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

[KingSweden]

https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00/status/1024483470406557699

https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00/status/1024484332780568576

Really curious to see a summary of the dissent for us non-lawyers. Three dissents is a little close for a comfort.

IANAL but basically the question hinged on whether the amendment was so substantial a change that it was too substantive to be legal via initiative vs constitutional convention. Neither the opinion nor the dissent turned upon the merits of the proposal itself

[Gass3268]

Good news!

https://twitter.com/davidshepardson/status/1024678204106330112

[Sic Semper Fascistis]

Good news!

https://twitter.com/davidshepardson/status/1024678204106330112

Every time I see news about a federal judge making a good ruling like this all I can think is "who cares, this is gonna be overturned by Justice Kavanaugh soon enough".

[Gass3268]

Colorado, Michigan, Utah and possibly Missouri will have ballot measures for redistricting commissions this November. 

Missouri will have a redistricting reform measure on the ballot.

https://twitter.com/CleanMissouri/status/1025048463359266816

[Gass3268]

Good news!

https://twitter.com/davidshepardson/status/1024678204106330112

Every time I see news about a federal judge making a good ruling like this all I can think is "who cares, this is gonna be overturned by Justice Kavanaugh soon enough".

Michigan reinstated it via the ballot box, but then the state legislature overturned and added a monetary portion to it so they couldn't reinstate it again via the ballot box. So this year folks are trying to pass a constitutional amendment that would add straight ballot voting and other pro-voting measures to the state constitution.

[Virginiá]

Unfortunately, Missouri's initiative only appears to have legislative redistricting reform and not Congressional, according to Ballotpedia. Not sure why. I hope they can shoot for CDs in 2020.

Michigan reinstated it via the ballot box, but then the state legislature overturned and added a monetary portion to it so they couldn't reinstate it again via the ballot box. So this year folks are trying to pass a constitutional amendment that would add straight ballot voting and other pro-voting measures to the state constitution.

It's really quite amazing how much effort has been put into initiatives in Michigan this cycle. MI could go from a state with some of the worst gerrymandered lines and stingiest voter access rules to a state with fair maps and some of the best pro-voter rules in the country.

Not to mention the initiatives for minimum wage, paid sick leave and cannabis legalization.

[Torie]

The Missouri proposal would effectively require the legislative seats to be gerrymandered in favor of the Dems to enable them to prevail in the percentage of the seats that matches their statewide percentage.  That is an erroneous way to calculate it, even if you wanted that principle. Muon2 says you need to double the dominant party's margin, so if a minority party got 45% of the statewide vote, they should get only 40% of the seats.

And even with that correction, it would still require gerrymandering for the Dems to offset the geographical concentration of Dems and the VRA (although in Missouri, the CD to be reasonably drawn for the black constituency closely matches what should be drawn anyway, given how the county and City of St. Louis lines lie). So I oppose that approach. Minimize chops and erosity, and then for maps that get basically to the same score, try to go for competitiveness and minimizing partisan skew per the Muon2 formula.

[muon2]

I suspect that the proposal in MO is based on similar state constitutional law as in IL. In IL the state constitution only deals with legislative apportionment, so that is the only type of district where one can impose procedural changes. Congressional districts are purely statutory.

As Torie notes, I have often quoted academic studies that show an ideal legislature should not mirror the statewide vote but should skew about 2 points for every point away from 50-50. If a state has very few districts then that skew can be greater. Consider a state with only one district (like the governor) - it skews 100% in favor of the party winning the statewide vote.

[Gass3268]

Iowa Supreme Court upholds injunction on the new Voter ID law:

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1027961579994734592

[ON Progressive]

Iowa Supreme Court upholds injunction on the new Voter ID law:

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1027961579994734592

Excellent news.

