Tag Archives: voter suppression

“Elon Musk PAC being investigated by Michigan secretary of state for potential violations”

August 5, 2024, 6:12 amvoter registration2024 election cyle, Misinformation, voter suppressionTabatha Abu El-Haj

New development in the story Spencer Overton posted about how Musk’s pro-Trump PAC is funding efforts to redirect voters in swing states away from official voter registration sites, while leaving them with the false impression that they have registered to vote. The effort also collects a host of private information.

Michigan’s Secretary of State has now launched an investigation, according to Brian Schwartz at CNBC. It is not entirely clear whether state law currently prohibits such misdirection and voter suppression.

“How Ideological Diversity Moderates Republican Support for Voter Suppression Measures: The Cases of Georgia and Alabama”

July 30, 2024, 7:49 amUncategorizedvoter suppressionSpencer Overton

Abstract below of new scholarship from Jesse H. Rhodes and Adam Eichen:

Why do Republicans sometimes decline to enact voter suppression measures, even when contextual conditions (unified control of state government, electoral threats from Democrats, and racial threats from African American and Latinx voters) suggest that they should? We argue that ideological diversity within state Republican parties plays an important role in moderating Republican efforts to adopt policies that substantially increase the cost of voting. When a state Republican Party is more ideologically diverse, members may differ significantly on the preferred severity of voting restrictions and the priority of ballot restrictions relative to other issues. Thus, more heterogeneous Republican Parties may be less willing and able to institute voter suppression measures. In contrast, more ideologically unified Republican Parties face fewer barriers to collective action in advancing ballot restrictions, facilitating their adoption of voter suppression measures. We illustrate our arguments with case studies from Georgia and Alabama.

“How Some States Are Making It Harder to Register Voters”

July 26, 2024, 7:28 amUncategorizedvoter registration, voter suppressionSpencer Overton

NYT:

LaVon Bracy has been registering Florida voters ever since Lyndon Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act, because she wanted, she said, to give others the voice she was denied as a Black student in a largely white high school. In an average year, she said, the nonprofit Faith in Florida, where she serves as democracy director, used to add 12,000 new voters to the state’s rolls.

That ended last year, when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation that imposed tough new rules on voter registration drives in the name of stopping fraud — and made voter registration groups that break the rules liable for fines as high as $250,000. . . .

As Democrats prepare for a sprint to capitalize on the excitement of a new presidential ticket by signing up new voters, they are finding entirely new barriers in Florida and some other states to the sorts of voter registration drives that have been a campaign staple for both parties.