Gerrymandering and other voting rights issues (2)

State Supreme Court tosses notary requirement for absentee ballots
Barbara Hoberock 5/5/2020

...The League of Women Voters of Oklahoma and two individuals challenged the requirement (that absentee ballots be notarized), saying a 2002 change in state law only required voters to submit a signed affidavit under the penalty of perjury.

...The League of Women Voters was concerned the notary requirement would hurt voter turnout during the upcoming elections due to the COVID-19 pandemic and prevent some from casting ballots...also argued that the law change no longer required absentee voters to have a notary’s signature on the paperwork.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court directed State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax to recognize the affidavits. “Respondent is barred from issuing ballot forms, instructions, and material suggesting notarization and/or a notarized affidavit form is the only means through which the requisite affidavit for absentee voting may be accomplished,” the order said.

..The lawsuit was filed after a coalition of Oklahoma health care and civil rights advocacy organizations sent Ziriax a letter asking him to amend ballot instructions to make clear that voters could self-notarize their ballot under penalty of perjury.

State Question 802 is on the June 30 primary ballot. It asks voters to approve a constitutional amendment to expand Medicaid...

https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/state-supreme-court-tosses-notary-requirem...

Whoa!

Georgia Republicans cancel election for state Supreme Court, meaning governor can appoint a Republican
Republicans will control a seat on the state Supreme Court for an extra two years.
Ian Millhiser | May 19, 2020

The state of Georgia was supposed to hold an election Tuesday to fill a seat on the state Supreme Court. Justice Keith Blackwell, a Republican whose six-year term expires on the last day of this year, did not plan to run for reelection. The election, between former Democratic Rep. John Barrow and former Republican state lawmaker Beth Beskin, would determine who would fill Blackwell’s seat.

But then something weird happened: Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and the state’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, canceled Tuesday’s election. Instead, Kemp will appoint Blackwell’s successor, and that successor will serve for at least two years — ensuring the seat will remain in Republican hands.

On May 14, the state Supreme Court handed down a decision that effectively blessed this scheme to keep Blackwell’s seat in the GOP’s hands. The court’s decision in Barrow v. Raffensperger is unusual in many regards — among other things, six of the state’s regular Supreme Court justices recused from the case, and they were replaced by five lower court judges who sat temporarily on the state’s highest court. The court’s decision in Barrow turns upon poorly drafted language in the state constitution, which does suggest that Blackwell, Kemp, and Raffensperger’s scheme was legal.

...The upshot of Barrow is likely to be that when a justice who belongs to the same party as the governor wishes to retire, they will submit a postdated resignation similar to the one Blackwell submitted to Kemp. That will effectively give that justice’s party an extra two years to hold on to the justice’s seat before the next election takes place.

https://www.vox.com/2020/5/19/21262376/georgia-republicans-cancel-election-state...

David Frum @davidfrum | 5:01 PM · Jun 25, 2020
The most powerful argument for DC statehood isn't about DC at all. It's to save the Senate. It's right now theoretically possible for a bill passed by senators representing 290 million to be thwarted by senators representing 37 million people. 1/2

The lopsidedness of the Senate looks likely to grow much worse between now and 2040, by which time less than one-third of the US population will control 70 seats in the Senate. This cannot endure, and won't. Timely reforms can avert future radical disruptions. 2/2

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SheilaK @SheilaKhani · 14h
#ReformSenate California the 5th largest economy in the world with ppl of 40+ can't have 2 senators as Iowa with less than a mil in ppl. SMH!

Michael Zucker @michaelzucker · 14h
Another way to say it: The system designed to protect against Tyranny of the Majority will permanently enshrine Tyranny of the Minority unless significant changes are made.

CJ @CJenni6 · 14h
Actually, (DC) is about 700,000 citizens who pay more in federal taxes then more than 20 states, and they have no representation. It’s a violation of the very bedrock this country was built upon.
_____________________________________

David Frum @davidfrum | 5:16 PM · Jun 25, 2020
Another idea: merge Montana Wyoming and the Dakotas into the new state of "South Saskatchewan."
The new super state would still have a population smaller than Massachusetts

Correction: "South Saskatchewan" would have a population approximately equal to Connecticut. Throw in *Idaho* too, and you catch up to Massachusetts.

