voting rights

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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Voter ID trial opens in North Carolina

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WillimaBarberA two-week trial of North Carolina’s election law — one of the most sweeping changes in voting practices in the country since the U.S. Supreme Court dealt what critics consider a blow to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — came to a close at the end of July last year, and a decision on whether the law discriminates against racial minorities was left to U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder. Closing arguments in North Carolina Voting Rights Act trial.

Most court observers believed that Judge Schroeder would issue a ruling before the end of the year, which did not happen.

A separate voter ID trial is scheduled to begin today. NC voter ID trial set for Jan. 25:

On the eve of [the Voting Rights Act] trial, the legislature amended the voter ID portion of the overhaul to allow voters to cast provisional ballots without one of six specified photo identification cards. Because the change came so close to the start of the summer trial, the judge told the parties he would wait to hear arguments on that portion of the case.

It now appears that the Court may join these two cases into one opinion. North Carolina’s primary election is in March 15, so time is of the essence.NC voter ID trial opens in Winston-Salem:

The trial over North Carolina’s voter ID law is set to begin Monday in front of U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder, a federal judge who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush in 2008.

The legal battle is one of several being watched across the nation as courts address questions of the fairness and lasting impacts ID laws have on voting rights.

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Kansas’ dual election system ruled unlawful; whither Arizona’s dual election system?

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NoVoteIn September of Last year I posted an update on the status of Belenky v. Kobach (2013-CV-001331), the lawsuit in Kansas state court challenging the “dual election system” imposed by Secretary of State Kris Kobach after he lost his legal challenge to the federal voter registration form. Arizona Secretary of State Ken “Birther” Bennett imposed the same “dual election system” here in Arizona, which has been continued by Arizona’s queen of voter suppression, Secretary of State Michele Reagan. Update on ‘dual election system’ lawsuit in Kansas.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas filed a motion for summary judgment in state court to end the two-tiered voter registration system that Secretary of State Kris Kobach created.

The Kansas state court recently ruled on that motion, granting the ACLU’s motion for summary judgment. Rick Hasen at Election Law Blog reported In Loss to Kobach, Kansas Court Strikes Down Two-Tier Voter Registration in Kansas:

A state court in Kansas today issued a 30 page opinion granting summary judgment to two Kansas voters who registered to vote in Kansas using a federal form but who had been denied the right to vote in state elections by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

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