Missourian: As the Nov. 6 general election approaches, a new shake-up regarding voter identification laws has election authorities across Missouri — including in Boone County — on their toes. Cole County Judge Richard Callahan on Tuesday blocked provisions of the … Continue reading
Category Archives: voter id
AP: Arkansas’ highest court on Thursday upheld a voter ID law that is nearly identical to a restriction struck down by the court four years ago. The 5-2 decision from the Arkansas Supreme Court means the law, which requires voters … Continue reading
The court’s opinion and order is here. … Continue reading
Justices Ginsburg and Kagan (but surprisingly not Justice Sotomayor) dissented, citing the Purcell Principle. Justice Kavanaugh did not participate. Breaking: #SCOTUS allows North Dakota voter ID requirement, which had been enjoined during the primaries, to be enforced during the general … Continue reading
Vox has this interview with Allan Lichtman, discussing what he thinks was the Framers’ biggest mistake. … Continue reading
NPR reports on the work of Spread the Vote, one of the two main national organizations (VoteRiders is the other) helping eligible voters get the IDs they need. … Continue reading
Read the order granting a preliminary injunction and a related order. The orders relate to signature matching requirements for absentee ballots, the time to cast such ballots, and voter id requirements. … Continue reading
The News & Observer reports. … Continue reading
I have written this piece for Slate. It begins: Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement from the Supreme Court last week, was certainly the “swing justice” in key cases on major issues from abortion to gay rights. But when … Continue reading
With no fanfare, the mandate issued from the 5th Circuit in the Texas voter ID case yesterday, ending the appeal. As I wrote back in April, the panel issued a “fundamentally disingenuous opinion” by Judge Edith Jones, which was really … Continue reading
Order: The State of North Dakota moves to stay the district court’s injunction of April 3, 2018, concerning certain subsections of the North Dakota elections statute, N.D.C.C. § 16.1-01- 04.1. Based primarily on the imminent primary election date of June … Continue reading
WRAL: House Speaker Tim Moore and other House Republicans a filed a proposed constitutional amendment Thursday afternoon to ensconce a voter ID rule in the state constitution. The bill would ask voters to decide this November whether to add this paragraph to the … Continue reading
Howard has it. And see my earlier post on the case, which begins: In what I consider to be a fundamentally disingenuous analysis by 5th Circuit Judge Edith Jones, a divided 5th Circuit panel has not only held that Texas’s … Continue reading
Manny Fernandez reports for the NY Times. … Continue reading
Earlier today, Rick noted the 5th Circuit’s opinion on Texas’s voter ID law. I agree with much of his critique of the court’s resolution of the section 3(c) preclearance issue. In my post on the Texas redistricting cases earlier this … Continue reading
You can find a majority opinion by Judge Jones, concurring opinion by Judge Higginbotham, and dissenting opinion by Judge Graves in Veasey v. Abbott at this link. In what I consider to be a fundamentally disingenuous analysis by 5th Circuit … Continue reading
Read the brief and press release. … Continue reading
VOA: An Arkansas resident asked a judge Wednesday to strike down a new state law requiring voters show photo identification before casting a ballot, arguing the measure causes the same problems as a nearly identical state voter ID law struck … Continue reading
Important NYT read: But research, particularly of voter ID laws in Texas, Wisconsin and other states, provides an imprecise picture of how much similar laws suppress turnout. And Eitan Hersh, a Tufts University political scientist who contributed to the analysis … Continue reading
DOJ filing: The United States opposes private plaintiffs-appellees’ motion to lift the stay pending appeal that the motions panel entered on September 5, 2017. The parties’ merits briefs and oral argument before this Court only reinforce the strong likelihood that … Continue reading
Order via Raffi Melkonian. … Continue reading
Back in September, a 5th Circuit’s motions panel, on a 2-1 vote, stayed a trial court order which would have blocked Texas from implementing its revised voter id law pending appeal. The order specifically was not binding on the panel … Continue reading
Texas Tribune: In Texas’ bid to keep its voter identification law intact, it was its legal foes — lawyers representing voting and civil rights groups and individual voters of color — who faced a tougher line of questioning Tuesday before … Continue reading
Oral argument before the 5th Circuit Tuesday in Veasey case on the intentional discrimination question. With Judges Edith Jones and James Graves on the panel, there is likely to be a dissent, given how each voted in the last go … Continue reading
It never ends. On the last voter id law passed by the NC general assembly, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit concluded: “Although the new provisions target African Americans with almost surgical precision, they constitute inapt remedies … Continue reading
Here. … Continue reading
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has denied a request by opponents of Texas’s strict voter id law to have the state’s appeal of the ruling holding the law illegal and enacted with racially discriminatory purpose … Continue reading
When I’ve spoken about voter ID rules in the past, I’ve consistently been asked why advocates haven’t put time and energy into helping people without the right ID get the right ID. And while it’s next to impossible for direct … Continue reading
Careful new study led by Ken Mayer: A survey of registered voters in Dane and Milwaukee Counties who did not vote in the 2016 presidential election found that 11.2% of eligible nonvoting registrants were deterred by the Wisconsin’s voter ID … Continue reading
Full throated defense of Texas’s current position in this litigation, a 180 from where DOJ was during the Obama administration. … Continue reading
Last week I reported that a 5th Circuit motions panel, on a 2-1 vote, allowed Texas to enforce its revised voter id law pending appeal in the case. The court put this stay in place this even though the trial court found … Continue reading
The other day I reported that a 5th Circuit motions panel, on a 2-1 vote, allowed Texas to enforce its revised voter id law pending appeal in the case. The court did this even though the trial court found Texas … Continue reading
Chuck Lindell with the schedule. … Continue reading
Via Josh Gerstein comes news of this order in the long-running Texas voter ID litigation. Judges Jerry Smith and Jennifer Elrod held that Texas is likely to succeed on the merits because its new voter id legislation (SB 5) is … Continue reading
Citylab, with the subhead: “Texas’s S.B. 5 voting ID law, struck down last week, could have had serious consequences for minority voters impacted by Tropical Storm Harvey.” … Continue reading
New filing in the 5th Circuit does not even recognize that the trial court found Texas engaged in intentional racial discrimination in passing its voter id law and substitute, and that this finding allows for a broader remedy under the … Continue reading
This order makes sense given the Purcell Principle. Still pending are requests in the district court and 5th Circuit to allow Texas to continue to enforce its voter id law pending appeal (which could well take a year or more). … Continue reading
Stay motion. If Texas loses this stay motion, I expect they will try to get the Supreme Court to issue the stay, … Continue reading
This 27-page opinion and order explains the basis for the trial court’s decision to hold that Texas’s voter identification law may not be enforced at all. It is an important ruling, but a more important one is yet to come … Continue reading
Texas Observer reports. … Continue reading
Brief. … Continue reading
DOJ’s position: Now that Texas passed a new law softening its voter id law, there’s nothing more the court should do. No need to find Texas acted with a discriminatory purpose, no need for an injunction, further judicial supervision, or … Continue reading
Judge orders briefs, but no new evidentiary hearing. … 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
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
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
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