D.C. statehood approved by U.S. House for first time in history
The bill to make Washington, D.C. the 51st state is opposed by the White House and will likely die in the Senate.
Jenna Portnoy | June 26, 2020

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-statehood-vote/2020/06/25/c2...

Ari Berman @AriBerman | 1:59 PM · Jul 1, 2020
This is really awesome: Detroit Pistons will use their practice facility as huge polling location,
where voters can also register on Election Day

A few days ago Atlanta Hawks announced their arena would be largest polling place in Fulton County GA

Quote Tweet
Detroit Pistons @DetroitPistons · 3h
We are partnering with @michsos office and City Clerk of Detroit’s Office on a series of initiatives to drive voter awareness and participation.

The @HenryFordNews Detroit Pistons Performance Center will serve as a voting center for the November 3 election.
Image ( https://twitter.com/DetroitPistons/status/1278382101096730624/photo/1 )

Kansas Republican Rep. Steve Watkins charged with voter fraud

Watkins was charged by Shawnee County District Attorney Michael Kagay with “Interference with a law enforcement officer, falsely report a felony intending to obstruct; voting without being qualified; and knowingly mark/transmit more than one advance ballot,” according to Shawnee County court records.
…
Watkins has acknowledged that he used a UPS store in Topeka for his home address in order to register for a 2019 municipal election, according to the Topeka Capitol-Journal. The newspaper first reported that Watkins had signed the allegedly improper address on voter-registration documents. Watkins' office later said it was a mistake on his part...

his father, Steve Watkins Sr., told POLITICO in March that the Federal Election Commission is investigating him for giving thousands of dollars to his daughters, a home-building contractor and the contractor’s wife, which they then used to max out to his son’s campaign. Those types of donations violate campaign finance laws.

I get email newsletters from several congresspeople.

Interestingly, among them this week, Joe Manchin and Rand Paul never mention the coming election or voting issues. It is only David McKinley (R-WV) who addresses the elephant in the room. He leads with "Supporting the Postal Service Is Not A Partisan Issue."

"West Virginians count on the US Postal Service to deliver essential services like their mail, medicine, local news and more. In rural areas the post office plays an even more vital role as a lifeline. That's why I've consistently fought to protect their mission and supported the men and women who work there.

In recent weeks we have:

Signed onto a bipartisan letter to the Postmaster General opposing closures and reduction of hours;

Sponsored a bipartisan amendment to return service to its previous level;

Publicly stated support for including funding for the USPS in a Covid19 relief bill.

This is not new. When the Obama Administration proposed cutting Saturday delivery and closing thousands of post offices and hundreds of processing facilities, I vocally opposed it then too. In fact, since 2015 I have introduced a bipartisan resolution supporting a return to pre-2012 service standards (H. Res. 60). Supporting the mission of the postal service is not a partisan issue."

This is the first time I can admire his take on an issue.

Georgians can look up to see if they are on the purge list at SaveMyVote2020.org

Georgia likely removed nearly 200k from voter rolls wrongfully, report says
Annie Grayer and Pamela Kirkland September 2, 2020

The state of Georgia has likely removed nearly 200,000 Georgia citizens from the voter rolls for wrongfully concluding that those people had moved and not changed the address on their voter registration, when in fact they never moved, according to a new report released on Wednesday.

The ACLU of Georgia released the report which was conducted by the Palast Investigative Fund, a nonpartisan group that focuses on data journalism, on Wednesday.

For the report, Palast hired expert firms to conduct an Advanced Address List Hygiene, a method of residential address verification, to review 313,243 names that were removed from the state's voter rolls in late 2019. Their findings claim that 63.3% of voters had not, in fact, moved and were purged in error...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/02/politics/georgia-voter-rolls-report/index.html

---------------------------------------------------------------

Greg Palast and the Palast Investigative Fund. 2020. Georgia Voter Roll Purge Errors. Report for the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. (September 1, 2020) 22 p. https://www.acluga.org/sites/default/files/georgia_voter_roll_purge_errors_repor...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In October 2019, the Georgia Secretary of State published a list of 313,243 citizens purged from the state’s voter rolls on grounds they had moved from their registration address.

