Anniston Star: Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill says he will have some say in who gets selected to serve on a federal election fraud panel led by Vice President Mike Pence…. Merrill said he knew about the plan to … Continue reading
Category Archives: The Voting Wars
Watch. … Continue reading
Listen. … Continue reading
Kirk Ross at The Progressive. … Continue reading
Reveal: Federal judges have ruled four separate times this year that Republican leaders in Texas rigged election systems to discriminate against minority voters, which potentially could land the entire state under federal oversight. Under what’s known as preclearance, local and … Continue reading
AP: During an interview with The Associated Press, Kobach said he has no “preconceived conclusions” about whether the commission even will make policy recommendations. He said it will also examine allegations about election laws suppressing turnout – as critics charge … Continue reading
Josh Douglas in USA Today: Improving the voting process is a goal worthy of a presidential commission on voting. Trying to bolster the credibility of already-debunked theories of voter fraud is not. … Continue reading
Mark Joseph Stern for Slate: On Monday, the Supreme Court dealt a death blow to North Carolina’s notorious voter suppression law, refusing to review a lower court’s decision to block the measure for “target[ing] African Americans with almost surgical precision.” … Continue reading
WaPo editorial. … Continue reading
LIsten. … Continue reading
ACLU blog. … Continue reading
Tierney Sneed for TPM. … Continue reading
Michael Wines in the NYT: It seemed like an important victory for voting rights advocates on Monday when the Supreme Court declined to reconsider an appellate decision striking down North Carolina’s restrictive voting law. But those who follow the arcana … Continue reading
NYT editorial: To state the obvious, this isn’t a commission. It’s a self-driving vehicle preprogrammed to arrive at only one destination: that strange, fact-free land in which, according to Mr. Trump and many conservatives, hordes of foreigners and people without … Continue reading
Mark Sherman for the AP: The Supreme Court’s refusal to breathe new life into North Carolina’s sweeping voter identification law might be just a temporary victory for civil rights groups. Republican-led states are continuing to enact new voter ID measures … Continue reading
Today Chief Justice Roberts wrote separately in connection with the Supreme Court decision not to hear the North Carolina voting case, underlining the procedural irregularities of the case and noting it was not a decision on the merits. The Chief did … Continue reading
There’s already talk of the North Carolina general assembly (which has a veto-proof Republican majority) passing another strict voting rule (over the certain objections of the Democratic governor). This may happen even though the Supreme Court allowed the Fourth Circuit’s … Continue reading
Today the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to a Fourth Circuit decision holding that a North Carolina voting law (one I’ve called the strictest set of voting rules rolled into one law passed since at least the passage … Continue reading
NYT: Kris W. Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, oversees an office whose clerical and regulatory work costs the state’s taxpayers barely $5.5 million a year. But he has parlayed that modest post into a national platform for tough restrictions … Continue reading
Statement. … Continue reading
Take Care blog: Evidence suggests that the Commission’s conclusions are also already preordained. Kris Kobach, co-chair of the new Commission, met with President-Elect Donald Trump in November 2016, in an apparent interview to become Secretary of the Department of Homeland … Continue reading
Charles is one of the smartest and fairest people working in the field of election administration from the academic side. From his post today: 4. The lost opportunity. Most people who work in the field of election administration, academics and practitioners, … Continue reading
Among Doug’s questions: What impact does this have on members of the commission? Several members of the new commission are involved in complicated issues elsewhere. Kansas’ Kobach continues to be the target of numerous lawsuits regarding his state’s voter registration laws … Continue reading
Bob Bauer, former co-chair of the last (bipartisan) Presidential Commission on Election Administration: This means that the only hope for the Commission to attain respectability is to build a record of consultation with the respectable. And given how the Commission … Continue reading
The Executive order establishing the “voter fraud” commission provides for the VP to chair and up to 15 additional members. Yet the NYT report says it will have “about a dozen” members, and so far we only know the names … Continue reading
TPM: Even election administration experts who had served on presidential election commissions in the past were dubious of Trump’s panel’s true aims. “It so beyond the pale. What can you say at this point?” said Nate Persily, who served as a … Continue reading
Here … Continue reading
Release: The American Civil Liberties Union took legal action today related to President Trump’s new executive order establishing a “Presidential Commission on Election Integrity.” The ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act “FOIA” request seeking information that the Trump administration … Continue reading
ABC News: President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order today establishing a commission to review alleged voter fraud and voter suppression in the American election system, multiple senior administration officials tell ABC News. The officials say Vice … Continue reading
Slate reports (and links to my earlier blog post). … Continue reading
AP: When Sean Reynolds went to his polling place at a local ice skating rink on Election Day, he showed his valid driver’s license. The problem? It wasn’t issued in Wisconsin. Reynolds, 30, was taken aback. He had moved to … Continue reading
Today Ari Berman has an article in The Nation called Wisconsin’s Voter-ID Law Suppressed 200,000 Votes in 2016 (Trump Won by 22,748). The story relies on a new study from Democrat-aligned Priorities USA finding a great decline in turnout, especially among … Continue reading
Press release: Voting rights groups filed a federal lawsuit today against California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for its failure to offer federally mandated voter registration opportunities to millions of Californians. The lawsuit—filed on behalf of the League of Women … Continue reading
Oh my. … Continue reading
Renée Cross, Jim Granato and Mark P. Jones for the Monkey Cage: We conducted surveys in Texas earlier this year to investigate these arguments. Our study found that virtually all eligible non-voters — that is, people who could have but … Continue reading
Editorial: The Javert of voter fraud now has a ninth conviction to show for Kansans’ tax dollars and his own single-minded pursuit. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach claimed in a statement last week that, “This conviction demonstrates once again … Continue reading
Des Moines Register: Iowa voters soon will need to show identification at the polls under a new law signed Friday by Gov. Terry Branstad. The measure overhauls Iowa’s election laws through a series of changes that Republicans say are needed to ensure … Continue reading
This disposes of one of plaintiffs’ arguments in this litigation. (Via Josh Gerstein) … Continue reading
Indiana Lawyer: Marion County’s single location for early voting provides unequal access to the ballot, argues a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday by Common Cause and the NAACP. Plaintiffs in the case allege Indianapolis’ sole early voting precinct is discriminatory and … Continue reading
Release: Today, the National Urban League released the 2017 edition of its annual State of Black America report. This year’s report, “Protect Our Progress,” examines the state of job creation, living wages, voting rights, criminal justice reform, education, health care, … Continue reading
Spoiler alert: Texas does not look good. … Continue reading
Arizona Republic: Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes is spoiling for a fight over voter-registration procedures meant to keep undocumented immigrants from voting. The newly elected Democrat says the restrictions may have denied as many as 58,000 U.S. citizens in Maricopa County the … Continue reading
David Becker blog post: Six months after the election, there’s still discussion about the extent to which voter fraud exists and whether the White House will follow through with an investigation. In the meantime, election officials across the country have … Continue reading
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel editorial page blog: Just what game is Republican state Attorney General Brad Schimel playing? His office released a memo Monday saying an investigation into allegations of voter fraud by Democrats talking on a video about bringing in people from out of state was … Continue reading
See this order in the NEOCH case. … Continue reading
Next hearing May 10. But this freezes the status quo. … Continue reading
The Root reports. … Continue reading
Sam Levine for HuffPost. … Continue reading
The Dallas Morning News reports. … Continue reading
Burden, Canon, Mayer, and Moynihan in Political Research Quarterly: Conventional political wisdom holds that policies that make voting easier will increase turnout and ultimately benefit Democratic candidates. We challenge this assumption, questioning the ability of party strategists to predict which … Continue reading