Legislative Updates
Federal Legislation: House Democrats have introduced legislation that would allow residents of federally subsidized housing to register to vote when they fill out their lease and verify their income. The bill, dubbed Our Homes Our Votes Act, was introduced by Democratic Reps. Jesús García (Il), Mary Gay Scanlon (PA) and Nikema Williams (GA) on Monday. It currently has 26 cosponsors. If passed, the bill would allow eligible voters that reside in housing administered by a Public Housing Agency (PHA) to register to vote when they sign their lease and verify their income. The agencies would be required under the legislation to then transmit the registration forms to the proper local election officials. The bill also designates private landlords for subsidized housing as “voter registration agents” and would make them “responsible for distributing voter registration forms and helping tenants fill them out if needed,” an announcement detailing the bill stated.
Arizona: Republicans on the House Committee on Government and Elections approved a measure to require voters to fill out an affidavit that includes their date of birth and either their driver’s license number or the number of their county-issued voter ID card. Then county election officials would be required to be sure these match what they have on file. This would be in addition to the current signature-matching mandates in state law.
The same Republican-controlled panel, also on a party-line vote, agreed to allow anyone with enough money to buy a recount of any — and all — elections, and at any level they wanted, right up through the entire state. And under SB 1010 they could demand not just a regular recount, which is done by running the ballots again through tabulation equipment, but even a hand count as long as they could afford the cost — no one had any figures — and the request was made within five days after the formal certification of the results and could afford the cost.
Arkansas: A bill that would prevent people from lingering near polling places is headed to the Arkansas Senate. Senate Bill 486, by Sen. Kim Hammer (R-Benton), would bar people from entering or remaining in an area within 100 feet of the entrance to a voting site while voting is taking place, except for a person entering or leaving the building for “lawful purposes.” Proponents of the bill said it aims to prevent voter intimidation, electioneering activities and violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, while objectors said it was overly broad and could prevent nonprofits from distributing food and water. A divided voice vote sent SB486 to the state Senate for further consideration.
The committee also recommended Senate Bill 487, which would make establishing polling sites solely the duty of county election commissioners, and Senate Bill 488, which would amend the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act to exempt ballots from records that can be disclosed to the public.
The committee voted down Senate Bill 485, which would do away with early voting on the last Monday before an election takes place and Senate Bill 556, by Sen. Mark Johnson (R-Ferndale), which would set up a process for the state Board of Election Commissioners to take over for a county board in an emergency situation. The votes on both SB485 and SB556 were expunged. The bills can be brought before the committee again at a later date.
The House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs advanced House Bill 1715 by Rep. Mark Lowery (R-Maumelle), would ban the distribution of unsolicited absentee ballot applications to voters by designated elected officials and would make the possession of more than four absentee ballots by one person a rebuttable presumption of intent to defraud. The committee also advanced House Bill 1803, also by Lowery, would give the state Board of Election Commissioners the authority to institute corrective actions in response to complaints and would expand the types of violations about which county election boards can make complaints.
Colorado: The House State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee on Monday killed five GOP bills that sought to reform Colorado’s election infrastructure. Included in the package were:
House Bill 21-1086 from Rep. Stephanie Luck (R-Penrose), which would have only allowed voters who could provide proof of citizenship access to a ballot. Luck requested her bill be postponed indefinitely and the committee obliged on a 9-2 vote, the only bipartisan action the panel took during the meeting.
House Bill 21-1088 from Rep. Andy Pico (R-Colorado Springs), a bill that sought to require the state auditor to conduct an annual audit of the statewide voter registration system. Pico’s bill, like the remaining three, was killed by the committee on a party line vote.
House Bill 21-1170 from Rep. Tim Geitner (R-Falcon), which would have created a bipartisan commission made up of outside experts to evaluate the security of electronic election systems and make recommendations to the secretary of State.
House Bill 21-1176 from Rep. Richard Holtorf (R-Akron), which sought to create a bipartisan commission to advise the state auditor on standards for a comprehensive audit of the state’s election processes.
House Bill 21-1053 from Rep. Dave Williams (R-Colorado Springs), which would have allowed registered voters to request an Election Recount.
