Weekly Wrap Up
April 16, 2010
Every week, State of Elections brings you the latest news in state election law.
– Gerry Hebert, one of the panelists at our recent election law symposium, wrote this article about a recent legislative effort to undermine Fair Districts Florida. Fair Districts Florida is an organization dedicated to fixing the redistricting process and the prevention of gerrymandering.
– In Virginia, there is growing confusion about the restoration of felon voting rights. Earlier this week, the governor’s office sent letters to 200 ex-felons, telling them that they would need to submit an essay as part of the application process for the restoration of their voting rights. On the 14th, Governor McDonnell claimed that the letters had been sent in error, and that the essay requirement was simply a “draft policy proposal“. Of course, this is only the third most controversial retraction the Governor has issued in the last month.
– A bill that would require voters to show photo identification before casting a ballot has received first round approval from the Missouri House. A previous photo ID law in Missouri was struck down by the Missouri Supreme Court for being a “heavy and substantial burden on Missourians’ free exercise of the right of suffrage.”
– In Cleveland, an elections board test of voting machines has produced alarming results. About 10% of voting machines failed the test, and the state has less than a month.
– Maryland has become the first state to count prison inmates as residents of their home address, instead of counting them as residents of their prison location. The U.S. Census considers inmates to be residents of their prison, a practice that has been criticized as distorting the population count and leading to unfairness during the redistricting process.
Solving the Epidemic of Disappearing Poll Workers – Part 1: Young People
April 14, 2010
There is a disease spreading throughout our nation’s polling locations. The graying of America is seen most potently behind the polls. Poll workers in America have an average age in the 70s, significantly older than the average age of AARP members (64). The current elderly class of civic-minded individuals who have fulfilled their civic duty responsibly for decades have been leaving out of confusion with new technology and the effects of their old age. As this void continues to grow, more and more options will need to be considered by state and local legislatures in order to ensure that elections go smoothly. This is the first post in a series about what could be done to help solve the problem of disappearing poll workers.
Young people are the future leaders of this country, but some local election laws could be more conductive to this passing of the torch as poll workers. States could learn from one another in this respect. Massachusetts passed a law in 2008 which allowed poll workers as young as 16. 29 other states allow poll workers to be under the age of 18. Arizona allows 16 and 17 year old high-school students to miss the day of school to be a poll worker (with parental permission), and even pays them for their service. There may be some concerns about the ability of minors to act as competent poll workers, but the minors are usually well supervised. The immediate reaction to this legislation in most states has been positive, including in Minnesota, where Secretary of State Mark Ritchie remarked the 16 and 17 year old poll workers “have been a burst of energy” and “a big success.” (more…)
Weekly Wrap Up
April 9, 2010
Every week, State of Elections brings you the latest news in state election law.
– A recently filed lawsuit in North Carolina seeks to challenge Section 5 of the Voter Rights Act. Section 5 requires that certain states and municipalities “preclear” changes to their voting laws with the Attorney General. Essentially, the Attorney General has a veto over any changes to voting laws in certain states, but not in others. This North Carolina lawsuit (LaRoque v. Holder) claims that Section 5 exceeds Congress’s authority under the Fifth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution.
– The iPad has already made its mark on the election law community. Project Vote, a voter registration and engagement organization, is teaming with Echo Interaction Group to develop a new voter registration application for the iPad. The application would allow users to instantly and accurately record, collect, and upload voter data to a secure server. Only four states currently allow online voter registration, but the organization is optimistic that more states will follow suit.
– California State Senator Leland Yee has introduced a bill that would permit same day registration in that state.
– The Ohio House of Representatives has unanimously passed a bill that will allow overseas military forces to request absentee ballots electronically, instead of requiring the request be sent through regular mail.
William & Mary Election Law Symposium 2010 Video
April 7, 2010
As promised, here’s a video of William & Mary’s Election Law Symposium.
“Back to the Drawing Board: The 2010 Census and the Politics of Redistricting”
From left to right, the panelists are John Hardin Young, Gerald Hebert, Jessica Amunson, and Trevor Potter. For brief biographies of the panelists, see this post.
9th Circuit Panel Strikes Down Washington Disenfranchisement Law
April 5, 2010
The unending battle over felon disenfranchisement in Washington state has taken an interesting turn, as a three-judge 9th Circuit panel ruled 2-1 that Washington’s denial of voting rights to incarcerated felons is a violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
This decision is directly counter to one issued just six months ago by a panel of 1st Circuit judges reviewing a case out of Massachusetts, Simmons v. Galvin, where that panel held 2-1 that Section 2 simply doesn’t apply to felon disenfranchisement. The glaring circuit split on this question makes this case a very strong candidate for en banc review at the 9th, and possibly ripe for a Supreme Court grant of certiorari thereafter (which would likely also address the very issue of whether the VRA applies to felon disenfranchisement at all, a question still very much unsettled).
