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

[Virginiá]

Isn't Curtis Hill being accused of sexual harassment and/or sexual assault by four different women including one member of the Indiana legislature?  I thought he'd already resigned.

He seems to be attempting to ride out the allegations, even with a special prosecutor investigating him.

[libertpaulian]

Isn't Curtis Hill being accused of sexual harassment and/or sexual assault by four different women including one member of the Indiana legislature?  I thought he'd already resigned.

He seems to be attempting to ride out the allegations, even with a special prosecutor investigating him.

These are the kind of things that Donnelly should be capitalizing on but instead he's largely ignoring.

[pbrower2a]

This couldn't be connected with any effort to reduce the ability of poor black people to vote in an election, could it?

Nice kitty, nice kitty... couldn't hurt a mouse!

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https://www.wjbf.com/news/georgia-news/georgia-county-to-close-7-of-9-voting-precincts-civil-rights-attorney-calls-it-voter-suppression-/1375679662

[SingingAnalyst]

This couldn't be connected with any effort to reduce the ability of poor black people to vote in an election, could it?

Nice kitty, nice kitty... couldn't hurt a mouse!

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https://www.wjbf.com/news/georgia-news/georgia-county-to-close-7-of-9-voting-precincts-civil-rights-attorney-calls-it-voter-suppression-/1375679662

Well, stating that the voting places are not ADA compliant sounds better than saying "to cut costs"-- so why not spend the bit of money it would take to make them ADA compliant?

The county is 59.47% Black, but I'll bet it's much lower than that if you only count adults 18+. Or adults 60-80, who have the highest voter turnout.

43.8% Trump is high for such a "Black" county.

I can only hope for a time when voting is encouraged, rather than discouraged; and voting is made easier, rather than harder.

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1030594569115783170

[GeorgiaModerate]

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[Antonio the Sixth]

This sounds like a slam dunk case. What other rationale could the SoS possibly have?

[Virginiá]

It's nice they brought this suit, but why so late? This has to do with voter registration, which means the timing is really pushing the envelope in terms of usefulness. They would need an injunction within the next week to get at least a month where students can register without these restrictions. Otherwise it might be the case that if they do get an injunction, maybe it happens just a week before the deadline or even worse, after, at which point it does nothing for 2018. Also, isn't the Purcell principle an issue here (no election regulation rulings too close to an election)?

Anyway, cool news I suppose, but it's just frustrating to see this every election cycle - lawsuits brought at the last minute over something they should have done half a year ago or more.

[Virginiá]

Seems like a lot of voter fraud over the past few years! :

https://twitter.com/HunterMw/status/1037803172994146304


....among Republicans

[GeorgiaModerate]

Judge orders Florida to provide Spanish-language ballots

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[GeorgiaModerate]

On that Florida ruling, this is terrific (the 2nd part below):

https://twitter.com/srl/status/1038109978182209539

[ON Progressive]

On that Florida ruling, this is terrific (the 2nd part below):

https://twitter.com/srl/status/1038109978182209539

LMAO. The citation is great too.

[Antonio the Sixth]

On that Florida ruling, this is terrific (the 2nd part below):

https://twitter.com/srl/status/1038109978182209539

AMAZING

[Virginiá]

Interestingly enough, a Koch affiliate is supporting Amendment 4 in Florida (felony disenfranchisement reform)

Koch-funded group supports voting rights for felons in Florida

http://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2018/09/13/koch-funded-group-supports-voting-rights-for-felons-in-florida/

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Also, wow @ them raising $14.3 million dollars so far for this! I'm feeling really good about their chances.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Huh, weird. Is it a PR stunt on their part ("see, we're totally not just a way to funnel dark money into GOP candidates!") or something more sinister? It sure ain't out of the goodness of their hearts.

[Badger]

Huh, weird. Is it a PR stunt on their part ("see, we're totally not just a way to funnel dark money into GOP candidates!") or something more sinister? It sure ain't out of the goodness of their hearts.

The Koch brothers in fact have a long history of being decidedly libertarian style conservatives. It's one of the reasons they broke at least somewhat with Trump earlier this year. Well they're certainly the type of libertarian who believes the freedom to choose to terminate a pregnancy or marry someone of the same gender shouldn't be protected federally, and then don't care one bit if at all if it's protected at the state level, they have been iirc supportive of prison reform and stopping mandatory minimum sentencing laws. I guess this is extends out of that.

