Counties in VA Bail Out of VRA's Section 5

The Justice Department announced that it has reached agreements with Carroll County and Craig County, Va., that will allow the counties and their political subdivisions to bail out from their status as “covered jurisdictions” under the special provisions of the Voting Rights Act, and thereby exempt these jurisdictions from the preclearance requirements of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

Under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, certain covered jurisdictions, determined according to Section 4 of the act, are required to seek preclearance for any changes in voting qualifications, standards, practices or procedures from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia or from the U.S. Attorney General, prior to their implementation. Section 4 of the act provides that a covered jurisdiction may seek to “bail out,” or remove itself from such coverage, and therefore be exempted from the preclearance requirements, by seeking a declaratory judgment before a three-judge panel in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. A bailout judgment can be issued only if the court determines that the jurisdiction meets certain eligibility requirements for bailout contained in the statute, including a 10-year record of nondiscrimination in voting-related actions. The act also provides that the attorney general can consent to entry of a judgment of bailout only if, based upon investigation, the attorney general is satisfied that the jurisdiction meets the eligibility requirements.

Carroll County and Craig County filed these bailout actions in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on July 17, 2012, and July 18, 2012, respectively. Counsel for both counties contacted the attorney general prior to filing the action, indicating that the counties were interested in seeking a bailout. Both counties provided the Justice Department with substantial information, and the department conducted an investigation to determine their eligibility. Based on that investigation, the department is satisfied that both Carroll and Craig counties meet the Voting Rights Act’s requirements for bailout. “In the department’s view, Carroll County and Craig County have met the requirements necessary for bailout. We reached this conclusion after thoroughly reviewing information provided by the counties and gathered during the department’s independent investigation,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “I commend the counties on their cooperation to ensure resolution of this matter.”










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Absentee ballots may hang up OH results

A new Ohio program intended to make voting easier has the potential to keep the presidential election in doubt until late November if the national outcome hinges on the state's 18 electoral votes.

Under Secretary of State Jon Husted's initiative to send absentee ballot applications to nearly 7 million registered voters across Ohio, more than 800,000 people so far have asked for but not yet completed an absentee ballot for the Nov. 6 election.

Anyone who does not return an absentee ballot, deciding instead to vote at the polls, will be required to cast a provisional ballot. That's so officials may verify that they did not vote absentee and also show up at the polls.

By state law, provisional ballots may not be counted until at least Nov. 17. That means that if Ohio's electoral votes would be decisive in the race between President Obama and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the state could keep the nation in suspense for weeks after the election.

In past elections, most Ohioans had to proactively request an absentee ballot. This year, Husted simplified the process by sending an application to registered voters statewide.

An unintended consequence of that could be to increase the number of people who ask for an absentee ballot but do not use it, not realizing that means they must vote provisionally at the polls.

Provisional votes long have been one of the most problematic areas of Ohio elections, primarily because tens of thousands routinely are disqualified by relatively minor missteps by voters or polls workers. Four years ago, nearly 40,000 provisional ballots, roughly one in five, were invalidated for various reasons.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Mayor Bloomberg Abandons Push for NYC Nonpartisan Elections

At a news conference Thursday, New York City Mayor Bloomberg made clear that he doesn’t plan to seek another public referendum on nonpartisan elections before he leaves office at the end of next year. The proposal failed to win majority support from city voters in 2003 and was last considered, and rejected, by the Charter Revision Commission in 2010.

The mayor spent more than $7 million of his personal fortune in 2003 while attempting to convince the electorate, but 70% of voters opposed the measure. Bloomberg on Thursday recalled how he failed to get support from the major newspaper editorial boards. “I don’t remember getting the support of any good-government group, any party of anybody,” the mayor said. “It’s like crying in the wind.”

Even as he gives up, for now, on one of his signature issues, Bloomberg said Thursday that he wished the status quo would change. “It’s fair to say that because the city is so overwhelmingly one party, the primary in that party will be essentially the election,” he said. Everybody else, members of other parties, voters who don’t participate in primaries, unaffiliated voters, “will be disenfranchised,” Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg, who has switched partisan affiliations twice while in public life, sought to replace party primaries with an open system. Under the proposal rejected by voters in 2003, primaries would have been open to all voters and all candidates, regardless of party membership. The two top vote-getters, even if both belonged to the same party, would compete in a general election.

This method is similar to California's Top-Two that was used for the first time in the 2012 primaries.

A possible new effort in New York City could ask the courts to not fund party primaries. If parties are private entities, why are some tax payers' funding it when they can not take part in the process?