Delaware: State lawmakers are moving forward on expanding access to voting through automatic registration. Under legislation passed by the State Senate Tuesday, Delawareans will no longer be asked that question. They’ll be registered automatically if qualified, and sent a postcard later asking if they’d like to opt-out. Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend (D-Brookside) says this kind of bill is a great step towards improving access to voting in the First State. The bill passed in a straight along party line vote and now heads to the house.
Illinois: Both houses of the General Assembly approved a bill that expands voting access measures that were implemented for safety during the COVID-19 pandemic and makes them permanent. House Bill 1871, which passed the Senate in a bipartisan vote of 48-7 and the House 70-41, allows for curbside voting before and on Election Day. It also allows ballot drop boxes to continue. Ballots that are received with no or insufficient postage must also be accepted. The bill now heads to Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk for his signature. The bill will take effect as soon as he signs it, which could mean some of these changes will be used in the April 6 consolidated election if Pritzker signs the measure before then.
Indiana: Under Senate Bill 260, county election officials would be allowed to scan absentee ballots up to seven days prior to Election Day, so they are ready for immediate tabulation as soon as the polls close. However, doing so under the provisions of current law relating to dead voters requires creating a system that allows ballots to subsequently be removed from the scanned ballots, such as keeping opened ballots and mailing envelopes together. State Rep. Matt Pierce (D-Bloomington) recommended revising the legislation to count the votes of every person who is a qualified voter at the time they cast their ballot. The Republican-controlled Indiana House voted 52-36 to reject his proposal. State Rep. Tim Wesco (R-Osceola), chairman of the House Elections and Apportionment Committee, said there are only ever a few ballots in each election rejected due to the voter dying, and “I believe that should remain the policy of our state.”
Iowa: The third time was not the charm for ex-felons in Iowa looking to have their voting rights restored. For the third year in a row, a constitutional amendment to restore voting rights to people with past felony convictions apparently will not move forward in the Iowa Legislature. While the Iowa House passed the proposal unanimously last week, the Iowa Senate did not schedule a subcommittee hearing on it and the Senate Judiciary Committee adjourned its only scheduled meeting of the week Wednesday without considering it. The amendment, House Joint Resolution 11, would have had to advance through a full committee in the Senate this week in order to survive Friday’s second “funnel” deadline, although legislative leaders have ways of bringing bills back if they choose. Proposals to amend the Iowa Constitution must pass two consecutive general assemblies and win majority approval in a statewide vote. If the Legislature passed the measure next year, it would have to pass the same language in 2023 or 2024 before the proposal could be put before Iowans for a vote.
Kansas: Lawmakers in Kansas gave tentative approval to two elections-related bills this week. House Bill 2332 prohibits the executive and judicial branches of government from creating election laws. It also limits the Secretary of State’s power to regulate elections by actions such as entering into consent decrees with a court without legislative approval. The bill also creates disclosure requirements for organizations distributing information about mail in voting and mandates the Secretary of State to maintain residential addresses in addition to mail addresses of voters. It also creates new election tampering crimes.
House Bill 2183 focuses largely on mail-in voting. It limits who is permitted to return a mail-in ballot for another person and makes it a felony for one person to return more than five mail-in ballots. The measure also requires the signature on a mail ballot to match the signature election officials have on file, creating a potential for votes to be discarded, and bans the Secretary of State from extending mail-in vote deadlines. The bill also makes it illegal to backdate a postmark on a ballot and bars election offices from accepting money from any entity other than the state for administering elections.
Kentucky: The state House of Representatives’ Republican and Democrat members overwhelmingly voted, in a 91-3 decision, to give House Bill 574 final passage and send it to Gov. Andy Beshear’s desk. As long as the governor doesn’t veto it, HB 574 will make significant changes to state law, including: Establishing three days of in-person early voting on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday before Election Day; Letting people “cure” their absentee ballots if a problem, such as a mismatched signature, would otherwise cause it to be thrown out; Making the online portal through which Kentuckians requested — and government officials tracked — absentee ballots in 2020 a standard feature of future elections; Letting counties offer vote centers where residents from any precinct can cast their ballot; Allowing for secure drop-boxes where people can turn in their absentee ballots; Requiring counties to gradually phase out electronic-only voting systems and switch to equipment that can process paper ballots; Letting state officials quickly remove someone from the voter rolls if they’re notified that person moved to and registered to vote in another state.
