Legislative Updates
Federal-House: Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI, 9th District) has proposed an amendment to the Voting Rights Act that would add protections for election workers facing threats and intimidation. The Election Worker and Polling Place Protection Act would amend the Voting Rights Act to implement penalties, including fines and prison sentences, for anyone who threatens, intimidates, or gets violent with election workers, including volunteers and election equipment workers. It would also prohibit and penalize anyone who damages polling places or election equipment. A companion bill has already been introduced in the U.S. Senate. Levin admitted that the bill, like other recent voting rights legislation, faces a tough read ahead, especially in the closely-divided Senate. But, “I think it’s a fluid situation, and I think there really is a chance that we can move some voting rights legislation,” he said. “So I think it’s important to keep pushing forward legislation that really is commonsense, and just tries to improve the situation of administering elections.”
Alabama: Rep. Well Allen has introduced House Bill 194 which is aimed at removing private funding from election administration. “There’s evidence back in the 2020 election that Mark Zuckerberg spent millions of dollars to quote on quote assist local election officials across the county mostly in left-leaning counties around the country by providing funds and personnel to work in various stages of the election process and that’s just something that we do not need,” says Allen. Secretary of State John Merrill said that while he’s in support of stopping private money from funding elections, he believes this bill as it’s written will stop organizations like the League of Women Voters from helping register people to vote. “We will only support the legislation if the modifications are made that are necessary to ensure that they don’t infringe on the rights of the groups who are trying to participate in the electoral process,” Merrill said.
Arizona: The Arizona Senate approved several revisions to the state’s election laws but three were rejected when majority Republicans failed to muster the needed 16 votes. The three bills that moved forward include: one makes it a felony to help someone from outside Arizona register to vote, another requires the Legislature’s non-partisan legal team to review the manual that guides election workers, and a third requires courts to send monthly reports of people convicted of felonies and who are no longer eligible to vote to election officials. Rejected bills include one that would have required counties that operate vote centers rather that precinct-based voting sites to separate ballots by precinct so a hand-count audit can be performed. Another would have forbade election officials from requiring the use of a certain pens, which was designed to remedy the debunked theory that ink from felt-tipped “sharpies” bled through to the back side of ballots. And a third rejected bill would have expanded the power of the state’s attorney general to allow him to investigate elections issues for federal office, and given him/her nearly unlimited subpoena power.
California: A proposal, contained in Assembly Bill 2808, would prohibit ranked choice voting in state and local elections. The bill’s author, Assemblymember Patrick O’Donnell, D-Long Beach, said in a statement that ranked choice voting “allows an election to be gamed.” “Our democracy and our recent elections may be under heightened stress and scrutiny right now, but our long-established voting system is strong,” Assemblymember O’Donnell said. “We are a model for the world. We must not abandon our voting principles to chase the election flavor of the month.” If passed, the proposal would shift how elections are completed in several areas across the state. Berkeley, Oakland, San Leandro and San Francisco adopted a ranked-voting system in the early 2000s and have used it for more than a decade to elect city officials, according to Fair Vote, an advocate of ranked choice voting. Additionally, Albany, Eureka and Palm Desert were set to begin using a ranked-voting system for local elections starting in November 2022.
Colorado: Sen. Steve Fenberg (D-Boulder) and Senator Sonya Jaquez Lewis (D-Boulder County) introduced legislation that will ensure registered Colorado voters impacted by the Marshall Fire can continue using their home address on their voter registration, even if the home was destroyed or is uninhabitable. Under SB22-152, voters who have been displaced as a result of a natural disaster such as fire, flood, tornado, or other event may still use their previous address as their residence for voter registration purposes while temporarily living at another location. Voters can simply update their voter registration with an alternative mailing address but leave their residential address as is. This bill will codify a standard practice that county election clerks have historically followed for displaced voters. The bill will be heard in the Senate State, Veterans, & Military Affairs committee. “After the devastating Marshall Fire, we realized that law needed to provide voters clear options following displacement from a natural disaster,” said Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Molly Fitzpatrick. “This bill will clarify the process in law and allow residents who have been displaced by this tragedy to vote in their home community, even if they are currently living in a different city and need to for an extended period of time.”
