Brennan Center for Justice

Welcome to the Brennan Center's voting newsletter, the most comprehensive summary of all the latest developments affecting voting. 

• Latest Developments – Justice Dept. Sues Florida Over Voter Purge
• State Updates – Registration Modernization Introduced in N.Y.
• New Data and Research – U.S. Census Maps on Voter Turnout
• Media Round-Up – Comedy Central's The Daily Show Highlights Restrictive Florida Law

Latest Developments

Justice Department Sues Over Florida Purge

The Department of Justice sued Florida over its controversial voter purge, which threatens to remove eligible voters from the rolls. The complaint says Florida used “outdated and inaccurate data” to find non-citizens who may be registered voters, and that federal law prevents the state from removing voters within 90 days of an election (the state’s primary is August 14).

Gov. Rick Scott (R) has defended the purge. “What we've found is noncitizens voting, noncitizens registered to vote,” he told NPR. “I cannot sit here, as governor of this state, and not enforce our law. It's a crime and dilutes the right of U.S. citizens to vote.”

The Miami Herald reported that 58 percent of those flagged for removal are Hispanic. Scott has said that no citizens have been removed the rolls, but two Florida counties removed at least nine people, “and election officials have no solid proof that those people are noncitizens.”

The Herald's Marc Caputo revealed that the voter purge actually began early last year, but Florida’s Secretary of State at the time, Kurt Browning, stopped it because he believed the method for identifying suspect voters was unsound.

 “Browning called it his ‘Spidey sense,’ and said he was not just concerned with the numbers, but how they were obtained,” Caputo reported. “We were not getting first-hand data. I wanted to make [sure] we are 99.9 percent certain. I wanted to make sure the data was good if it went out under my name,” Browning said.

Other lawsuits challenging the purge have been filed by coalitions of civil rights groups and immigrant rights groups.

For more on the purge, watch Michael Waldman on CNN. Also read Myrna Pérez’s definitive study, one of the first systematic examinations of the chaotic and largely unseen world of voter purges.

Supreme Court Restores Arizona’s Proof of Citizenship

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy issued a temporary order late last week reviving an Arizona law requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote. A Ninth Circuit panel ruled 9-2 in April to overturn the measure.

The Circuit Court decision found that the proof-of-citizenship requirement conflicts with the National Voter Registration Act, which “allows voters to fill out a mail-in voter registration card and swear they are citizens under penalty of perjury,” but does not require proof of citizenship, the Associated Press reported. At least 7 percent of voting-age Americans do not have such documentation readily available, according to Brennan Center research.

“By stopping this ruling, a requirement that harms legitimate voters will remain in place, which a majority of appellate judges found violated federal law,” said Wendy Weiser, director of the Center’s Democracy Program.

This law first came before the Supreme Court in 2006 after the Ninth Circuit struck down an Arizona mandate that voters show identification at the polls. Justice Kennedy placed a similar hold on the appellate court’s ruling, ultimately asking the Circuit Court to reconsider. The April 2012 ruling upheld the ID provision.

Briefs from those seeking to eliminate the Arizona law were due before the Supreme Court Monday. The state must reply by noon Wednesday.

State Updates

Arkansas – Voting rights groups sent a “pre litigation notice letter” to Secretary of State Mark Martin, saying that “state agencies and officials haven’t sufficiently complied with federal law to encourage registration of low-income voters.”

Florida – In an interesting twist on the purge story, Reuters reported last week that Gov. Rick Scott “had to cast a provisional ballot in 2006 because officials mistakenly thought he was dead.” County officials received a notice that a Richard E. Scott, who had the same birthday as Gov. Scott, had died. Scott’s ballot was counted. Editorial boards across the country have opposed the purge. Florida “has a duty to ensure that those legally entitled to vote are not unjustly prevented from doing so,” wrote The Washington Post. “The last thing the state needs is another election tainted by questions of fairness.” Read more from The New York Times and Bloomberg.

Michigan – A series of restrictive voting bills passed the legislature last week and now head to Gov. Rick Snyder, who is expected to sign them. One bill restricts voter registration drives, containing provisions similar to some of the Florida restrictions blocked by a federal judge last month. The measures are part of Secretary of State Ruth Johnson’s “Secure and Fair Elections” plan. “But they don't make elections any safer, and they are unfair to voters and community-based groups that help them register,” wrote the Brennan Center’s Diana Kasdan and Sue Smith, President of the League of Women Voters of Michigan, in The Detroit News. “If Michigan lawmakers want to address a real election problem, they should improve our ramshackle voter registration process and help get more than 2 million eligible, but unregistered, Michiganders on the rolls.”