Maine: The Legislature’s Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee approved a bill from Senator David Miramant (D-Camden), to expand the use of ranked choice voting in Maine elections. LD 202, “Resolution, Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of Maine To Implement Ranked-choice Voting,” was voted out of committee 6-4 Ought to Pass as Amended, with three members absent. This resolution would amend the Constitution of Maine to require candidates for the offices of Governor, State Senator and State Representative to be elected by a majority of the votes cast for that office. Currently, those offices are elected by a plurality of the votes cast. In 2016, Maine voters adopted ranked-choice voting, including for the offices of governor and state legislature, by referendum. This voter-approved law was repealed by lawmakers in 2017. That repeal then was overturned by Maine’s voters in a second referendum in 2018. In 2019, the legislature expanded the ranked-choice system to include presidential primary and general elections. Currently, ranked-choice voting is used in Maine for all elections to federal office and for presidential primaries. LD 202 now faces votes in the Senate and the House. As a Constitutional Amendment, LD 202 would require two-thirds approval in both chambers of the Legislature, and would need to be approved by a majority of voters at the next general election.’
A petition drive to force a statewide referendum on whether non-citizens should be allowed to vote in local elections has failed to garner enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, according to state elections officials. After failing to win legislative support for a constitutional amendment in 2019, a Republican lawmaker from Hancock County had proposed a ballot initiative seeking to prohibit non-citizens from participating in municipal elections. The campaign was inspired by a debate in Portland in 2018 about whether legal non-citizens should be allowed to vote in City Council, school board or other city elections. But proponents of the ballot initiative fell well short of the number of valid signatures need to trigger a statewide vote this November, despite receiving more than $350,000 from an out-of-state political group, the Liberty Initiative Fund. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said Monday that “An Act to Clarify the Eligibility of Voters” submitted 41,075 valid signatures, which was 21,992 fewer than the 63,067 signatures of registered Maine voters needed to qualify for the ballot. Bellows’ office said that during the petition-certification process, the elections division found that 25,323 signatures were not valid.
Maryland: The Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee has advanced House Bill 745, sponsored by House Majority Leader Eric G. Luedtke (D-Montgomery), which would increase the number of early voting centers required in counties based on the number of registered voters in those jurisdictions. Luedtke’s bill would broaden that formula, and require that counties: With less than 50,000 registered voters have one early voting center; With 50,000 to 100,000 registered voters have two early voting centers; With 100,000 to 200,000 registered voters have three early voting centers; With 200,000 to 300,000 registered voters have five early voting centers; With 300,000 to 400,000 registered voters have seven early voting centers; With 400,000 to 500,000 registered voters have nine early voting centers; With 500,000 to 600,000 registered voters have eleven early voting centers; And with more than 600,000 registered voters have 13 early voting centers. The bill also requires local election boards to consider, when determining the location of early voting centers, such factors as accessibility to historically disenfranchised communities and ensuring that voting centers are distributed in an “equitable” way throughout the county. The full Senate has approved the bill.
Missouri: The Missouri House has approved election law changes that include requiring residents to show photo IDs before voting. The measure also prohibits counting absentee ballots until all Election Day ballots are counted, potentially delaying results. And it bars election law changes within six months of a presidential election, which would have prevented the kinds of changes that were made to voting procedures last year when the pandemic hit. The measure was sent to the Senate on a 109-48 vote. Rep. Shamed Dogan (R-Ballwin), cast the lone “no” vote among Republicans. It now goes to the Senate for consideration.
The Senate is considering a bill that would change how the referendum process works. The proposed law would enact a $500 filing fee for groups to file a proposed petition in a bid to cut down on the scores of proposals that the secretary of state must process. It also would standardize the paperwork used to collect signatures and expand the number of words allowed on the official summary statement of the petition.
