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

[Virginiá]

https://twitter.com/PoliticsWolf/status/1214576833196281856

New Jersey also moving on things like online voter registration, ending prison gerrymandering, and ending felony disenfranchisement of those on parole/probation.

[Virginiá]

Impressive haul:

https://apnews.com/f6986724bcdaaac6aaed3276b9a97c7e

The political action committee for a voting rights group founded by Democrat Stacey Abrams on Wednesday reported raising more than $14.6 million in the last half of 2019.

A big chunk of Fair Fight’s haul came as a single $5 million donation from Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg in December, according to a report filed with the Georgia state ethics commission.

The group reported having $11.1 million in cash on hand.

Although not sure what they plan to spend it on. In service of expanding voting rights, the most effective use of their money would be ballot initiatives, in my opinion. Other groups are already spraying the courts with lawsuits over voting restrictions and voter registration isn't really the purview of a voting rights group.

[Gass3268]

Mandatory Voter ID is being scrapped in Virginia!

https://twitter.com/ssurovell/status/1224759081342246913?s=20

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1234117609274200065

[GeorgiaModerate]

Georgia voters must be quickly notified when election officials reject their absentee ballots, allowing them time to correct problems and have their ballots counted, according to a settlement with the Democratic Party announced Saturday.

Under the settlement in federal court, Georgia election officials agreed to contact voters whose ballots were rejected by email, phone and mail within three business days. Voters must be contacted the next business day if absentee ballots are invalidated during the 11 days before election day.

https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/lawsuit-settled-giving-georgia-voters-time-fix-rejected-ballots/oJcZ4eCXf8J197AEdGfsSM/

[Virginiá]

Crazy good Virginia legislative session - better than I was expecting. Some bills yet to be signed by the governor, but the list looks likely to be at least this:

Same-day registration (effective October 2022)
Automatic registration
No-excuse absentee voting, extended absentee voting period
Pre-paid postage for absentee ballots
Permanent absentee mailing list
Extended voting hours during early voting and election day from 7pm to 8pm
Election day made a holiday (not necessarily good for voter access)
Strict voter ID law significantly softened - basically rolls back all Republican-backed changes since Obama was elected.

+ other changes


I'd also note the redistricting amendment, but that has to be approved by voters. I'm also not convinced it is a good thing, either. Democrats had a chance to pass an actual reform amendment, but couldn't seem to force that. This amendment doesn't actually prohibit partisan gerrymandering. It just structures a commission in such a way that it makes it unlikely, because it requires buy-in from members of the other party. Failure to adopt maps punts it to the Virginia State Supreme Court, which in some ways is a partisan body whose members are elected by the General Assembly to 12 year terms. So a court "elected" by Republican lawmakers is responsible for drawing maps that indirectly determine whether or not they keep their jobs when their term(s) are up. Massive conflict of interest if I ever saw one. The bench has a vested interest in seeing Republicans retain control of the GA, so they themselves can keep their judicial positions. But many of the stakeholders were so desperate for anything that they latched onto this flawed amendment as if it were the only option. Another option would have been to pass a better amendment and have it force a redraw of legislative/Congressional maps after it goes into effect, which would be post-2022 elections, if approved.

[Badger]

Crazy good Virginia legislative session - better than I was expecting. Some bills yet to be signed by the governor, but the list looks likely to be at least this:

Same-day registration (effective October 2022)
Automatic registration
No-excuse absentee voting, extended absentee voting period
Pre-paid postage for absentee ballots
Permanent absentee mailing list
Extended voting hours during early voting and election day from 7pm to 8pm
Election day made a holiday (not necessarily good for voter access)
Strict voter ID law significantly softened - basically rolls back all Republican-backed changes since Obama was elected.

+ other changes


I'd also note the redistricting amendment, but that has to be approved by voters. I'm also not convinced it is a good thing, either. Democrats had a chance to pass an actual reform amendment, but couldn't seem to force that. This amendment doesn't actually prohibit partisan gerrymandering. It just structures a commission in such a way that it makes it unlikely, because it requires buy-in from members of the other party. Failure to adopt maps punts it to the Virginia State Supreme Court, which in some ways is a partisan body whose members are elected by the General Assembly to 12 year terms. So a court "elected" by Republican lawmakers is responsible for drawing maps that indirectly determine whether or not they keep their jobs when their term(s) are up. Massive conflict of interest if I ever saw one. The bench has a vested interest in seeing Republicans retain control of the GA, so they themselves can keep their judicial positions. But many of the stakeholders were so desperate for anything that they latched onto this flawed amendment as if it were the only option. Another option would have been to pass a better amendment and have it force a redraw of legislative/Congressional maps after it goes into effect, which would be post-2022 elections, if approved.

WTF were Virginia Democrats thinking agreeing to this weak tea anti-gerrymandering law?!? They could have either past an amendment creating a bona fide independent redistricting Commission like Iowa, or if they wanted to play true Hardball and say F you two states like North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, etc etc, they could have ran through a vicious redistricting of Their Own after the ongoing census. I'm not in favor of the ladder to be honest, but why they left things up to a court-appointed by the same hacks who were elected to office through gerrymandering to begin with and like you said have a vested interest in maintaining that, is indecipherable.

[Virginiá]

WTF were Virginia Democrats thinking agreeing to this weak tea anti-gerrymandering law?!? They could have either past an amendment creating a bona fide independent redistricting Commission like Iowa, or if they wanted to play true Hardball and say F you two states like North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, etc etc, they could have ran through a vicious redistricting of Their Own after the ongoing census. I'm not in favor of the ladder to be honest, but why they left things up to a court-appointed by the same hacks who were elected to office through gerrymandering to begin with and like you said have a vested interest in maintaining that, is indecipherable.