The Washington case, originally filed in the mid-90s and now known as Farrakhan v. Gregoire, was brought by a convicted felon sentenced to a five-year term who objected to being denied the opportunity to vote in elections during his incarceration. The plaintiffs’ argument is based on the idea that the criminal justice system in Washington is itself racially biased in that “minorities are disproportionately prosecuted and sentenced,” and as such a deprivation of voting rights based on that allegedly biased system would violate the VRA. In 2003, during an earlier round of appeals, another three-judge panel held unanimously that the racial biases of a criminal justice system could be considered in a “totality of the circumstances” analysis of voting conditions. (Farrakhan v. Washington, 338 F.3d 1009, 1016, 9th Cir. 2003). On remand, the district judge did not consider the evidence to be sufficient to demonstrate a denial of the right to vote based on race, and Farrakhan appealed again. (more…)
Weekly Wrap Up
April 2, 2010
Every week, State of Elections brings you the latest news in state election law.
– A number of states are passing new legislation in an attempt to curb the influence of special interests on judicial elections.
– Wisconsin state Representative Jeff Stone is pushing for voter ID legislation in that state. The legislature had previously approved a bill that required photo ID at the polls, but the bill was vetoed by the Governor.
– The Maryland legislature is currently debating a bill that would allow 16 year olds to register to vote.
– In California, two candidates for state attorney general are preparing for a court battle over what titles they can attach to their names on the ballot. Titles and nicknames seem to be a particularly contentious issue lately. Check out this article from last week about Conrad “Colonel” Reynolds and “Porky” Kimbrell, and their efforts to put their nicknames on the ballot. Spoiler alert: Colonel = flagrant violation of election law, Porky = perfectly legal.
– Here’s an interesting post about the 2010 census and redistricting from the Balkinization blog.
Redistricting and Judicial Elections in Pennsylvania
March 31, 2010
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| Justice Joan Orie Melvin of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
With the census in full swing, Pennsylvania again looks forward to the decennial redistricting process, the back room dealing and eventual round of lawsuits. Under Pennsylvania Constitution Article II § 17, Democrats and Republicans in the State legislature each select two members of the five member Legislative Reapportionment Commission (LRC) which will conduct the redistricting. A fifth member who serves as Chairman of the Commission is selected by majority vote of the Commission or, in case of tie, by vote of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Pennsylvania elects its Supreme Court and the issue of redistricting was a key party rallying point in elections last year. Justice Joan Orie Melvin prevailed in that election, giving Republicans a 4-3 majority on the Court. The race was the most expensive judicial election in the nation last year with over $5 million spent. The outcome will likely mean a second consecutive round of redistricting led by Republicans who controlled the 2000 process as well. Prior to the election Orie Melvin promised to put the good of the people first. “I am not a Republican judge; I am a judge of all the people. I have always followed the constitution – and will do so in redistricting.” (more…)
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the People’s Veto
March 29, 2010
Like many other states, Maine allows for citizen initiatives, the process by which individual citizens and nongovernmental organizations directly propose legislation. Also like many other states, Maine’s initiative process attracts more than its fair share of bizarre characters and proposals, including this referendum to end the fluoridation of Maine’s drinking water. Considering the most famous attempt to end the fluoridation of drinking water ended in a nuclear war, I suppose that the initiative process is a vast improvement.
However, the occasional strange referendum isn’t the only thing that makes Maine’s initiative process interesting. In addition to allowing conventional initiatives, Maine also gives its citizens a “People’s Veto”, through which the voters can veto laws passed by the state legislature. The right to a People’s Veto is enshrined in Article IV, Section 17 of Maine’s Constitution, which also outlines the process by which a veto can appear on the ballot. (more…)
Weekly Wrap Up
March 26, 2010
Every week, State of Elections brings you the latest news in state election law.
– ACORN, the controversial voter registration and activist group, is disbanding because of declining revenue.
– In the Arkansas Senate race, there’s some controversy over an obscure state law that prevents the use of professional or honorary titles on ballots. One Republican Senate candidate had hoped to put the title “Colonel” in front of his name on the ballot, but was refused by election officials. Nicknames, however, are perfectly legal. Just ask Harold Kimbrell, who will appear on the ballot as “Porky” Kimbrell.
– During last week’s election law Symposium at William & Mary, the panelists mentioned that census data can be skewed when large numbers of incarcerated felons are counted as “residents” of the state they are incarcerated in. Here a few editorials discussing that practice.
– More news on the California Redistricting Commission. Even though over 25,000 people filed the initial application to be on the Commission, less than 1,200 have completed the second step of the application process. For more general information on the Commission, see this post.
– Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has signed a law that should make absentee voting easier in that state. The law will require election officials to send a replacement ballot, or notify the voter that he should cast a new ballot, if an absentee voter’s ballot is rejected.
– After much debate, the Florida Senate has passed an electioneering bill. An alternate version of the bill was ruled unconstitutional for requiring all organizations to register with the state and comply with financial reporting requirements if they even mentioned a candidate or political issue. The new version of the bill would still require certain organizations to register, but not those that focused only on issues.
Citizens United Against the Supreme Court
March 24, 2010
The recent Citizens United ruling by the US Supreme Court, which holds that First Amendment protections apply not just to individual speakers but also to corporations, is only the latest in a decades-long series of decisions by the Court that have expanded the scope of the First Amendment into realms never imagined by our Founding Fathers.
Beginning with Buckley v. Valeo in 1976, the Justices have embraced the concept that money is equal to speech, and that therefore any limitation on campaign spending violates the First Amendment. This week’s ruling simply expands this protection to cover corporations, which are by definition aggregators of money. So now corporate money will completely overwhelm individual money in the arena of political speech, and Madison’s conception of our government as a forum for the broadest possible public deliberation of issues will be rendered legally moot. (more…)