The Palast Investigative Fund hired the top five expert firms in address verification to scrutinize the list, name by name. To do so, they applied Advanced Address List Hygiene, the industry standard for residential address verification, calling on over 240 data sources, in addition to our Postal Service licensee who accessed the deep history files of the Postal Service, a process required by the Post Office for commercial enterprises such as Amazon and Ebay.

We found 198,351 Georgia voters who supposedly moved from their registration addresses who, in fact, have not moved at all, and therefore were wrongly purged, a 63.3% error rate.

Again, this is not a "sampling" of the list, but a detailed name-by-name review of the addresses of the citizens that the Secretary of State eliminated from the state’s voter rolls.

The conclusion is conservative, because the 63.3% error rate does not including the of tens of thousands of other citizens who have moved within their neighborhood, some within their buildings. (The National Voter Registration Act prohibits cancelling the registration of those who move within their voting jurisdiction.)

To allow these wrongly cancelled registrants to re-register and restore their ability to vote, the Palast Investigative Fund has created a website where Georgians can look up to see if they are on the purge list at SaveMyVote2020.org.

One likely source of state error: 3 of 4 voters can-celled who were marked “NCOA” by the Secretary are, in fact, not on the NCOA (National Change-of-Address) list. Counsel informs us that federal law permits cancellations using NCOA lists only available to specialized Postal Service licensees as on our expert team.

For reasons explained herein, the cancellations concentrate among younger citizens and citizens of color.

Singlehandedly turning TX blue:

Texas governor limits election drop boxes to one per county in sprawling state
Ashley Killough, Ed Lavandera and Paul LeBlanc | October 1, 2020

(CNN)Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a proclamation Thursday limiting the amount of drop-off locations for mail-in ballots to one site per county.

The move significantly affects the Democratic stronghold of Harris County, which is the state's largest county by population -- one of the most populous in the country -- and covers a massive area. It must now reduce its 11 drop-off locations down to one starting on Friday. Travis County, which includes the reliably Democratic city of Austin, must limit its four drop-off locations to one.

Other large counties -- like Tarrant, Dallas and El Paso County -- only had one drop-off location already in place.

The Republican governor said in a statement the order was made to enhance ballot security. It also allows poll watchers to observe the in-person delivery of mail-in ballots by voters, but critics say it could severely limit access for many voters.

"The State of Texas has a duty to voters to maintain the integrity of our elections," Abbott said. "As we work to preserve Texans' ability to vote during the COVID-19 pandemic, we must take extra care to strengthen ballot security protocols throughout the state. These enhanced security protocols will ensure greater transparency and will help stop attempts at illegal voting."

The decision has already drawn fire from Texas Democrats...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/01/politics/texas-governor-drop-off-locations-ballot...

>9 margd: https://www.snopes.com/ap/2020/10/01/texas-governor-restricts-mail-in-ballot-dro...

Besides population, Texas has several counties bigger than Connecticut.

>10 rastaphrog: Wow, worse and worse... Last week I dropped my ballot in box outside our township office in Michigan. No biggie. One can also drop off tax payments there. Anyplace that accepts tax payments is secure, you bet!

>11 margd: Yeah, it's definitely crazy. The county I live in is only about 482 sq miles, and we're going to have 15 drop boxes when they're all in place. I can get to one via a drive of just a couple miles. I can only imagine the drive in some of those really big counties in Texas.

(Houston Chronicle) Editorial: Abbott’s order closing ballot drop-off sites is voter suppression — plain and simple.
The Editorial Board Oct. 2, 2020

...Abbott’s rationale for ordering the drop-off locations closed is so thin as to be almost laughable. On Wednesday, Texas Solicitor General Kyle Hawkins told the state Supreme Court that his July 27 proclamation allowed voters to drop off mail ballots any time before election day and that state law permitted county clerks to designate multiple locations to do so.

