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

[GeorgiaModerate]

The Supreme Court will hear a case next term challenging Ohio’s policy of removing inactive voters from the registration rolls: http://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/335595-supreme-court-to-hear-ohio-voter-purge-case

[GeorgiaModerate]

NC Gov. Cooper calls a special session to redraw legislative maps: http://www.wral.com/cooper-tells-lawmakers-to-redraw-voting-maps/16748709/

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[GeorgiaModerate]

Gerrymandering in Michigan is done!

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Aren't you jumping the gun a bit?  They have to collect enough signatures to get on the ballot, and then it has to pass.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Federal Court finds two Texas congressional districts (27 & 35) violate the VRA and 14th Amendment, require that it "must be remedied by either the Texas Legislature or this Court."

http://electionlawblog.org/?p=94308

[GeorgiaModerate]

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[GeorgiaModerate]

Gallup, 8/27

Approve 35 (nc)
Disapprove 60 (nc)

Very stable for the last few days.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Gallup, 8/27

Approve 35 (nc)
Disapprove 60 (nc)

Very stable for the last few days.

Wrong thread, GM

Ack!  Sorry about that.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Massive voter fraud in Philadelphia. They are trying to steal the elections.

http://dailysignal.com/2017/09/24/hundreds-of-illegal-voters-revealed-in-philadelphia/amp/

Rampant voter fraud then.

Link

Saying Philadelphia's election system had collapsed under "a massive scheme" by Democrats to steal a State Senate election in November, a Federal judge today took the rare step of invalidating the vote and ordered the seat filled by the Republican candidate.


And rampant voter fraud now. Clearly they tried to steal the election.


Link

Pedro Cortes, Pennsylvania’s secretary of state, abruptly resigned from office Wednesday, three weeks after his agency came under criticism for a glitch that may have allowed thousands of ineligible immigrants statewide to vote.

The number listed in the article of ineligible voters who actually voted is very low.  

This isn't fraud, it's incompetence.

[GeorgiaModerate]

White House wants to argue that AVR us unconstitutional:

That argument might hold some water against a law requiring compulsory voting.  But I don't see how it applies to registration; you can still choose not to vote.

[GeorgiaModerate]

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[GeorgiaModerate]

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee (Eric Holder's group) is suing Wisconsin Gov. Walker over his refusal to call special elections for two vacant legislative seats.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/26/eric-holders-group-sues-wisconsin-gov-scott-walker-over-not-calling-special-elections/374278002/

Featuring a candidate for Most Asinine Interpretation of a Law award:

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[GeorgiaModerate]

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee (Eric Holder's group) is suing Wisconsin Gov. Walker over his refusal to call special elections for two vacant legislative seats.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/26/eric-holders-group-sues-wisconsin-gov-scott-walker-over-not-calling-special-elections/374278002/

Featuring a candidate for Most Asinine Interpretation of a Law award:

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The way it sounds was the vacancy happened before 5/2/18 since 2018 is a regular election year so it should be filled...

Yeah, that's clearly the intent of the law.  They're arguing that since the vacancy didn't happen "in the year in which a regular election is held" that the law doesn't apply.  See "straws, grasping of".

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://politics.myajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/bill-shorten-atlanta-voting-hours-advances-house/goraM0zz8ft43NldUsjekL/

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Personally I'd rather the state move up by an hour rather than take Atlanta down one, but meh.

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/ShaneGoldmacher/status/986627673798709249

[GeorgiaModerate]

A federal judge has ruled that Marion County [Indianapolis] must create at least two early voting locations before the November elections:

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[GeorgiaModerate]

Arkansas judge blocks state voter ID law.

[GeorgiaModerate]

5th Circuit upholds Texas voter ID law, reversing lower court.

[GeorgiaModerate]

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). 

