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

[junior chįmp]

Ohio anti gerrymandering ballot initiative will most likely collect enough signatures to be on the ballot in 2018:

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[KingSweden]

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

[junior chįmp]

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

They already passed a law for the state legislature districts....this one is for the Federal Congressional districts

[senyor_brownbear]

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.

[Kamala]

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.

[Keep cool-idge]

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.

[Kamala]

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.

Thank you for mansplaining my own state to me.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

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.

Yeah, but you can significantly narrow the republican advantage.

[Cactus Jack]

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.

Stop pretending to know things, kiddo.

[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

[junior chįmp]

Oklahoma Atlasians should sign this petition

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[junior chįmp]

Power To The People!

Link

Commonwealth Court Says Pa’s Congressional Lines Do Not Violate State Constitution

Cucked yet again!

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[Gass3268]

Washington Senate Democrats unveil a massive voter access improvement package.

[Virginiá]

^^ This is even better than I thought. I've been waiting years to finally see some major movement on this stuff, and I think the next 2 years will finally satiate me

[Virginiá]

Judge ends consent decree limiting RNC 'ballot security' activities

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/09/rnc-ballot-security-consent-decree-328995

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I wonder how long it will take the party to go back to its roots on this. It's possible they won't, but given all the effort they have put into restricting voter access over the past decade, I'm not too optimistic.

[Virginiá]

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?

[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

[krazen1211]

Power To The People!

Link

Commonwealth Court Says Pa’s Congressional Lines Do Not Violate State Constitution

Power To The People!

Link

Federal judges rule in favor of Pennsylvania Republicans in gerrymandering case

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Power To The People!

Link

Commonwealth Court Says Pa’s Congressional Lines Do Not Violate State Constitution

Power To The People!

Link

Federal judges rule in favor of Pennsylvania Republicans in gerrymandering case

Power To The People!

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article193814154.html

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[krazen1211]

Power To The People!

Link

Commonwealth Court Says Pa’s Congressional Lines Do Not Violate State Constitution

Power To The People!

Link

Federal judges rule in favor of Pennsylvania Republicans in gerrymandering case

Power To The People!

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article193814154.html

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Well, not yet. The Supreme Court has not yet issued a ruling to overthrow this heist attempt. True federalists across the nation can cheer as the 4th circuit can no longer take advantage of the temporary void left by Great Justice Scalia.

[Torie]

Power To The People!

Link

Commonwealth Court Says Pa’s Congressional Lines Do Not Violate State Constitution

Power To The People!

Link

Federal judges rule in favor of Pennsylvania Republicans in gerrymandering case

Power To The People!

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article193814154.html

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Well, not yet. The Supreme Court has not yet issued a ruling to overthrow this heist attempt. True federalists across the nation can cheer as the 4th circuit can no longer take advantage of the temporary void left by Great Justice Scalia.

If Justice Kennedy does his expected thing, I suspect the NC map will go down the tubes. We shall see. The Pubs were hogs rather than pigs in some of these maps, doing grotesque things to get one extra seat, or pad a seat so that it would never be marginal. Pigs get fat, and hogs get slaughtered. Smart gerrymanderers draw pretty maps, and the biases are subtle. There are not many smart gerrymanderers on the Fruited Plain. Well maybe that Mathis woman qualifies in the Dem gerrymander of AZ as the supposedly non partisan person on the commission. But then she sort of had to be somewhat subtle, given her oath of office. One irony is that CA CD map. It was a Dem gerrymander lite, but given the collapse of the Pub party in CA, it now has morphed into a Pub gerrymander lite. Who knew?

[krazen1211]

If Justice Kennedy does his expected thing, I suspect the NC map will go down the tubes. We shall see. The Pubs were hogs rather than pigs in some of these maps, doing grotesque things to get one extra seat, or pad a seat so that it would never be marginal. Pigs get fat, and hogs get slaughtered. Smart gerrymanderers draw pretty maps, and the biases are subtle. There are not many smart gerrymanderers on the Fruited Plain. Well maybe that Mathis woman qualifies in the Dem gerrymander of AZ as the supposedly non partisan person on the commission. But then she sort of had to be somewhat subtle, given her oath of office. One irony is that CA CD map. It was a Dem gerrymander lite, but given the collapse of the Pub party in CA, it now has morphed into a Pub gerrymander lite. Who knew?

Surely that is possible. But the Supreme Court has already taken a case from Maryland from the 4th circuit. The 4th circuit is strangely in conflict with itself on this matter. I suspect these cases will be consolidated.

The Supreme Court already ruled on North Carolina redistricting's 1st and 12th districts...both of which have been redrawn into nicely shaped districts that are vastly less serpentine than those in Maryland.

In any case the appeal has already been filed.

[krazen1211]

The District Court has dismissed a nonsensical challenge to Alabama common sense voter ID.

Link

[Virginiá]

Just wanted to add - it doesn't matter what the districts look like. SCOTUS will probably hold it until they rule on Whitford, but if they come out against partisan gerrymandering, North Carolina's lawsuit is open and shut. They admitted it was a partisan gerrymander in a comical effort to insulate themselves from a lawsuit on racial grounds, and Lewis specifically said the only reason he didn't draw an 11R - 2D map was because he didn't think it was possible. In other words, he believed this was the most partisan map he could put together. Of course if SCOTUS opts to allow map rigging to continue, then we might see a different final outcome.

Anyway, there are numerous threads for this topic and an entire board for map-related stuff, so can we please keep discussion of gerrymanders here to a minimum?

[Torie]

Sorry to interrupt the regular programming. I do admit I have something of a map fetish.