[Virginiá]

^ Is that lawsuit halting the entire ID requirement, or just for absentee voting? I haven't followed it too much.


https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/indiana-marion-county-early-voting_us_5b6dd7cce4b0530743c9c2ef

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Republicans upset Indiana's most populous county is going to have more than one early voting site (they are fine with whiter, more Republican counties next to it having more than one though)

[Abolish ICE]

^ Is that lawsuit halting the entire ID requirement, or just for absentee voting? I haven't followed it too much.


https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/indiana-marion-county-early-voting_us_5b6dd7cce4b0530743c9c2ef

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Republicans upset Indiana's most populous county is going to have more than one early voting site (they are fine with whiter, more Republican counties next to it having more than one though)

Isn't Curtis Hill being accused of sexual harassment and/or sexual assault by four different women including one member of the Indiana legislature?  I thought he'd already resigned.

[Virginiá]

Isn't Curtis Hill being accused of sexual harassment and/or sexual assault by four different women including one member of the Indiana legislature?  I thought he'd already resigned.

He seems to be attempting to ride out the allegations, even with a special prosecutor investigating him.

[libertpaulian]

Isn't Curtis Hill being accused of sexual harassment and/or sexual assault by four different women including one member of the Indiana legislature?  I thought he'd already resigned.

He seems to be attempting to ride out the allegations, even with a special prosecutor investigating him.

These are the kind of things that Donnelly should be capitalizing on but instead he's largely ignoring.

[pbrower2a]

This couldn't be connected with any effort to reduce the ability of poor black people to vote in an election, could it?

Nice kitty, nice kitty... couldn't hurt a mouse!

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https://www.wjbf.com/news/georgia-news/georgia-county-to-close-7-of-9-voting-precincts-civil-rights-attorney-calls-it-voter-suppression-/1375679662

[SingingAnalyst]

This couldn't be connected with any effort to reduce the ability of poor black people to vote in an election, could it?

Nice kitty, nice kitty... couldn't hurt a mouse!

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https://www.wjbf.com/news/georgia-news/georgia-county-to-close-7-of-9-voting-precincts-civil-rights-attorney-calls-it-voter-suppression-/1375679662

Well, stating that the voting places are not ADA compliant sounds better than saying "to cut costs"-- so why not spend the bit of money it would take to make them ADA compliant?

The county is 59.47% Black, but I'll bet it's much lower than that if you only count adults 18+. Or adults 60-80, who have the highest voter turnout.

43.8% Trump is high for such a "Black" county.

I can only hope for a time when voting is encouraged, rather than discouraged; and voting is made easier, rather than harder.

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1030594569115783170

[GeorgiaModerate]

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[Sic Semper Fascistis]

This sounds like a slam dunk case. What other rationale could the SoS possibly have?

[Virginiá]

It's nice they brought this suit, but why so late? This has to do with voter registration, which means the timing is really pushing the envelope in terms of usefulness. They would need an injunction within the next week to get at least a month where students can register without these restrictions. Otherwise it might be the case that if they do get an injunction, maybe it happens just a week before the deadline or even worse, after, at which point it does nothing for 2018. Also, isn't the Purcell principle an issue here (no election regulation rulings too close to an election)?

Anyway, cool news I suppose, but it's just frustrating to see this every election cycle - lawsuits brought at the last minute over something they should have done half a year ago or more.

[Virginiá]

Seems like a lot of voter fraud over the past few years! :

https://twitter.com/HunterMw/status/1037803172994146304


....among Republicans

[GeorgiaModerate]

Judge orders Florida to provide Spanish-language ballots

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[GeorgiaModerate]

On that Florida ruling, this is terrific (the 2nd part below):

https://twitter.com/srl/status/1038109978182209539

[ON Progressive]

On that Florida ruling, this is terrific (the 2nd part below):

https://twitter.com/srl/status/1038109978182209539

LMAO. The citation is great too.

[Sic Semper Fascistis]

On that Florida ruling, this is terrific (the 2nd part below):

https://twitter.com/srl/status/1038109978182209539

AMAZING