head. 1 and 2 are exactly my quibbles. This is pseudo AVR, not what Oregon has done.

I also still don’t get how Same Day Registration works when all ballots are mailed or deposited in drop boxes.

[KingSweden]

God is Great! 7-2!

Link

Supreme Court blocks re-drawing of congressional district maps in North Carolina

I was wondering when you’d show up again.

Anyways unsurprising considering the number of related cases before the Court currently.

[KingSweden]

You hit the nail on the head. 1 and 2 are exactly my quibbles. This is pseudo AVR, not what Oregon has done.

I also still don’t get how Same Day Registration works when all ballots are mailed or deposited in drop boxes.

I guess it would allow people to walk into some sort of government office to register and vote right then and there. I'm not exactly sure where this would be allowed, though.

Right, but how do they know what ballot to give you?

[KingSweden]

Right, but how do they know what ballot to give you?

I suppose they could always keep ballots there for every possible election going on that takes place in that county. Or, and while I'm not sure how the ballots are made and the rules around that, they could make it there based on the address provided by the voter. They wouldn't be the only state that allows same-day registration at a city/county office. There are a handful of SDR states that only allow registration/voting at such places - Montana, California, etc.

I’m sure people smarter than me have thought of all this. I just think this is an odd priority when free postage on ballots would probably have a bigger impact

[KingSweden]

That may be the reason. It’s a fair theory, at least

[KingSweden]

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Nice!

[KingSweden]

GOP bill to allow excuse free absentee voting in Indiana clears State Senate:

Lawmakers look to open absentee voting to all

Surprising but nice development

[KingSweden]

GOP rage imminent

Judge Strikes Down Felon Disenfranchisement System in Florida

Essentially using Citizens United as the basis for the ruling, at that

[KingSweden]

Compromise reached on Congressional redistricting reform in Ohio:

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/02/ohios_proposed_gerrymanding_fi.html

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It has some rules on compactness and county splits, and I think it does say the map can't favor political parties or incumbents, and it allows a Governor to veto it and citizens to file a veto referendum, so all in all it's better than nothing, but it wouldn't entirely stop Republicans from passing a bad map. It would just mean that without any votes from Democrats, it would only be in place for 4 years, which would give Democrats another shot to get a better map. On the other hand, it seems like Republicans would also have another shot to shore up their districts mid-decade, so I guess it depends on how you want to look at it.

Either way, better than nothing. Democrats should still invest heavily in taking back the Governor's mansion and the SoS office as well.

That is the most convoluted protocol ever designed by man.

[KingSweden]

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Are they applying AVR to agencies other than licensing?

[KingSweden]

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Are they applying AVR to agencies other than licensing?

Good question but IDK. I haven't read the bill

Reason I ask is because WADOL doesn’t ask for proof of citizenship, so AVR only based out of the DOL probably won’t make a huge dent.

[KingSweden]

Thanks Virginia! That does sound better than initially advertised. Using the (largely successful) healthcare exchange in the process is a clever innovation.

[KingSweden]

How strict is Michigan’s voter ID law?

[KingSweden]

NJ voting rights bills voted out of committee

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Sounds like a great package of reforms.

[KingSweden]

Didn't Democrats completely pass on a conservative-held WI Supreme Court race in 2017?

Correct

[KingSweden]

According to Rick Hansen....the majority opinion for Gil vs Witford has been assigned to either Chief Justice Roberts or Gorsuch

Not lookin too good

Possibly. It may also have been combined with Benisek.

[KingSweden]

According to Rick Hansen....the majority opinion for Gil vs Witford has been assigned to either Chief Justice Roberts or Gorsuch

Not lookin too good

A theory from Richard Pildes that Kennedy could still be writing the opinion:
http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98823

This could be the case, or it could have been combined with Benisek.

Who knows.

