voter id

Voter fraud hard to prove; fears spark legislation | WRAL.com

May 182012

It sounds like a simple enough idea: take the list of people who have been excused from jury duty because they were listed as “non-citizens” and compare those names to the voter rolls. The matches could be non-U.S. citizens registered to vote in our elections. That was the method conservative provocateur James O’Keefe used in a video that went viral this week when he claimed to find non-U.S. citizens registered to vote in North Carolina. A local group called the Voter Integrity Project of North Carolina also used it to identify 553 registered Wake County voters who could be non-citizens. Those reports have added fuel to a contentious debate over whether North Carolina should require voters to show ID when they go to vote. Currently, poll workers are only allowed to ask a voter to state their name and address in most situations. But there is a problem with the method that provided the foundation of those reports. Comparing juror and voter information leads mostly to false or misleading matches. When WRAL News conducted a similar analysis earlier this year, every potentially fraudulent voter identified was a U.S. citizen. Read More »

Still No Answers in Texas Voter ID Case | Texas Weekly

May 182012

Whether or not the state’s voter ID bill will be in place for the November general election is still a mystery. That’s because the U.S. Department of Justice — which is being sued by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office after it declined to approve the measure — is accusing the state of stalling the delivery of key data the federal government says is necessary for the trial. Late last month, DOJ asked the district court in Washington D.C. that will hear the care to postpone the trial, which is scheduled to commence July 9. The feds have argued that Abbott’s office is reluctant to turn over information because it knows it will hurt its case. Abbott has argued that the request is nothing more than political theater. Read More »

Voter ID bill signed, awaits feds' scrutiny | Houston Chronicle

May 182012

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant on Thursday signed a bill requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, but it’s unclear whether it will become law. Because of Mississippi’s history of racial discrimination, the state is required to get federal approval for any change in election laws or procedures. The U.S. Justice Department in recent months has rejected voter ID laws from Texas and South Carolina. The state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is asking the department to reject Mississippi’s proposed law, saying it could disproportionately create hardships for poor, elderly or minority voters who might be less likely to have a photo ID. Read More »

Voter ID battle will be costly | SunHerald.com

May 182012

Since when did Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann become the state’s chief legal officer? Last time I checked, Atty. Gen. Jim Hood was, under the 1890 state constitution, judicially established as the state’s chief legal officer. Totally ignoring that fact, the politically-ambitious Delbert is telling the media he’s the state’s champion to confront the monstrous U.S. Department of Justice and keep it from blocking the state from imposing a new law requiring Mississippians to show an approved ID in order to vote. “He (Hosemann) wants to be driving the train on the voter ID issue,” says NAACP attorney Carroll Rhodes, “while driving it off the tracks.” Rhodes on behalf of the NAACP will oppose whichever legal move the state makes to put its new voting limitation into effect. Read More »

Suppressing the student vote? New residency rules could affect Wisconsin’s recall election | The Daily Page

May 182012

The voter ID law passed last spring by the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature was widely criticized for requiring that voters show a driver’s license or other form of photo identification at the polls. These provisions are now under two court injunctions by judges who found that the photo ID requirements likely discriminate against minorities, the poor and the elderly. Meanwhile, it is the bill’s new residency requirements, largely lost in the controversy over photo ID, that are much more likely to keep students away from the polls in the upcoming June 5 recall elections for governor, lieutenant governor and four state Senate seats. Turnout among students, a voting bloc traditionally thought to favor Democrats, was already low in the May 8 recall primary. The new rules require that voters live at an address for 28 days before being eligible to vote. Dorm leases for 6,900 students at UW-Madison end May 20, and many of the other students living off campus will leave for the summer around the same time. Do the math and the dilemma is clear: There is no time to reestablish residency to vote June 5. Read More »

Voter ID Laws: Silencing the American People | John W. Whitehead/Huffington Post

May 172012

“There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all the Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit the franchise that we see today. Why should we disenfranchise people forever once they’ve paid their price?” – Bill Clinton

Despite the propaganda being advanced by the government, the purpose of voter ID laws is not to eliminate voter fraud and protect the integrity of elections. Rather, their aim is to silence and suppress as many American voters as possible and increase the already widening chasm between the electorate and our government representatives. In fact, voter ID laws are the icing on the cake when it comes to public officials shutting Americans out of the decision-making process, silencing dissent, and making sure that those in power stay in power and have the last word on government policy. In other words, voter ID laws are the final step in securing the American corporate oligarchy, the unchallenged rule by the privileged and few. Read More »

