Voting Newsletter: National Voter Registration Day, Penn. Court Reviews ID Law
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Latest Developments
National Voter Registration Day
Today is National Voter Registration Day, and organizers are registering voters and reminding Americans to sign up before Election Day. Volunteer for a local registration event.
Don’t have time to volunteer? Spread the word on Facebook and Twitter. A new study shows social media engagement may have boosted turnout by 340,000 votes in the 2010 election. Election Day is just 42 days away, and many registration deadlines are approaching. Now is the time to register and to encourage your friends and their friends to do the same.
To learn what students need to register, see our 50-State Student Voting Guide.
Penn. Court Reviews Voter ID Law… Again
Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court will review the state’s voter ID law today. The state Supreme Court returned the case to the lower court, ordering Judge Robert Simpson to consider whether the state can successfully carry out the law before Election Day.
“The Court was right to express skepticism that this sweeping new voter ID law can be implemented so close to an election,” said the Brennan Center’s Wendy Weiser. “Many eligible voters will have to struggle to get an ID in time. It is wrong for politicians to try to manipulate the system for their own benefit by rushing through new voting requirements at the last minute.”
A Republican lawmaker who sponsored the voter ID law told KDKA radio last week that the only people who will be unable to cast ballots because of the law “are too lazy.” The Washington Post and CNN profiled a few Pennsylvania voters who struggled to get ID. The quest required taking a day off from work and hours of waiting at DMV offices.
Voter Empowerment Act Would Modernize Registration
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) introduced the Voter Empowerment Act, joining Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who introduced the House version in May. The bill will help ensure all eligible Americans have the opportunity to vote. It includes steps to modernize voter registration, a proposal first introduced by the Brennan Center in 2008.
“As the leading democracy of the world, our voting system should be free, fair, and accessible to all eligible Americans,” said Wendy Weiser. “No matter your political party, we can all agree that every eligible American should have the opportunity to vote. Modernizing voter registration is something everyone can get behind. It is an innovative reform that could add more than 50 million eligible citizens to the rolls, permanently.”
See all of the Brennan Center’s resources on voter registration modernization.
Colorado – The Denver Post took an extensive look at Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s (R) effort to purge noncitizens from the voter rolls, which critics contend “has been founded on myth, not math.” Read more on Gessler in The Washington Post.
Florida – A challenge to the state’s voter purge can continue, a federal court ruled last week. Read more on the purge from the Brennan Center’s Diana Kasdan. Read more here, here, and here. Meanwhile, a federal judge upheld Florida’s law cutting the number of early voting days from 14 to eight. Read more on the early voting battle here and here. Also read how groups in Florida are working hard to conduct registration drives as the election approaches.
Iowa – A state judge temporarily enjoined a voter purge effort by the secretary of state. Read more here and here.
Michigan – Ignoring a veto by Gov. Rick Snyder (R), the secretary of state has ordered that November ballots feature a check-off box for voters to confirm they are U.S. citizens. Voting rights groups have sued in federal court to remove the box.
Minnesota – The state could be embroiled in further debate if a voter ID referendum passes in November. At issue is the meaning of “government-issued” photo ID. Does the term include the U.S. government? What about ID’s from the state’s colleges and universities? “There’s a debate about what a valid government-issued ID is and whether the legislature will get to determine that,” said the head of governmental affairs for Minnesota’s secretary of state.
New Hampshire – College students will be allowed to vote even if they do not have an in-state driver’s license.
Nevada – Online registration is now available statewide.
North Carolina – The Voter Integrity Project submitted a list of 27,500 people on the voter rolls who they believe are dead. The board of elections was already aware of about 20,000 of the suspect names submitted. So far, only 196 of the records show voting activity after death, although many in this group had cast absentee ballots, the Charlotte Observer reported. “People are concerned about voter fraud, but it is proven that we are not finding evidence of that,” said a board of elections official.
Ohio – Secretary of State Jon Husted (R) has opted to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit a ruling restoring early voting during the weekend before Election Day. Read more here and here. Husted is also appealing a decision requiring election officials to count provisional ballots if they are cast in the wrong precinct. The Brennan Center filed an amicus brief in that case urging that the ballots be counted when poll workers err. The secretary also spoke last week about “streamlining” voter ID requirements. Read more here.
Pennsylvania – A few counties plan to issue photo voter ID cards at county-run nursing homes and colleges. Colleges intend to distribute about 385,000 new ID cards with expiration dates, which will allow students to vote. Veterans’ medical ID cards, however, won’t be accepted because they lack expiration dates.
South Carolina – A panel of federal judges heard closing arguments in South Carolina’s voter ID case Monday.
Texas – A state judge blocked an effort to purge allegedly dead voters from the rolls because the initiative could violate Texas’ election code. Read more here, here, and here.
Virginia – Election officials are mailing 4.7 million voter registration cards in the next few weeks and spending only $500,000 to educate Virginians about the state’s new voter ID law.
Wisconsin – Keesha Gaskins spoke to The Appleton Post-Crescent about Wisconsin’s role in the “national voting rights storm.”
And don’t forget our up-to-date online summary of all pending and passed voting laws.
Media Round-Up
- There have been a series of articles detailing how courts nationwide have blocked restrictive voting laws. “There’s no question that we’ve won many more of the lawsuits than we’ve lost,” Lawrence Norden told The Washington Post. Wendy Weiser spoke to Reuters and The Daily Beast interviewed Diana Kasdan about the judicial backlash.
- Norden spoke to Roll Call about the potential for disaster come Election Day for states with restrictive laws. He also explained the problems of electronic voting machines in The Wall Street Journal.
- The New York Times ran a front-page exposé of True the Vote and other groups planning poll-watching activities, which an editorial dubbed “Voter Harassment, Circa 2012.” Law enforcement officials should “crack down on the illegal activities — handed down from Jim Crow days — of True the Vote and similar groups,” The Times wrote. Read more on True the Vote at The Atlantic.
- “We cannot let anyone discourage us from casting our ballots,” Michelle Obama said in a speech at the Congressional Black Caucus gala. “We cannot let anyone make us feel unwelcome in the voting booth. It is up to us to make sure that in every election, every voice is heard and every vote is counted.”
- A new Advancement Project study found “voting laws may deter 10 million Hispanics,” The Washington Post reported.
- The Supreme Court could soon hear two cases, one from North Carolina and one from Alabama, challenging Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which prevents election laws from discriminating against minorities.
- Slate posted an interactive map showing the dearth of voter fraud cases based on the work of News 21, a national group of journalism students. ABC News and the Associated Press have more on the infrequency of voter fraud.
- Comedian Sarah Silverman, in her typically offensive way, put together a takedown of voter ID laws. (Warning: NSFW.)
- Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) introduced a bill allowing voters in states with photo ID requirements to “sign an affidavit attesting to their identity in lieu of showing the mandated documents.” Read more on voter ID at U.S. News & World Report and Huffington Post.
- Almost all states have October voter registration deadlines.Early voting began in Idaho and South Carolina Friday, and about 30 states will start early voting by the end of the month. Early voting accounted for 30 percent of all ballots cast in 2008.
- New voting laws have spurred Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts, National Journal reported. Voter ID laws are also motivating black women, who had the highest turnout in 2008, according to The Washington Post.
- “Having covered Watergate and the impeachment of Richard Nixon, and more recently written a biography of Nixon, I believe that the wrongdoing we are seeing in this election is more menacing even than what went on then,” Elizabeth Drew wrote in The New York Review of Books.
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