Legislative Updates
Colorado: The Pitkin County commissioners voted 5-0 to approve an emergency ordinance that will prohibit concealed handguns at and within 100 feet of all voting centers and polling places. The Colorado Legislature previously approved a law to ban open carrying of firearms in and around voting centers. Pitkin County wanted to beef up the ban. The county government will have signs printed as soon as possible that say “No firearms, open or concealed.” The concealed handguns ban is largely symbolic. After conferring with Sheriff Joe DiSalvo, the commissioners decided it would be too costly to install metal detectors at three polling places established for the current primary or the general election in November. If election judges suspect someone of packing, discreetly or not, they will call 911 and seek help from the sheriff’s office. Someone violating Pitkin County’s new ban would be face a civil penalty of $50 for the first offense, according to County Attorney John Ely.
Delaware: Senate lawmakers worked past midnight to pass legislation making voting by mail a permanent feature of Delaware’s elections. State Sen. Kyle Evans Gay’s (D-Talleyville) bill faced stiff opposition from Republicans, and particularly state Sen. Colin Bonini (R-Dover), who stalled last week’s session for hours and introduced more than two dozen amendments to the bill. Most of those amendments would have pushed back the bill’s effective date. One that passed requires voters to provide a driver’s license number or last four digits of a social security number on their vote-by-mail application and ballot envelope. The bill received final passage this week and it now heads to the governor’s desk.
Massachusetts: A voting rights bill that would ensure mail-in ballots and early voting become permanent fixtures in future elections was approved the House voted 126-29 to approve the measure. The vote comes a week after the Senate voted 37-3 in favor of the proposal. The bill would also increase ballot access for voters with disabilities and service members overseas. It would make sure eligible voters who are incarcerated can request a mail-in ballot and take steps to modernize the state’s election administration process. The legislation is a compromise version of separate bills approved earlier by House and Senate lawmakers. The final bill does not include any provisions that would let individuals both register and vote on Election Day. The bill would let registered voters vote by mail for any presidential, state or municipal primary or election; set aside two weeks — including two weekends — of early voting in-person for biennial state elections and one week — including one weekend — for presidential or state primaries; and move the voter registration deadline from 20 to 10 days before a preliminary, primary, or general election. Baker signed the bill into law. “Every voter in Massachusetts can expect to receive a pre-addressed, postage pre-paid Vote by Mail application in just a few weeks. Voters who prefer to vote in person will be able to take advantage of expanded in-person early voting or vote at their polling place on Election Day,” Secretary of State William Galvin said in a written statement.
New Hampshire: Gov. Chris Sununu has signed Senate Bill 418 into law. The legislation creates a new type of “affidavit ballot” for first-time voters in New Hampshire who don’t have required documents. Under current law, such voters fill out affidavits promising to provide documentation within 10 days, and those who don’t can be investigated and charged with fraud. But the votes themselves remain valid. Under the new law, which takes effect in 2023, ballots cast by voters who fail to provide proof of their identities and residency seven days after an election would be thrown out. Municipalities would report to the secretary of state total votes, minus the unqualified affidavit ballot votes, no later than 14 days after an election. Sununu said that Secretary of State David Scanlan “has given me his full assurances that this bill does not affect the state’s ability to get military ballots out on time, and that our processes will work without delay or impediments with its passage.”
New Hampshire students with disabilities will get help registering to vote under a new law that will take effect in August. The new law requires school officials, parents, and students with disabilities who are 17 or older to discuss voter registration as part of their special education planning for life after graduation. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Mark Paige, said he introduced the legislation after hearing from parents who wanted to be sure that their children graduate ready to be full civic participants in their communities. “Just having that conversation about registering delivers an empowering message to the student,” said Paige, D-Exeter. “It says: we need you involved; your voice and vote matter, and when you use them, you can have an impact.”
New Jersey: Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex) and bi-partisan legislators have authored legislation to require county Board of Elections websites to uniformly report unofficial results on election night. Voters would be able to see the number of votes cast, counted, and remaining to be counted broken down by how a ballot was cast whether by machine during early voting or on Election Day, by mail, or provisionally. Assembly Bill 3822 (A-3822) would enable mail-in ballots to be processed, but not counted, beginning five days before an election in order for the unofficial results of both in-person and by-mail votes to be reported together as soon after the close of polls as possible. Processing ballots involves verifying voter signatures and physically opening and preparation of ballots for tabulation. Currently, election officials must retrieve ballots from drop boxes every day, which in some communities is unnecessary and puts a strain on limited resources. To resolve this time-consuming and potentially costly requirement, the bill would additionally enable county elections officials to establish a pickup schedule to which officials from both parties agree.