It certainly wouldn't be political, as everyone Under the Sun fully understands these and other laws barring felons from voting not only originated in the post-slavery efforts to keep black subservient to whites, but have been actively used since the end of Jim Crow to suppress the black vote.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Voting rights aren't really a libertarian thing, though. They're about democracy rather than freedom, and if anything libertarians tend to be suspicious of democracy. And obviously someone who's serious about democracy wouldn't pour millions of dollars into manipulating their outcome. I'm not willing to give the Kochs the benefit of the doubt here, although obviously I'm still glad they're helping.

[Badger]

Voting rights aren't really a libertarian thing, though. They're about democracy rather than freedom, and if anything libertarians tend to be suspicious of democracy. And obviously someone who's serious about democracy wouldn't pour millions of dollars into manipulating their outcome. I'm not willing to give the Kochs the benefit of the doubt here, although obviously I'm still glad they're helping.

Sure. It's not so much about giving the Koch brothers the benefit of the doubt, is that their right-wing version of libertarianism is having a broken clock moment.

[Virginiá]

NPR/Marist Poll: 40 Percent Of Americans Think Elections Aren't Fair

https://www.npr.org/2018/09/17/647421039/npr-marist-poll-40-percent-of-americans-think-elections-arent-fair

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Gotta love that 2nd class democracy

[DavidB.]

In most U.S. states there are literally so many possibilities to vote before election day, from early voting to postal voting, that I find these complaints a little overblown. And no, standing in line for 15 minutes in order to vote or having to drive 15 minutes to your polling station isn't disenfranchisement.

[Virginiá]

Standing in line for 15 minutes doesn't appear to be the problem. It's that white areas have more polling places and more conveniently-placed polling places. Meanwhile, under Obama, particularly once the last southern legislatures were flipped to Republicans, hundreds of polling places were closed across the south. Not to mention that this happens just about everywhere where Republicans have power.

This isn't a new thing David. A federal judge just overturned a rule this year in Florida that prohibited polling places in universities after 2014, which never made any sense. Some universities have more people than some cities (>= 25k - 50k) yet didn't have a place to vote? Meanwhile, tiny little towns all over the state had their own places to vote. That was brazen partisanship and nothing else. Republicans were simply trying to make it harder for students to vote because they are a deeply Democratic group. And just because there is absentee ballots does not make it OK that partisan public officials get to enact whatever rules/guidance they want to win elections. That's patently absurd.

Or take Marion County in Indiana, which had one early voting site while its neighbor had like 4 - 6, and Marion County was significantly bigger - the biggest in the state even. It was also less white and significantly less Republican-leaning. A lawsuit ended up forcing Republicans to open more locations. And there is the recent + notorious case in Georgia, and on and on and on and on.

[muon2]

One cause of the disparity in polling places was section 5 of the VRA. Any changes to polling places that impacted covered minorities were subject to preclearance or judicial review just like redistricting. Many covered states chose to leave them unchanged, even as voting populations grew, rather than deal with the feds. Now that section 5 is inactive those disparities should be open to challenge under section 2, particularly after the precincts are redrawn due to the 2020 Census.

[ON Progressive]

NPR/Marist Poll: 40 Percent Of Americans Think Elections Aren't Fair

https://www.npr.org/2018/09/17/647421039/npr-marist-poll-40-percent-of-americans-think-elections-arent-fair

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Gotta love that 2nd class democracy

Those Latino wait times are shocking. 10% of Latinos are half an hour away from a polling station and 11% wait half an hour in line? That's with the fact that Latino turnout is awful.

I can't even imagine waiting in line more than 10 minutes to vote, quite frankly.

[muon2]

At a press conference this morning, a coalition of Democratic activists called out Dem Sec of State White for failing to comply with IL AVR. The current level of implementation means that the opt-out portions of AVR won't be ready for the Chicago and other municipal elections next Feb and Apr.

[Virginiá]

At a press conference this morning, a coalition of Democratic activists called out Dem Sec of State White for failing to comply with IL AVR. The current level of implementation means that the opt-out portions of AVR won't be ready for the Chicago and other municipal elections next Feb and Apr.

What a bum! I don't understand, is this just govt incompetence in setting up a new system, or did he not want to do it the way it was intended? Because those statements look like he didn't want to actually do AVR, as he seems to acknowledge that what is implemented right now is AVR to him.