Connecticut: Committee haggling over the definition of “illness” in a 90-year-old section of the state Constitution, led to partisan votes that will send two separate-but-similar voting-right bills to the House and Senate. Sen. Rob Sampson (R-Wolcott) on the Government Administration & Elections Committee, failed in two attempts to amend a Senate bill, then subsequently let a somewhat identical House bill aimed at allowing mail-in voting for the upcoming statewide election, to go to a final committee vote without pursuing amendments. “If this bill passes in the form that is before us without being changed, it will effectively create no-excuse absentee voting without a constitutional amendment,” Sampson said. Democrats spoke very little during the 90-minute meeting, which culminated with 13-6 Democrat-dominated final votes on the bills, which next head to the House and Senate for action. Sampson’s main amendment would have changed general language on illness, or a perceived fear of becoming sick, to become more voter-specific. Sampson’s follow-up amendment would have limited the Secretary of the State’s future abilities to again provide ballot applications to all registered voters. Merrill has testified to the committee that she neither has the budget nor a plan to do that again. The way the bills are written, voters would have to only be concerned about illness in the lingering pandemic to become eligible for an absentee ballot.
Delaware: A weird quirk to Delaware law requires voters to register to vote twice, once for state/federal races and again for some local races. A bill has been introduced to the General Assembly that would require Delaware’s cities and towns to use the state’s voter registration system rather than their own. Only 12 out of Delaware’s 57 municipalities currently use the state Department of Elections database to determine voter eligibility. The rest run their own registration systems, meaning voters are turned away in at least some of the 45 municipalities that require voters to register separately. That’s a big problem during election season, said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. S. Elizabeth ‘Tizzy’ Lockman, a Democrat from Wilmington. “In some of our municipalities there is this divide between registration for elections on the state level and elections on a municipal level,” Lockman said in an interview with Delaware LIVE News. “That has had the impact of disenfranchising voters who are not aware of what is a surprising and somewhat illogical system.” Opponents of the bill say it goes too far and that municipalities should be allowed to decide whether or not they want to use the state’s voter registration system.
Florida: The Senate passed a sweeping elections bill 24-14 that establishes an election crimes investigations unit, bans ranked-choice voting, changes vote-by-mail forms and more. SB 524, which contains several of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “election integrity” priorities, passed the chamber along a largely partisan vote. Despite bipartisan agreement that the 2020 election was possibly the smoothest in Florida’s recent history, the bill is Republicans’ second measure in two years to tighten Florida’s voting laws. Sponsored by Sen. Travis Hutson, the bill creates the 15-person Office of Election Crimes and Security within the Department of State, which receives and investigates complaints about voter fraud. It also increases the penalties on organizations that violate election registration laws from $1,000 to $50,000, and asks supervisors of elections to annually maintain voter roll lists instead of every two years, another of DeSantis’ requests. A previous version of the bill would have required voters to put the last four digits of their Social Security, driver’s license or state-issued ID card on a voter identification form that is signed to send with vote-by-mail ballots. However, Hutson removed that provision with an amendment. The amendment also adds a fine to organizations if a person collecting voter applications on its behalf changes someone’s party affiliation without consent. The fine is $1,000 per altered application. The Florida House voted final approval to their version of the legislation this wee. The vote was 76-41. Because the Senate had already approved the bill (SB 524), the measure goes to DeSantis to be signed into law.
Georgia: Republicans introduced a broad elections bill that would enable public ballot inspections, restrict nonprofit funding and empower the GBI to investigate fraud allegations. The legislation would open original paper ballots for public inspection, similar to other government records. Under current law, ballots can only be unsealed by a judge’s order, though digital ballot images are already available.In addition, organizations would be prohibited from giving money directly to county election offices after millions of dollars in grants flowed from a group backed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2020. The bill aims to prevent outside funding inequalities between Democratic and Republican areas by requiring donations to first be approved by the State Election Board. The legislation also gives the GBI authority to subpoena election records for fraud investigations. Much of the bill deals with ballot handling, requiring election officials to fill out paperwork when they touch ballots, then use seals for storing ballots. Legislators supporting the idea said it would improve accountability, but county election directors said it would slow ballot counts and results.
Idaho: The Senate State Affairs Committee gave the OK for a possible public hearing for a proposed voter law that would require a valid Idaho driver’s license or state-issued identification card to vote in Idaho elections. The Senate State Affairs Committee voted to introduce the legislation that would eliminate military and student identification cards as acceptable proof. Residents without driver’s licenses would need to get a state-issued identification card to vote. Residents who couldn’t afford a state-issued identification card would get one for free, Souza said. Additionally, the bill would eliminate in 2023 personal affidavits for voting. A personal affidavit allows someone to sign a form under penalty of perjury they are who they say and are eligible to vote. The bill would also require that absentee ballots have a signature and the last four digits of an acceptable identification card. Another requirement is that absentee ballots be returned by mail or hand-delivered to election staff.