Pennsylvania: Proposals to hold Pennsylvania’s presidential primaries in March rather than April and to permit poll watchers to operate outside the counties where they live were advanced Wednesday by a divided House State Government Committee. Both bills had already passed the state Senate and were approved for consideration by the full House. The bill to move the presidential primary to the third Tuesday in March vote was 16-8, with two Democrats joining all Republicans in favor. The poll watchers’ bill, sponsored by the current GOP gubernatorial nominee, Sen. Doug Mastriano of Franklin County, would give candidates the right to have an additional observer and post them inside, close enough to see any canvassing and precanvassing. “There’s no reason to have poll watchers if they aren’t able to be in the line of sight and clearly see what’s happening,” said Republican Rep. Paul Schemel of Franklin County. Rep. Eric Nelson, R-Westmoreland, called the bill “a clear opportunity to allow voters to have enhanced confidence and belief that we’re achieving election integrity.” Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s spokeswoman said he is firmly opposed to the poll watcher bill.
U.S. Virgin Islands: The Committee on Government Operations and Consumer Protection advanced a bill requiring the Elections supervisor to compile both an active and inactive voter’s list within 30 days of a general election. Such a list is to begin with the November election, if it becomes law. The bill originally called for a 90-day turnaround, but after hearing from Supervisor of Elections Caroline Fawkes agreed to a change the more expedient 30-day turnaround. “We would like to enact this law 30 days after the governor signs. Our goal is to obtain an accurate voters’ participation rate for the 2022 general election because during the four-year cycle, which is when the gubernatorial race is on the ballot, more voters participate,” Fawkes said. “The ESVI does not want to see the fruits of our labor in 2024. We have the tools necessary to begin this process. We can change the status of non-voters in the 2014 through 2020 general elections from active to inactive beginning 30 days after the passage of this legislation.” To not allow for cancellation, she said, puts the agency’s data in jeopardy as the numbers and percentages of active voters radically changes and is not as accurate without the cancellations of inactive voters. “Statistical information is critical in many areas, especially in analyzing the elections results. Our goal in supporting this bill is to obtain, true, accurate statistical information and to inspire, encourage, and energize all our citizens to participate in the electoral process, as done in many other countries,” Fawkes said.
Vermont: The Berlin Select Board is interested in a charter change that would end the town’s practice of electing a town clerk. The board is eyeing an August vote — likely in conjunction with this year’s primary elections — on a package of charter changes they reviewed and tentatively endorsed this week. According to the Times Argus, days away from a midterm retirement she announced back in April, Town Clerk Rosemary Morse may have inadvertently set the stage for a change she publicly discouraged in the letter advising the board she would step down on June 30. Attempts to persuade Morse to serve out her latest term — one that expires in March — were unsuccessful and the board scrambled to come up with the succession plan they recently settled on. With two elections looming, that plan involved appointing Assistant Town Clerk Corinne Cooper to replace Morse until voters have a chance to elect her replacement on Town Meeting Day in March. Technically, that’s still the plan, though it is now fraught with uncertainty amid fresh drama involving Cooper’s recent disclosure she planned to appoint her daughter, Minda Stridsberg, to serve as her interim assistant.
Washington: The city of Seattle will decide whether to adopt a new voting style that would allow voters to choose as many candidates as they like in future local elections. The proposal, called “approval voting,” allows voters to select every candidate they approve in primary elections. The two candidates with the highest number of votes would advance to a general election, which voters would then be allowed to choose between the two. The group behind the initiative, Seattle Approves, submitted just over the 26,520 signatures necessary to qualify the measure for November’s ballot, according to King County Elections. Approval voting, under I-134, will be on the November 2022 ballot after receiving the necessary amount of signatures.
Legal Updates
Alaska: The Justice Department announced that it has secured an agreement with the State of Alaska and state officials to resolve claims that driver license transactions did not consistently provide certain voter registration opportunities required by Section 5 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA). The Justice Department’s investigation found that applications and renewals for Alaska’s driver’s licenses and identification documents did not consistently serve as voter registration applications for federal office as required by the NVRA. Likewise, the procedures by which citizens notify the state’s motor vehicle office that their address had changed did not serve as a notification of change of address for voter registration purposes. Under the terms of the settlement, Alaska will fully integrate a voter registration opportunity into all applications for driver’s licenses and other identification documents. Alaska will also ensure that all change of address information submitted for driver’s licenses or state-issued identification purposes will be used to update voters’ address information unless a voter declines to update their voter registration. Alaska has also agreed to appoint a Division of Motor Vehicles NVRA coordinator and NVRA site coordinators for each Division of Motor Vehicles office.
