Civil & Human Rights

(Update) Automatic (universal) voter registration fails by a single vote in the Oregon Senate

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I posted about this legislation in Oregon last week. Automatic (universal) voter registration – Oregon leads the way.

Sadly, the legislation failed by a single vote in the Oregon Senate when a Democratic defector joined with Republicans to defeat the bill. The Oregonian reports, Oregon Senate rejects universal voter registration proposal:

Legislation aimed at adding hundreds of thousands of registered voters
in Oregon failed by a single vote in the state Senate on Sunday.

Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose, joined with all 14 Republicans to
defeat a bill that would automatically register eligible voters when
they received new or updated driver licenses in Oregon.

Secretary of State Kate Brown had promoted House Bill 3521 as an ambitious way to remove barriers to voting and greatly increase voting participation in the state.

* * *

[Critics] said they feared the bill would lead to greater voter fraud in
Oregon and that anyone who cared enough to vote should take personal
responsibility for registering.

The Voting Rights Act and the Section 3 ‘opt in’ provision

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

A frequently made argument by GOP apologists, like Robert Robb of the Arizona Republic, is that Arizona should not be a covered jurisdiction under the Voting Rights Act.

Arizona failed to meet certain criteria in 1972 to get federal approval for any state legislation or procedural changes that could impact voting, which included having low voter turnout and not offering election materials in other languages.

Arizona in 1974 implemented bilingual voting, but Congress never removed Arizona from the Section 4 covered jurisdiction formula in subsequent renewals of the Act. "We're being punished for the past!"

This argument requires one to ignore the fact that Arizona has always had the opportunity to "opt out" of the covered jurisdiction formula if it could adequately demonstrate a clean bill of health for a period of 10 years without any violations for discrimination against voters. A number of jurisdictions have successfully "opted out' over the years.

This argument also requires one to ignore the history of discrimination that occurred after Arizona was added to the list of covered jurisdictions — the Department of Justice filed formal objections
to racially discriminatory changes to Arizona law 22 times since 1973,
including each decennial redistricting — except for the most recent
redistricting in 2012.

This is the reason why Arizona has never been able to qualify for the "opt out" provision. Arizona cannot demonstrate a clean bill of health for a period of 10 years without any violations for discrimination against voters. Funny how the GOP apologists never mention this. They would have you believe it was just a one-off event over bilingual ballots in 1972. Hardly.

hanger

Anti-Choice ‘Onslaught’: GOP-Led State Legislatures Debate 300 Bills to Restrict Abortion Access (video)

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Signs940-sig-sm72by Pamela Powers Hannley

Words like “onslaught,” “unprecedented,” “extremist,” “dangerous,” “unconstitutional,” “medically unnecessary,” “unscientific,” and “draconian” have been used to describe the Republican Party’s nationwide push to limit women’s healthcare, stop women from choosing to have safe, legal abortions, and close abortion clinics through over-regulation. In the first six months of this year, states have passed 106 provisions related to reproductive health, including 43 that specifically restrict abortion access.

In recent weeks, high-profile, anti-choice legislation in Texas, Ohio, North Carolina,  Wisconsin, and North Dakota has made the news.  Thanks to a one-woman filibuster by Texas State Senator Wendy Davis and hundreds of pro-choice protesters watching in the Legislative chambers, Texas is the only Republican-controlled state government in that list that didn’t pass and sign into law anti-choice legislation this spring. (Of course, Texas Governor Rick Perry– vowing to end abortion in Texas altogether– has called for another special session of the Republican-dominated State Legislature to fix that, and Democrats have little hope they will be able to stop the legislation a second time.)

These Republican-led states join others like Arizona and Virginia who passed anti-choice legislation in recent years. Nationwide, 13 states now have highly restrictive laws limiting women’s reproductive healthcare and access to legal abortions, resulting in half of American women of reproductive age living in states that are outwardly hostile to their health. Nationwide, 300 anti-choice bills are being debated. In addition, US Senator Marco Rubio and Arizona Congressman Trent Franks have introduced anti-choice bills in the Senate and House of Representatives; a ban on abortions after 20 weeks has already passed the Republican-controlled House. More details about the extent of this battle after the jump.

Automatic (universal) voter registration – Oregon leads the way

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Stephen Hill at The Atlantic calls for states to enact automatic voter registration in the wake of Shelby County v. Holder. So the Voting Rights Act Is Gutted—What Can Protect Minority Voters Now?:

[The] Supreme Court ruling in Shelby County v. Holder effectively cripples the Voting Rights Act. It flies in the face of a mountain of evidence
of ongoing disenfranchisement — from voter-ID laws to intimidation and
long lines at the polls – and the fact that Republican legislators
continue to push laws designed to disenfranchise targeted communities.
The conservative majority's tortured logic relied on statistical
evidence of reduced inequities between whites and minorities in
voter-registration rates, but as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted in her dissent, voting discrimination has declined because
of the effectiveness of the Voting Rights Acts. Without these
protections to derail attempts to roll back the clock, new setbacks are
inevitable. But, as has been said before of the Roberts Court, "Five
votes beats a reason any day."
So the question is what the heck do those who care about equality and democracy do now?. . .

* * *

The most encouraging option for voting-rights advocates to pursue is automatic voter registration
(sometimes known as universal voter registration). Nearly a quarter of
eligible voters — at least 51 million Americans — are not registered,
according to a recent study from the Pew Center on the States.
The norm in established democracies around the world is to register all
citizens automatically when they reach the age of eligibility. There
are no forms to fill out or lines to stand in; eligible voters are
simply assigned a unique identifier, like a Social Security number, that
follows them for life. When the government takes responsibility for
achieving 100 percent registration, there are no partisan battles over
who is or is not registered, and registration status is removed from the
contested terrain of politics. Conservatives who are genuinely
concerned about reducing voter fraud should support universal
registration, since the Pew Center study found that it would resolve
approximately 24 million inaccurate registrations.

Project Vote: Permanent Portable Voter Registration

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Following the decision in Shelby County v. Holder, striking down the key enforcement provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Texas — historically among the worst offenders in voter suppression — did not even wait two hours before passing an onerous voter ID law and a new redistricting map (hoping to render a federal court challenge to an earlier redistricting map moot). Other Southern states, also under the Section 5 preclearance regimen, have been quick to follow the lead of Texas.

The speed with which these Southern states, with a long and sordid history of racial dsiscrimination and voter suppression, moved to enact new voter suppression laws demonstrated the intellectual dishonesty and utter ridiculousness of Chief Justice Roberts and the five conservative activist justices who argued that racism is not what it used to be and voter suppression is not so bad. Subtle racism may not be as shockingly offensive as overt racism, but it is still racism.

Voting rights are being reversed rather than expanded to more voters. It is undemocratic, and un-American. We should be expanding the franchise to more voters and making voting easier to allow for more people to participate in the civic ritual of voting.

To that end, Project Vote is releasing a new policy paper on Permanent Portable Registration, something which i have advocated for years. Press release (below the fold).