A divided House of Representatives voted 37-33 to pass a bill that would prohibit absentee ballot drop boxes used in Ada County and several other parts of the state. Rep. Priscilla Giddings, R-White Bird, is sponsoring House Bill 693. She said the bill is necessary to protect the security of absentee ballots, which she suggested could be vulnerable to arson or theft in a drop box. If passed into law, the bill would make it so “the use of drop-boxes or other similar drop-off locations to collect absentee ballots is prohibited.” This bill contains an emergency clause that would make it effective as soon if it becomes law, should it pass. That means it would apply to the upcoming May 17 primary elections and existing ballot drop boxes would be prohibited. The bill’s opponents said there have been no problems with the security of ballot drop boxes in Idaho and banning the drop boxes would make it harder for voters to vote. The bill will be sent to the Idaho Senate next. To become law, it needs to pass the Idaho Senate and be signed into law by Gov. Brad Little or allowed to become law without his signature.
This week, a new bill that could change Idaho’s voter registration system advanced to the House floor. The bill would require a county clerk to verify electronic voter registration by first class mail, rather than by email, verifying a voter’s address. The second part of the bill requires a voter’s full name that would match with that of their local DMV or social security card. The third part requires more contact information from a voter and lastly, the bill would remove an exemption member of the military half from having their voter registration canceled if they are found not to be a U.S. citizen. Deputy Secretary of State Jason Hancock believes this could clarify whether or not someone resides in their postal address.
Indiana: A proposal to significantly limit mail-in absentee voting in Indiana no longer is included in elections-related legislation headed to the governor’s desk. House Enrolled Act 1116 was preliminarily approved Jan. 31 by the Republican-controlled House with a provision barring many Hoosiers who currently satisfy one of the statutory excuses to qualify for a mail-in absentee ballot from voting by mail if they are capable of casting an in-person ballot at any point during the state’s 28-day early voting period. House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, said preferring in-person voting over mail-in voting is “the right public policy” for Indiana, and the state makes it as easy as possible by allowing counties to conduct early voting for up to four weeks before Election Day. The Republican-controlled Senate disagreed, however, and promptly deleted the mail-in voting restriction. The final version of the plan requires voters submitting an electronic request for a mail-in ballot to verify their identity using either their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number, speeds the deployment of voter verifiable paper audit trails in counties using direct record electronic voting systems, and authorizes the secretary of state to decide how many counties will be subject to a post-election audit, among other provisions. It was approved 95-0 by the House Monday after last week passing the Senate, 35-10.
Kansas: A GOP-dominated state Senate committee approved a bill that would require all mail-in ballots to arrive by 7 p.m. on Election Day, limit the use of ballot drop boxes and give people three fewer days before an election to register to vote. The measure goes next to the full Senate. The Kansas Senate committee’s action was significant because Republicans had struggled to persuade even some GOP lawmakers that giving voters three extra days to mail in ballots was a problem. A House committee last month killed a proposal to end the grace period. The bill would allow voting in advance to begin 23 days before an election, rather than the current 20, something Olson said he proposed to address the concerns of opponents ending the post-Election Day grace period. That prompted him to also shift the voter registration deadline back three days, to 24 days before an election.
Republican lawmakers are advancing a measure to prevent the governor from entering into legal agreements that change state election practices without getting prior approval from the GOP-controlled Legislature or its top leaders. A Senate committee approved a bill in response to an agreement Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly reached in October with voting-rights groups to head off a lawsuit. The agreement allows Kansas residents to register to vote at state agencies that provide social services benefits. The measure goes next to the full Senate. Federal law requires states to allow people to register when they interact with social services agencies. Kelly acknowledged that the state fell out of compliance and began working with voting rights groups in 2019. Some Republicans argue that the Legislature should be involved such agreements because it has the power to write and revise election laws. A law enacted last year prevented the secretary of state from making such agreements without legislative leaders’ approval first. The bill approved by the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee would require the full Legislature to sign off first on an agreement involving either the governor or secretary of state if lawmakers are in session. If they are out of session, either official would need permission from the Legislature’s top eight leaders.
