“I don’t know why this has fallen on my shoulders,…I’m just a very small old country boy from Arkansas in this bigger commission with Vice President Pence, and I’m just going to do the best I can, to be honest.” … Continue reading
Category Archives: The Voting Wars
TIME: The hacking of state and local election databases in 2016 was more extensive than previously reported, including at least one successful attempt to alter voter information, and the theft of thousands of voter records that contain private information like … Continue reading
Judge orders briefs, but no new evidentiary hearing. … Continue reading
Boston Globe: Two members of a presidential commission charged with investigating alleged voter fraud want the panel to focus on what could be the biggest fraudulent scheme of all: attempted Russian hacking of numerous state election systems. The call, by … Continue reading
AP: Kansas election official is trying to hide materials that undercut his public claim that substantial numbers of noncitizens have registered to vote and that documentary proof-of-citizenship requirements are necessary to stop it, civil rights advocates contend in a court … Continue reading
Vanita Gupta in The Root: Instead of focusing on actual problems, like modern-day voting discrimination, however, the Trump administration is working to further undermine our democracy. One of Jeff Sessions’ first moves as attorney general was to withdraw the Department … Continue reading
Texas Tribune: Just days after his victory, Trump caused a stir by claiming — without evidence — that he would have won the popular vote in addition to the Electoral College “if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” … Continue reading
Release: The Best Practices report follows President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order on the Establishment of Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. PILF intends to contribute to the body’s future studies by offering these findings and suggestions in the near … Continue reading
Jason Zengerle for NYT magazine: In just a few years, North Carolina Republicans have not just run quickly through the conservative policy checklist; they’ve tried to permanently skew the balance of power in the state in their favor, passing some of … Continue reading
No doubt, there’s a lot riding on the special election between Ossoff and Handel to replace Secretary of HHS Tom Price. Not only is it seen as a harbinger of 2018; some see the fate of Trumpcare resting on the … Continue reading
Texas Tribune considers whether the redistricting and voter id cases will lead to federal courts putting Texas’s voting rules back under federal supervision. … Continue reading
Order. Next stop the state Supreme Court (which has a new Democratic majority)? … Continue reading
Houston Chronicle: Hundreds were delayed from voting and others nearly turned away entirely during the presidential election because of confusion over the status Texas voter ID laws, a new report from a voting rights advocacy group shows. It’s just one … Continue reading
BuzzFeed reports. … Continue reading
Richard Wolf for USA Today: More signs of his emerging role came in May, when Gorsuch sided with Justice Clarence Thomas in urging the court to consider whether to lift a ban on unlimited federal election spending by political parties. The court … Continue reading
I expect this news will make it into a filing before Judge Ramos in the voter id litigation. Update: Quick reversal. … Continue reading
What I learned in this fascinating piece: the Samuel Huntington connection. … Continue reading
Bloomberg: Russia’s cyberattack on the U.S. electoral system before Donald Trump’s election was far more widespread than has been publicly revealed, including incursions into voter databases and software systems in almost twice as many states as previously reported. In Illinois, investigators … Continue reading
A Chapin Blog. … Continue reading
KC Star: Two advocacy groups, claiming the state has failed to provide necessary education to voters, have sued the state of Missouri in an effort to halt a new voter identification law. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Advancement … Continue reading
Inquiring minds want to know. Updated: Chris Geidner reports Kobach will continue to serve. … Continue reading
Mark Joseph Stern for Slate: New Hampshire residents who register to vote within 30 days of an election may soon find an unexpected presence at their door: state investigators and law enforcement officers demanding proof that they live in the … Continue reading
Texas Tribune: A new law softening Texas’ strict voter identification requirements doesn’t absolve the lawmakers from intentionally discriminating against minority voters in 2011 — nor would it properly accommodate those voters going forward, the state’s opponents in a long-running lawsuit … Continue reading
Austin American-Statesman: U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos, who has already ruled that the Republican-backed voter ID law was enacted in 2011 with the intent to discriminate against minority voters, will confer with lawyers on how best to determine whether … Continue reading
