Illinois Voters’ Will Thwarted: State Supreme Court Enshrines Strict Limits on Ballot Initiatives, Hampering Efforts to Solve Illinois’ Biggest Problems
January 27, 2020
In August of 2016, more than 563,000 Illinois voters signed a petition for a ballot initiative that many hoped would end partisan gerrymandering in the Land of Lincoln. The Illinois State Supreme Court quickly dashed those hopes when it struck down the ballot initiative as unconstitutional. The ruling affirms the Illinois constitution’s, exceptionally limited scope of potential ballot initiatives. This ruling has implications far beyond gerrymandering: this decision limits the potential for future ballot initiatives in Illinois, and thus the resolution of many of the state’s thorniest issues..
Georgia’s Voter Registration Surge: The Investigations and Lawsuits Behind the Numbers
January 22, 2020
By: Amber Stapleton
Ahead of the 2020 presidential election, with Georgia expected to be a key political battleground, the state has seen a record number of citizens registered to vote. In the last 11 months alone, more that 352,000 Georgia citizens have been registered to vote and the influx has boosted the state’s voter rolls to the record high of nearly 7.4 million. According to one Atlanta Journal-Constitution article which cited the publications own analysis of registered voters from November 6, 2018 to August 12, 2019, “[a]bout 47% of the new voters who identified their race are minorities and 45% are age 30 or younger.”
Election Woes in Alabama
January 20, 2020
By: Christopher Shepard
The Alabama Democratic Party has featured much dissension in the past year. Results of an election in August 2018 (in which Nancy Worley and Randy Kelley retained their seats as chair and vice chair, respectively) were challenged for failure of the party to comply with orders from the Democratic National Committee. Eventual bylaws were passed and rejected by the DNC. As a result, the DNC took credentials from Worley and Kelley and began withholding payments to the Alabama Democratic Party, marking the first time the DNC has withheld payments from a state party.
Darkness Falls Over New Jersey Dark-Money Bill
January 8, 2020
By: Beth Pindilli
In June of this year, Governor Murphy of New Jersey signed Senate Bill 150 into law, which requires dark-money groups to report who is bankrolling them. Governor Murphy was hesitant to sign this bill but did so after threats for the legislature to override his conditional veto. He asserted that he only agreed to pass this bill under the impression that the legislature would eliminate many of the problematic provisions.
Open Season on Ballot Harvesting in Arizona? 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Considers a Reversal
January 6, 2020
By: Kristin Palmason
A controversial piece of election legislation (HB 2023) enacted in Arizona in 2016 made ballot collecting a class 6 felony. Ballot collection, known as “ballot harvesting” is the practice of collecting completed ballots from voters and hand delivering them to be counted. Proponents of the practice say it is a valuable service that benefits voters in need of assistance to ensure that their vote is counted, while critics decry the practice as ripe for fraud. This issue is particularly salient in Arizona, where approximately 80% of voters receive their ballot in the mail (which can then be returned via mail or delivered to the county by hand).
Out of State; Out of Luck?
January 1, 2020
By: David Maley
Democrats in New Hampshire are fearful of the ramifications of newly implemented House Bill 1264. The bill went into effect July 1, 2019 and has stoked the ire of Democrats over the removal of four simple words (“for the indefinite future”) from the definition of resident. In essence, Democrats are perturbed by the textual edit as it alters the meaning of residence which could, in turn, have dramatic implications for out-of-state college students who would like to participate in New Hampshire elections.
Seventeen-Year-Old Voters in California
December 30, 2019
By: Maria Callahan
On January 18, 2019, California Assembly Speaker pro tempore Kevin Mullin introduced ACA 4. The bill is a resolution to propose an amendment to the Constitution of California that would authorize 17-year-olds to vote in primaries or special elections if they will be 18-years-old at the time of the general election, given they are a United States citizen and a resident of the state. Mullin, a Democrat from San Mateo County, told the New York Times that he has proposed amending the Constitution similarly twice before.
Yacht-Owners, The Kingdom Of Hawaii, And a Bill That Means Very Little
December 23, 2019
By: Jack Notar
Several months ago, I was hit by a sudden urge to move to Hawaii. I’d never been before, but I’d seen pictures, and my college roommate had just gotten back from a vacation there. She’d spent a month aboard a fashion mogul’s yacht, docked off the port of Honolulu, kayaking during the day, and drinking rum at night. Yacht-owners, from what I’ve been told, are almost never on the high seas. They have companies to run, politics to control, and mistresses to impress. At most, they spend a month out of the year actually using their vessels and let them sit idle the rest of the time. During this eleven-month period, yacht-owners hire out skeleton crews to keep their boats up and running. These skeleton crews are left to their own devices, so long as they’re ready at a moment’s notice to pick up the owner and his 20-40 closest friends. My roommate joined a skeleton crew and went on to have “the best month of her life.”
158,000 Ohio Voters Purged Part II: An Open Source Process
December 18, 2019
By: Sadie Peloquin
Following the decision in Husted v. Philip Randolph Institute, which upheld the Ohio’s supplemental removal process, Ohio purged 158,000 voters from its role due to inactivity and inaccurate registrations. However, that number could have been much higher. Secretary of State Frank LaRose originally complied a list of 235,000 voters who were eligible to be purged on September 6th. Due to the implementation of certain exemptions and a uniquely transparent and collaborative removal process, 20% of the names on the original list were saved from the purge. Since the purge, LaRose has continued to advance further measures to improve the Ohio voter registration system, while still dealing with problems arising from this most recent removal.
158,000 Ohio Voters Purged Part I: Junk Mail Matters
December 16, 2019
By: Sadie Peloquin
On September 6th of this year, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose oversaw the removal of roughly 158,000 registrations from the state’s voter roll. This purge resulted from a controversial 5-4 Supreme Court decision in Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute, handed down in June 2018, which upheld an Ohio voter-purge law that allowed the removal of inactive voters who failed to update their registrations if they moved. Though LaRose implemented a series of removal exemptions over the past year, many voting rights activists are concerned that the purge still resulted in the mistaken removal of active voters. This blog post will cover the 2018 Supreme Court case and will be followed by another that looks at how the voter purge itself was carried out over the last year.