Arizona: Yavapai County Superior Court Judge John Napper rejected Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s request that he order Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs to do a major rewrite of a nearly 300-page document that tells county election officials how to manage the 2022 elections. Napper had signaled at a hearing last week that many of the complaints Brnovich raised when he refused to approve an updated Election Procedures Manual Hobbs submitted for his review and approval last October were unsupported. He said Hobbs in most cases had followed the law when she wrote the manual for voting and tallying ballots. In his ruling, Napper said Brnovich had waited so long to sue over his perceived problems with the manual that he could not order the few changes that may be merited. Napper instead sided with Hobbs and GOP Gov. Doug Ducey’s position and said the last manual approved by all three in 2019 would be in effect for the upcoming elections. “At this point in the game, there is no mechanism for the Court to assist the parties in constructing an EMP which complies with (the law) within the timelines of the statute,” Napper wrote. “The Complaint was filed far too late for this to occur without disrupting elections that have already begun.
Colorado: Travis Ford, 42, of Lincoln, Nebraska pleaded guilty last week in federal court, admitting he posted threatening messages about Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. Ford told a federal judge that he posted the messages on Instagram after the 2020 election. According to court documents, one said, “Do you feel safe? You shouldn’t. Do you think Soros will/can protect you?” Another said, “Your security detail is far too thin and incompetent to protect you. The world is unpredictable these days….anything can happen to anyone,” followed by a man-shrugging emoji. Prosecutors said Ford told law enforcement officers in an interview that his posts went “far far far beyond free speech” and “far past the line.” He pleaded guilty to using a telecommunications device to issue a threat and faces up to two years in prison. The judge set Oct. 6 as the date for his sentencing.
Florida: A Lakeland attorney wants to know if Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer used a nearly $3 million grant to run a partisan get-out-the-vote campaign leading up to the November 2020 election. In a May 25 lawsuit filed in Hillsborough Circuit Court, Hardam Hitarth Tripathi of Lakeland is seeking public records from Latimer and consultant Vistra Communications of Lutz documenting how the grant was used. Vistra devised and implemented a wide-ranging voter education campaign on Latimer’s behalf in fall 2020 that included advertisements on television, radio, billboards, ride-share vehicles, gas pumps, movie screens, airport displays, print news publications and social media. The suit alleges that records obtained so far from Latimer’s office by Tripathi “provides a basis for believing that the campaign was in fact a partisan get-out-the-vote campaign, and that the supervisor of elections attempted to obscure this fact.” “That baseless attack on my integrity is something I will not let stand,” Latimer responded in a statement to the Tampa Bay Times. “As supervisor of elections, I do want to get out the vote, and there is nothing partisan about it. “I want every eligible resident to be registered, and every registered voter to vote. Voter education goes hand in hand with increasing turnout, because voters who don’t know how, where or when they can vote may miss out on the opportunity,” he said.
Kansas: The Kansas Court of Appeals declined to block a 2021 election law, dismissing challenges from a group of voting rights activists who fear the measure will criminalize their voter registration activities. But the appeals court argued their fears about the law were unfounded and the quartet of organizations had not demonstrated House Bill 2183 had actually harmed their work. In a lawsuit filed last year, Loud Light, the League of Women Voters Kansas, Kansas Appleseed and Topeka Independent Living Resource Center challenged several elements of the sweeping election bill, including provisions related to who can deliver an advanced mail ballot and signature verification. But the groups asked the courts to block the law from taking effect because of a specific provision criminalizing the impersonation of an election official. The groups have said they have paused their voter registration work ahead of the Aug. 2 primary election because of the law. The Court of Appeals ruled the plaintiffs lacked the standing to file a lawsuit because they weren’t tangibly harmed by the law. They didn’t render a verdict on the permissibility of the law itself.