Montana: The Montana House narrowly advanced a bill that seeks to make it easier for Native Americans to vote, even as Republican lawmakers are pushing election restrictions. The bill aims to reduce travel time for tribal members to access voting services by requiring at least one satellite elections office to be available on each reservation in the state – with the same services as county elections offices – at least 30 days before election day. The measure was advanced with a preliminary vote in a 53-47 split, with several Republicans joining Democrats in voting in favor of the measure. The House is expected to vote on the bill for a third and final time this week. Opponents of the measure said it wouldn’t allow enough state oversight over the satellite election offices, which could be placed on federal land, outside the jurisdiction of county election officials. But supporters of the measure said it cements in state law practices that are already in place, following a 2014 settlement in a voting rights lawsuit and guidance issued by the secretary of state’s office for counties and tribes to comply with the settlement. However on Wednesday on a follow up vote, the House voted down House Bill 613.
Nevada: AB321 was set for its first hearing at press time. Under the legislation, universal mail voting would be made permanent. The bill would also include a reduction in the time allowed for curing ballots from seven to four days, regulations for the verification of signatures, guidelines for using electronic signature verification machines, and a requirement that the secretary of state matches the state’s voter rolls with available death records.
New Jersey: Lawmakers in the Senate approved a bill allowing in-person early voting, sending the measure to Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk, where he signed it this week. The measure, which cleared the chamber in a 28-8 vote, would provide three days of early voting for most primaries, five days of early voting for presidential primaries and nine days of early general election voting. The periods provided by that bill, sponsored by State Sen. Nia Gill (D-Montclair) and Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker (D-South Brunswick), represent significant reductions from previous versions, which provided for a two-week early voting period but limited the practice to general elections and municipal elections in towns that passed an ordinance to approve early voting. Murphy, long a proponent of early voting, has signaled he would support the bill, even if it fell short of the 30-day period he proposed in July.
Both chambers of the legislature approved a bill allowing county election boards to decide where ballot drop boxes are installed. The measure allows county election boards to decide by simple majority vote the placement of secure ballot drop boxes in their county. In the case of a tie, the county clerk casts the deciding vote. It requires each county erect at least 10 ballot drop boxes, with at least one box in each municipality with average per capita or median family incomes at or below 250% of the federal poverty line. The bill is a bid to prevent drop box clusters seen in some towns in last year’s elections. The rules used for those races required drop boxes be placed at specific sites, including county and municipal government buildings, community colleges and state universities.
The Assembly advanced a measure barring police officers from loitering within 100 feet of a polling place or drop box Thursday, but the bill stalled in the Senate despite a past version clearing the chamber in a narrow vote last month. The bill is a bid to prevent the resurgence of actions undertaken by the infamous National Ballot Security Task Force, a group of off-duty police and sheriff’s officers who intimidated voters, largely non-white ones, away from the polls in 1981 at the behest of the Republican National Committee. The bill has met opposition in the Senate and according to the New Jersey Globe is being amended.
North Carolina: Democrats have announced they plan to file legislation that would make voter registration of eligible citizens automatic when they turn 18, permit same-day registration on Election Day and make that day a holiday. Other measures would combat voter intimidation, make online registration more accessible and keep in place a nine-day window in which absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day could be received by counties and still count. Current law limits to three days the time in which absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day or a primary elections must be received to be counted. But a legal agreement in September between the State Board of Elections and a union-affiliated group extended the receipt date for the fall election from Nov. 6 to Nov. 12.
North Carolina’s constitution still includes an unenforceable relic of the Jim Crow era — a voter literacy test. Some state lawmakers are trying, again, to do away with it. A House judiciary committee scheduled debate on a bipartisan measure that would allow voters to decide next year whether to eliminate that section of the constitution. The section says anyone attempting to register to vote must “be able to read and write any section of the Constitution in the English language.” This requirement was added to the constitution in 1900 and used to keep many Black citizens from casting ballots. The federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 made literacy tests and similar barriers to voting unlawful nationwide. But in 1970, North Carolina voters weren’t willing to give up the language — they defeated an amendment to remove the section. House members have pushed again for its repeal in recent years. Three-fifths of the House and the Senate members must agree to such a referendum.
North Dakota: North Dakota’s House of Representatives passed a bill giving more time for local election officials to process absentee and mail-in ballots before Election Day. Senate Bill 2142, brought by Sen. Kristin Roers, R-Fargo, passed 84-9. The Senate in January passed the bill unanimously. The bill allows ballots to be processed but not tabulated up to three business days before Election Day, until polls close. The bill now goes to Gov. Doug Burgum, who has three legislative days to act upon receiving it.