News and Observer: The former governor also had advice for the legislature. Republican House and Senate leaders were in the crowd at the NCGOP convention. “I know for a fact that we had a lot of noncitizens that were voting,” … Continue reading
HuffPo reports. … Continue reading
Austin American Statesman: Gov. Greg Abbott signed a new voter ID bill into law Thursday, loosening identification requirements from a 2011 law that a federal judge said was enacted by Republicans to intentionally discriminate against minority voters, who tend to … Continue reading
So far an order with no reasoning. Presumably this gets appealed to the NC Supreme Court, now majority Democrat-elected. Update: An appeal is coming from Gov. Cooper. … Continue reading
Well, now that push comes to shove, Republican commissioners say what Newby did was a-ok, while Democratic commissioner Hicks dissents. The case continues. As I wrote back in February about the district court’s request for these documents: But having the … Continue reading
Here is the Atlantic. … Continue reading
Jason Kander for CNN Opinion. … Continue reading
Zack Roth for The Daily Democracy: Hillary Clinton has suggested she’d be president today were it not for restrictions on voting in place in last year’s election. The truth is probably more complicated. In an interview with New York magazine, … Continue reading
I’ve long talked about the emergence of “red state” election law and “blue state” election law, and the trend seems to be accelerating. Paul Waldman: America, as we all know, is a deeply divided nation, split along lines of class … Continue reading
Greg Stohr Bob Barnes Ari Berman Doug Chapin … Continue reading
Miles Rapoport for TAP: But, after the initial flurry of responses, a strategy for the longer haul is needed. First, an aggressive communications offensive is required to counter the Commission’s biases and preconceived notions. ReThink Media and other organizations are … Continue reading
WaPo reports. … Continue reading
NY Times: In Washington, efforts by this state’s Republicans to cement their political dominance have taken a drubbing this month. On May 15, the Supreme Court struck down a North Carolina elections law that a federal appeals court said had … Continue reading
Linda Greenhouse NYT column. … Continue reading
I have written this oped for the Portland Press Herald. It begins: Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap is making a serious mistake by agreeing to participate in a sham “voter integrity” commission established by President Trump to validate his … Continue reading
Texas Tribune: The Texas House on Tuesday tentatively approved legislation to overhaul the state’s embattled voter identification law, moving it one step closer to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. Senate Bill 5 would in several ways relax what some had called … Continue reading
Bryan Lowry: The American Civil Liberties Union has asked a federal court to enable documents from Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s November meeting with President Donald Trump to be made public. Kobach earlier this month handed over the documents, … Continue reading
Jim Condos, Vt. Secretary of State writes: I am deeply troubled by the announcement that the President signed an executive order establishing a commission to review alleged voter fraud in our elections. Since the 2016 election, President Trump has made … Continue reading
Tune in to “The Bernie Sanders Show” today at 11 eastern. Update: The Internet went out at the Senate in the middle of this broadcast. They will broadcast the entire thing later in the week, and then I will link. … Continue reading
I have written this oped for the Washington Post. It begins: Sometimes the most important stuff in Supreme Court opinions is hidden in the footnotes. In Monday’s Supreme Court ruling striking down two North Carolina congressional districts as unconstitutionally influenced … Continue reading
Jim Malewitz for the Texas Tribune: A flurry of legislative activity Sunday night gave life to efforts to overhaul Texas’ voter identification rules — legislation Republicans call crucial to the state’s arguments in a high-profile legal battle over whether the … Continue reading
Bob Barnes for WaPo: The big win for voting rights activists at the Supreme Court last week came with an equally big asterisk, and provided new reason for jittery liberals and civil rights groups to continue to fret about Chief … Continue reading
Politico: When Kris Kobach, Kansas’ aggressive secretary of state, convinced the state legislature to give him prosecutorial power to pursue voter fraud, he said it was necessary to root out tens of thousands of undocumented aliens who were voting as … Continue reading
Ian Millhiser for Think Progress. … Continue reading
Alicia Bannon and Nathaniel Sobel at TAP. … Continue reading
Politifact North Carolina: A chain email has begun circulating in North Carolina that claims widespread irregularities in the state’s voter rolls. The email caught our attention with its subject line, “PROOF !! North Carolina has the world’s oldest voters !” … Continue reading