AP: Republican lawmakers have voted to override new Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a bill that reduces his authority over state elections, the latest partisan clash in North Carolina over laws that chip away at executive branch power. The … Continue reading
Category Archives: The Voting Wars
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Covert videos of Democratic activists released in the run-up to last year’s presidential election showed no violations of Wisconsin laws, a review by the attorney general’s office found. The blunt conclusion is at odds with how Republican … Continue reading
WaPo: Montgomery election officials said Monday they will review registration procedures in response to allegations from a conservative watchdog group that the county’s rolls are packed with ineligible voters. Judicial Watch said in a letter earlier this month there was … Continue reading
Charlotte Observer editorial: At last, we know how badly photo voter ID is needed in North Carolina. For years, Republicans in North Carolina have alleged that in-person fraudulent voting is widespread while Democrats have said it is non-existent. But no … Continue reading
No word on the cert petition, the motion to dismiss the cert petition by NC’s governor and AG, and the motion to intervene from the NC legislature. It will probably be relisted for a third time for the next conference, … Continue reading
“OK and if anything happens you have my power of attorney and you be sure to vote for Donald Trump for me’.” —-Woman’s instructions to her daughter in North Carolina to vote her absentee ballot for Trump if she died. … Continue reading
WaPo: Those two examples aside, it’s worth considering Wasserman’s assessment more broadly. Are Georgia and Florida simply outliers? Is it the case more broadly that early voting tends to favor the Democrat in a race more heavily? Looking at last … Continue reading
News and Observer: A nonpartisan citizens’ lobbying group and 10 North Carolina residents filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing the lieutenant governor and legislative leaders of violating the state Constitution in December when they hastily called a special session to consider … Continue reading
HuffPo: Nevada’s Secretary of State says her office believes 21 noncitizens could have voted in the state in the 2016 election. Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske (R) released the information Wednesday after she accused the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles last week … Continue reading
KC Star: The organization argues that if Kobach lobbied Trump on changes to the act, it would amount to an admission that current federal law precludes him from enforcing the policy. Kobach has argued for several years that the policy … Continue reading
Release: On April 21, the U.S. Supreme Court is slated to consider whether or not is will hear an appeal to a lower court’s ruling that found North Carolina’s 2013 voter suppression law “targeted African-American voters with almost surgical precision.” … Continue reading
Democracy North Carolina: Voting rights group Democracy North Carolina released a report providing a first, county-by-county look at the human cost of hundreds of false voter fraud allegations leveled by the 2016 reelection campaign of former North Carolina Governor Pat … Continue reading
Today’s order list means the Court has not ruled on whether or not to dismiss the cert. petition in the big North Carolina voting case, as the Democratic governor and AG ask, on the Republican legislature’s attempt to intervene in … Continue reading
Nate Persily has written this article for the Journal of Democracy. Here is the abstract: The 2016 presidential election represents the latest chapter in the disintegration of the legacy institutions that had set bounds for U.S. politics in the postwar … Continue reading
Nevada Independent: Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske said she’s launching a voter fraud probe after discovering evidence that “noncitizens” cast ballots in the 2016 election. Cegavske’s office didn’t immediately answer additional questions about the alleged illegal votes, including how … Continue reading
WaPo editorial. … Continue reading
Ari Berman for The Nation: My grandmother Sylvia moved from Brooklyn to Iowa when she was 89 years old. It was a culture shock, to say the least. When my mom took her to vote, she complained of the candidates, … Continue reading
Des Moines Register: A contentious voter identification bill cleared an Iowa Senate subcommittee Wednesday, although critics said there is no evidence it’s needed and a Democratic lawmaker scolded a state elections official for suggesting there is a lack of confidence in Iowa’s … Continue reading
CPI: “You take a look at the registration, you have illegals, you have dead people you have this — it’s really a bad situation, it’s really bad,” Trump told Fox News host Bill O’Reilly in February when asked about election … Continue reading
TPM: Less then a week into the job, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch will have his first chance, behind closed doors at least, to weigh in on voting rights. When the justices meet Friday for their private conference, the first … Continue reading
Texas Tribune: Texas’ court-ordered $2.5 million voter education campaign failed to prevent widespread confusion about the state’s identification rules ahead of the 2016 general election, according to a study released Monday. And such a misunderstanding may have kept some eligible … Continue reading
Ross Ramsey for the Texas Tribune: The state seems to be doing everything in its power to prove that it cannot be trusted with voting rights. … Continue reading
WRAL: State legislative leaders and Gov. Roy Cooper are likely headed for another veto fight, this time over a measure that would reconfigure the state’s oversight of elections, ethics and lobbying. Lawmakers sent the bill to Cooper’s desk Tuesday. In … Continue reading
