Voting Newsletter: Voter Registration for the 21st Century
- Latest Developments – Voter Registration for the 21st Century
- State Updates – Voter ID Referendum Blocked in Missouri
- New Data and Research – Voter Suppression 101
- Media Round-Up – As Super PACS Rise, So Does Voter Barriers
- Other News – Online Listing of Voter ID Laws and Legislation;
Voter Registration for the 21st Century
“A country that should be encouraging more people to vote is still using an archaic voter registration system that creates barriers to getting a ballot,” read Saturday’s New York Times editorial.
As states across the country continue to pass restrictive voting laws, modernizing our voter registration system is one way to help more eligible Americans participate in our democracy. Doing so would cost less, add millions to the rolls, and curb any possibility of fraud.
Already, 17 states electronically send “data from motor vehicle departments to election officials.” These systems have doubled the number of registrations in certain states, according to the Brennan Center’s research.
“It should be self-evident that the country benefits when more citizens are engaged in the electoral process, but too many lawmakers are trying to reduce participation for short-term political gain,” said the Times. “Given the progress some states have achieved with new registration methods, it’s time for Congress to step in and require that all states bring their systems into the digital age.”
Read the Brennan Center’s proposal to modernize our voter registration system.
Cleaning up the Rolls, or Suppressing the Vote?
A new organization in Florida “says it is making a non-partisan effort to clean up errors or possible fraud in voter rolls, but it is associated with a tea party group accused of seeking to suppress minority votes in Texas,” according to a front-page story in today’s Tampa Tribune.
The group, Tampa Vote Fair, will likely challenge voters at the polls, “meaning object to poll officials allowing them to vote.” The Brennan Center has documented how poll watchers and poll challengers have the potential to disenfranchise lawful voters by causing delays, crowding, and confusion inside the polling place and creating a charged partisan atmosphere that can intimidate many new voters.
Read more on challengers and vote suppression.
Confusion at the Polls Before Wisconsin Law in Effect
Wisconsin’s voter ID law is currently on hold, waiting state Supreme Court review. This led to some confusion at the polls during last week’s Republican primary.
An 87-year-old Waukesha woman was not able to vote because the poll worker asked for a photo ID, which she did not have with her, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Elderly voters are particularly affected by the new wave of restrictive voting laws — 18 percent of voters 65 or older do not have the kind of ID these laws require. That doesn’t take into account voters, like this 87-year-old woman, who may forget their ID and be discouraged from voting. Read more stories of voters who may be blocked from voting due to the new restrictive rules.
Colorado – Senate Democrats killed a voter ID bill. House Republicans rejected a voter registration bill that one county clerk said “would make updating voter rolls easier, cheaper and more accurate.” The Senate has attempted to revive the bill.
Connecticut – The Secretary of State wrote an op-ed in support of a referendum to remove restrictions on absentee voting, which would make elections “more accessible, cheaper and more flexible.”
Delaware – Lawmakers are working on a constitutional amendment to make it easier for persons with past criminal convictions to regain their right to vote.
Florida – The Bradenton Herald wrote an editorial on new evidence showing Florida’s election law suppresses voting. Read more here.
Georgia – The Grio details the “complicated history” of voter ID in Georgia.
Michigan – The House passed a bill to require photo ID for an absentee ballot. It now heads to the Senate.
Minnesota – A restrictive voting law will officially be on the ballot this fall. The measure would require a photo ID to vote, of a kind that one in ten voters do not have. It could also end election-day registration, a popular feature of Minnesota’s elections. Gov. Mark Dayton symbolically vetoed the amendment, and voting rights groups have vowed to fight it in court. Read the Brennan Center’s statement opposing the measure, and this story about other states offering clues on how voter ID would work in Minnesota.
Mississippi – The former secretary of state asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to block implementation of the state’s voter ID law.
Missouri – A state judge struck down the wording of a voter ID ballot measure, asking for a revision because it was “insufficient and unfair.” A House panel quickly revised the wording, which the House and Senate must still approve. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote an editorial criticizing the measure: “In a perverted, poetic justice kind of way, it's pitch perfect that in their alleged attempt to stop voter fraud, Missouri Republicans committed, well, fraud.”