This is one mistake that Abbott shouldn’t wait for the courts to make right. He should rescind his order immediately — and pledge to do everything he can to make it easier for everyone to vote. That’s what common decency and the U.S. Constitution require. No one, not even Abbott, is above that.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Editorial-Call-Abbot...

9 discarded ballots weren’t fraud, state election chief says
MARK SCOLFORO | September 30, 2020

...Jonathan Marks, the Pennsylvania deputy secretary for elections, said that in some cases, military and overseas ballots arrived in Luzerne County inside envelopes that do not clearly mark them as ballots.

The usual process when those types of ballots arrive is to immediately reseal them and store them securely with other mail-in and absentee ballots to await canvassing, he said.

“So it sounds like it was confusion,” Marks said.

The (PA) Department of State is working on training for Luzerne County elections workers on what to do when they find balloting material inside an unmarked envelope.

“That’s what needs to be tightened up,” Marks said.

The unidentified worker, who officials have said was fired as a result, did not consult with others in the elections office, Marks said.

Investigators have not explained who recovered the ballots, described by (Trump-nominated U.S. attorney in Harrisburg, Dave Freed) as “discarded,” or the process by which two of them were resealed. Freed said the other seven were all cast for Trump.

Neither Freed nor the FBI has said whether criminal charges are possible, and it’s unclear whether those nine votes will be counted.

https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-donald-trump-state-elections-pennsylvan...

>13 margd: contd.

Judge Rules Against Texas Limit Of One Drop-Off Site Per County For Absentee Ballots
Barbara Campbell | October 10, 2020

...(Federal) Judge Robert Pitman's ruling sides with The League of United Latin American Citizens which sued to get the drop-off limit reversed.

The lawsuit said the governor was forcing absentee voters to travel farther and to more-crowded locations, increasing the risk to populations already especially vulnerable to the coronavirus. The suit also said the Postal Service has warned it might not be able to deliver ballots in time to be counted.

The state may appeal the ruling.

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/10/922541198/judge-rules-against-texas-limit-of-one-...

>15 margd: contd.

Appeals court allows Abbott to close multiple ballot drop-off sites
Chuck Lindell | 10/13/2020

...A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, all appointed by President Donald Trump, rejected arguments from civil and voting rights groups that claimed Abbott’s order suppressed voting rights by making it harder to cast a ballot, particularly for elderly and disabled voters who are the most likely to use mail-in balloting.

In reality, the judges said, Abbott expanded voting options by suspending a state law that allows mail-in ballots to be hand delivered only on Election Day — a July 27 order that Abbott merely refined on Oct. 1 by closing multiple ballot drop-off sites in Travis and three other large counties, the panel said.

“That effectively gives voters 40 extra days to hand-deliver a marked mail-in ballot to an early voting clerk. And the voter still has the traditional option she has always had for casting a mail-in ballot: mailing it,” Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan wrote for the panel.

The ruling blocked Friday’s injunction from U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, who said Abbott’s order placed an unacceptable burden on voters who are most vulnerable to COVID-19.

...Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton quickly appealed, and the 5th Circuit Court...panel...issued a “stay pending appeal,” putting Pitman’s ruling on hold until the appeal is completed and Pitman’s order is upheld or overturned.

...Abbott...issu(ed) pandemic-related orders under his emergency disaster powers instead of heeding calls for a special legislative session to debate changes to state election laws...

https://www.statesman.com/news/20201013/appeals-court-allows-abbott-to-close-mul...

"...two-thirds of (Georgia's) polling places that had to stay open late for the June primary to accommodate waiting voters were in majority-Black neighborhoods, even though they made up only about one-third of the state’s polling places...the average wait time after 7 p.m. across Georgia was 51 minutes in polling places that were 90% or more nonwhite, but only 6 minutes in polling places that were 90% white..."

Why Do Nonwhite Georgia Voters Have to Wait in Line for Hours? Their Numbers Have Soared, and Their Polling Places Have Dwindled.
Stephen Fowler, Georgia Public Broadcasting | Oct. 17, 2020

The state’s voter rolls have grown by nearly 2 million since the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, but polling locations have been cut by almost 10%, with Metro Atlanta hit particularly hard.

