Times Union:

New Yorkers’ right to vote early by mail was upheld in a unanimous appellate court decision Thursday, further cementing the option of no-excuse absentee voting in the upcoming presidential election.

The ruling also serves as a blow to U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik and New York Republicans who brought the case against Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Board of Elections. A state Supreme Court justice in Albany previously sided with the state in maintaining the law. . . .

Stefanik said she expects to have the case reviewed by the Court of Appeals. 

Miami Herald:

Miami commissioners are not yet ready to accept a new voting map as part of a settlement in a racial gerrymandering lawsuit, expressing concerns that the proposed map wouldn’t guarantee diversity of elected officials, adding further delay to contentious legal battle.

In a 4-0 vote, the Miami City Commission on Thursday deferred a vote on the settlement to the May 23 meeting, with some members saying it was too important of a decision to make without the presence of Commissioner Damian Pardo, who is out of the country for a previously planned engagement. . . .

The new map had been agreed upon by both sides as part of a proposed settlement in a federal lawsuit against the city filed by voting rights activists represented by the American Civil Liberties Union. The settlement required City Commission approval.

Last month, U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore ruled in the case that Miami’s voting map was racially gerrymandered and ordered the city to toss it out. Before the ruling, commissioners had openly stated that the voting map was drawn to ensure the five-member commission comprised three Hispanic, one white and one Black commissioner to guarantee racial diversity of the board’s membership — a policy that Moore said violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

A Miami Herald analysis of the proposed new map showed it would lead to only minor changes to the racial makeup of the city’s five voting districts, maintaining Hispanic supermajorities in Districts 1, 3 and 4, and a Black majority in District 5.

AP:

At issue is a ruling by a federal panel over a lawsuit filed by Republicans challenging the constitutionality of a redistricting map that created House subdistricts encompassing two American Indian reservations. Proponents of the subdistricts said they gave tribal nations better chances to elect their own members. Last fall, a federal three-judge panel tossed out the lawsuit at the request of the state and the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. The judges wrote that “assuming without deciding” that race was the main factor for the subdistricts, “the State had good reasons and strong evidence to believe the subdistricts were required by the VRA.”

The plaintiffs appealed.

North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley said the three-judge panel decided the matter correctly under existing case law — but for the wrong reason. The state argues in a filing made Monday that it “cannot defend this Court’s ‘assumption’ that attempted compliance with the VRA (or any statute) would justify racial discrimination in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

“We’re not seeking to reverse” the panel’s decision, Wrigley said. “We’re seeking to have it upheld but for the reason that race was not the predominant factor, and we think that we should prevail.”

But critics bashed the move as a questionable legal maneuver as well as an attempt to assault the Voting Rights Act.

Washington Post:

House Speaker Mike Johnson warned at the Capitol this week that non-U.S. citizens voting in the November elections is a “clear and present danger,” proposing federal legislation to stop it. Tennessee’s GOP governor recently signed legislation requiring the state to scrutinize its voter rolls for noncitizens. And in four other states, Republicans have helped put measures on the ballot this fall to make sure the only people who vote in elections are American citizens.

But experts say the Republican spotlight on the issue glosses over two crucial facts: Noncitizen voting is exceedingly rare, and it is already banned in almost all places, including the ones with ballot measures in November.

That hasn’t stopped Republicans from making the issue a frequent talking point. The unfounded threat brings together two issues Republicans believe will drive turnout with their base: illegal immigration and election fraud claims.

Critics warn that attempts to crack down on noncitizen voting could suppress the votes of Latino voters who fear being wrongly accused of illegally casting ballots. They say they could also lead to database mismatches that push legitimate voters off the rolls.

“A Real Discussion about Election Integrity”

Friday, May 31, 2024
10 a.m. PST / 1 p.m. EST

Register: https://www.tipaz.org/events-1/8fya47748yk8gpbe8g85z954dc4kxm-tgpb8

It’s time to get real! With the November 2024 Election looming on the horizon and debate by many over the integrity of our voting system – including voter registration misinformation, questions over the reliability of tabulation equipment, delays in reporting, the quality of early voting, false claims about the 2020 Election and more – The Integrity Project is please to present this special conversation by a panel of experts with decades of experience.

The event is co-hosted by the University of Wisconsin’s Elections Research Center.  

Dr. Barry Burden (Moderator) is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Dr. Nate Persily is the James B. McClatchy Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and former editor of the Stanford Law Review.

Sec. Kim Wyman is the 15th Secretary of State for the State of Washington, serving from 2013-2021, and currently serves as Senior Fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Sec. Trey Grayson is the 83rd Secretary of State for the State of Kentucky (2004-2011) and is currently Managing Director of Frost Brown Todd’s subsidiary, CivicPoint. 

Tammy Patrick is CEO for Programs at the National Association of Elections Officials, and a former Commissioner to President Obama’s Presidential Commission on Election Administration.

Investigative reporting by the Chronicle of Philanthropy into Vote.org found a range of state regulatory compliance issues, including lapses in charity registration and poor recordkeeping. The Chronicle also found high staff turnover, employee dissatisfaction, and allegations of disability discrimination and retaliation. Vote.org and its CEO, Andrea Hailey, argue that the group’s fundraising growth has been robust and its compliance issues were products of Covid-related processing backlogs in state agencies. The organization denies the disability-discrimination allegations.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy:

Vote.org, a prominent voter-registration group, is in turmoil six months before a high-stakes presidential election. At a time when these organizations are typically gearing up for crucial voter-registration drives, it has lost a significant share of its staff since February because of resignations, layoffs, and firings.

The nonprofit’s problems appear to be years in the making, the result of lax board oversight and poor management by a CEO that some people who know and have worked with her say was unqualified for the role. The result has been million-dollar deficits, a lawsuit, high turnover, lapsed fundraising registrations in states across the country, and a complaint that was filed with the Internal Revenue Service in January.

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