Governor signs law to repeal voting law changes | CNBC

May 172012

Ohio’s Republican Governor John Kasich signed a bill on Tuesday reversing a contentious voting law that Democrats have called a blatant attempt at voter repression, in a move aimed at pre-empting a threatened repeal referendum. The bill rolled back a law passed last year barring counties from mailing unsolicited absentee ballots to voters and removing a requirement that poll workers assist voters they knew were voting in the wrong location. But the measure stopped short of reversing a related measure that eliminated in-person voting on the three days immediately preceding an election, as Democrats want. Read More »

New Concerns Over Voter ID Bill as Signing Deadline Looms | NBC29

May 172012

The clock is ticking for Governor Bob McDonnell to make a decision on a controversial voter ID bill. He has until Friday to sign House Bill 9, which would change how voters without proper ID cast their ballots. Proponents of the bill say it would reduce fraud, but critics call it a way to keep elderly and young voters home on Election Day. “I’m looking now at whether or not I should sign it,” Governor McDonnell said. “I want to make sure we have fair and honest elections. I don’t want to have anybody unduly burdened with the bill.” However, Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta says it’s electoral boards like hers that will see a burden. Read More »

Kerala Election Commission wants photo-ID cards for local polls too | TwoCircles.net

May 152012

The Kerala State Election Commission (SEC) Monday decided to request the state government to amend the laws and make photo-ID cards mandatory for the electorate in the local bodies polls. Speaking to IANS, an official attached to the state election commission said the panel would ask the state government to amend the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act and the Kerala Municipalities Act to enforce photo-ID rule. Read More »

Is Black and Latino Voter Registration Threatened or Not? | The Nation

May 122012

On May 4 the Washington Post published what Brian Beutler at Talking Points Memo called an “alarming—and darkly ironic” story stating voter registrations have dropped for African-Americans and Latino Americans. WaPo reporter Krissah Thompson wrote in her lead:

The number of black and Hispanic registered voters has fallen sharply since 2008, posing a serious challenge to the Obama campaign in an election that could turn on the participation of minority voters.

By some accounts, it was true. Census numbers, which measured between the 2008 presidential and the 2010 midterm elections, showed that the number of African-American registered voters had fallen from about 17.3 million to about 16.1 million nationally. But the Obama campaign and a number of academics disputed the Post’s conclusion that Obama might be in trouble, instead saying the Census’s methodology is flawed and that voter registration among African-Americans and Latino Americans is actually up. Read More »

Sponsor says Voter ID bill in jeopardy | Concord Monitor

May 122012

A voter identification bill that had the support of the Senate, town clerks and the secretary of state’s office is in jeopardy because of changes made yesterday by a House committee, said Sen. Russell Prescott, a Kingston Republican and the bill’s sponsor. The House Election Law Committee voted 13-7 to require photo identification at the polls months earlier than clerks say is feasible, and to disallow students to use their IDs to vote. The changes, if passed by the full House, would take effect immediately, for this year’s general election. Prescott’s bill pushed the start date to elections after Jan. 2013, to give voters and clerks time to get used to the new requirements. ”I worked really hard with (clerks and state officials) to make a clean voter ID bill,” Prescott said yesterday. “We have a bill I think a lot of people support. I am saddened that this amendment has passed.” Read More »

John Lewis objects, and Paul Broun backs away from attempt to gut Voting Rights Act | ajc.com

May 112012

My AJC colleague Daniel Malloy in Washington sends this report of a confrontation between two Georgia members of Congress that you may not have heard about: Around 10 p.m. last night, as House debate over a contentious spending bill stretched on, Rep. Paul Broun, R-Athens, approached with an amendment to end all funding for U.S. Department of Justice enforcement of Section Five of the Voting Rights Act. This is the provision that requires states like Georgia to submit new election laws – last year’s statewide redistricting, for instance — for federal approval to ensure against disenfranchisement of minorities. Broun argued that this is a hammer held over only a few select states, and noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has suggested that the law has outlived its usefulness. Read More »

