Editorials: 5 Voting Laws That Make People Angry | Huffington Post

A wave of Republican-sponsored laws restricting who can and cannot vote may mean that fewer Democrats, especially those who are low-income or minorities, vote in the 2012 presidential election. Since the beginning of 2011, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, and West Virginia have passed, or have plans to pass, restrictive voting laws. More than 70 percent of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency will come from these states, the Brennan Center reported in March. Republican lawmakers argue that the laws are necessary to prevent voter fraud, but fewer than 100 people have been charged with voter fraud in the past five years, according to the Washington Post. In 2011, former President Bill Clinton condemned the laws for disenfranchising Democrats, describing them as “the disciplined, passionate, determined effort of Republican governors and legislators to keep most of you from voting next time.There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all the other Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit the franchise that we see today,” he said.

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

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.

New Hampshire: Sponsor says Voter ID bill in jeopardy | Concord Monitor

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.”

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.”

National: Jury is out on states’ voter ID laws | The Post & Courier/Politico

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.

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

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?

Virginia: Governor McDonnell still weighing voter ID bill | The Washington Post

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.”

Editorials: Between Voting Rights and Voting Wrongs | NYTimes.com

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.

Voting Blogs: Voter ID Costs, Considered | The Thicket

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.

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

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.

Missouri: Bill requiring proof of citizenship at voter registration advances | KansasCity.com

People would have to prove they are U.S. citizens when they register to vote under a proposal approved by a Missouri House committee last week. But some of the bill’s most controversial provisions were stripped out after criticism emerged that they could make it more difficult for members of the military serving oversees to cast a ballot. Missouri House Speaker Pro Tem Shane Schoeller, a Willard Republican, painted the legislation as another attempt at preventing voter fraud. He sponsored legislation earlier this year that would require voters to show a government-issued photo ID, a bill that has cleared the House but has languished in the Missouri Senate. The legislation would require anyone wishing to register to vote to provide documentation — a birth certificate, passport or other document — that would show they are a U.S. citizen. It’s nearly identical to legislation passed last year in Kansas that was written by Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

Pennsylvania: Representative Evans introducing effort to repeal voter ID law | NewsWorks

Some Pennsylvania lawmakers are challenging a new law — a law so new it hasn’t even been fully implemented yet. The state’s new voter ID law went through a dry run in last week’s primary. Starting with November’s general election, voters will be required to show photo identification. State Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia, intends to introduce legislation Monday to repeal the law. “We have 75 co-sponsors on this particular bill already. You need 102 votes in order for it to become law,” Evans said. “So we’re going out to the public. We’re going to be having our own form of hearings around the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to raise the consciousness of people.”

South Carolina: Deadline Monday for South Carolina to say if implementing voter ID would be possible this year | GoUpstate.com

A federal court has given the state of South Carolina until Monday to clarify whether it would be feasible to implement a statewide voter identification requirement in time for this year’s general elections. State elections officials have said that, in order to take appropriate steps to use the law for the Nov. 6 general election, the requirement that voters present government-issued photo identification at the polls must go into effect no later than Aug. 1 of this year. Now, it will be up to state Attorney General Alan Wilson to outline what steps the state would need to take to create photo voter ID cards and make sure voters know the rules in enough time for the general election. The deadlines for the state would be tight. But one of the three judges hearing the case said the speedy schedule is necessary if state officials want to be able to use the law — if approved — this year.

Editorials: Voter ID – what lurks in Minnesota’s proposed amendment | Mike Dean/TwinCities.com

As the saying goes, “the devil is in the details.” Unfortunately, Kent Kaiser’s piece (“Photo ID: An end to ‘same-day’ registration in Minnesota? Not true,” April 17) attempts to distort what is actually lurking in the voter ID constitutional amendment. Under current Minnesota law, this proposed constitutional amendment to change Minnesota’s election system would force every person who registers in the polling place on Election Day to submit a provisional ballot; that is, they would not be allowed to cast a real ballot. This fundamental change is required because the amendment says that “All voters must be subject to substantially equivalent eligibility verification prior to a ballot being cast or counted.” While most people understandably won’t grasp the implications of this statement when they read the ballot question, an election official understands that immediate eligibility verification is not possible. Practically speaking, for voters who need to update their voting address on Election Day and others doing same-day registration, election judges would have to check multiple databases to verify their name, address, date of birth with the state’s department of public safety, department of health, national death registry and the federal social security office.