Kentucky: A bill dealing with the practice known as vote-hauling, as well as one addressing absentee balloting, were both approved by the House Elections, Constitutional Amendments & Intergovernmental Affairs. House Bill 330 would prohibit anyone being paid to drive voters to the polls. The sponsor, Rep. Ed Massey, R-Hebron, says an identical measure introduced in 2020 passed out of the House, but never was never heard in the Senate due to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. A violator would be guilty of a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to 90 days in jail. HB 564, sponsored by Rep. Josh Branscum, R-Russell Springs, keeps many of the provisions enacted in 2020 for absentee voting by mail, removing the requirement that a voter request a mail-in absentee ballot 14 days prior to an election, and moves it to the Thursday before the election, which is the first day of in-person absentee balloting. It also has some additional security requirements, such as not allowing voting machines to be able to connect to the internet, and requiring a secure online connection for the transmittal of unofficial election results, as well as external devices used to upload election results. Both measure, which have emergency clauses, meaning they would become effective signed by the governor, now head to the House floor.
Maine: House Democrats advanced an election-related bill that supporters say would enhance ballot security statewide. The bill passed along party lines, with Rep. Teresa Pierce’s bill to strengthen election integrity receiving the most debate. That bill, L.D. 1799, would tighten current ballot custody rules and expressly prohibit election clerks from turning over voting machines to a third party without authorization from the secretary of state. Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said in an interview after the vote that her office received “numerous petitions” for Arizona-style election audits, highlighting the need to strengthen the system. “This bill ensures that’s prohibited in Maine,” Bellows said. “It prohibits the transfer of ballots or equipment to outside entities that might manipulate or alter or interfere with ballot equipment for partisan reasons. We’ve never seen that happen here in Maine, but we have seen these attempts in other states.”
Michigan: House lawmakers unanimously passed a bill that would require regular updates to the public on the status of ballot measure campaigns. The state Senate previously approved the bill with unanimous support in a vote last week. It now heads to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s desk. The legislation that passed would require the Secretary of State’s Office to post a summary of voter-initiated petitions online within two business days after they are filed. If a petition’s sponsor seeks and obtains approval from the Board of State Canvassers for the petition summary that appears at the top of the signature collection form, the board-approved language would replace the summary from the Secretary of State’s Office. The Board of State Canvassers also determines whether petitions collected enough signatures to introduce an initiative to the Legislature or place a referendum or amendment on the ballot. The bill would require the Secretary of State’s Office to update a petition’s status online at least once every 30 days.
Legislation introduced by Michigan House members would allow communities to implement what’s known as a ranked-choice voting system where voters rank candidates on the ballot by order of their preference. Language in Michigan’s home rule act and the state’s election law currently prevent local governments from implementing the voting method. “These are just technical fixes to allow local officials to be able to do it if they want to,” Rep. Regina Weiss, D-Oak Park, said of the bill package. HB 5645, Weiss’ bill, taken with HB 5644 and HB 5646 would authorize communities to enact the use of ranked-choice voting for city offices. “In a lot of ways (ranked-choice) is more democratic than the traditional voting style,” Weiss said. “And of course it’s optional, so, even if a community elects to have a ranked-choice voting system following legislation, a voter doesn’t have to rank their choice. They can still vote for just one person if they choose to do so, ranked-choice just gives them the option.”
Minnesota: Sen. Mark Koran (R-North Branch) is sponsoring Senate File 3333 that would prevent local elections offices from accepting any money from non-government entities. During testimony on the legislation, Koran said, local elections were turned over to the non-government entities. “It’s shocking that so many cities allowed this undue influence in their election process to try to affect the outcome,” Koran told the Senate State Government and Elections Committee. “It’s shocking that a county would willingly give up that type of control to an outside entity.” Koran offered no evidence that the grants awarded to 28 Minnesota counties and cities by the Center for Tech and Civic Life went for anything other than the organizations’ stated goals, which include helping to ensure local election officials “have the staffing, training, and equipment necessary so this November every eligible voter can participate in a safe and timely way and have their vote counted.” According to the Minnesota Post, the bill is unlikely to get through the DFL-controlled House or be signed by DFL Gov. Tim Walz. Yet Secretary of State Steve Simon said even holding a hearing on the bill that airs allegations that go un-rebutted is damaging. “There was zero undue influence. There was zero relinquishing of control. Zero,” Simon said Friday. “Anyone who talked to someone who administered an election would know that.”
Missouri: State Senator Tony Luetkemeyer, introduced senate bill 679 which would require voters to present a photo ID, outlaws electronic voting and restores eligibility for absentee ballots to more secure pre-pandemic standards. If the legislation is approved, touch screen electronic ballot devices will only be allowed to accommodate voters with disabilities. All other voting will be performed with paper ballots. The legislation also eliminates relaxed absentee voting provisions enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and clarifies deadlines for acceptance of absentee ballots.