House sends voter registration bill to Senate | Topeka Capitol-Journal

May 112012

The House gave final approval Wednesday to a bill that would move up new proof of citizenship requirements for voter registration to June 15, as recommended by Secretary of State Kris Kobach. The bill, which passed 72-51, now heads to the Senate, where leadership has shown little interest in taking it up. The Senate voted last year to stagger the implementation of photo ID voting requirements and the citizenship measure, delaying the latter until Jan. 1, 2013. Read More »

Proponents working to avoid problems that nixed voter ID laws in other states | Delta Business Journal

May 112012

As part of a national trend towards states adopting voter ID laws, about 62 percent of Mississippi voters approved a referendum in 2011 that would require voters to show a photo ID before being allowed to vote. But the failure of similar laws in other states to be approved by the U.S. Dept. of Justice (DOJ) has led to questions about whether Mississippi’s new law will receive clearance from the DOJ and, if so, if it will be in time for the November presidential elections. Sec. of State Delbert Hosemann said careful planning has been done in drafting legislation to implement the state’s voter ID requirement to address the kinds of concerns that led to voter ID laws in others states such as Texas and South Carolina not being approved by the DOJ. Hosemann met with representatives of the DOJ to review the history of states where voter ID bills were approved. He said he told the DOJ the State of Mississippi wants to adopt a voter ID bill that meets all constitutional requirements at minimal cost to the taxpayers. Read More »

Opponents raise red flags about changes to voter ID bill | NashuaTelegraph.com

May 102012

Those speaking for local election clerks, reform advocates and civil libertarians rang alarm bells Tuesday about proposed changes to a compromise voter ID bill. Senate Republicans had crafted a voter ID bill (SB 289) that won bipartisan support and appeared on its way to ending more than 15 years of political struggle over the issue. Unlike other failed voter ID bills of the past, this bill from Sen. Russell Prescott, R-Kingston, permits those without an ID to vote. Instead, those without ID would have to sign a challenged voter affidavit under penalty of perjury. This provision helped this bill win the support of both Secretary of State Bill Gardner and the state lobby for local town and city clerks. But Rep. Will Smith, R-New Castle, fashioned a nine-page amendment that made sweeping changes. The most significant would bump up the voter ID law’s effective date so it could be used for this November’s general election. Read More »

Hosemann says voter ID might not get fair review | necn.com

May 092012

Mississippi’s top election official questioned Tuesday whether the U.S. Justice Department will fairly consider the state’s voter ID law after a department employee criticized the state on Facebook. Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, a Republican, said Stephanie Gyamfi (GAM-fee), a civil rights analyst for the department, posted Mississippi should change its motto to “disgusting and shameful.” The chief of the Justice Department’s voting section, T. Christian Herren Jr., said the department reviewed Gyamfi’s remarks and found they were personal and not work-related. He said she made them after some University of Southern Mississippi students chanted “Where’s your green card?” to a Puerto Rican basketball player at a game in March. One of Gyamfi’s Facebook friends posted a comment about the chant, and she responded to that post. Read More »

Voter ID Won't Work - Just ask Puerto Rico | Politics365

May 092012

Requiring an identification card to vote is only a superficial remedy to avoid voter fraud. Take a look at Puerto Rico, the original voter-ID state. With the focus on voter-ID laws going on in the U.S., conservatives should take a moment to study Puerto Rico’s previous primary before placing all their bets on a piece of plastic with a photo. The island implemented these laws as early as 1980 under then Governor Carlos Romero Barceló (a Democrat). To vote, voters must show up to their precinct, show their state issued voter-ID card (tarjeta electoral), match the card and name to the list and lastly, sign. The Electoral Commission (CEE in Spanish) has a database of signatures for every registered voter that it can use to compare them if doubts arise over said voter’s vote (pardon the redundancy). Read More »

Federal court slaps AG Abbott for delaying Texas Voter ID challenge | dallasnews.com

May 092012

The federal district court in Washington suggests that if Texas doesn’t have the Republican-backed voter-ID law in place this year, blame Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott. In a stern rebuke, the court says says the state of Texas is dragging its feet rather than produce documents the Justice Department says it needs. At issue is the state’s photo-ID law, which will require that a voter produce a photo identification such as a driver’s license in order to vote. The Legislature passed the law, but a court fight has stalled its implementation. Republicans say the law (known as Senate Bill 14) is needed to stop voter fraud. Democrats say it’s an effort to discourage voters — particularly the poor, elderly and minorities, who tend disproportionately to be Democrats. Abbott has sued the Justice Department for not clearing the way for the new law. Read More »

