Voting rights bills and lawsuits megathread (Updated: April 27th 2020)

[KingSweden]

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Nice!

[junior chįmp]

Bill aims to register all eligible New Mexico voters

[Virginiá]

Bill aims to register all eligible New Mexico voters

Unfortunately there is a Democrat (Debbie Rodella) who is siding with Republicans in not even letting bills that expand voter access out of committee. She and another Democrat helped table an automatic registration bill early last year. I'm not really sure her rationale is genuine, either. She doesn't even want to let people register on election day, which makes no sense unless your goal is to restrict the size and composition of the electorate. Registration deadlines are an archaic rule that serves no purpose in a world full of advanced technology.

We'll see it how goes this time. Personally, I think constitutional amendments give legislators less of a leg to stand on when they purport to be speaking for the people. If the people really don't want the government registering people to vote automatically, they will vote it down in November. If her excuses are bs, then she'll opt to not even give New Mexico that chance.

Also it's worth noting that she has a high-profile primary challenger due to her anti-reform position.

Edit: It just dawned on me that this kind of thing may be handled from a different committee, so Rodella might not even be in a position to block it.

[Virginiá]

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Massachusetts' top election official offers Legislature a plan for same-day voter registration
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https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/01/25/top-election-official-mass-proposes-allowing-same-day-voter-registration/QJhitv3dsXh5gO3Oa7XJFJ/story.html

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About time. It's just a shame it took a judge ruling the current registration deadline unconstitutional and then a primary challenge for him to actually do this.

[junior chįmp]

GOP bill to allow excuse free absentee voting in Indiana clears State Senate:

Lawmakers look to open absentee voting to all

[KingSweden]

GOP bill to allow excuse free absentee voting in Indiana clears State Senate:

Lawmakers look to open absentee voting to all

Surprising but nice development

[junior chįmp]

WA GOP demise imminent

WA State Senate passes voting rights bill

[muon2]

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Massachusetts' top election official offers Legislature a plan for same-day voter registration
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https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/01/25/top-election-official-mass-proposes-allowing-same-day-voter-registration/QJhitv3dsXh5gO3Oa7XJFJ/story.html

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About time. It's just a shame it took a judge ruling the current registration deadline unconstitutional and then a primary challenge for him to actually do this.

IL did find that election day registration did put a strain on some local election jurisdictions, especially when an unexpected turnout appeared such as for Trump in rural counties in the 2016 primary. Analysis showed that the best way to alleviate that strain is to use automatic voter registration since it takes care of the bureaucratic portion of registration at a time when the local officials are not tied up trying to run the election proper.

[junior chįmp]

Supreme Court signals it might block Pennsylvania ruling against partisan gerrymandering

[junior chįmp]

Well cotdamn:

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[Virginiá]

Does anyone (particularly people who follow NJ politics) know when Murphy/legislature intend to bring up election reform bills? (eg Democracy Act). I haven't been able to see any movement on this and I didn't see much at all scheduled on the legislative calendar.

I really hope they aren't going to drag their feet on this until Summer-ish. If they pass something now, they would have some time to implement parts of the reforms for 2018, such as in-person early voting and possibly a shorter registration deadline.

Well cotdamn:

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whyyyyyyyyyy FFS

At least it would take 60% to pass. I will bust my ass canvassing against this if they actually put it on the ballot. Top-two sucks bigly.

[junior chįmp]

Does anyone (particularly people who follow NJ politics) know when Murphy/legislature intend to bring up election reform bills? (eg Democracy Act). I haven't been able to see any movement on this and I didn't see much at all scheduled on the legislative calendar.

I really hope they aren't going to drag their feet on this until Summer-ish. If they pass something now, they would have some time to implement parts of the reforms for 2018, such as in-person early voting and possibly a shorter registration deadline.

It's still stick in committee as bill A488. It was introduced January 9th and Murphy was just sworn in a week ago. Probably will be sent out sometime in February.

Bill:

http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2018/Bills/A0500/488_I1.HTM

[OSR stands with Israel]

Does anyone (particularly people who follow NJ politics) know when Murphy/legislature intend to bring up election reform bills? (eg Democracy Act). I haven't been able to see any movement on this and I didn't see much at all scheduled on the legislative calendar.

I really hope they aren't going to drag their feet on this until Summer-ish. If they pass something now, they would have some time to implement parts of the reforms for 2018, such as in-person early voting and possibly a shorter registration deadline.

Well cotdamn:

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whyyyyyyyyyy FFS

At least it would take 60% to pass. I will bust my ass canvassing against this if they actually put it on the ballot. Top-two sucks bigly.

why dont they just do runoffs instead

[Virginiá]

I did some more digging and I saw this:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/political-pulse/os-florida-open-primary-20180126-story.html

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I don't really understand why the solution to the growth of unaffiliated voters is a top-two system. The ideal change is to keep a closed primary but allow voters who are registered as unaffiliated to vote in either party's primary. It's really as simple as that, imo.

