Voting Newsletter: Design Flaws Hurt American Elections, Lead to Lost Votes
Welcome to the Brennan Center’s Voting Newsletter, the most comprehensive summary of all the latest developments affecting voting. Sign up for all Brennan Center newsletters here and visit our Election 2012 page for money in politics work and proposed reforms.
- Latest Developments – Design Flaws Hurt American Elections
- State Updates – Voting Problems in Ohio
- New Data and Research – Counting Votes 2012
- Media Round-Up – Times' Charles Blow Asks: Where's the Outrage?
Design Flaws Hurt American Elections, Lead to Several Hundred Thousand Lost Votes
Design defects in ballots, voter instructions, and voting machines contributed to the loss of several hundred thousand votes in the most recent national elections, a new Brennan Center for Justice study found.
Twelve years after the Florida “butterfly ballot” (pictured right) fiasco, ballots and other election materials are still designed by county officials with widely varying skill. Several hundred thousand citizens did not have their votes counted in recent elections due to such design problems. This includes up to 400,000 who had absentee or provisional ballots rejected for making technical mistakes in completing envelopes. Poor design increases the risk of lost or misrecorded votes among all voters, but the risk is even greater for particular groups, including low-income voters, and the elderly.
The comprehensive study, Better Design, Better Elections, outlines simple measures election officials can take before November to cure design defects and ensure every voter can cast a ballot that counts.
“In the age of smartphones and tablets, many have realized the importance of good design and usability, but American elections are still marred by major design problems, ” said report co-author Lawrence Norden. “The rise of absentee and provisional voting since 2000 has made ballot design in our elections even more important. If a voter takes the responsibility to vote, election officials must do everything in their power to make sure that vote counts.”
View a slideshow of design flaws and solutions in recent national elections. Read more on the report at The New York Times.
Pennsylvania Voter ID Law Goes to Trial
Pennsylvania’s voter ID law went to court last week. The ACLU, the Advancement Project, and other civil rights groups brought the suit challenging the law, claiming it violates Pennsylvania’s constitution by preventing large groups of people from voting.
Testimony at the trial shows why some voters could be confused by the law’s requirements. Asked Tuesday about the details, Secretary of State Carol Aichele, who supports the measure, admitted, “I don’t know what the law says.”
Aichele was also adamant that 99 percent of Pennsylvanian’s have a valid ID to vote. But according to the state’s own analysis, more than 758,000 registered Pennsylvania voters (roughly 9.2 percent of the state’s 8.5 million voters) do not have a driver’s license. Supporters say the law was passed to prevent fraud, but the state recently acknowledged they “are unaware of any incidents of in-person voter fraud in Pennsylvania and do not have direct personal knowledge of in-person voter fraud elsewhere.”
Watch the Brennan Center’s Nicole Austin-Hillery (above right) discuss Pennsylvania’s law on the Rachel Maddow Show. Learn more at the ACLU’s blog on the trial, The Nation, Los Angeles Times, and Huffington Post.
Alabama – After losing twice in lower courts, Shelby County asked the U.S. Supreme Court last week to hear its challenge to the Voting Rights Act. Read more here and here.
California – The Courage Campaign, an online network of advocates, is pushing California to adopt same-day registration, which is currently available in 10 states.
Colorado – NBC Politics profiled Secretary of State Scott Gessler (R), who would oversee any recount in the swing state. Gessler confronted his critics at a day-long hearing about his plans to curtail the mailing of ballots to “inactive” voters. “Throngs of voters and public officials lined up” at Gessler’s office to oppose changes “that many believe would disenfranchise voters and impede the democratic voting process.” Read more here.
Florida – Although state election officials were granted access to a federal database to check voters’ citizenship status, county election supervisors are unlikely to remove any voters before the August 14 primary. Read more here. In an example of a voter purge gone awry, the Orlando Sentinel found one voter who has been bumped from the rolls twice because the state believes she is dead — but she is very much alive, and “has a signed-and-sealed state certificate to prove it.” A blogger for The Atlantic wonders if Florida’s voter purge could cost Obama the election. Meanwhile, The Guardian (U.K.) believes Florida is “the epicentre” of the assault on voting rights, profiling some voters who have been affected by new election rules, and U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown (D) filed a lawsuit to block changes to early voting.