South Carolina: South Carolina election officials would need to receive confirmation from the state Senate before taking the job under a bill the chamber approved March 31, but the legislation would not expand the state’s authority over counties, the proposal the House passed a few weeks earlier. The two chambers will now need to decide which of the two bills should make it to Gov. Henry McMaster’s desk or whether they can reach a compromise. In a 37-7 vote, the Senate passed S.499, which would add confirmation votes for each of the five members of the state Election Commission, as well as the agency’s executive director. Under current law, the governor appoints the commissioners without any confirmation vote. The commission’s partisan makeup would be left in tact: Up to four of the commissioners could come from the majority party in the Statehouse, and at least one would need to come from the minority party. Republicans currently hold sizable majorities in both the House and Senate. Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto (D-Orangeburg), sought to change that by making it a 3-2 breakdown rather than 4-1. But state Sen. Chip Campsen, who authored the bill, noted that Democrats established the 4-1 composition decades ago when they had control in the Statehouse and Republicans should get the same benefit.
Texas: HB 1264 has been approve 9-0 by the House Committee on Elections. The bill would expedite the process by which dead Texans are purged from voter registration rolls. “It is my belief that election integrity is essential,” Rep. Keith Bell (R-Forney) said in a January interview. “Upon someone’s death, the county registrar will be notified to remove that individual from the roll. That process being done quickly will prevent someone from taking on that individual’s identity possibly to commit voter fraud.” Bell said there is currently no specified amount of time between a person’s death and when a registrar is required to remove their name from voter rolls. The bill will now be taken to a calendars committee for possible placement on the House floor.
In an overnight vote after more than seven hours of debate, the Texas Senate signed off on Senate Bill 7, which would limit extended early voting hours, prohibit drive-thru voting and make it illegal for local election officials to proactively send applications to vote by mail to voters, even if they qualify. The bill originally limited early voting hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., curtailing the extended hours offered last year in Harris County and other large counties where voting ran until 10 p.m. for several days to accommodate people like shift workers for whom regular hours don’t work. The bill was rewritten before it reached the Senate floor to allow for voting only between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. Those hours will still prohibit the day of 24-hour voting Harris County offered last November. The legislation would also outlaw the drive-thru voting set up at 10 polling places in the county for the general election. If passed into law, the legislation would broaden poll watchers’ access at polling places, even giving them power to video record voters receiving assistance in filling out their ballots if the poll watcher “reasonably believes” the help is unlawful. That provision has drawn particular concerns about possible intimidation of voters who speak languages other than English as well as voters with intellectual or developmental disabilities who may require assistance through prompting or questioning which could be misconstrued as coercion.
Virginia: Gov. Ralph Northam signed HB 1810 last week, which allows a Virginia governor to extend the voter registration deadline in the event that an online voter registration system is down. The extension would last for however long the system was offline. Mark Finks, the director of elections and general registrar in Harrisonburg, said this will be helpful to local registrars by allowing quicker actions to be taken in emergency situations. “It makes it a little bit clearer where the power is vested and what the process to get this extended is. I think hopefully this will give voters a little peace of mind that certain aspects of this won’t be up in the air,” Finks said.
Northam has also signed the Voting Rights Act of Virginia measure into law. The bill prohibits any state or local policies from denying or restricting voting rights based on race, color, or native language. The bill passed out of both chambers along party lines. Virginia’s voting rights act requires local election officials to get feedback or pre-approval from the state’s attorney general before making changes to their voting system. It also allows residents to sue in cases of voter suppression. The act also requires local election officials to provide all voting materials in other languages as needed.
Washington: The Legislature has approved House Bill 1078 that will automatically restore the vote to formerly incarcerated people upon their release from full custody, regardless of whether they are in community custody or owe court debts. Washington would become the 21st state, along with Washington, D.C., to adopt such a policy. The bill is sponsored in the House by Rep. Tarra Simmons, D-Bremerton, who is likely the first formerly incarcerated legislator in the country. This is Simmons’ first bill as a newly elected member of the House to be approved by the Legislature, and one that is particularly close to her. “When an individual does come home after incarceration, they will face many barriers. The punishment never seems to end, and I can tell you that firsthand,” Simmons said at a hearing in January. “This makes the law easier to administer, and it restores some sense of dignity to our neighbors when we welcome them home.”