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Third Party Presidential Debate

Four Third Party Presidential candidates participated in a debate in Chicago, organized by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation.

The participants included Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode, and Justice Party candidate Rocky Anderson. The hour and half event was moderated by former CNN anchor Larry King and Christina Tobin, founder and chair of the Free and Equal Elections Foundation.

View the Debate











NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Promote Our Vote

Promote Our Vote seeks 100 percent voter participation in the United States. To that end, Promote Our Vote advances local, state and national action to protect and promote your vote with the ultimate goal of enshrining an affirmative right to vote in the U.S. Constitution.

Promote Our Vote provides up-to-date coverage about the movement for a constitutional right to vote. Keeping you informed about local action, legislation, and other related events is an important part of Promote Our Vote's mission.

Promote Our Vote









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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NYC Mayoral Candidate will Challenge Campaign Finance Laws

George McDonald, the founder and president of the Doe Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting homelessness and addiction, said he doesn't plan to accept public matching funds as he builds a war chest for the 2013 mayoral race. McDonald has already switched his voter registration from Democratic to Republican, which would allow him to bypass a crowded Democratic party full of well-known, well-funded hopefuls, as was the case with Bloomberg back in 2001.

Other candidates for local office have also declined to participate in the city's campaign finance system, where small donations are matched with public funds at a rate of $6 to $1. But Mr. McDonald is the first to argue that he doesn't have to abide by the city's stringent contribution limits. Instead, Mr. McDonald maintains, he must abide by more lenient contribution limits set by the state.

The city's caps on contributions are intended to level the playing field and curtail the influence of money in politics. According to the city's Campaign Finance Board, a candidate for citywide office is prohibited from accepting an individual donation in excess of $4,950 for the primary and general elections combined.

But according to the state, the maximum individual contribution for mayor and other citywide offices is $19,700, in the Democratic and Republican primary and $41,100 in the general election.

In 2004, the City Council approved legislation that mandated every candidate for local office, not just those who voluntarily accept public matching funds, follow the city's contribution limits. But John Conklin, a spokesman for the state Board of Elections, said it's the state, not the city, that has the power to set limits for candidates who don't join the matching-fund system.

The state Board of Election's stance opens the door for other 2013 candidates to take their chances and sidestep the city's contribution limits, potentially flooding the campaigns for mayor, comptroller, public advocate, borough president and City Council with significantly higher donations than city law stipulates.

Richard Briffault, a professor of law at Columbia University, said the issue is legally unresolved because nobody has ever challenged the city authority to set its own limits.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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NM Democrats Sue to Restore Straight Party Ticket Voting

The New Mexico Democratic Party filed a lawsuit seeking to restore an option for straight party ticket voting in the general election. The lawsuit asks the state Supreme Court to order election officials to change ballots to allow voters to make a single mark to support a political party's entire slate of candidates. New Mexico uses a paper ballot system statewide but has equipment that prints ballots on demand at polling locations.

The lawsuit names Secretary of State Dianna Duran, a Republican, as the defendant. Her office has contended that state law doesn't specifically authorize the straight ticket option, which has been a long-standing feature of New Mexico ballots until this general election.

The lawsuit contends that state law authorizes straight ticket voting because it requires a political party's name and emblem "to designate the ticket of that political party on all ballots." "The reference to ticket creates the distinct right on the ballot to vote for all candidates that belong to the party," the lawsuit said.

In this election, however, the secretary of state has placed political party emblems next to the names of each presidential candidate.

The lawsuit contends that will confuse voters, who may think they have voted a straight party ticket by filling in the ballot space next to a presidential candidate. Those voters would then stop voting, the lawsuit said, and never actually support candidates in a wide range of other contests, including the U.S. Senate and Legislature. The lawsuit includes sworn statements from registered voters saying the lack of a straight party ticket option limited their ballot options. One Santa Fe man said in his affidavit that a sample ballot in this year's election "looks like a straight party option when it is not."

State law once required lever-type voting machines to offer the straight ticket option. But that provision was eliminated a decade ago after those machines were no longer used. Democrats, concerned about what might happen in the general election, tried unsuccessfully to pass a bill in this year's legislative session to make clear that straight ticket voting was required.

In the 21st century, how backwards is this type of voting.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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VT Absentee Ballot Issue

The Justice Department announced yesterday that it has reached an agreement with the State of Vermont to help ensure that military service members, their family members and U.S. citizens living overseas have the opportunity to participate fully in the Nov. 6, 2012, federal general election.

