Courts & Law

Maricopa County Superior Court orders ‘Top Two Primary’ back onto ballot

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports, Court says “Top Two” should be on November ballot:

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled today that an initiative
to overhaul the state’s primary system has enough valid signatures to
go on the November ballot.

Judge John Rea found that 577 signatures earlier disqualified by the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office were actually valid.

The “Top Two’’ initiative had been disqualified by the Secretary of State’s Office because of a lack of valid signatures.

Proponents of the measure, known officially as the “Open
Elections/Open Government Act,” tracked down many of the people who had
signed the petitions and demonstrated that their signatures were
legitimate.

That changed the invalidity rate in a sample that had been used to
reject the initiative. As a result, Rea concluded that the initiative
actually exceeded the number of required valid signatures to put the
initiative on the ballot by more than 6,000.

* * *

Rea also ordered election officials to include the initiative in the
publicity pamphlet for the November ballot, which describes proposals to
be decided in the general election.

He said advocates for the “Open Elections/Open Government Act”
persuasively demonstrated that the 577 signatures disqualified by the
Maricopa County Recorder were valid.

* * *

In his ruling, Rea noted that some signatures were disqualified
because of an invalid date: They did not contain month, date and year.

“However, the statute directs the recorder to disqualify a signature
if ‘no date of signing is provided’,” Rea said. “From context and other
clues, the Plaintiffs showed persuasively that the disqualified
signatures were made on the appropriate dates.”

GOP War on Voting: Judge blocks Ohio’s ‘wrong-precinct’ law

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Earlier this week, a U.S. District Court judge issued an injunction against Ohio’s "wrong precinct" law, which could cause a voter’s ballot not to be counted. Judge Issues Injunction Against Ohio’s ‘Wrong Precinct’ Election Law – The Daily Beast:

Until this Monday, in Ohio, if among the chaos of voting at peak hours in major elections, you were mistakenly directed to the wrong precinct at table 4 instead of your precinct at table 5 by a confused election worker, your vote could become a provisional ballot. That would mean it would likely be discounted because you voted in the wrong precinct without knowing you were doing so.

On Monday, a federal judge issued an injunction against the perennial swing state’s so-called wrong-precinct law (known to some as the “right church, wrong pew” rule), which stipulates that provisional votes cast in the wrong precincts can be discounted. According to the Advancement Project, a civil-rights group that filed the original suit against the state, 14,000 voters in Ohio had their ballots rejected in the 2008 election cycle due to the wrong-precinct rule.

* * *

Rick Hasen, a professor of election law at UC Irvine and the author of The Voting Wars, called Monday’s decision “the most important ruling on voting rights we’ve had this election cycle.”

U.S District Judge Algenon L. Marbley, who halted the law, wrote in his decision that “recent experience proves that our elections are decided, all too often, by improbably slim margins—not just in local races…but even for the highest national offices. Any potential threat to the integrity of the franchise, no matter how small, must therefore be treated with utmost seriousness.”

GOP War on Voting: Judge blocks Florida voter suppression law

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

A federal judge said on Wednesday that he planned to block provisions of the Florida voter suppression law of Governor Lex Luthor Rick Scott that made it harder for organizations to register voters in the state. Judge to Block Changes in Florida Voter Registration – NYTimes.com:

Rick_Scott1The measure, part of a broad and contentious 2011 election law in Florida, had a serious impact on third-party voter groups, like the League of Women Voters and Rock the Vote, which filed the suit along with the Florida Public Interest Research Group Education Fund. The groups asserted that the new requirements were onerous and made volunteers vulnerable to fines and even felony charges.

Voter registration, particularly among Democratic voters, declined significantly in the past year. The Florida Times-Union reported this week that the number of registered Democrats had increased by only 11,365 from July 1, 2011, to Aug. 1, 2012, a sharply lower figure than in the same periods during the past two presidential races. In 2004, nearly 159,000 new Democrats were registered in that period. In 2008, the number was nearly 260,000.

The 2011 Florida election law required groups that registered voters to turn in their completed forms within 48 hours or risk penalties. As a result, several organizations, including the League of Women Voters and Rock the Vote, stopped working in the state. Previously, groups had 10 days to submit the forms.

Deirdre Macnab, the president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, which suspended its operations for a year, said she was delighted with the ruling.

“It sets an important precedent in Florida and nationally that gives a strong level of protection for third-party registration groups,” Ms. Macnab said. “We have been a historical part of America in reaching out to underserved communities.”

But, she added, the all-volunteer voter registration groups now face an arduous task. The registration deadline for the November election is five weeks away.

D.C. Circuit Court rules unanimously that Texas Voter ID law intentionally discriminates against minority voters

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie: In the second major victory this week for the Obama administration's Justice Department, voting rights advocates, and for the rule of law, a panel of the D.C. Circuit Court ruled unanimously today that the Texas Voter ID law intentionally discriminates against minority voters. Federal court rejects Texas voter ID law as unfair … Read more