West Virginia: Senate Bill 565 moves up the deadline for in-person early voting to six days ahead of an election. The measure also moves the deadline for absentee ballots to be mailed from six days prior to the election to 11. That is just shy of a request by the U.S Postal Service for a 15-day window in order to guarantee all ballots are delivered to county clerks on time.
The House of Delegates passed House Bill 3307 on Wednesday afternoon, creating the Social Media Integrity and Anti-Corruption in Elections Act. The bill passed 72-28, with five Republicans voting with the Democratic caucus against the bill. The bill now heads to the state Senate. The Social Media Integrity and Anti-Corruption in Elections Act would provide requirements for social media companies to prevent corruption and provide transparency of election-related content made available on social media websites. Social media companies would need to seek approval from the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office before publishing election information, though that rule doesn’t apply to users of social media accounts. The bill would prohibit censorship of West Virginia political candidates on social media platforms by the companies that control those platforms, requiring the companies to provide timely service requests. It would limit social media companies from freezing or removing social media accounts of candidates. The bill sets out a number of penalties for non-compliance, including a $100,000 fine per day if the State Election Commission finds a social media company in violation with provisions of HB 3307.
Legal Updates
Federal Lawsuits: Dominion Voting Systems has filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, saying the network spread false claims that the voting machine company was involved in voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election. “Fox sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process,” according to the lawsuit filed Friday in Delaware. “If this case does not rise to the level of defamation by a broadcaster, then nothing does.” “Fox endorsed, repeated, and broadcast a series of verifiably false yet devastating lies about Dominion,” the complaint says, including claims that the company’s software manipulated the results of the 2020 vote. In response, Fox News issued a statement Friday morning stating that it “is proud of our 2020 election coverage, which stands in the highest tradition of American journalism, and will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit in court.”
Florida: Three Republican candidates from 2020 have abandoned their legal challenge seeking a recount of Hillsborough County’s mail-in ballots in last year’s general election. Their case remains open in Hillsborough Circuit Court, but the named defendant, Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer, has not been served with the complaint, his spokeswoman Gerri Kramer said this week. The 120-day window to serve Latimer with the lawsuit and a subpoena demanding a legal response within 20 days expired Thursday. The Hillsborough Circuit Court Clerk’s Office issued the subpoena to the plaintiff’s attorney, Terri Gaffney, Nov. 25. The losing candidates filed suit Nov. 17, four days after Latimer certified the final results of the Nov. 3 election. The legal challenge contended the vote totals warranted additional scrutiny because voters were confused over required signatures on both the mail ballot and envelope. Some ballots may have needed to be rejected over signature issues, the suit stated, and it contended Latimer’s office sent ballots to people who were deceased.
Georgia: Two lawsuits have been filed over Georgia’s new voter law. The 35-page New Georgia Project v. Raffensperger was filed shortly after Gov. Brian Kemp signed the “Election Integrity Act of 2021” Thursday, and the 56-page Georgia NAACP v. Raffensperger was filed Sunday. Both argue that many of the sweeping changes made to Georgia’s election administration disproportionately negatively affect Black voters. The New Georgia Project suit argues sections of the omnibus voting law violates both the First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment by placing an undue burden on the right to vote, citing increased absentee ID requirements, restrictions on secure drop boxes and a ban on local governments mailing unsolicited absentee applications. Other changes that are allegedly unconstitutional include a ban on mobile polling places (used only by Fulton County), a virtual ban on out-of-precinct provisional ballots and a prohibition on handing out food or water to voters within 150 feet of a polling place or 25 feet of voters in line. The New Georgia Project suit also says Georgia violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act because many changes would affect Black voters more In the challenge filed by the Georgia NAACP, the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, League of Women Voters of Georgia, GALEO, Common Cause and the Lower Muskogee Creek Tribe, lawyers argue more explicitly that elements of SB 202 is “the culmination of a concerted effort to suppress the participation of Black voters and other voters of color.” Similarly to the first suit, this case focuses on new absentee ID requirements that use a driver’s license or state ID number or photocopy of voter ID as the way to verify identity, as well as opposition to the new rule on drop boxes. While drop boxes did not exist before the 2020 election cycle, the new voting law limits when and where Georgians can use them, including a cap on available boxes per county that are only available in early voting sites during early voting hours. A third suit over the new voting law was filed by the African Methodist Episcopal Church and other plaintiffs. This suit is aimed at many parts of the voting law, including absentee ID requirements, drop box restrictions, absentee ballot request deadlines and a ban on volunteers handing out food and water to voters waiting in line. “Simply put, this new law not only seeks to suppress the votes of Black and brown people, but it is also racist and seeks to return us to the days of Jim Crow,” Bishop Reginald Jackson of the AME Church’s Sixth District, which includes Georgia, wrote in a letter to parishioners. “For some Georgians, this inconvenience may be manageable. But for voters of color and other historically disenfranchised communities — who already suffer through disproportionately longer lines than white voters — it could be dramatic,” the 91-page lawsuit states. “This burden is not an accident. Nor is it legal.”