...Georgia law sets a cap of 2,000 voters for a polling place that has experienced significant voter delays, but that limit is rarely if ever enforced. Our analysis found that, in both majority Black and majority white neighborhoods, about nine of every 10 precincts are assigned to polling places with more than 2,000 people.

A June 2020 analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School found that the average number of voters assigned to a polling place has grown in the past five years in Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina — all states with substantial Black populations that before Shelby needed federal approval to close polling places under the Voting Rights Act. And though dozens of states have regulations on the size of voting precincts and polling places or the number of voting machines, the analysis found that many jurisdictions do not abide by them.

Georgia’s state leadership and elections officials have largely ignored complaints about poll consolidations even as they tout record growth in voter registration. As secretary of state from 2010 to 2018, when most of Georgia’s poll closures occurred, Brian Kemp, now the governor, took a laissez-faire attitude toward county-run election practices, save for a 2015 document that spelled out methods officials could use to shutter polling places to show “how the change can benefit voters and the public interest.”...

https://www.propublica.org/article/why-do-nonwhite-georgia-voters-have-to-wait-i...

Strict absentee voting limits proposed after record Georgia turnout
Mark Niesse, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution | Jan 7, 2021

…When the legislative session begins Monday, Democrats are bracing for a wave of bills from the Republican majority that would make it harder to vote in the name of preventing potential fraud. There’s no credible evidence of significant absentee ballot fraud in Georgia’s general election, according to state election officials. Isolated cases are under investigation by the secretary of state’s office…

Proposed voting restrictions in Georgia
Require an excuse to cast an absentee ballot
Ban absentee ballot drop boxes
Mandate photo ID to be included when returning an absentee ballot
Eliminate mobile voting buses during early voting
Forbid governments and organizations from mailing absentee ballot applications

https://www.ajc.com/politics/strict-absentee-voting-limits-proposed-after-record...

>18 margd: Yes, indeed, let’s prevent the people from voting by all possible means.

Sometimes I despair of this country.

After Record Turnout, Republicans Are Trying to Make It Harder to Vote
Michael Wines | Jan. 30, 2021

The presidential election results are settled. But the battle over new voting rules, especially for mail-in ballots, has just begun.

...According to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, state legislators have filed 106 bills to tighten election rules, generally making it harder to cast a ballot — triple the number at this time last year. In short, Republicans who for more than a decade have used wildly inflated allegations of voter fraud to justify making it harder to vote, are now doing so again, this time seizing on Mr. Trump’s thoroughly debunked charges of a stolen election to push back at Democratic-leaning voters who flocked to mail-in ballots last year...

...In Washington, a Democratic agenda can be seen in the latest version of a far-ranging elections and voting bill that passed the House last year but died in the Republican-controlled Senate.

This time, the Democrat-controlled Senate will file its own version, with committee hearings expected in February.

Its voting provisions include allowing automatic and same-day voter registration, 15 days of early voting, no-excuse voting by mail, and online voter registration, as well as the restoration of voting rights nationwide to felons who complete their sentences. In one fell swoop, it would set minimum standards for American federal elections that would erase a host of procedural barriers to casting a ballot.

It also would require the states to appoint independent and nonpartisan commissions to draw political boundaries, eliminating the profusion of gerrymanders that the Supreme Court said in 2019 were beyond its authority to control.

Few expect much chance of passage in a deeply divided Senate, but the Democratic leaders in both houses have made it the first bill of the new congressional session, a statement that — symbolically, at least — it is the first priority of the new Democratic majority...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/30/us/republicans-voting-georgia-arizona.html

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/mark-levin-says-he-likes-josh-hawley-because-they-ha...
Mark Levin Says He Likes Josh Hawley Because They Have The Same Haters

When Harley runs for re-election, Dems are going to have a number of videos and one very damning photo of him with his fist raised to remind voters about his insurrectionist actions. These two deranged dudes appear to think subverting the voting rights of brown people is patriotic.

High Noon For The Future Of The Voting Rights Act At The Supreme Court
Nina Totenberg | March 2, 2021

The U.S. Supreme Court, where conservatives have a 6-3 majority, is to consider a case that could gut the Voting Rights Act of 1965...The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Tuesday in a major voting rights case that could give state legislatures a green light to change voting laws, making it more difficult for some to vote...