The agreement was filed yesterday in the federal district court in Vermont to resolve the lawsuit the department brought on Oct. 11, 2012, to enforce the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). If approved by the court, the agreement will provide additional time for receipt of absentee ballots to ensure eligible military and overseas voters, who requested ballots, will have sufficient time to vote in the general election. The agreement also provides individual notice to each affected voter, and Vermont will provide a report to the United States about Vermont’s compliance with UOCAVA.

“This agreement reflects this department’s steadfast and continued commitment to ensure that members of our armed forces, their families and overseas citizens are offered a full and meaningful opportunity to vote in our nation’s elections,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “I am most appreciative that election officials in Vermont worked cooperatively with the department and agreed to take actions to ensure that military and overseas voters will have a full opportunity to have their votes counted in the upcoming general election.”









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Bloomberg Starts Independence USA PAC

New York City Mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, is plunging into the 2012 campaign in its final weeks, creating his own “super PAC” to direct millions of dollars in donations to elect candidates from both parties who he believes will focus on problem solving.

Mr. Bloomberg, a registered independent, expects to spend from $10 million to $15 million of his money in highly competitive Congressional, State and local races. The money would be used to pay for advertising on behalf of Republican and Democratic candidates who support three of his biggest policy initiatives: legalizing same-sex marriage, enacting tougher gun laws, and overhauling schools.

Among those Mr. Bloomberg will support are former Gov. Angus King, an independent running for the United States Senate in Maine; State Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod, who is challenging a fellow Democrat, Representative Joe Baca of California, who the mayor believes has been weak on gun-control; and Representative Bob Dold, a Republican from Illinois who has backed gun-control measures.

The mayor’s super PAC, Independence USA PAC, will be registered with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday. The overwhelming bulk of his money will be given through that PAC, though he may also use existing 527s, to make some donations. Mr. Bloomberg will disclose all of his spending at the end of the election cycle.

Mr. Bloomberg has tapped Howard Wolfson, a deputy mayor and a veteran of Congressional and Presidential campaigns, to oversee the organization’s activities, like determining where to spend money and tailoring the themes of television advertisements. Mr. Wolfson will take a leave from City Hall to run the committee between now and Election Day.

The move reflects an eagerness from Mr. Bloomberg, who is term limited, to help elect more centrist candidates, who are willing to compromise and grapple with what he sees as grave problems confronting the country.

In addition to the state and federal candidates, Mr. Bloomberg will use his organization to support state legislative and local school board candidates who support his education goals, including more rigorous evaluation for teachers and stricter standards for tenure.

Mr. Bloomberg’s political advisers have already identified local candidates he will likely support in California, Colorado and Louisiana. Mr. Bloomberg is also likely to back ballot initiatives in Maine and Washington that seek to legalize same-sex marriage.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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NY Mayor, BOE at Odds Over Rescheduling NYS Primary Date

Mayor Michael Bloomberg denounced on Monday a proposal to move the city primary from September to June next year, while city Board of Elections officials said it will be impossible to pull off a primary and a likely run-off election the way the calendar currently stands.

New York State and City Elections officials want to change 2013's political calendar by moving the state and city primary from September to June. Officials at the New York City Board of Elections say they will not have enough time to process the votes cast in the city's September primary and prepare for a likely run-off election two weeks later.

"I think it would be a terrible idea," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Monday.

"It just really seems like an impossibility to get all that done in 15 days," said BOE official Raphael Savino.

Albany lawmakers would have to sign off on any such move. And if approved, it would dramatically reshape the political season for the 2013 races, including the fight for New York City Hall.

"We understand that this isn't as sexy as marriage equality or the budget and everything else. But it is important and it affects the 4.6 million voters that we have in New York City," said BOE Commissioner J.C. Polanco.

Bloomberg said an earlier primary date would be bad for democracy.

"I think the later it is, the more chance candidates have to enter the race, the more chance there is for candidates to build support, raise money, explain to the public what they would do if they were elected," said the mayor.

The primary issue was raised at a Monday City Council hearing on a package of elections bills. Supporters said the legislation is designed to engage more voters and improve the city's elections system.

"Nothing in our democracy is more important than securing the right to vote," said Brooklyn Councilman Brad Lander.

With the MOVE Act and the UOCAVA (Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act), military and overseas voters had to be mailed their absentee ballot in time for them to be returned and counted. A Federal Judge had to force New York to change their Federal Primary date from September to June. But the state did not move the state and local primary date.

So it is a surprise that the mayor would put politics over the rights of voters to have their vote counted. It is interesting that the Supreme Court saw the problem in Ohio that would have created two classes of voters by allowing military personal and their family to vote early but not the rest of the state's voters.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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