Most of the Democrats in the House of Delegates did vote no, but like 8 or so voted for it, along with every single Republican. There was a lot of pressure from activists and reformers, and unlike Republicans, who have a lot of experience in ignoring public sentiment and ramming through unpopular power grabs, Democrats cave much more easily.

[free my dawg]

https://twitter.com/caseymcdermott/status/1248256835976597506

For the uninitiated, SB3 was a highly controversial bill meant to suppress the student vote (along with election-day registration). It originally because Sununu himself flip-flopped and signed it, despite openly admitting that the bill was meant to suppress the student vote. It's also worth noting that suppressing the student vote has been a long-term goal of the NHGOP - even to the admission of our former Speaker.

There's little support for repealing election-day registration, even among Republicans. They floated the idea after Trump's comments about Democrats busing in voters, but few want to outright repeal it because it'd put us under the jurisdiction of the Motor Voter Act.

The crux of the law is that it requires voters who registered within 30 days of the election to show proof that they live at their address - whether it be car registration, a utility bill, a driver's license, or a statement of residency. It's fairly obvious what the intent of the bill is - so obvious that our governor literally said he initially hated the bill because it hurt the student vote. Anyone who can't can still vote, but must sign a long, confusing form to do so.

There were originally penalties involved, but those were immediately struck down by a judge. As for the case itself, Democrats argued that the restrictions imposed were confusing, added more red tape to the election, and that the "problem" of voter fraud didn't meaningfully exist in the state. Republicans argue that the bill doesn't actually prevent anyone from voting, per se, and that there's a need to be proactive against any sort of voter fraud before it happens.

SB3 is commonly confused with HB1264, which changes the definitions from a domicile-based system to a residency-based system. The bill, in effect, requires people to obtain a NH license or register their cars in the state. Such a ruling is currently pending.

[Virginiá]

Very impressed with my namesake!

https://twitter.com/PoliticsWolf/status/1251933811396337665

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

I hope VA Dems can pass a tough 8-3 Democratic gerrymander. Republicans are going to play hardball in OH, GA, TX and FL. We can't universally disarm if the other side is still playing hardball.

[jimrtex]

They could have either past an amendment creating a bona fide independent redistricting Commission like Iowa.

Iowa does not have redistricting commission.

[Virginiá]

You know, before, even I can accept that Republicans aren't all wrong about the idea of people putting a little effort into voting. Of course, even if I think many people are just too lazy about all of it, I still disagree with the idea that voting procedures should remain unfriendly and complicated just because.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic is really driving home how much of the GOP is driven to create complicated and unforgiving election rules for the sake of helping them win, and not because of some belief in a more "dedicated" electorate:

https://twitter.com/DavidNir/status/1254584413167419392

From @marceelias:

Oklahoma has 2 million registered voters.  If only half of them vote by mail, the state will need a minimum of 50,000 notaries--each notarizing their full 20 max.

There is no good reason to shoot down a small little change like this in the middle of a pandemic. If you're going to require a ballot to be notarized in order to be turned in (seriously?), at least increase the # of ballots a single notary can process. A person who seeks out someone to notarize their ballot should be sufficiently dedicated for any reasonable person. What good does this artificially low limit do? What, are they afraid of rogue actors notarizing bajillions of ballots and stealing elections? Give me a break.

Is this how petty and power-driven things have gotten? Do Oklahoma Republicans seriously think this change is going to make or break them? Oklahoma is basically a one party state, and that is not going to change anytime soon. Utah Republicans get this, which is probably at least part of the reason they have made voting easier, bucking the dominant trend in national conservative election policy.

[Virginiá]

https://twitter.com/PoliticsWolf/status/1255228519279452161

[Comrade Funk]

https://twitter.com/Davis_Hammet/status/1255529866453286921

[Comrade Funk]

https://twitter.com/politicswolf/status/1257352407060828160?s=21

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1257648740778868736

[Virginiá]

https://twitter.com/AriBerman/status/1258185142553792516

Honestly, once Trump is gone and a Democrat takes over again, I don't want to hear a single godforsaken word about their nominees competence or objectiveness. With Trump, it's been nothing but a parade of unqualified hacks, donors, family members and friends taking positions of power in the government. And  If Republicans are completely fine with Trump doing this, don't expect Democrats to give a single crap about their "concerns" with the nominees of the next Democratic president.

[Virginiá]

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1257648740778868736

Andddd the response from the legislature:

https://twitter.com/PoliticsWolf/status/1258516845365059584

[cg41386]

Massive waste for the GOP, it’s just going to get overturned again.

[Comrade Funk]

This is the ultimate goal of McConnell's court packing. Not abortion or civil liberties. This.
https://twitter.com/barmellyonstv/status/1270332070775185408

[Virginiá]

https://twitter.com/politvidchannel/status/1272964934872133633

I suppose it's good either way, but much less so since the GOP-led legislature passed a bill instituting the same kind of poll tax Florida Republicans did after the passage of Amendment 4. Granted, the FL judiciary practically runs a racket by shaking down people passing through the court system, so I'm not sure if Iowa has the same issue and thus would block a similar number of felons from getting their rights back.

[YE]

https://twitter.com/politicswolf/status/1285674634436915201?s=21

[MasterJedi]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/05/politics/iowa-governor-ex-felons-voting-rights/index.html

Some good news out of a Republican state. Iowa now will automatically restore ex-felons voting rights once they have completed what they need to.

[jimrtex]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/05/politics/iowa-governor-ex-felons-voting-rights/index.html

Some good news out of a Republican state. Iowa now will automatically restore ex-felons voting rights once they have completed what they need to.

Iowa is catching up with Florida and Virginia.