Voting Rights & Elections
The vote is the heart of democracy. Yet today, our voting systems are deeply flawed. 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 threaten to 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 strengthen America's voting systems. Presentations on vote suppression strategies and their promotion by the U.S. Department of Justice can be found here and here. In the past two years, we successfully challenged anti-voter laws in Florida, Ohio, and Washington. We published national studies on issues ranging from electronic voting to voter databases. We helped pass pro-voter and defeat anti-voter laws in dozens of states and in Congress. We track federal election reform legislation at Federal Election Reform. 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 people with felony convictions, and encouraging universal voter registration.
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.
NAACP New York State Conference, et al. v. New York State Board of Elections, et al.
A coalition of groups representing low-income and minority voters sued the New York State and New York City Boards of Elections in US District Court to prevent the use of a voting machine configuration that would lead to tens of thousands of lost votes.
Common Cause of Colorado, et al. v. Buescher
A coalition of voting rights groups sued the Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman (who, upon leaving office, was replaced by Brian Buescher) claiming he illegally removed over 27,000 voters from the rolls. They filed a temporary restraining order to get those names reinstated and to ensure additional names cannot be removed before Election Day.
The Ninth Circuit held that Washington’s criminal disenfranchisement law violates the Voting Rights Act. The decision is the first in the country to find that, due to racial discrimination in the state’s criminal justice system, the felony disenfranchisement law results in the denial of the right to vote on account of race.
Election Officials Consider Upgrades to Registration System
Summer conference season is upon us. Every summer (even in election years), our nation’s busy election officials take a “break” from the day-to-day business of running elections and get together to share information and discuss how to improve election administration. A consistent point of discussion among state election officials at these gatherings has been how to save money yet improve the voter registration system.
By Jenny Shen and Nic Riley
On Tuesday, June 15, 2010, the Village of Port Chester, NY, elected its first Latino candidate to public office. With just over 10 percent of the vote, Luis Marino, a Peruvian-born custodial worker and long-time Port Chester resident, earned a seat on the Village’s six-member Board of Trustees.
Another Voice for Voter Registration Modernization: the D.C. Board of Elections
From the new D.C. Board of Elections report: “The current paper-based, voter-initiated voter registration system in the District and elsewhere in the nation is cumbersome, inefficient and rife with opportunities for error. It is estimated that as many as 10 percent of voter registration records throughout the nation contain an erroneous name, address or birth date.” We respond to their plan….
Illustrations by Risko
States Move to Modernize Voter Registration System
The Brennan Center for Justice today releases the first in-depth survey of two key voter registration modernization reforms at the state level. The study finds that as states modernize their voter registration process, they save millions, produce more accurate and reliable rolls, and see an increase in registration rates.
New York State Board of Elections Violates Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act
New York’s new electronic voting machines have the same problem that caused overvoting problems in Florida’s 2008 election, and, if not corrected, could disenfranchise 40,000 to 50,000 New York voters.
Testimony on the National Popular Vote Plan for Council of the District of Columbia
Testimony by Amanda Rolat on the National Popular Vote Plan, submitted to the Committee on Government Operations and the Environment
of the Council of the District of Columbia.
Notice of Unprecleared Voting Change in New York City
The New York State Board of Elections has implemented procedures that deviate from New York law and previous practice in two ways: A: the notification that voters receive when a voter casts an invalid, overvoted ballot; and B: the manner in which the voting system handles that ballot. This letter outlines the details of these procedures and how they diverge from NY law.
Testimony of Justin Levitt before the Wisconsin State Legislature
Testimony before the Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Elections and Campaign Reform and the Senate Committee on Labor, Elections and Urban Affairs in favor of two voter registration modernization bills
Voter Registration for the 21st Century
2010 presentation on how many states have begun modernizing their voter registration processes.
New Yorkers Call on City and State Boards of Elections to Prevent Disenfranchisement
Here's what public officials, civic groups, computer scientists, and others have to say about the need to change New York's procedure for handling overvoted ballots.
Erika Wood and Glenn Martin on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show
Erika Wood and Fortune Society’s Glenn Martin talk about Brennan Center’s new report, Jim Crow in New York.