Delays continue to plague voter ID case | statesman.com

May 092012

Amid harsh words this week from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office and a panel of federal judges, the chances dimmed of implementing the new voter identification law in time for November’s elections. In a statement Tuesday, Abbott’s office offered an emphatic denial of a charge by a federal court in Washington that criticized Texas for drawing out the legal process in the ongoing voter ID case. The court, which will determine the legality of Texas’ 2011 voter ID law, said in an order late Monday that it has been accommodating to the parties in the case, but it added that Texas didn’t return the favor. The court said it has made itself promptly available to resolve any disputes that would have delayed the process. ”Unfortunately, Texas has failed to act with the same diligence and sense of urgency,” the court said. Read More »

Texas Photo ID Case: Justice May Be Sure - But It Isn't Always Swift | Election Academy

May 092012

Courthouses often become the last battleground when election policy disputes boil over. One thing that occasionally gets overlooked, however, is that courts rarely move as quickly as the litigants would like. We’ve already seen this in regard to the challenge to Wisconsin’s photo ID law, which is still pending review by the state Supreme Court despite the onrush of elections (regular and recall) in the Badger State. Yesterday, we saw it again in an order by a federal district court in Washington, DC suggesting that Texas’ efforts to get approval for its photo ID law would likely not succeed in time for the November election. In the Texas case, the delay appears to be related in part to disputes about whether the State will make certain data available for the court to analyze claims that the ID law discriminates against certain minority voters. Read More »

A Black Cloud Over the Ballot Box - The battle over voter ID | American Prospect

May 082012

Americans who care about the right to vote are faced with an ugly reality as the 2012 elections come into view: no matter how many courts rule that voter identification laws will disenfranchise eligible citizens and no matter how many states U.S. Department of Justice analysts determine—using data supplied by the states themselves—that strict voter ID laws discriminate against people of color, voter identification laws will be in place in a number of states throughout the country in November. Numerous articles written over the last few months have presented the incredibly sad stories of Americans, particularly the elderly, who, unable to obtain the necessary identification, won’t be able to cast a ballot. We know from comparisons of voter registration lists and state Department of Motor Vehicle records that hundreds of thousands of citizens don’t have the ID needed to vote. What does this mean? Quite simply, we must redouble our efforts to protect American voting rights. While we will continue to fight disenfranchising laws in the legislatures and the courts, we must also go to work at a grassroots level in communities, assisting citizens—even on a case-by-case basis—in obtaining proper voting ID if it is at all possible. Local, state and national organizations must work together to try to provide the practical assistance and money it will take for Americans to overcome the hurdles legislators have thrown in their way to the ballot box. Read More »

District Court: Voter ID Unlikely for 2012 | The Texas Tribune

May 082012

In another blow to advocates of Texas’ voter ID law, a federal district court ruled today that the law will probably not be in place by the November general election unless the state turns over requested documents by Wednesday. The law requires that voters furnish photo identification before casting a ballot. The U.S. Department of Justice — which Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office is suing after it declined to approve the measure — is accusing the state of stalling the delivery of key data the federal government says is necessary for the trial. Late last month, DOJ asked the district court in Washington, D.C., that will hear the case to postpone the trial. It is scheduled to start July 9. In an order issued today, the court said that Texas has not acted with a sense of urgency. Read More »

Pennsylvania Voter-ID law will penalize seniors | philly.com

May 072012

The longtime Pennsylvania voters who have joined a rights group’s lawsuit against Gov. Corbett’s new voter-ID mandate put a face on the fight against a law whose only apparent purpose is to serve as a weapon in a Republican-inspired assault on open and fair elections. In presenting their cases last week, these citizens clearly demonstrated that they will have a difficult time on Nov. 6 meeting the requirement that voters produce government-issued photo identification at the polls. Among them was one-time civil-rights marcher and wartime welder Viviette Applewhite, 93, who uses a wheelchair, lives in Philadelphia, has no driver’s license, and has been unable to obtain the birth certificate required to get a state-issued ID. Read More »

