The Brennan Center submits written testimony for the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights hearing: "New State Voting Laws: Barriers to the Ballot?"
A 2006 national survey commissioned by the Brennan Center found that as many as 11% of voting-age adults – millions of Americans – did not have a current and valid government-issued photo ID. This is a troubling statistic for advocates of strict photo ID policies. Hans von Spakovsky and Alex Ingram of the Heritage Foundation recently published a memo attacking our study and this widely-cited, independently confirmed statistic. This document contains details on our study and explains why their attacks are baseless.
In conjunction with the ACLU, the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the League of Women Voters of South Carolina, we submitted this joint letter to the Department of Justice pointing out how voter ID provisions in a recently passed South Carolina law are racially discriminatory. Our letter urges the Department of Justice not to approve the new law under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
The Brennan Center for Justice, Democracia USA, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the League of Women Voters of Florida
The League of Women Voters of Florida, Democracia USA, the Brennan Center for Justice, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law write the Deptartment of Justice to oppose preclearance of three sets of provisions of a new Florida law, H.B. 1355 (2011), which dramatically impact the State’s voter registration and voting processes. All four organizations are non-partisan, non-profit entities that work to expand and protect voting rights in Florida and across the United States.
As the 2012 election approaches, a massive crackdown on voting rights is unfolding – the most significant such assault in decades. Millions of Americans risk disenfranchisement, blocked from casting ballots or having them count.