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/02/970729426/high-noon-for-the-future-of-the-voting-...

__________________________________________________________

Amy Klobuchar (D-MN Senator) @amyklobuchar | 5:44 PM · Mar 1, 2021:
Republicans have already introduced 253 bills in 43 states to suppress the right to vote.
We must pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.* The stakes could not be higher.

* https://www.leahy.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/John%20Lewis%20Voting%20Rights%20Adva...
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PoliticsGirl @IAmPoliticsGirl | 6:13 PM · Mar 1, 2021
Replying to @amyklobuchar
Eliminate the filibuster. Pass sweeping voter rights protections.** People do not care about procedure they care about progress.
0:59 ( https://twitter.com/IAmPoliticsGirl/status/1366527049163153408 )

** For the People Act (the same as Jogn Lewis Voting Rights (Advancement) Act?)
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1/text
__________________________________________________________

Charles Bethea (NYer based in Atlanta) @charlesbethea | 9:50 PM · Mar 1, 2021:
Today, in Georgia: GOP passed a bill that will repeal no-excuse absentee voting—a method used by > one million GA voters last year. Meanwhile, GA GOP also passed bills restricting mail ballot drop boxes & early voting.

Clear suppression, no matter your political persuasion.

After all that he's been through, the former VP opposes H.R.1, rejecting a fleeting opportunity for redemption:
"HR 1, the so-called For the People Act, a massive 800-page election overhaul bill ... would increase opportunities for election fraud, trample the First Amendment, further erode confidence in our elections, and forever dilute the votes of legally qualified eligible voters."

Election Integrity Is a National Imperative
Mike Pence / @Mike_Pence / March 03, 2021
https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/03/03/election-integrity-is-a-national-imperati...

>23 margd:

Fact Check: Would HR 1 Ensure Millions of ‘Illegal Immigrants’ Are Registered to Vote?
In an op-ed for The Daily Signal, former Vice President Mike Pence criticized the Democrats' voting rights reform bill.
Nur Ibrahim | 4 March 2021

...In general, claims that “illegal immigrants” can vote in the U.S. elections in large discernable numbers are rarely, if ever, true. Nor is the claim that implementing the above measures would make it easier for such immigrants to vote, particularly when experts say such measures are intended to make registration easier and more accurate. As such, we rate Pence’s claims on the whole as “False.”

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pence-op-ed-hr1-immigrants/

For the record, I’m in favor of expanding voting rights and voting access, but with so many states against it and a Supreme Court likely to support the states, I’m getting to the point of a “if you can’t bet them join them” mentality. This would mean expanding voter suppression, but suppress the voting rights of Christians and gun owners. Thus, if you go to Church or own a gun, you can’t vote. Horrible, true, but it could balance out the suppression on the other side,

Georgia bans giving water to voters in line under sweeping restrictions
Rich McKay | March 25, 2021

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Georgia on Thursday enacted broad voting restrictions championed by Republicans that activists said aimed to curtail the influence of Black voters who were instrumental in state elections that helped Democrats win the White House and narrow control of the U.S. Senate....

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-georgia-voting-idUSKBN2BH2TC
___________________________________________________

Ari Berman (Mother Jones) @AriBerman | 7:02 PM · Mar 25, 2021:

This is insane: Georgia Dem rep @Cannonfor58 was arrested for trying to watch Brian Kemp sign new voter suppression bill.
Look at how she is treated by police. This is straight out of Jim Crow

2:20 ( https://twitter.com/AriBerman/status/1375221522307104773 )
From stephen fowler

She KNOCKED on the door...
1:56 ( https://twitter.com/bluestein/status/1375224814147895298 )
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WATCH: GA State Troopers Forcibly Remove State Rep from Capitol After She Tries to Crash Governor’s Signing of New Voting Restrictions Bill (UPDATED)
Reed Richardson | Mar 25th, 2021

https://www.mediaite.com/news/watch-ga-state-troopers-forcibly-remove-state-rep-...
___________________________________________________

Benjamin Wittes (Lawfare) @benjaminwittes | 7:44 PM · Mar 25, 2021:
Reminder: What happened in Georgia, and what the new law responds to, was not voter fraud.
There is no evidence of that. It was voter turnout, specifically Black voter turnout.