Missouri: Civil rights activists sued Missouri over a decades-old law that prohibits volunteers from offering ballot-booth help to multiple voters who have physical disabilities or are unable to read or write. The federal lawsuit contends Missouri’s limits on voter assistance violate federal voting law and should be struck down. It’s the latest of dozens of voting-related lawsuits across the U.S., as election procedures have come under increased scrutiny both from those seeking to guarantee access and ensure integrity. The federal Voting Rights Act allows people who have disabilities or are unable to read or write to choose someone to help them vote. A 1977 Missouri law outlines a similar procedure but says no one can assist more than one voter per election unless they are an election judge or helping immediate family members. Violations of state election laws can result in up to a year imprisonment and up to a $2,500 fine. “This lawsuit seeks to prevent the state from punishing some of democracy’s do-gooders – those who take time to assist voters who are informed and eager to cast a ballot,” said Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
New Hampshire: Shortly after Gov. Chris Sununu signed Senate Bill 418 into law, a number of progressive organizations and individuals led by the Washington-based Elias Law Group filed a lawsuit in Hillsborough District Court against the bill, arguing the bill will hamper the right to vote and that it violates state constitutional requirement that town election officials report election results within five days of the election. Plaintiffs are requesting that the court permanently enjoin the law to prevent it from taking effect.
New Jersey: A conservative group is seeking to force New Jersey’s secretary of state to release information about how her office maintains its voter rolls. In a federal suit lodged last month, the Public Interest Legal Foundation sued Secretary of State Tahesha Way, alleging her department violated federal law when it denied the organization’s Open Public Records Act request for documents on how the state clears duplicate voter registrations. Lauren Bowman, a foundation spokeswoman, said the group performed data analysis of New Jersey’s voter rolls that found more than 8,000 people registered more than once. The New Jersey Department of State denied the group’s records request in March, saying their release would “expose critical vulnerability within the state’s election process” because they detail how to make discrete changes to the Statewide Voter Registration System. “If disclosed, this information would create a grave risk to the integrity of New Jersey’s election system,” the department said in its denial.
North Carolina: In a brief filed last week, lawyers representing N.C. legislative leaders oppose an “unnecessarily expedited” plan for the N.C. Supreme Court to consider felon voting as early as August. Legislators’ alternative plan would delay the case until at least October. The brief xplains why lawmakers object to an expedited hearing schedule in the case called Community Success Initiative v. Moore. The case could add 56,000 felons to N.C. voting rolls as early as November. It would apply to felons who have completed active prison time but still face probation, parole, or post-release supervision. Under normal rules, legislative leaders would face a mid-July deadline to file an opening brief with the state Supreme Court. Final paperwork would be due around Sept. 1. Plaintiffs in the case have asked the court to speed up the timeline, with a July 7 deadline for the opening brief and an Aug. 8 due date for final paperwork.
Tennessee: The Tennessee Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in an ongoing lawsuit over reinstating voting rights to residents with out-of-state felony convictions. Tennesseans with prior in-state felony convictions can restore their rights in a few ways, including by having their citizenship restored by fulfilling their obligations through paying court costs and restitution. In theory, the same pathway is open to everyone equally. But some newer Tennesseans with out-of-state felonies never had court costs to pay and court documents show they’ve struggled to prove their eligibility. The lawsuit, filed in 2020, argues the distinction is illegal and should be blocked in the courts. Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle dismissed the case in October 2020 after denying an initial motion from the residents asking that the rules be changed before that year’s August primary election. This announcement is the latest step in the appeals process “Until the Plaintiffs meet the same requirements as Tennessee felons seeking reinstatement of their right to vote, Tennessee law does not require that Tennessee reach the same result as Virginia’s Governor or North Carolina’s Legislature — nor does the Tennessee Constitution,” Lyle wrote.
The Shelby County Election Commission has withdrawn its lawsuit over voting machines against the Shelby County government. The dismissal comes after the Shelby County Board of Commissioners voted to fund new voting machines for the November election. The new voting machines will cost $5.8 million and will allow voters to choose between electronic or a paper ballot. Administrator Linda Phillips issued a statement that said in part, “we all look forward to executing the November election with new voting machines.”
Texas: The Harris County GOP dropped its lawsuit, filed on the day of last month’s primary runoff election, challenging the county’s plan for counting ballots. Local Republican party officials argued the county’s ballot transport protocol violated state election law. The lawsuit, filed just hours before polls closed on Election Day, could have caused serious delays in counting ballots on May 24 had the Texas Supreme Court agreed with the Harris County GOP that the plan was unlawful. Instead, the court did not issue an opinion and election night ballot counting proceeded uneventfully at NRG Arena.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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