Early Indicators on Voters Blocked by ID Requirements | The Thicket

May 052012

One of the big questions in the elections arena is, how many people who want to vote don’t have an ID? So far, the answers to this question have been partial, theoretical or politically calculated. NCSL does not have the “right” answer, either, but we can offer three distinct data points that may have value to election officials or researchers as we approach the presidential election. In Michigan, where the photo voter ID law permits people to sign an affidavit in lieu of presenting an ID, 2,651 people did just that during the February 28 presidential primary election. That was out of 1,216,310 votes cast, or 0.22 percent. The Secretary of State collected the data on affidavits so his agency would have a clear understanding of how the affidavit is used. Michigan HB 5061, which would put a reporting requirement on the use of affidavits in statute (among other elections-related changes), has passed the House and is under consideration in the Senate. In two states that are implementing strict photo voter ID for the first time this year, recent elections have provided a bit more data. Read More »

Most College IDs Don’t Comply With Pennsylvania’s New Voter ID Law | CBS Philly

May 042012

The vast majority of Pennsylvania’s 110 colleges and universities do not have student IDs that comply with the Commonwealth’s new voter ID law. This could put students from other states who wish to vote in Pennsylvania in a catch 22. Under the new law, student IDs are acceptable if they contain the students name, the name of the institution, the student’s photo and an expiration date. Since most Pennsylvania college IDs don’t comply, students who want to vote in the Commonwealth are left with a choice. “They will have to surrender a license from a different state.” Read More »

New Legal Challenge to Pennsylvania GOP's Polling Place Photo ID Restriction Law Likely to Succeed | BradBlog

May 042012

92-year old Viviette Applewhite, 59-year old Wilola Shinholster Lee, 72-year old Grover Freeland, 86-year old Dorothy Barksdale and 93-year old Bea Booker are just a few of the Pennsylvania residents and long-time legal voters now fighting to retain their right to vote under the state GOP’s new polling place Photo ID restrictions, according to a new lawsuit filed this week in the Keystone State. The complaint goes on to argue that “there are countless other Pennsylvanians like them [some 80-90,000 according to the state's own data], who will lose the most cherished of all rights, the right to vote, unless the Photo ID Law is declared unconstitutional.” There is now, indeed, a very good chance that the law will, in fact, be declared unconstitutional according to The BRAD BLOG’s analysis of the complaint, the state constitution and prior rulings in similar cases. Read More »

Jury is out on states' voter ID laws | The Post & Courier/Politico

May 032012

Some see South Carolina’s voter ID law and other states’ efforts to tighten early voting as less of an attempt to curb voter fraud than some of the earliest volleys in the 2012 presidential race. At least that is how the laws were painted by Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), as well as NAACP members and union leaders who spoke before more than 100 people at a Tuesday evening rally in Charleston, S.C. Clyburn said he has visited Florida four times in the past six weeks to work on anti-voter-suppression efforts with the Democratic National Congressional Committee. He noted that national GOP strategist Karl Rove has forecast that President Barack Obama could win South Carolina this fall, and Republicans are fighting to keep this state — and other swing states — in the GOP column. “They have put in these draconian rules and regulations and laws because they have calculated that if they can suppress the vote by 1 percent in nine different states, we lose the national election in November,” Clyburn said. “That’s their calculation.” Most experts put the Palmetto State solidly in the Republican column. Read More »

Electronic Voter Registration Drive Tests Power Of Technology Against Voter ID Policies Huffington Post

May 032012

As both the Republican and Democratic parties clamor to claim a larger share of the Latino electorate this year, electronic voter registration has emerged as a potential sweet spot, a space where political procedure may collide with culture and boost Latino voter participation. In New Mexico, that theory is in the early stages of a ground test. Jetta Reynolds has spent a good portion of the last five years working to register voters in the Albuquerque, N.M., area. She’s heard the questions people raise about the process so often that before she deployed nearly 200 volunteers to do the same work at grocery stores and street fairs this year, she created her own Spanish and English-language voter registration brochure. But when Reynolds took Jason Libersky — one of the developers behind a new voter registration app called Evotee — and his iPad to a session for mostly Latino and Native American potential voters Monday, it was Reynolds who walked away surprised. Read More »

Voter ID Law Would Keep 93-Year-Old Who Marched With Martin Luther King From Voting | TPM