Nebraska: The Nebraska Secretary of State would be required to inspect all vote counting machines used in the state to ensure that they cannot be accessed remotely under a bill heard March 2 by the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee. LB1121, introduced by Sen. Joni Albrecht of Thurston, would require the Nebraska secretary of state’s office to carry out the inspection and prohibit contracting with a third-party. The bill also would require a representative of the office to be present whenever a ballot counting machine is being serviced. Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen testified in opposition to the bill. He said there was no justification for the proposal and that it would be prohibitively expensive. Vote counting machines are never connected to the internet, Evnen said, and are tested for accuracy both before and after elections.
The Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee also heard testimony on LB1123, introduced by Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard, which would prohibit county election officials from counting ballots until after all polls close in the state on Election Day. The bill would apply to ballots cast in person or received by mail. Douglas County Election Commissioner Brian Kruse testified in opposition to the bill. Ballot counting currently may begin 24 hours before Election Day, he said, and a variety of measures are taken to ensure that no results are released prior to polls closing. Kruse said Douglas County officials spent 11 hours counting ballots the Monday prior to Election Day in 2020 and waiting to do so until after polls close would delay reporting results and burden an already taxed workforce.
New Hampshire: An effort to ban vote-counting machines at the state level is likely headed to defeat at the State House. House Bill 1064 would require the use of hand-marked, durable paper ballots in New Hampshire elections. The legislation was filed by Republican reps, including some who have questioned the results of the 2020 elections. In a unanimous bipartisan vote Wednesday morning, the House Election Law Committee gave the bill a negative recommendation. The bill now heads to the House floor.
New Jersey: Bills to increase poll worker pay and allow elections officials to begin opening and processing mail-in ballots 10 days before Election Day were passed out of a Senate committee. Under S856, early votes may begin to be counted 24 hours after the conclusion of the early voting period, and elections officials can begin opening the inner envelopes and canvassing each mail-in ballot 10 days prior to Election Day. The Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee passed the bill with only one senator voting in opposition. Currently, mail-in ballots cannot begin to be counted until Election Day, and early votes cast during the early voting period can only be counted after the polls close. Supporters said the bill is needed for election results to be available in a timely manner. Some counties had to wait up to eight days for results in the last general election, according to lawmakers. The committee also unanimously passed S1290, a bill to increase poll worker pay from $200 for a 14-hour shift to $300. It would also appropriate $7 million to the Department of State to cover increased costs. Poll worker pay was raised temporarily last year by law and executive order, when counties were having difficulty attracting enough poll workers. This bill would make an increase permanent. The committee also passed a bill to tighten prohibitions against electioneering near polling places and added prohibitions against it within 100 feet of a ballot drop box.
A bill that would allow New Jerseyans to register to vote at their polling place on Election Day was pulled from the Senate government committee’s Thursday meeting agenda by Senate leadership, the panel’s chairman said. It’s not clear why the bill was pulled, though it was likely tabled on the order of Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union). Committee chairs have broad control over their panels’ agendas, but the Senate president has the final say over which bills advance. Sen. James Beach (D-Camden), the government committee’s chair, said he had been prepared to hold a vote on the bill. Existing law requires voters to be registered at least 21 days before an election to cast their ballots on Election Day. The bill would cut that to eight days while also allowing residents to register at their polling place — and then vote — on Election Day. You would also be able to register at your county clerk’s office until 3 p.m the day before an election and vote in that election.
New York: The Assembly is considering legislation that solve a problem created by out of precinct ballots. Under current election law, someone who cast a vote in the wrong Assembly district but was still in the correct state Senate and congressional districts and also voted for statewide offices won’t have any of their choices counted. According to the letter from the election commissioners, this represented the largest portion of disqualified affidavits, which was why they support the bill that would permit the valid votes to still count. “This proposal will improve due process and protect thousands of votes from registered, otherwise-eligible New Yorkers, improving the accuracy of election results and the public trust that all legitimate votes will be counted,” they wrote in the letter. Although the proposed legislation passed the state Senate in 2021 and again this year, it has yet to move in the Assembly.
Ohio: Overseas absentee ballots could arrive up to 20 days after Ohio’s primary election and still be counted under emergency legislation working its way through General Assembly as chaos over new state legislative maps threatens spring elections. County election officials have raised serious questions about their ability to carry out a successful primary election on May 3, citing the already tight timeline due to the still-unresolved redrawing of state legislative maps. State law already allows a 10-day window after a primary election for the arrival of ballots cast by Ohio overseas voters, typically those serving in the military. The state Senate unanimously approved emergency legislation adding an additional 10 days. The House is expected to approve the measure. The move came after the U.S. Defense Department last week denied by a request by Ohio Elections Chief Frank LaRose to waive the March 19 deadline by which state overseas ballots must be mailed. With the passage of HB 155, ballots can be sent up to 30 days in advance of the election, and citizens will have 20 days, rather than the original 10, to return the ballots to their county boards of election.