Michigan: Michigan election clerks are contesting subpoenas in an ever-widening election fraud lawsuit that would require them to turn over vast numbers of documents and provide physical access to tabulators and other election equipment used during the 2020 presidential election. Attorneys for Livingston County Clerk Elizabeth Hundley, Grand Traverse County Clerk Bonnie Scheele, Barry County Clerk Pamela A. Palmer and Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini last week filed motions to have presiding Antrim County Circuit Judge Kevin A. Elsenheimer block the subpoenas. They call it an overly burdensome and irrelevant “fishing expedition” that is “designed to harass” public election officials. Similar subpoenas were also served to county clerks in Wayne, Kent, Charlevoix and Oakland counties. The subpoenas arise out of a lawsuit filed by William Bailey, a Central Lake Township resident who raised accusations of tampering and fraud related to election software and machines manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems that are used in Antrim County and across the state. The subpoenas to county clerks request election tapes, paper ballots, system logs, tally servers, computer storage devices, reports, canvasser paperwork and notes created during the election certification process. An April 12 hearing will determine if the clerks have to comply.
Minnesota: U.S. District Court Judge Eric Tostrud refused to dismiss entirely a challenge from voting rights advocates to the state’s requirement of a witness signature on mail-in ballots for the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic. Tostrud’s ruling — the latest in a monthslong fight over a rule that requires Minnesota voters to get their mail-in ballot signed by a notary public or another voter — let the as-applied challenge survive a motion to dismiss from the Republican National Committee and Republican Party of Minnesota, who intervened in the matter last summer. In his decision issued Monday, Tostrud found that “plaintiffs plausibly allege a certainly impending threat that an ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and Minnesota’s absentee-ballot witness requirements will combine to burden the right to vote,” namely for voters like plaintiff Isabel Bethke and others who do not live with someone qualified to serve as a witness for upcoming elections this fall.
Texas: David Lopez, an air conditioning repairman who was held at gunpoint last October as part of a right-wing group’s voter fraud investigation has sued the group and its CEO, Houston conservative activist Steven Hotze. Lopez’s suit, alleges longtime GOP activist Hotze approved of, paid for and directed a private investigator’s allegedly violent actions in a “bizarre and unfounded” voter fraud investigation. Lopez’s attorney, Dicky Grigg, said the civil suit was filed to hold Hotze accountable for his alleged role in the incident that resulted in the arrest of former Houston Police Department Captain Mark Aguirre.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has agreed to review the illegal voting conviction of Crystal Mason, a Tarrant County woman facing a five-year prison sentence for casting a provisional ballot in the 2016 election while she was on supervised release for a federal conviction. The state’s court of last resort for criminal matters granted Mason’s petition on this week, elevating the profile of a case that could test the extent to which provisional ballots provide a safe harbor for voters amid questions about their eligibility. Her 2016 vote was never counted. The Court of Criminal Appeals isn’t required to review non-death penalty convictions, and it rarely grants requests to do so. However, the court indicated it won’t hear oral arguments in the case and instead rely on legal briefs. In her petition to the court, Mason’s lawyers argued the appeals court erred in upholding her conviction because the state’s definition of voting illegally requires a person to know they are ineligible to vote and Mason did not. In its ruling, the three-judge appeals panel wrote that the fact Mason did not know she was ineligible was “irrelevant to her prosecution.”
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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