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
Category Archives: voter id
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
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
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
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
Spoiler alert: Texas does not look good. … Continue reading
The Dallas Morning News reports. … 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
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
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
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
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
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
Grimmer, Hersh, Meredith, Mummolo, and Nall have posted “Comment on ‘Voter Identification Laws and the Suppression of Minority Votes.’” Here is the abstract: To study how voter identification laws affect participation in elections, Hajnal, Lajevardi and Nielson (2017) examines validated … Continue reading
Opposition. … Continue reading
Brief: All of the petitioners in this case have moved to withdraw the pending petition. Thus, under normal operation of this Court’s rules, the petition should be dismissed. See S. Ct. R. 46.2(a). Seeking to derail this ministerial process, the … Continue reading
AP: The Republican-controlled House has approved a contested voter identification bill along party lines after forcing debate to end. … Continue reading
Listen at NPR. … Continue reading
Daniel J. Hopkins, Marc Merdith, Michael Morse, Sarah Smith, and Jesse Yoder have written this article for the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies. Here is the abstract: One contentious question in contemporary election administration is the impact of voter identification requirements. We … Continue reading
Read at Slate. … Continue reading
Ariane de Vogue for CNN. … Continue reading
Manny Fernandez and Eric Licthblau in the NYT: The Justice Department remains a party in the case. But it is pulling back at a crucial phase. If a judge finds the state acted with discriminatory intent, as the Justice Department … Continue reading
Sari Horwitz for WaPo: The practical effect of the Justice Department’s decision is that civil rights groups will continue, without the backing of the federal government, to contest the purpose of the Texas law. “DOJ’s reversal in position defies rationality … Continue reading
Well, we’ve been expecting this. Here’s a motion to be filed at the Supreme Court objecting to NC AG’s motion to dismiss the cert. petition in the controversial NC voting case. And here’s a motion to add the Legislature and … Continue reading
Before tomorrow’s hearing, the United States Department of Justice will ask a federal district court to voluntarily dismiss its claim that in enacting its strict voter identification law, Texas acted with a racially discriminatory purpose. There is nothing in the … Continue reading
A federal district court, following a remand from the Fifth Circuit, is considering whether Texas acted with racially discriminatory intent when it passed its controversial voter identification law. The district court had already made a finding that Texas had such … Continue reading
Release: Groups and individuals suing Texas over its strict photo ID law filed a brief in U.S. District Court today in opposition to a joint request by the state and the United States Department of Justice, who asked to delay … Continue reading
AP: The U.S. Justice Department joined Texas’ attorney general Wednesday in asking a federal court to delay a hearing on the state’s voter ID law, the latest signal that the federal government might drop its opposition to the law now … Continue reading
Douglas Hess oped for the Des Moines Register: Iowans should take pride in knowing that our state, like many Midwestern states, has a reputation for relatively even-handed public administration. Unfortunately, some officials are bruising that reputation with proposals to add … Continue reading
Zoltan L. Hajnal, Nazita Lajevardi and Lindsay Nielson for The Monkey Cage: When we compare overall turnout in states with strict ID laws to turnout in states without these laws, we find no significant difference. That pattern matches with most … Continue reading
Daniel Biggers and Michael Hanmer have written this article for American Politics Research. Here is the abstract: Recently, many states have reversed the decades-long trend of facilitating ballot access by enacting a wave of laws requesting or requiring identification from … Continue reading
The Supreme Court declined to review the Texas voter id case today, but Chief Justice Roberts strongly signaled that the Court could well grant review when the case is fully complete in the lower court (and when, it is likely, … Continue reading
DOJ has filed this request for a one month extension of a hearing in the trial court hearing the latest round in the Texas voter id case. The motion, which is opposed by the private plaintiffs in the case but … Continue reading
Stay tuned (docket). … Continue reading
From this NY Times story on tensions between the president elect and African-Americans, and a meeting with Martin Luther King III: Mr. King said the session, which included a discussion about voting rights, had been “constructive,” and described Mr. Trump … Continue reading
Here is today’s Court’s order. What does it mean that there was no order on Texas, despite the fact that the cases was considered and then relisted from last week? It could mean that as early as Tuesday (when the … Continue reading
In both Frank v. Walker and One Wisconsin now, this order with no explanation of if/when argument will be rescheduled: ORDER: The court, on its own motion, ORDERS that oral argument in this appeal set for Tuesday, 01/17/2017 is VACATED. … Continue reading
So noted on the docket. What does this mean? It could mean the Court will agree to hear the case, but that’s no sure thing just from a relist. We’ll just have to sit tight and wait. … Continue reading
Back in July, the Fourth Circuit struck down North Carolina’s “monster” voting law, a law which among other things imposed a strict voter id requirement (later watered down in the face of litigation), cutback early voting, killed same day voter … Continue reading
Lynda Waddington: As telegraphed by key GOP lawmakers last month, a key component of Pate’s upgrades is Voter ID. This piece requires voters to produce approved forms of identification before casting ballots. Pate suggests Iowa-issued driver’s licenses, military-issued identification cards … Continue reading
AP: Iowa will require voters to show identification at the polls under a bill announced Thursday by the state’s top election official, and Republicans in the new GOP-controlled Legislature have indicated a willingness to pass it. The legislation mirrors voter … Continue reading
Important Doug Chapin. … Continue reading
You can find the 37-page opinion at this link. It concludes: At bottom, just as Congress in HAVA found it beneficial to the voting process and the public perception of the voting process to require photo IDs, and just as … Continue reading
MLive: “Most Michigan voters would have to present an ID card for their votes to count under legislation that popped up suddenly during Michigan’s lame-duck session…. Under the bills a voter without ID would fill out a provisional ballot. That … Continue reading