Oregon: A bill aimed at shielding Oregon’s election workers from intimidation and threats has now passed both chambers of the legislature, heading to Governor Kate Brown’s desk for a signature. House Bill 4144 allows election workers to keep their home addresses from public disclosure, and makes the crime of harassment against an election worker punishable by a maximum 364 days in prison and a $6,250 fine — upgrading it from a Class B misdemeanor to a Class A misdemeanor. Jackson County Clerk Chris Walker, a nonpartisan elected official, championed HB 4144 after her office became the target of threats. Shortly after the 2020 election, someone painted a message in a nearby parking lot: “vote don’t work” and “next time bullets.” Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, who oversees the Oregon Elections Division, also became a major advocate for the bill. “The Election Worker Safety Bill is about protecting the people who protect our democracy,” Fagan said,. “Our elections are run by members of the community in all 36 counties across Oregon, hardworking elections professionals who are doing incredibly important work in a very challenging time.”
Washington: Two bills, affecting election ballot return envelopes and the centers where they are cast, could soon become state law. The bills were approved last week ahead of a Friday deadline for the Legislature to advance legislation – passing through the state Senate a week before the session ends. The legislation provides protections for voter information, more information on ballot measures affecting public investments and clarifies administrative rules around voting centers. A proposal that prevents disclosure of some information on envelopes voters use to return their completed ballots passed the Senate Wednesday by a 38-10 vote. The bill would exempt signatures, email addresses and phone numbers from disclosure under public records laws. Original envelopes could still be viewed by the public in person, with the Secretary of State empowered to create rules around the inspection process. The Senate Wednesday unanimously backed a bill that would change the rules for voting centers and ballot drop boxes. The bill also establishes perimeters around voting centers and ballot drop boxes where influencing or interfering with voters would be expressly prohibited. Auditors would also have to designate voting center entrances and post signs about the interference ban.
Wisconsin: Although Republicans in both the Assembly and Senate initially passed bills allowing clerks to start counting absentee ballots early, they declined to take the final step in sending the bill to the desk of Gov. Tony Evers. Senate GOP leaders did not put the bill on the calendar for what is expected to be the body’s final session in 2022. At least one Republican senator said Tuesday it was in response to backlash following the initial passage. On a party-line vote February 22, Senate Republicans passed a bill allowing clerks to start processing absentee ballots one day before an election. Democrats voted against the bill, citing additional language that moved up the deadline for mailing out absentee ballots.
Wyoming: Wyoming voters’ have retained their right to change party affiliation on election day after a bill to restrict the practice died in the Wyoming House of Representatives. Senate File 97 – Change in party affiliation died quietly when it did not receive a first reading vote in the House by the deadline. As in years prior, the Wyoming Republican Party lobbied heavily in support of the bill, but that did not translate to enough support at the Capitol.
House Bill 52 – Timeline to prepare and process absentee ballots is meant to account for that by allowing county clerks to start counting absentee ballots the Thursday or Friday before election day. “Wyoming likes their election results on election night,” Lankford told the Senate Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee. When nearly half of the vote is by absentee ballot, Lankford said it’s hard for clerks to process ballots in a timely manner. hould a clerk see the need to get a head start, the bill lays out some stipulations. A clerk must notify the secretary of state’s office. They must also notify each political party, and include details for in-person observation, including date, time and place. However, the bill prohibits any candidate or candidate’s committee chairperson or treasurer from observing. Sen. Cheri Steinmetz (R-Lingle) brought an amendment to allow such individuals to observe, but withdrew it after criticism from several lawmakers. Before passing both chambers, the House adopted an amendment to create a felony penalty for violations of the act, including providing election results to any person before the polls close.
A second bill related to absentee ballots was not successful. Like the crossover voting bill, Senate File 96 – Collection of election ballots-prohibition was sponsored by Sen. Biteman and supported by the state party. It would have put restrictions on how people or groups can help voters deliver completed absentee ballots to county clerks. The bill would specifically prohibit any solicitation, gathering or submission of completed ballots without an accompanying written consent form from the secretary of state. It also created a felony penalty for any violations of such restrictions. Senate File 96 died on Feb. 28 when it did not receive a first reading in the Senate by deadline.