News and Observer: The state Senate on Monday night voted not to go along with a House bill that would merge the ethics and elections commissions. Instead, the bill was sent to a conference committee of Senate and House members … Continue reading
A federal district court has held on remand from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit sitting en banc that Texas enacted its controversial voter identification law with a racially discriminatory intent. If (and it is a … Continue reading
Docket. The first question is whether the state gets to withdraw the cert. petition, as the gov. and AG want and the Legislature does not. … Continue reading
HuffPo: In an effort to highlight voter irregularities and push for stricter voting laws, Iowa’s top election official pushed statistics on alleged voter fraud that even a member of his own staff privately suggested were misleading, emails obtained by the … Continue reading
News Observer editorial: A three-judge panel issued a clear ruling last month that Republican shenanigans trying to change the makeup of local elections boards and the structure of the state Board of Elections and the state ethics board were illegal … Continue reading
Paul Blumental for HuffPo: On March 21, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) vetoed legislation that would have automatically registered eligible voters when they sought services from the Department of Motor Vehicles. The veto made Sandoval the third Republican governor to … Continue reading
Wow: Governor Robert Bentley’s former top advisor and secret paramour Rebekah Mason led a politically-motivated effort in 2015 to close 31 driver’s license offices in mostly black counties, a move that embarrassed the state and was later reversed. The decision … Continue reading
Joshua Matz and Leah Litman: At the end of March, a group of conservative activists sent Attorney General Jeff Sessions an unsolicited letter with some detailed suggestions about how to “fix” the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. … Continue reading
Release: A federal court today denied a motion to dismiss a challenge to Alabama’s discriminatory voter ID law brought by plaintiffs represented by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. The ruling comes in the case of Greater Birmingham … Continue reading
New Hampshire Public Radio reports. … Continue reading
From today’s order (via Josh Gerstein): Having heard re-argument, this Court intends to issue its new opinion on whether SB 14 was passed with a discriminatory intent in violation of the Voting Rights Act at its earliest convenience and in … Continue reading
Lisa Rab with a must-read Politico magazine feature: But that wasn’t it. Not by a long shot. Eleven years after the books were closed on Ashcroft’s probe, another voter fraud investigation is gearing up. Once again, it is being driven … Continue reading
Just watch this. … Continue reading
Super interesting. Second time it is being rescheduled. I explained what was supposed to happen tomorrow here. The governor and AG of North Carolina want to withdraw the petition and the Legislature does not. Something is going on behind the … Continue reading
Texas Tribune: Filed by Committee Chairwoman Joan Huffman, Senate Bill 5 would add options for Texas voters who say they cannot “reasonably” obtain one of seven forms of ID currently required at the polls. It would also create harsh criminal penalties for … Continue reading
Michael Wines in the NYT: Nationwide, Republican state legislators are again sponsoring a sheaf of bills tightening requirements to register and to vote. And while they have traditionally argued that such laws are needed to police rampant voter fraud — … Continue reading
LAT: A member of the Federal Election Commission has accused President Trump of threatening democracy with his unproven allegations of voter fraud and asked him to show evidence if he has any. Ellen Weintraub, a Democratic commissioner at the agency, … Continue reading
A ChapinBlog. … Continue reading
The Denver Channel with a story that is just too rich: The former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party is charged with forgery and voter fraud for allegedly forging his wife’s mail-in ballot from last year’s election, according to court records … Continue reading
Michael Wines for the NYT. … Continue reading
NYT editorial. … Continue reading
A unanimous three-judge North Carolina state court, in a 43-page decision here, held that North Carolina’s attempt to change the nature of election boards in the state to help favor Republicans violates the state constitution. (The judges were not unanimous on … Continue reading
Ari Berman: Few people in the Republican Party have done more to limit voting rights than Hans von Spakovsky. He’s been instrumental in spreading the myth of widespread voter fraud and backing new restrictions to make it harder to vote. … Continue reading
News3: Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Wednesday vetoed a bill that he said could disenfranchise qualified voters but Republican legislators said could reduce voter fraud. HB 2343, sponsored by Del. Robert Bell, R-Charlottesville, would have required the state Department of Elections … Continue reading
The case is back on the Justices’ conference list. (More on the dispute and the delay.) The first thing the Justices will do is decide the motion to dismiss the cert petition (put in by North Carolina’s governor and AG, … Continue reading
Politico: Prominent Republicans across the country are breathing a sigh of relief that President Donald Trump has so far not aggressively pursued his pledge for a “major investigation” into his allegations of widespread voter fraud that he claims robbed him … Continue reading
Doug Chapin: Fifteen states have filed an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief in the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to hear a case in order to clarify if and how states may use evidence of non-voting as a … Continue reading