Mississippi: Voter ID gets final OK, heads to Governor | The Clarion-Ledger

A Mississippi voter ID bill is headed to Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, who has said he supports it as a way to protect the integrity of elections. The final version of House Bill 921 passed the Republican-controlled House 79-39 Thursday, with strong opposition from black representatives. It would require voters to show a driver’s license or other form of photo identification before casting a ballot. The bill is intended to enact a state constitutional amendment that 62 percent of Mississippi voters adopted in last November’s general election. Bryant has pledged to sign the bill into law. However, there’s no guarantee that the ID requirement will ever take effect.

Wisconsin: Appeals court turns away challenge to second voter ID injunction | Wisconsin State Journal

A state appeals court said Thursday that it won’t block enforcement of a court injunction that stopped enforcement of the photo ID requirements of Wisconsin’s voter ID law. A three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeals said it would not stay the injunction issued last month by Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Niess in part because the state Attorney General’s Office failed to show that harm would result if the injunction remains in place. The case involves a lawsuit challenging the photo ID requirements for voters that was brought by the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin.

Editorials: Democracy Restoration Act Would Restore Voting Rights to Millions | Huffington Post

Despite two centuries of a national history extending the right to vote to ever more Americans, state legislatures have recently passed a flurry of laws that make voting more difficult. Some require government-issued photo identification cards; others are obstructing early voting or restricting voter registration drives. It’s time for Congress to protect the rights citizens of a democracy hold most dear and create the opportunity for greater citizen participation. Members can begin by opening up the voter rolls to the four million Americans covered by the Democracy Restoration Act.

Mississippi: Voter ID bill gets final approval in Mississippi House | SunHerald.com

A Mississippi voter ID bill is headed to Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, who has said he supports it as a way to protect the integrity of elections. The final version of the bill passed the Republican controlled House 79-39 Thursday, with strong opposition from black representatives. It would require voters to show a driver’s license or other form of photo identification before casting a ballot. The bill is intended to enact a state constitutional amendment that 62 percent of Mississippi voters adopted in last November’s general election.
Bryant has pledged to sign the bill into law. However, there’s no guarantee that the ID requirement will ever take effect.

Texas: Voter ID battle intensifies in federal court, Texas Legislature | Lubbock Online

A pending law that would require Texas voters to show government-issued photo identification before casting a ballot has temporarily overshadowed the long redistricting battle the state is fighting with minority groups and civil rights organizations. The intensity of the latest legal battle became evident this week. First, on Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice asked a federal court in Washington for a delay of a July 9 trial that would determine whether the law the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature approved in last year’s session is constitutional. Then, on Tuesday, San Antonio Democratic Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer accused the Republican super majority of creating significant obstacles for a good number of Texans — mainly the poor and the elderly — to vote. And for its part, the office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who is representing the state in both legal battles, stressed the significance of the voter ID legislation on hold. “The Department of Justice has been seeking and receiving information since last summer,” Abbott’s deputy communications director, Lauren Bean, said in a statement. “They’ve had plenty of time to get ready for trial and still have two-and-half more months.

Texas: Attorney General accidentally released personal data in voter I.D. case | The Dallas Morning News

The state attorney general’s office accidently provided the Social Security numbers of Texas voters to opposing lawyers as part of a voter ID case, but none of the data leaked out, a top state attorney said Wednesday. The Social Security numbers were part of a database of 13.1 million Texas voters turned over to attorneys challenging a new law requiring voters to show state-issued photo identification. The list was supposed to include only the last four digits of the voters’ Social Security numbers, to allow groups to analyze whether the law would disproportionately keep minorities from voting. But when two groups opened encrypted discs supplied to them by the attorney general’s office, they discovered some entries included the full nine-digit number, said First Assistant Attorney General Daniel Hodge. The problem came about because the information was supplied by 254 county registrars using different forms over several decades and in some cases the full number was entered, he said.

Michigan: New voter registration bills pass to Michigan House | The State News

Some lawmakers and student groups are worried a package of bills headed to the Michigan House could make it significantly harder for campus organizations to register voters. A package of bills slated for discussion today in the House Redistricting and Elections Committee would add more requirements for third party groups to register voters, requiring leaders to pass a government-run certification class before kicking off election drives. It also would require applicants to present photo identification and swear under oath that they are a U.S. citizen. The issue quickly has become a divisive debate in Michigan, reflecting a national partisan conflict about how to regulate democracy’s most fundamental practice.