Legal Updates
Arkansas: A federal lawsuit was filed this week challenging Arkansas’ new U.S. House district lines, claiming the new boundaries violate Black voters’ rights and weaken their influence by splitting the Little Rock area among three congressional districts. The lawsuit filed by six residents, including two Black Democratic state lawmakers, said the redistricting plan approved by the majority-Republican Legislature last year violates the Constitution and the federal Voting Rights Act by moving 23,000 predominantly Black voters out of the 2nd District in central Arkansas. Those voters were split between the state’s 1st and 4th congressional districts. Heavily Democratic Pulaski County, which includes the Little Rock area, is currently in the 2nd District. The plan “has placed illegal and unconstitutional barriers to the legitimate and natural growth of the state’s Black population to translate to increased political influence at the federal level,” the lawsuit said. The lawsuit is the second challenging a redistricting plan in Arkansas. A federal judge last month dismissed a suit challenging Arkansas’ new state House districts after the Justice Department declined to intervene in the case. The judge had ruled that private groups couldn’t claim violations of the Voting Rights Act. That decision has been appealed.
Colorado: A coalition of civil and voting rights organizations invoked the 19th-century Ku Klux Klan Act in a lawsuit filed this week seeking to stop a group of supporters of the former president from going door-to-door in Colorado in a search for already-debunked voter fraud. The suit against the U.S. Election Integrity Plan alleges that the group’s activities include photographing voters’ homes and “door-to-door voter intimidation” in areas where a high number of minorities live. The group was founded after Trump lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden and made false claims of mass voter fraud. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado on behalf of the state chapter of the NAACP, the League of Women Voters and Mi Familia Vota. The lawsuit relies in part on the KKK Act, which was passed after the Civil War to prevent white vigilantes from using violence and terror to stop Black people from voting.
New York: Justice David Cohen of New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan said Smartmatic can continue its $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit claiming that Fox News Network, Rudolph Giuliani and others falsely accused the electronic voting systems maker of helping rig the 2020 U.S. presidential election to favor Democrat Joe Biden. Cohen ejected bids by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp., anchor Maria Bartiromo and former anchor Lou Dobbs to dismiss Smartmatic’s claims against them. Cohen also said Smartmatic can pursue some claims against Giuliani. He dismissed all claims against Fox host Jeanine Pirro and Sidney Powell. Without ruling on the merits, Cohen found a “substantial basis” for the claim that Fox News “turned a blind eye to a litany of outrageous claims about [Smartmatic], unprecedented in the history of American elections, so inherently improbable that it evinced a reckless disregard for the truth.” In a 61-page decision, Cohen said Giuliani’s “barrage” of criticism, including that Smartmatic fixed elections in Venezuela and was up to its “old tricks” on election night, justified letting some claims against him proceed.
Acting State Supreme Court Justice Patrick McAllister said that the state should hold its 2022 elections for Congress and state senate using new legislative district lines that are being challenged by a Republican lawsuit. McAllister refused to dismiss the case today and ordered government officials to turn over relevant records by March 12. Lawyers representing New York Democratic leaders tried to stop the case from moving forward, claiming the 14 GOP plaintiffs from across the state didn’t have standing to file the lawsuit. The judge, acknowledging that the case could continue for the next month, said the new district lines should be used for New York’s upcoming primary election on June 28.
North Carolina: The North Carolina Supreme Court has agreed to accelerate appeals in a photo voter identification lawsuit by hearing the case without waiting for the Court of Appeals to deliberate first. In an order last week, the justices granted the request of lawyers for minority voters who successfully sued at the trial-court level to bypass arguments at the intermediate-level appeals court. In September, a divided panel of three trial judges threw out the state’s latest photo ID law, which was approved by the General Assembly in late 2018, weeks after a photo ID mandate was added to the state constitution. Still, the panel’s majority declared the implementing law unconstitutional, in part because the justices said it intentionally discriminated against Black voters. The attorneys for the minority voters asked the Supreme Court to take the case now because it addresses substantial legal issues. They also argued that it would help to avoid any delays in the legislature fashioning a voter ID law that complies with the constitution, which it would do if the justices uphold the trial court order. The state Supreme Court didn’t say in the order when oral arguments would be held, but the group providing lawyers for the plaintiffs said in a news release that it expects them this summer.
