voting rights

ACLU challenges Kansas proof-of-citizenship law for voter registration

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Last month I told you about how the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC) capitulated to the GOP’s voter suppression specialist, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, on requiring proof of citizenship for the federal voter registration form. EAC capitulates to Kansas on federal voter registration form. This action was taken by EAC executive director Brian Newby, who used to work for Kobach in Kansas, who acted unilaterally without the agreement of the three EAC commissioners.

The League of Women Voters and several voting rights groups, including the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, has sued the EAC over Newby’s action. Voting rights groups sue election official over voter registration.

The ACLU has now filed suit to challenge the Kansas law requiring proof of citizenship for the federal voter registration form. A.C.L.U. Challenges Kansas Voter Law Requiring Proof of Citizenship:

NoVoteIn a test of Kansas’ wide-ranging voter registration law, a federal lawsuit filed on Thursday challenged a provision that required residents to provide proof of citizenship when they register to vote.

The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, takes aim at a measure that was pushed through the Republican-led Legislature five years ago by Secretary of State Kris W. Kobach, who has lobbied heavily for measures that he said were needed to prevent noncitizens from voting.

[A.C.L.U. Press release.]

The A.C.L.U., saying that fraud claims were unfounded, brought the class-action suit on behalf of six Kansas residents who said they were left off the voter rolls after registering at the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles.

The plaintiffs argue that the Kansas law violated the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, in particular a provision that requires states to allow people to register to vote when they get a driver’s license. That section says that registrants need only to attest that they are citizens, under the threat of perjury if they lie.

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EAC capitulates to Kansas on federal voter registration form (Updated)

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Plaintiffs recently won in Kansas state court challenging Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the GOP’s voter suppression specialist, on his dual election system in which citizens who register using the federal voter registration form are only permitted to vote in federal elections because that form does not require the forms of proof of citizenship that Kansas does. Kansas’ dual election system ruled unlawful; Arizona’s dual election system?

NoVoteFormer Arizona Secretary of State Ken “Birther” Bennett followed Kobach’s voter suppression lead and imposed a similar dual election system in Arizona. Current Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan, the queen of voter suppression, has maintained this dual election system. A separate legal action has not been filed in Arizona, however, Arizona has been a co-party to earlier litigation in Kansas on this subject and is following the lead of Kris Kobach in Kansas.

Today, the Election Assistance Commission appears to have capitulated to Kris Kobach in Kansas (and the state of Georgia) in updating the “state-specific instructions” to the National Mail Voter Registration Form (Note that Arizona’s state-specific instructions have not been updated as of today’s date).

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Voter ID trial in North Carolina concludes today

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Closing arguments are set to begin this afternoon in the closely watched federal trial on North Carolina’s photo ID requirement. Closing arguments to begin in voter ID trial:

WillimaBarberJanet Thornton, a labor economist at Economic Research Services in Florida, was the last witness that state attorneys called. Plaintiffs, including the N.C. NAACP, rested their case Thursday.

The photo ID requirement was passed in 2013 as part of a sweeping elections law that state Republican legislators pushed soon after the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a key section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That section required mostly southern states and 40 counties in North Carolina to seek federal approval of major changes in elections laws.

Voting rights activists consider North Carolina’s election law, known as the Voter Information Verification Act, to be one of the most restrictive in the country. The photo ID requirement didn’t take effect until this year and was amended last year just weeks before a federal trial on other provisions of the law.

The N.C. NAACP, the U.S. Department of Justice and others filed a federal lawsuit in 2013, alleging that the elections law places undue burdens on blacks and Hispanics, is unconstitutional and violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

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Voter ID trial in North Carolina

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WillimaBarberThe voter I.D. trial in North Carolina got underway on Monday. This is Part II to the Voting Rights Act trial from last July, a decision in which is still pending and is likely to decided together with the voter I.D. trial.

On Tuesday, the Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP and leader of the Moral Mondays Movement testified at trial. State NAACP president takes stand in photo ID trial:

The Rev. William Barber, president of the N.C. NAACP, took the stand Tuesday on the second day of the federal trial on North Carolina’s photo ID requirement.

Barber reiterated the organization’s opposition to the photo ID requirement and, under cross-examination, defended the state NAACP’s efforts to educate people, not only about the photo ID requirement but also about options they have under the law if they don’t have a photo ID.

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The Latest GOP Voter Suppression Act

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The GOP has a cottage industry that gins up stories about “voter fraud” on a mass scale in elections — without any evidence to support it — promoted by partisan hacks like John Fund and Hans von Spakovsky, and wingnut conspiracy web sites like World Net Daily, Breitbart.com, and Info Wars. (Agent Fox Mulder in X Files is a piker compared to these conspiracy mongers). This B.S. is then mainstreamed by FAUX News and conservative hate talk radio.

Screenshot from 2016-01-26 06:42:51Actual “voter fraud” is very rare, voter impersonation is nearly non-existent, and much of the problems associated with alleged fraud in elections relates to unintentional mistakes by voters or election administrators. It is a myth, like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Leprechauns and Big Foot. Myth of Voter Fraud | Brennan Center for Justice. (h/t Dr. Pepper commercial, “I exist support group.”) Tea-Publicans are to voter fraud what agent Fox Mulder is to aliens from outer space: “I want to believe.”

So once again we are to be subjected to a solution in search of a non-existent problem because Tea-Publicans want to believe in myths that do not exist. Arizona bill seeks to outlaw early ballot collection:

Insisting there must be fraud taking place — there’s just gotta be! — a Republican-controlled House committee voted Monday to make it a felony to take someone else’s early ballot to a polling place.

The 4-2 party-line vote on House Bill 2023 came after a series of speakers, many with links to the Republican Party, said they have heard of situations where groups collect ballots and then choose to turn in only those where the vote is likely to go the way they want. They said that can be as simple as figuring out the political registration of the person whose ballot is being picked up to peering through less-than-opaque envelopes.

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