Kansas – The Wichita Eagle editorialized against the state’s restrictive voter ID law, saying it will burden the city’s voters.
Kentucky – The Courier-Journal urged lawmakers to restore the right to vote for people with past criminal convictions. Read more here.
Minnesota– Republican lawmakers filed suit alleging Secretary of State Mark Ritchie unlawfully changed the title of a ballot referendum to require photo ID to vote. A Senate committee held a hearing on the change. A group of law professors supported Ritchie, explaining that a 1919 law allows him to “provide an appropriate title.” The Minnesota Supreme Court heard the case Tuesday. A decision is expected in August.
Ohio – The Cincinnati Enquirer looked at voting problems in Ohio, finding that thousands of ballots are not counted each election because of mistakes by voters or poll workers. The Center’s Lawrence Norden chaired a bipartisan summit, which made several recommendations to fix these problems in 2009. The Enquirer reported that the legislature came close to passing many of those reforms in 2010, but the effort broke down. Since then, virtually none have been put into effect, or have even been considered again by the legislature.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Jon Husted is seeking access to a federal database to verify voters’ citizenship. The Cleveland Plain Dealer slammed Husted, saying “there is a time and a place for systematic purges, and this close to a hotly contested election in a swing state is neither the time nor the place.” Read Husted’s response. Also read an op-ed from the Obama campaign on the fight for early voting in Ohio, and a new report showing the racial and ethnic composition of early voters.
South Carolina – If the state’s restrictive voter ID law is upheld at a trial later this month, election officials will be “under a very tight time frame” to implement it before the November election. “The prospect of any practical statewide educational outreach for voters” who need an ID is inconceivable, according to the Brennan Center’s Mimi Marziani.
Tennessee – The Tennessean found the state’s voter ID law is “still an issue for some,” citing the Brennan Center’s latest report. A Nashville judge ruled voters in Memphis can't use library cards to vote, "but she also urged lawmakers to revisit the state’s new voter identification law to clear up aspects of it that she said made no sense."
Texas – Election officials are seeking access to the Department of Homeland Security’s citizenship database to check for possible non-citizens on the voter rolls. “Protecting voting rights and electoral integrity ought to go hand in hand, not get caught in the partisan schism,” wrote the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram.
Washington – Voters can now register to vote through Facebook using an application on the secretary of state’s page.
Wisconsin – The state attorney general plans to appeal a ruling blocking Wisconsin’s voter ID law.
And don’t forget our up-to-date online summary of all pending and passed voting laws.
Counting Votes 2012: A State by State Look at Election Preparedness
The Verified Voting Foundation, Common Cause, and Rutgers Law School released a study ranking “how prepared each state is to ensure that every eligible voter can vote, and that every vote is counted as cast.” Just five states (Minnesota, New Hampshire, Ohio, Vermont, and Wisconsin) are “exceptionally well-prepared,” according to the study. Read more at USA Today, Yahoo News, and the Associated Press.
- Voters aren’t “nearly outraged enough about Big Money’s undue influence” and new rules making it harder to vote, wrote Charles Blow of The New York Times, citing the Brennan Center’s research.
- The Washington Post blasted voter ID laws as “a throwback to poll taxes,” echoing Attorney General Eric Holder’s criticism.
- Also in the Post, former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican who became an independent, called voter ID laws “un-American” and “beneath us.” Watch Crist on MSNBC.
- Wendy Weiser spoke to Politico for a front-page story on how voter ID laws could swing some swing states.
- The cartoon Doonesbury highlighted voter suppression all last week. Start on Monday and read the entire week.
- The Brennan Center’s Lawrence Norden discussed voter ID laws on NPR’s On Point and provided an overview of restrictive laws for Reuters TV.
- The Center’s Sundeep Iyer and Keesha Gaskins wrote an op-ed for Huffington Post on their latest report, The Challenge of Obtaining Voter Identification.
- ProPublica wrote “Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About Voter ID Laws.”
- Norman Ornstein wrote in Roll Call that voter ID laws signal a need for a new Voting Rights Act. Read more about the VRA at The American Prospect.
- NBC Politics provided a complete roster of litigation challenging voting restrictions.
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