Pennsylvania: Oral arguments were heard before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court over Act 77, the commonwealth’s vote-by-mail law, this week. Lawyers for the Gov. Tom Wolf administration argued on behalf of Act 77, which was approved by a GOP-controlled Legislature in 2019. Act 77 was declared unconstitutional in a 3-2 January decision by the state’s Commonwealth Court, as it ruled on two challenges to the law. The opinion, written by Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt, cited two cases both more than 100 years old to argue that the state constitution mandated that voters have to show up in person to vote to bar a handful of excuses enumerated in the constitution. Attorneys for Wolf and the national Democratic Party argued that changing circumstances and constitutional wording meant that the high court should break with the lower court’s ruling and uphold the law. If the high court were to go along with the lower court, attorney Seth Waxman added, “there is going to be at minimum mass confusion” from the hundreds of thousands of voters who have come to regularly vote with mail-in ballots.
Two Republicans have petitioned the Luzerne County court of common pleas to fill a seat on the county board of elections that has remained vacant since the last Republican board members term expired at the end of 2021. The county charter states that council must fill vacancies on county boards within 60 days. If council fails to do so, any citizen may petition the court to make the appointment within 30 days. The court is not required to appoint one of the people who applied to fill the seat, though in this case the appointee must be a Republican. The county charter stipulates that the five-member election board consists of two members of each of the major political parties, who then appoint a fifth member, of any political affiliation, to serve as chairperson. The unusual court filings stem from an indecisive vote at council’s Feb. 22 meeting. It requires six votes on the 11-member council to win appointment to a county board seat. Last week, just nine council members voted.
Texas: U.S. Attorney Ashley C. Hoff of the Western District of Texas announced that the United States has reached an agreement with the Travis County Clerk’s Office to ensure that the county provides accessible polling places to voters with disabilities. The agreement resolves the United States’ investigation into Travis County’s compliance with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability by a state or local government in any of its programs or services. Under the terms of the agreement, the county will use an evaluation form for each current and prospective polling place based on ADA architectural standards. The agreement requires the county to either relocate voting to new, accessible facilities, or to use temporary measures such as portable ramps, signs, traffic cones, and doorbells to ensure accessibility on Election Day. In addition, Travis County will train its poll workers and other elections staff on the requirements of the ADA and how to use temporary measures to ensure each polling place is accessible during elections. Travis County is working collaboratively with the United States to make all polling places accessible and has already taken steps since the 2020 Primary Election to ensure polling place accessibility.
The Harris County Republican Party has filed a lawsuit against county Election Administrator Isabel Longoria. The lawsuit, which lists Longoria by name, claims she interfered with the Republican chair supervision of the primary election by “failing to abide the county chair’s appointment of Presiding Judges and alternate judges” and interfered with “the county chair’s supervision by electing to treat a 10,000 vote discrepancy in the county as a matter ‘for further investigation rather than providing the county chairs and the presiding judges the underlying data suggesting that Defendant could not get those votes counted before a court-imposed deadline.” “This is completely disingenuous behavior by what’s supposed to be the chief elections officer of the third largest county,” said Republican State Senator Paul Bettencourt. “That should never happen. It can’t be tolerated.” In addition, the lawsuit accuses Longoria of interfering by “failing to follow the county chairs suggestion for staging the counting station.” The lawsuit states the Republican Party is asking for over $100,000, but not more than $250,000, and non-monetary relief. Longoria is Harris County’s first-ever election administrator. Two elected officials, the county clerk and tax assessor ran elections before 2020 when Longoria’s office was created, and she was appointed.
Virginia: The Democratic activist behind the legal effort to force new Virginia House elections this year told a federal appeals court the state challenged his lawsuit on procedural grounds because they didn’t deny the merits of his argument. But the Virginia attorney general’s office disputed that assertion Tuesday when the case went before the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. “Our position is that the 2021 election was perfectly constitutional and no remedy for any constitutional violation was required,” Virginia Solicitor General Andrew Ferguson said. Paul Goldman, the former chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party, sued the state in June 2021 arguing last year’s House of Delegates elections were held under unconstitutional districts. Goldman’s lawsuit seeks to have all 100 state delegates serve one-year terms and require another round of elections under the redrawn districts that have been updated with new census data to reflect the population shifts over the last decade. Then-Attorney General Mark Herring aimed to have the case dismissed in district court last year, but a judge agreed Goldman could bring his lawsuit forward against individual members of the State Board of Elections and Virginia’s Election Commissioner. The state appealed that decision, arguing Goldman did not have legal standing to sue the election officials. This week a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard Goldman and Ferguson debate the merits of the case and the issue of whether Goldman had the standing to bring a lawsuit forward.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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