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

[Antonio the Sixth]

Glorious news!

[Antonio the Sixth]

McAuliffe has now pledged to do all 13,000+ restorations the long way before the election.  I assume he's serious because it would look horrible to promise this and then go back on it.

If he does that, he's a certified BADASS.

[Antonio the Sixth]

AHA! WE WIN! (for now)

Plausibly, is this going to get to the SCOTUS before or after the confirmation of Scalia's replacement?

[Antonio the Sixth]

Thanks! Very informative, and very good news!

I'd kind of have hoped to see this decision overseen by a full SCOTUS, so as to have a chance to set precedent instead of just affirming the decision through a tie. Heh, I guess there's a chance Kennedy might wake up in a good mood and join the liberals, who knows?

[Antonio the Sixth]

Ugh.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Huzzah!

ITT: people happy their political opponents will be prevented from voting.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Good!

[Antonio the Sixth]

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Well then...

If he does that, he's a certified BADASS.

...he is.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Looks like California will be going to Vote by Mail

This looks great, but I don't understand why they have to close existing polling places. This might create confusion among long-time voters who are used to the old system. Why can't they keep both in place?

[Antonio the Sixth]

The Associated Press ‏@AP  7m7 minutes ago
BREAKING: U.S. Supreme Court refuses to restore North Carolina's GOP-backed voter ID and its reduction in early voting days.

YES! It's happening!

What's the vote tally?

[Antonio the Sixth]

The Associated Press ‏@AP  7m7 minutes ago
BREAKING: U.S. Supreme Court refuses to restore North Carolina's GOP-backed voter ID and its reduction in early voting days.

YES! It's happening!

What's the vote tally?

4-4 deadlock, so it couldn't overturn the 4th circuit. If Scalia were there though...

Ugh, this could have made jurisprudence if Garland had been confirmed.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Good.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Terrible decision. If people can provide proof of their vote this opens the door to all sorts of 19th-century style corruption.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Free Speech: 1
Big Government: 0

Libertarian Logic never ceases to amaze.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Why is this a stickied thread? Unlike gay marriage, this is so under-the-radar.

Because voting rules are the pillar on which democracy rests?

This is by far one of the most important and informative threads on the forum.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Terry McAuliffe = Certified Badass

[Antonio the Sixth]

Kennedy keeps being terrible.

[Antonio the Sixth]

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Good New! Pennsylvania will in all likelihood have to be redrawn before the 2018 elections!

OMG, that is big.

[Antonio the Sixth]

BIG, if true

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Are there any updates on what the IDC is doing? Because these kinds of reforms would take every single non-Republican vote in the state Senate to pass. I really hope he can ram it through but I'm not too confident right now.

The real reason Cuomo proposed this is because NYC just passed these reforms and Cuomo absolutely hates De Blasio and wants to "up" him in any way.

Cuomo may not be motivated by genuine reasons but he never passes up a chance to stick it to de Blasio in a petty competitive way lol

I mean if by "stick it to" you mean "coopt his agenda" that's fine with me.

[Antonio the Sixth]

FantasySCOTUS, which has a pretty good track record on predicting SCOTUS cases, predicts that gerrymandering will be ruled unconstitutional by a 5 to 4 decision in Gil vs. Whitford

https://fantasyscotus.lexpredict.com/case/list/

I sure hope this is the case.

Fingers crossed.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Victory for America!

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WHOOP WHOOP!

GLORIOUS NEWS!

[Antonio the Sixth]

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

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hahahahahaha wow

[Antonio the Sixth]

https://twitter.com/Taniel/status/1012078313156808706

Some much needed good news.

Who cares? Justice Sean Hannity will write the SCOTUS opinion that finds AVR unconstitutional soon enough anyway.

[Antonio the Sixth]

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.

So that begs the question, why is New Hampshire the only state college students can vote in local elections without jumping through hurdles?

*raises the question

[Antonio the Sixth]

Great news!