May 032012

If there’s a contest for most sympathetic plaintiff in a lawsuit opposing a state voter ID law, Pennsylvania’s Viviette Applewhite wins. The 93-year-old has voted in almost every election since 1960. Her daughter was a public servant. She has five grandchildren, nine great grandchildren, and four great-great grandchildren. She’s a widow. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Macon, Georgia during the civil rights movement and traveled to Atlanta to hear him preach. Under Pennsylvania’s voter ID law, Applewhite wouldn’t be able to vote. Applewhite is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, the Advancement Project, the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia (PILCOP) and the law firm of Arnold & Porter LLP on behalf of ten Pennsylvania voters. Read More »

Voter ID bill may be dead until next year | Examiner.com

May 032012

When asked whether he would put his name next to the controversial voter ID legislation passed by the General Assembly that would require voters without identification to cast provisional ballots, Gov. McDonnell made no signs of committing one way or the other on Sunday. Legislators reasonably rejected the governor’s proposed amendment earlier in April that would have required members of the electoral board to compare the signature in a voter’s registration file with the signature on a provisional ballot to confirm the identity of the voter. This scheme would have undoubtedly led to a host of other problems in the voter confirmation process. Some have suggested that the entire point of the McDonnell amendment was to eliminate the bill. Read More »

Mr. McDonnell faces a quandary with Virginia voter ID bill | The Washington Post

May 032012

Faced with Voter ID legislation that would disenfranchise thousands of Virginians, Gov. Robert F. McDonnell is in a quandary. He can veto the bill and incur the wrath of fellow Republicans, or sign it and reinforce the GOP’s image of hostility toward young, poor and black voters. Mr. McDonnell is all too aware that the bill, passed by Republican lawmakers despite his warning about legislative overreach, is gratuitous at best. That’s why he sent it back to the General Assembly with amendments that would eliminate its most obnoxious feature: a requirement that ballots cast by voters who lack identification be thrown out unless the voters make a separate trek to local electoral offices to prove their identity. But the General Assembly restored that provision and sent the bill back to Mr. McDonnell, who now faces a decision: Does he want to be known as a partisan street brawler, or as a grown-up who governs with restraint? Read More »

Governor McDonnell still weighing voter ID bill | The Washington Post

May 022012

As Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) continued to mull what to do with a pair of voter ID bills passed by Virginia’s General Assembly, Sen. Thomas A. Garrett Jr. (R-Louisa) appeared on national television to make his case for the legislation. “We thought this would be a bipartisan, common-sense issue,” said Garrett, who tried two people for voter fraud as a Louisa county prosecutor. “It passed [the Senate with a] 20-20 tie, with the lieutenant governor breaking the tie. The only conclusion I can reach is that there are some entities that are interested in allowing the loopholes to continue and not ensuring the sanctity of one person, one vote. And that’s very disconcerting in the United States of America.” Read More »

Between Voting Rights and Voting Wrongs | NYTimes.com

May 012012

Since the beginning of 2011, lawmakers around the country abruptly enacted laws to curb voting rights and tighten registration rules. These measures are fiercely controversial. But lately the debate has taken a surprising turn. Suppressive voting laws have met resistance at the polls and in the courts. This surprisingly emphatic twist is good for our democracy. If the restriction of voting rights can be blocked or blunted, it will give us an opportunity to move forward with bipartisan reforms to our ramshackle registration system. Consider the recent backlash.

In Maine, voters reversed a new law, passed in June 2011, that ended same-day registration. Now voters will be able to register on Election Day in 2012. In Ohio, more than 300,000 citizens signed petitions, enough to temporarily suspend the state’s new law that curbed early voting and force a statewide referendum in November. Now nervous Republicans are close to a deal with Democrats that would repeal the law and restore early voting for the three days before the election. Florida, meanwhile, imposed onerous penalties and paperwork burdens on volunteers who sign up voters. Helping your neighbors participate in our democracy is not something we should restrict, which is why the Brennan Center is leading the fight to challenge this law. We represent the League of Women Voters, Rock the Vote, and other civic groups that have shut down registration drives. The league has won similar lawsuits twice before and now awaits a judge’s ruling, which is expected soon. Even on the contentious issue of requiring government-issued photo identification to vote, the strictest new laws have slammed into legal barriers. Read More »