Nebraska – A voter ID bill died in the legislature.
Ohio – The state Senate voted to repeal a controversial election law. The law was supposed to be on the ballot this fall for voters to decide. Now the referendum’s fate is uncertain.
Pennsylvania – Signed just last month, the full ramifications of the state’s voter ID law are now surfacing. For instance, most university IDs will not be valid. The Scranton Times-Tribune called the law a “scam.” Read more here. The ACLU and NAACP say they will file suit over the law, as legal experts continue debating what kind of impact the law could have.
Rhode Island – The Secretary of State will hand out free voter ID cards in several counties.
South Carolina – A federal court allowed the League of Women Voters of South Carolina, represented by the Brennan Center and other groups, and the NAACP to join a suit challenging the state’s voter ID law. Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), who is also the assistant Democratic leader, called the law reminiscent of the Jim Crow era. “It was effective then, and if we aren’t vigilant, it will be effective today,” Clyburn said. Meanwhile, a South Carolina House panel advanced a bill allowing online voter registration.
Tennessee – The state passed a law last year requiring a photo ID to vote, but people 60 and older do not need a photo on their driver’s license. The Senate passed a bill to remove this exemption, requiring all drivers’ licenses issued or renewed starting in 2013 to have a photo. A bill to make student ID cards valid for voting died in the legislature.
Texas – In the latest development in the battle over Texas’ voter ID law, the Justice Department is asking a three-judge federal panel to deny the state’s request to narrow discovery. Claiming “state legislative privilege,” Texas asserted that “communications between lawmakers, staff and constituents” should be protected. Read more here and here. Texas even wants to block depositions of state legislators. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott also claims the state’s voter ID law will increase turnout and does not discriminate against minorities, despite substantial evidence to the contrary.
Wisconsin – Although the state’s new photo ID law is not in effect, that isn’t preventing some officials from enforcing it anyway, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. An 87-year-old woman attempting to vote in the GOP primary was turned away from the polls because she did not have a photo ID, according to the report. Challenges to the law are pending before the state Supreme Court.
The Center for American Progress is out with an “Issue Brief” entitled, “Voter Suppression 101.” It summarizes topics such as registration restrictions, residency restrictions, limiting early voting, and voter ID laws. The final section of the report discusses “Gaming the Electoral College.” Although almost all states award electors on a winner-take-all basis (the exceptions are Maine and Nebraska), an effort was made in Pennsylvania — a critical swing state — to award electors on a district-by-district basis. In other words, each state’s electoral vote might be split. Although the Pennsylvania plan appears dead for now, other states may enlist in the cause. “If similar swing states, such as Florida or Michigan, took up this plan, it could fundamentally transform the next election into a contest to see who can best game the system,” the brief notes.
- The New York Times Campaign Stops blog detailed how the rise of super PACs parallels the effort to suppress the vote, citing the Brennan Center’s report on how restrictive voting laws could make it harder for millions of eligible Americans to vote.
- Craigslist founder Craig Newmark created a compelling infographic showing how suppressive election laws infringe on your right to vote.
- Former Brennan Center lawyer Erika Wood wrote in the New York Times about Florida’s long history of voter suppression, continuing today with restrictions on early voting and registration.
- Coca-Cola and Pepsi both left the American Legislative Exchange Council because of its support for controversial laws, including restrictive voting laws, according to NPR’s Peter Overby.
- More Florida: The New Republic’s Alec MacGillis spoke to the Brennan Center’s Lee Rowland about the League of Women Voters and Rock the Vote shutting down registration drives in the state.
- One Kentucky law professor called state constitutions the “new battleground in voting rights.” Many state constitutions explicitly protect the right to vote, which the U.S. Constitution does not.
- Growing numbers of newspaper editorial boards are condemning restrictive voting laws.
- Electiononline Weekly, a publication of the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, has a rundown of voter ID laws and legislation. Next week they will release their findings on the added costs of these restrictive measures.
- The Fair Elections Legal Network wrote about the growing momentum behind electronic voter registration.