[GeorgiaModerate]

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So why did the Democratic National Convention in 2012 and 2016 require photo ID in order to gain access to the Convention? If you were a delegate and did not have photo ID, you would not be given access to the Convention and therefore would be unable to vote on who the candidate of the party should be from the Convention as well as any other business matters.

You're attempting to deflect.  I already said that I have no problem with photo ID as long as it's free and easily accessible.  But in addition, the Democratic Party is not a government entity. 

I answered your comment.  Will you answer one of mine: do you agree or disagree with this paragraph in my previous post?

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). 

[GeorgiaModerate]

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[GeorgiaModerate]

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[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/srl/status/1008832085468090370

ETA: The judge also ordered Kobach to take some legal classes!  That's hilarious.

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[GeorgiaModerate]

More on that Kansas voter ID law:

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"Immediately" is open to interpretation?  Seriously?

[GeorgiaModerate]

http://www.wmur.com/article/split-court-says-voter-residency-bill-is-constitutional/22128916

This is NH specific. State Supreme Court says a bill that basically disenfranchises college students in the state is constitutional, even though the state constitution says voting rights are guaranteed for "inhabitants", not residents.

Almost at the end of a long road Sununu and NH Republicans started down literally as soon as they gained control of the entire state government.

I think it says something about the Governor when his first priority upon taking office was restricting voting for students and "non-residents," when in fact there is no evidence of massive voter fraud that they can't seem to stop whining about. Every election cycle, it's the same thing, "buses of voters" from Massachusetts, and yet, after all this time, they can't seem to find evidence that this is actually happening. These are grown adults literally just making things up as if they were kids day dreaming.

Obviously this is all a ploy to try and lock in power, but there exists a uncomfortably large segment of people who actually believe their elections are victims of large amounts of fraud, despite no proof of it whatsoever.

Ah yes, those busloads from Massachusetts claims.  From a recent WMUR article: Exhaustive investigation reveals little evidence of possible voter fraud in NH:

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[GeorgiaModerate]

On one hand, we know exactly why Republicans want to prevent out of state college students from voting. But they do have a point. No other state gives out-of-state residents as much freedom when voting locally as New Hampshire does. And when you take into account both Trump and Ayote losing by very tiny margins, why wouldn't NH republicans push for this?

As long as NH college students have the option to vote absentee like everybody else, the outrage from democrats seems a tad disingenuous.


Edit: Also, interesting a democrat on the NH Supreme Court sided with the two republicans.

I mean, they were even mulling getting rid of election day registration, which they've had for a while now, but they didn't because then they would lose their exception to the NVRA. All of this was about Republicans losing two closes races and seeking to flex their legislative muscle to restrict as many Democratic-leaning voters as possible from voting in future elections. That's all it ever is with Republicans. They cry about non-existent fraud and then use the resulting lack of trust they are responsible for to justify voter suppression disguised as "restoring integrity." It all makes me utterly sick to my stomach. This country needs to standardize voting regulations and be done with it. States have discredited themselves as responsible stewards of elections. Some Republican-run states can't even be trusted to offer reasonable early voting sites (re: Indiana and North Carolina), which is something painfully basic.

And Sununu does this all with his sh**t-eating grin on his face, pretending to be reasonable, telling students he doesn't want to keep them from voting, then signing bill after bill designed to reduce their electoral clout. And no doubt Democrats, whenever they take back power, will be true to form and do little to nothing to protect the state from voter suppression schemes in the future. I think only Illinois has passed a constitutional amendment explicitly protecting the right to vote.

edit: Also, I don't understand what the beef these people have with students is about. Students spend more time in NH than not, and going off to college is generally considered leaving the nest for many students, so at least for 4 years or so, that is their home. And don't quote me on it, but iirc, courts have already ruled that students cannot be banned from voting in the state they go to school in, so their enrollment in a college in New Hampshire should be enough.

Republicans are just trying to change the rules to boost their odds in elections, plain and simple.

Yes, this was upheld by the Supreme Court in Symm v. United States, 1979.