Minnesota – The state Supreme Court will rule on whether to keep a voter ID referendum on the ballot. “At issue is whether the question, as worded on the ballot, omits important information voters need to know before voting it up or down,” reported KARE 11 News. The League of Women Voters, Common Cause, and the American Civil Liberties Union brought the Supreme Court challenge. Leading Republican lawmakers will be allowed to intervene to defend the measure. Read more here.

New Hampshire – The governor may veto a compromise voter ID bill. City and town clerks were expected to support the measure, but some officials now fear an “11th hour” change “could lead to longer lines” at the polls. The governor has until June 27 to decide if he will veto.

New York – State Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) and Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh (D-Manhattan) introduced the Voter Empowerment Act of New York, a non-partisan bill to update, streamline, and make voter registration more efficient. The bill is modeled after federal legislation introduced last month by Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.). Both laws are based on Brennan Center recommendations first proposed in 2008. At a City Hall press conference unveiling the legislation, Wendy Weiser noted, “Through this effort, New York will lead the country in having a voter registration system that is accurate, complete, and works for all voters.” Read more here and here.

North Carolina – Lawmakers are working on a compromise voter ID bill because, as one state representative acknowledged, they “may not have the votes to get the true, hard-line bill” they had originally hoped would pass. Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed the earlier, more restrictive version. Read more here.

Ohio – The Akron Beacon Journal wrote that, while it may be too late to fix the recent voting law changes before November, “voting reform should become a top priority in Ohio as soon as the ballots are counted.”

Pennsylvania – In April, Secretary of State Carol Aichele met with the editorial board of the Erie Times-News about the state’s newly-passed voter ID law. She showed her state photo ID as an example. The problem? That ID doesn’t have an expiration date, and can’t be used for voting. Read more here.

The state has planned initiatives to help voters get the proper ID. “As each new plan to make it ‘easier’ to navigate the process is announced, it leaves the impression that getting the proper ID is such an ordeal that it may discourage many voters from even trying,” wrote the Philadelphia Daily News in an editorial urging voters to make sure they have the proper ID. Meanwhile, election board officials in Allegheny County plan to challenge the ID law because it is “too expensive and too difficult to implement in time for the November presidential election.”

South Carolina – A conservative watchdog group is suing the Department of Justice, asking for records related to its decision to block the state’s voter ID law.

Texas – The state is preparing for a voter ID showdown next month in federal court. Read more here. The group Project Vote is also challenging Texas’ law restricting voter registration drives. And the Longview News-Journal editorialized against the state’s voter purge, asking lawmakers to “examine the state’s methods for purging voters from registration rolls and make changes to prevent Texans from being removed unfairly.”

Virginia – Advocates are pushing the state to automatically restore voting rights to those with past criminal convictions. Currently, “Virginia is one of only four states that strips a person’s civil rights” after a conviction.

And don’t forget our up-to-date online summary of all pending and passed voting laws.

New Data and Research

Media Round-Up

• Comedy Central’s The Daily Show produced a hilarious segment on Florida’s law restricting community-based registration drives, interviewing Deirdre Macnab of the League of Women Voters of Florida. The Brennan Center represents the League, and other groups, in a challenge to the law, which was halted by a federal judge last month.
• Using Brennan Center research, Rolling Stone created a slideshow, “The ‘Voter Fraud’ Myth Debunked.”
• Krissah Thompson of The Washington Post spoke to the Brennan Center’s Wendy Weiser about “restrictive voting laws tied up in court,” focusing on Florida, Wisconsin, South Carolina, and Texas.
• The American Prospect published a brief explainer on voter ID laws, listing which states have them, and which laws are the subject of litigation. The Center’s Keesha Gaskins also wrote a blog post explaining the status of new voter ID laws.
• The AFL-CIO announced it will “fight voter ID laws in six battleground states,” The Hill reported, partnering with civil rights groups to run voter protection programs.
• Florida 2012 could end up like Florida 2000, wrote Patricia Zengerle at Reuters. Judy Woodruff at PBS NewsHour also highlighted Florida’s recent voting controversy, citing the Brennan Center’s call for a rational approach to the recent voter purge.
• Slate introduced a new feature asking their “favorite legal eagles” to propose new Constitutional amendments to reform campaigns and elections. Heather Gerken of Yale Law School called for an amendment guaranteeing the right to vote, which many are surprised doesn’t already exist. Richard Hasen of UC-Irvine School of Law said we must end the voting wars by creating “an independent, nonpartisan agency to run our federal elections.”
• Craig Newmark, of craigslist, wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle about a new grassroots campaign, America4America, which is intended to mobilize Latino voters. It was created by the president of Voto Latino and America Ferrera to educate “young folks about issues like voter ID laws and immigration.”
• What’s the latest front for voter ID disputes? Allegedly poorly-worded ballot referenda on issues such as voter ID. ElectionOnline Weekly reported on initiatives in Minnesota and Missouri.