Pennsylvania: Primary’s low turnout made for easy voter ID test | PennLive.com

Tuesday’s primary election was billed as a test run for Pennsylvania’s new voter ID law. But a survey of polling places throughout the midstate suggests that maybe the wrong people were being tested. Without a presidential primary race to top either party’s ballot, turnout across the area was low. Those who did vote described themselves as regulars, people who enjoy wearing a little “I voted” sticker twice a year. They follow the news. They knew poll workers were going to be asking every voter if they had identification to prepare people for the November election, when the law will require all voters to show ID.

Editorials: A vote for universal registration | The Washington Post

I recently visited Russia, where a mild-mannered historian from the city of Astrakhan, Oleg Shein, is on a hunger strike protesting a stolen mayoral election he believes he won. But as Russia starves for free and fair elections, Republicans across the United States are starving our democracy — and too few have noticed. And their furious assault on voting rights is no less destructive to democracy than the vote-rigging we deplore in Russia. Over the past year, Republican legislators in 34 states have proposed legislation that would drastically restrict voting for an estimated 5 million eligible voters. Seven states have passed laws requiring voters to show photo ID — which more than one in 10 Americans lacks — and dozens of others have eliminated early voting, disenfranchised ex-felons or limited the ability of civic organizations to register voters. The consequences are clear in Texas, for example, where you can now register to vote with a handgun license but not a college ID.

Editorials: Overcoming Obstacles to Photo ID Laws | Robert M. Brandon/Huffington Post

This past week, the decision by the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) to shut down its Public Safety and Elections Task Force, the task force that refined and promoted strict photo ID legislation that has been popping up in state legislatures over the past two years, was a significant victory for voting rights advocates. However, the damage is already done. Strict voter photo ID laws will be in place in several states this election, potentially disenfranchising millions if they don’t get the ID they need to vote. While several voting rights groups are fighting to get these laws overturned in the courts, organizers and community groups on the ground are stepping up to make sure that voters will have the IDs they need to be able to vote. Already, in Tennessee and Wisconsin, community groups and statewide organizations have developed programs to identify voters that lack a photo ID and to help them get the ID they need to vote.

Pennsylvania: On eve of primary, voter-ID law still being tweaked | philly.com

In a less-imperfect world, Tuesday’s primary would be a dry run for the debut of Pennsylvania’s voter-identification requirements, a chance for election officials throughout the state to gauge the law’s impact and make appropriate adjustments before the presidential contest in November. But the voter-ID legislation was passed so close to the primary – Gov. Corbett signed it into law on March 14, and state officials were still tinkering with ID possibilities last week – that Tuesday’s election will be like holding a dress rehearsal while the writer is still working on the script.

Editorials: New curbs on voter registration could hurt Obama | Reuters

New state laws designed to fight voter fraud could reduce the number of Americans signing up to vote in this year’s presidential election by hundreds of thousands, a potential problem for President Barack Obama’s re-election bid. Voting laws passed by Republican-led legislatures in a dozen states during the past year have sharply restricted voter-registration drives that typically target young, low-income, African-American and Hispanic voters – groups that have backed the Democratic president by wide margins. A further 16 states are considering bills that would end voter registration on election days, impose a range of limits on groups that register voters and make it more difficult for people to sign up, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School. The new laws – many of which include measures requiring voters to show a photo ID at the polls – could carve into Obama’s potential support in Florida, Ohio and a few other politically divided states likely to be crucial in the November 6 election, analysts say.

Pennsylvania: Test of new voter ID law worries elections director | Citizens Voice

Voters will get a feel for Pennsylvania’s new voter ID law on Tuesday but won’t have to show a photo ID at the polls. Poll workers are required to ask voters for a photo ID, but voters still will be allowed to vote if they don’ have identification. “I am concerned about this,” said Tom Pizano, Luzerne County interim director of elections. “Is anybody going to get confused and tell people they can’t vote?” Poll workers are supposed to ask for ID to prepare for the Nov. 6 general election, when voters must show a photo ID. Gov. Tom Corbett signed the new law last month.