[KingSweden]

Young suburbans often have a hard time comprehending that not everyone was blessed with parents who kept their birth certificate/social security properly stored.  Many a times more elderly, poor, minorities who grew up during the civil rights era will lack proper documentation.  See this example: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/getting-a-photo-id-so-you-can-vote-is-easy-unless-youre-poor-black-latino-or-elderly/2016/05/23/8d5474ec-20f0-11e6-8690-f14ca9de2972_story.html?utm_term=.5c33d7df44e4

I've read a good amount of articles on this subject; and yes the barrier for entry is much harder than just going by the BMV and grabbing a government ID real quick.  You need to get all of the other documentation in order first; and that's often very costly.  So even if the government ID is free; it's still essentially a poll tax for voting when it comes to these people.  Especially if your license can be taken away/suspended due to failure of payment of a minor traffic violation (again; another hidden indirect poll tax).  I know many are okay with disenfranchisement of felons (which thankfully Democrats have made strides to correct like McAuliffe in Virginia); but essentially we're putting failure of payment for minor traffic violations by poor people into the same mix.  http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2012/08/voter_id_laws_why_do_minorities_lack_id_to_show_at_the_polls_.html

There are many valid reasons why one might not have an ID and why the unnecessary burden of a voter ID functions as an indirect poll tax on millions of them exercising their right to vote for the sake of warm and fuzzy feelings about stopping one or two cases of voter fraud. https://www.npr.org/2012/02/01/146204308/why-millions-of-americans-have-no-government-id

I again fall back on:

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First off, the Real ID is happening. That's already done.

If you don't believe photo IDs are required to vote, then there are a ton of things in society where the photo ID requirement should be legislatively banned. Period. There are far too many things that require photo IDs that are far less important than voting. How do these people function in daily society? You have to have a photo ID to drop off or pickup a child according to some daycares. To sit for the SAT exam, you have to have a photo ID. If you don't have a photo ID, you are effectively banned from leaving the country. You can't get into Canada for damn sure. You can't get on an airplane. You can choose to be an illegal and cross into Mexico or hop on an intertube and try to reach Cuba or Haiti. It is preposterous when you consider everything that requires a photo ID, and yet voting is the one thing where people think this should not apply.

To all people that don't think photo ID should be required to vote, I ask you to start pushing for legislation to ban all things that require photo ID. When you actually start doing those bills and they start getting turned into law, I'll treat your argument like it has merit. This is an intellectually bankrupt argument otherwise.


edit: To receive your credentials to get access into the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, you were required to show photo ID.

Few states have implemented Real ID, fwiw.

Anyways I think you’re debating practice vs principle. There’s nothing wrong with Voter ID in *principle*, hell I’m open to it, but in practice it is often designed to be unfair and keep voters unfavorable to GOP candidates from the polls. Making it hard to get an ID, arbitrary decisions in what kind of ID can be used, shutting down DMVs in minority areas... there are a number of cases in which Republicans pushing these laws have not acted in good faith.

That said, if implemented fairly, I’m not against it. Say, by combining AVR and Voter ID. I’d be open to that. Of course being spoiled to live in a VBM State I think our system is the best.

[KingSweden]

I don't have a problem with photo ID as a requirement *if* it's free and very easily accessible (e.g., you don't require people in poor rural counties to travel to the next county, as Alabama tried to do not long ago).

The difference between voting and the other activities mentioned is that voting is a foundation, if not the foundation, of our democratic form of government.  As such, if we pretend to be a free and equal society, voting needs to be as easy and convenient as possible for all potential voters. 

In a perfect world, all entitled voters would be able to easily vote, and no unentitled voters would slip through.  But the world isn't perfect, so systems should err on the side of enfranchisement, not disenfranchisement, just as the criminal justice system is designed to err on the side of innocence.  The downside of disenfranchising entitled voters is worse than allowing some unentitled votes to creep in (and studies have consistently shown that the number of unentitled voters to cast votes has been insignificant). 

Well said