Voting Rights & Elections
Voting is the heart of democracy.
Yet today, our voting systems are deeply flawed. We boast the world’s oldest representative government, but barely half of all Americans vote. The 2008 election exposed fissures in our outdated voter registration mechanisms. Developed in the nineteenth century, the system is ill-equipped to keep pace with twenty-first century political engagement.
Further, ineffective election administration, unaccountable purges of voter registration lists, and insecure electronic systems threaten to disenfranchise countless American citizens. New barriers to voting such as highly restrictive voter ID requirements and deceptive practices will likely disenfranchise millions more.
Voting rights and election integrity depend upon sound administration in thousands of jurisdictions. For every voting-age citizen, America's irreducible goals should be:
- everyone who wants to be registered, is registered;
- everyone who wants to vote, can vote;
- every vote that is cast is a vote that is counted.
The Brennan Center for Justice fights to achieve these goals by strengthening America's voting systems. Each year, we deliver presentations on the current trends in voting rights, which can be viewed here. We have helped pass legislation to expand the franchise and, in the same spirit, have defeated anti-voter laws in dozens of states, including in Florida, Ohio, and Washington, and on the federal level in Congress. We have published national studies on issues ranging from voting machines to voter databases. We continue to provide technical support for states seeking to improve their voting systems. Now we are engaged in a long-term effort to reform voting laws, with new proposals to improve electronic voting, restore the voting rights of individuals with felony convictions, and modernize our registration system.
In addition to its litigation and public education work, the Voting Rights and Elections team has undertaken a range of advocacy projects in response to specific concerns arising in individual states.
League of Women Voters of Florida v. Browning
The Brennan Center is working with nonpartisan voter registration groups in Florida to mount a constitutional challenge against Florida’s onerous new restrictions on community-based voter registration drives.
State Of Florida v. United States of America
On May 19th, 2011, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed Florida’s House Bill 1355, a mammoth 158-page omnibus bill, which includes language that restricts the opportunity and ability of citizens and grassroots organizations to conduct voter registration drives by imposing burdensome and wholly unnecessary regulations and red tape, reduces the number of days in the state’s early voting period, and potentially reduce the total of early voting hours, and, makes it impossible for registered voters who have recently moved between Florida counties to provide notice of their change of address on election day and still cast a regular ballot.
United States v. Village of Port Chester
Brennan Center represented Fair Vote in providing remedy to a Section 2 challenge against the Village of Port Chester.
In Debate, GOP Candidates Present Blurred View of MLK’s Vision
Candidates sparred over laws to restore the right to vote to former prisoners, and attacked the Voting Rights Act.
All I want for Christmas is for the Department of Justice to block South Carolina’s discriminatory voter ID law.
Real Solutions Needed on Voter Deception
A voter deception conviction last week in Maryland illustrates the need for real, not false solutions to combat voter suppression.
Illustrations by Risko
Brennan Center Submits Testimony Challenging Florida’s Restrictive Election Law
The Brennan Center for Justice submitted written testimony in advance of today’s U.S. Senate hearing examining Florida’s new election law, H.B. 1355, stating that the law’s onerous restrictions on community-based voter registration drives are unconstitutional and offering solutions for modernizing the state’s voter registration system.
Department of Justice Decision on Voter ID Law Protects South Carolina Voters
Statement: "The Justice Department has followed the law, nothing more and nothing less."
Senate Bill Would Restore Voting Rights for Millions of American Citizens
The Brennan Center for Justice and a coalition of allied civil rights advocates lauded Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) today for introducing the Democracy Restoration Act of 2011.
New State Voting Laws II: Protecting the Right to Vote in the Sunshine State
The Brennan Center for Justice submitted written testimony for a U.S. Senate hearing examining Florida’s new election law, H.B. 1355, stating that the law’s onerous restrictions on community-based voter registration drives are unconstitutional and offering solutions for modernizing the state’s voter registration system.
Letter to U.S. House of Representatives Urging Opposition to H.R. 3463
The Brennan Center for Justice submitted a letter to members of the U.S. House of Representatives urging them to oppose a bill that would terminate the Election Assistance Commission and end the presidential public financing system.
Statement for Congressional Forum: “Excluded from Democracy”
The Brennan Center's Lawrence Norden speaks on new state voting law changes and the potential negative effects for voters at a Capitol Hill forum called by members of congress.
Modernize Florida’s Voting System
In 2012, you can use your iPhone to deposit a check or track your fantasy team, but registering to vote is still stuck in the 19th century. Once again, Florida is in the middle of the war on voting, passing an election law last year that will make it even harder for tens of thousands of citizens to vote.
In November 2010, millions of New Yorkers voted on electronic, optical-scan voting machines for the first time. Citizens went to their polling places on Election Day, filled out paper ballots and fed them into brand-new machines. But tens of thousands of them did not count.
Seniors, minorities, young people and the poor could lose their right to vote.