Anyway, it isn't guaranteed that this amendment even makes it to the voters in November. I'm not sure how the 20-year constitutional revision process works but I imagine it has more hurdles to go through, and even then, it requires 60% from the voters to pass. However I'd like to think that a lesson from California both parties can draw is that they could find themselves locked out of entirely winnable contests for no reason other than that too many decent candidates ran on one side.

why dont they just do runoffs instead

[junior chįmp]

GOP rage imminent

Judge Strikes Down Felon Disenfranchisement System in Florida

[KingSweden]

GOP rage imminent

Judge Strikes Down Felon Disenfranchisement System in Florida

Essentially using Citizens United as the basis for the ruling, at that

[Gass3268]

United States Supreme Court told the PA GOP to F Off!

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[Sestak]

United States Supreme Court told the PA GOP to F Off!

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YES!

Now we just need to hope Wolf doesn't fold.

[Illiniwek]

United States Supreme Court told the PA GOP to F Off!

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YES!

Now we just need to hope Wolf doesn't fold.

PRAISE JEBUS!

[Virginiá]

Compromise reached on Congressional redistricting reform in Ohio:

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/02/ohios_proposed_gerrymanding_fi.html

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It has some rules on compactness and county splits, and I think it does say the map can't favor political parties or incumbents, and it allows a Governor to veto it and citizens to file a veto referendum, so all in all it's better than nothing, but it wouldn't entirely stop Republicans from passing a bad map. It would just mean that without any votes from Democrats, it would only be in place for 4 years, which would give Democrats another shot to get a better map. On the other hand, it seems like Republicans would also have another shot to shore up their districts mid-decade, so I guess it depends on how you want to look at it.

Either way, better than nothing. Democrats should still invest heavily in taking back the Governor's mansion and the SoS office as well.

[Torie]

Compromise reached on Congressional redistricting reform in Ohio:

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/02/ohios_proposed_gerrymanding_fi.html

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It has some rules on compactness and county splits, and I think it does say the map can't favor political parties or incumbents, and it allows a Governor to veto it and citizens to file a veto referendum, so all in all it's better than nothing, but it wouldn't entirely stop Republicans from passing a bad map. It would just mean that without any votes from Democrats, it would only be in place for 4 years, which would give Democrats another shot to get a better map. On the other hand, it seems like Republicans would also have another shot to shore up their districts mid-decade, so I guess it depends on how you want to look at it.

Either way, better than nothing. Democrats should still invest heavily in taking back the Governor's mansion and the SoS office as well.

That is the most convoluted protocol ever designed by man.

[KingSweden]

Compromise reached on Congressional redistricting reform in Ohio:

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/02/ohios_proposed_gerrymanding_fi.html

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It has some rules on compactness and county splits, and I think it does say the map can't favor political parties or incumbents, and it allows a Governor to veto it and citizens to file a veto referendum, so all in all it's better than nothing, but it wouldn't entirely stop Republicans from passing a bad map. It would just mean that without any votes from Democrats, it would only be in place for 4 years, which would give Democrats another shot to get a better map. On the other hand, it seems like Republicans would also have another shot to shore up their districts mid-decade, so I guess it depends on how you want to look at it.

Either way, better than nothing. Democrats should still invest heavily in taking back the Governor's mansion and the SoS office as well.

That is the most convoluted protocol ever designed by man.

[Virginiá]

That is the most convoluted protocol ever designed by man.

Yes lol. I think that was kind of the point - to make it look like it would be effective, when in reality the redistricting process would inevitably break down and be forced to the last 2 stages, but probably the last stage - majority vote / 4 year option.

It goes to show how unwilling partisan lawmakers are to entrust map drawing to independent committees (Arizona's case doesn't help either), which is kind of ironic, because Republicans frequently cry foul and say "Democrats just want courts to save them because they can't win elections," yet with statements like this that marginalize the importance of maps so much, they seem so hell bent on maintaining full control of the process.

If the district maps aren't important as Republicans contend, why are they so obsessed with being the ones to draw them?

[krazen1211]

God is Great! 7-2!

Link

Supreme Court blocks re-drawing of congressional district maps in North Carolina

Wonderful news, folks! The thieves don't get to steal the election! Someone is a bit cranky.

Link

#SCOTUS won't add the North Carolina partisan gerrymandering case to the argument calendar. Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor note dissent. #AppellateTwitter

[krazen1211]

The Ohio Congressional districts are very fair and were passed with support from both parties in the legislature.

Link

Link


The House voted 77-17 on the new map as enough Democrats joined majority Republicans to push the measure over the 66-vote supermajority needed to have it take effect immediately without the threat of a voter referendum.

The Senate was waiting in the wings Wednesday night to vote 27-6 to send the measure on to Gov. John Kasich’s desk, again with a supermajority vote.