Voter ID Costs, Considered | The Thicket

May 012012

What does it cost to implement a strict voter ID requirement? Many legislators would like to know. So would NCSL. Because we get this question frequently, we looked into it last month. First, we created a webpage with links to many legislative fiscal notes that were attached to this year’s voter ID bills. We then called state and local election officials in states that are implementing new laws this year. Last, we summed up what we had learned about voter ID costs in a short essay in Electionline Weekly. Here’s an excerpt from that document:

In 2012, cost estimates for voter ID laws range from “no fiscal impact” in Nebraska and Virginia to “unknown greater than $7,027,921” in Missouri for the first year of implementation. The variation can be explained in part by differences in the legislation—what IDs are accepted, and whether there is another mechanism, such as absentee voting, that won’t require an ID. Read More »

The GOP’s crackdown against those who would vote | The Washington Post

May 012012

Republicans are waging the most concerted campaign to prevent or discourage citizens from exercising their legitimate voting rights since the Jim Crow days of poll taxes and literacy tests. Four years ago, Democrats expanded American democracy by registering millions of new voters — mostly young people and minorities — and persuading them to show up at the polls. Apparently, the GOP is determined not to let any such thing happen again. According to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, which keeps track of changes in voting laws, 22 statutes and two executive actions aimed at restricting the franchise have been approved in 17 states since the beginning of 2011. By the center’s count, an additional 74 such bills are pending. Read More »

Page 1 of 26 1 2 3 … 25 26 Older Entries

voter id

Voter fraud hard to prove; fears spark legislation | WRAL.com

Still No Answers in Texas Voter ID Case | Texas Weekly

Voter ID bill signed, awaits feds' scrutiny | Houston Chronicle

Voter ID battle will be costly | SunHerald.com

Suppressing the student vote? New residency rules could affect Wisconsin’s recall election | The Daily Page

Voter ID Laws: Silencing the American People | John W. Whitehead/Huffington Post

Governor signs law to repeal voting law changes | CNBC

New Concerns Over Voter ID Bill as Signing Deadline Looms | NBC29

Kerala Election Commission wants photo-ID cards for local polls too | TwoCircles.net

Is Black and Latino Voter Registration Threatened or Not? | The Nation

Sponsor says Voter ID bill in jeopardy | Concord Monitor

John Lewis objects, and Paul Broun backs away from attempt to gut Voting Rights Act | ajc.com

House sends voter registration bill to Senate | Topeka Capitol-Journal

Proponents working to avoid problems that nixed voter ID laws in other states | Delta Business Journal

Opponents raise red flags about changes to voter ID bill | NashuaTelegraph.com

Hosemann says voter ID might not get fair review | necn.com

Voter ID Won't Work - Just ask Puerto Rico | Politics365

Federal court slaps AG Abbott for delaying Texas Voter ID challenge | dallasnews.com

Delays continue to plague voter ID case | statesman.com

Texas Photo ID Case: Justice May Be Sure - But It Isn't Always Swift | Election Academy

A Black Cloud Over the Ballot Box - The battle over voter ID | American Prospect

District Court: Voter ID Unlikely for 2012 | The Texas Tribune

Pennsylvania Voter-ID law will penalize seniors | philly.com

Early Indicators on Voters Blocked by ID Requirements | The Thicket

Most College IDs Don’t Comply With Pennsylvania’s New Voter ID Law | CBS Philly

New Legal Challenge to Pennsylvania GOP's Polling Place Photo ID Restriction Law Likely to Succeed | BradBlog

Jury is out on states' voter ID laws | The Post & Courier/Politico

Electronic Voter Registration Drive Tests Power Of Technology Against Voter ID Policies Huffington Post

Voter ID Law Would Keep 93-Year-Old Who Marched With Martin Luther King From Voting | TPM

Voter ID bill may be dead until next year | Examiner.com

Mr. McDonnell faces a quandary with Virginia voter ID bill | The Washington Post

Governor McDonnell still weighing voter ID bill | The Washington Post

Between Voting Rights and Voting Wrongs | NYTimes.com

Voter ID Costs, Considered | The Thicket

The GOP’s crackdown against those who would vote | The Washington Post

ABOUT THE VOTING NEWS

Translate this Page