Josh Kraushaar (National Journal) @HotlineJosh | 7:47 PM · Mar 25, 2021:
And good chance despite all the doomsday predictions, this legislation does just that —> helps Dems mobilize their base in 2022 by making (overheated) allegations of voter suppression.

Benjamin Wittes
I agree with your prediction. It may well do that. But I don’t think the allegations of voter suppression here are overheated. This is a significant set of changes to the law passed specifically to discourage voting—and based on lies. It is simply an effort to suppress votes. | That it may backfire does not save it from the grotesque impropriety of its intent.

Josh Kraushaar
So what would you say if midterm turnout goes up in 2022?

Benjamin Wittes
I would say that Georgia Republicans attempted systematic voter suppression and their efforts backfired. But they should still be criticized for what is clearly an effort to suppress the votes of Black people.

Michigan Republicans push for sweeping voting restrictions with new election bills
Dianne Gallagher and Paul LeBlanc | March 24, 2021

(CNN)Michigan Republicans on Wednesday introduced a package of election bills that would bring a raft of voting restrictions to the state, the latest example of GOP lawmakers working to change election laws in a battleground state following the 2020 election.
Described by Republicans as an effort to modernize and secure the state's elections, the bills would clamp down on ballot drop box hours, require voters to provide photo ID when applying for an absentee ballot and block unsolicited absentee ballot applications from being mailed out en masse.

...Several of the Michigan election bills appear to be in response to debunked conspiracy theories that were spread about the ballot counting process in Michigan. One bill allows people from each party to oversee and record all precinct audits. It would require clerks to provide live streaming coverage of absentee ballots that are "in custody."

Another bill would make it a misdemeanor to impede a poll watcher or challenger from recording ballot counting with their phones or cameras. There are also proposals that focus on increased poll challenge and watcher training.

Other bills in the package focus on voting rolls and would add new, more frequent requirements on updating them.
Republicans control the House and Senate in the state, but Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is a Democrat who is likely to veto the package of bills, though some of the proposals could garner bipartisan support...

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/24/politics/michigan-election-bills-voting-rights/in...

How the Supreme Court laid the path for Georgia's new election law
Joan Biskupic | March 27, 2021

...before the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts, Georgia would have had to obtain federal approval for new election practices to ensure they did not harm Blacks and other minority voters....That case from Shelby County, Alabama, centered on a provision of the 1965 act that required states with a history of discrimination to seek approval from the Department of Justice or a federal court before changing electoral policy. By a 5-4 vote, the court invalidated the provision that still covered nine states, including Georgia.

...The justices are now considering, in a recently argued Arizona case, the strength of a separate Voting Rights Act provision that prohibits any measure that denies someone the right to vote because of race. Unlike the "pre-clearance" provision previously in dispute, this section of the law comes into play after legislation has taken effect and puts the burden on those protesting the law to initiate a lawsuit.

Resolution of that Arizona case, known as Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, will have repercussions for controversy over laws like Georgia's, which were immediately challenged Thursday night by advocates who say they will disproportionately hurt Blacks.

...in the aftermath of the polarizing 2020 election, the country and the high court may be headed for a new chapter of voting-rights cases of a deeper partisan character, intensifying concerns about the future of the Voting Rights Act, as well as First Amendment guarantees of free speech and association...

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/27/politics/supreme-court-georgia-voting-law-john-ro...

>28 margd: What the royal fuck?

The Fifteenth Amendment says

Section 1
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Section 2
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

a separate Voting Rights Act provision that prohibits any measure that denies someone the right to vote because of race.

There aren't many laws that would be more directly authorized by the Constitution than that.

I still find myself wondering... if Republicans are so convinced that they can't win elections, why do they continue to field candidates?

Just how severe will America's minority rule become?
David Sirota | March 26, 2021

...Fully eliminating the filibuster would still allow a minority of the population to wield disproportionate power, because the chamber’s structure has baked-in rights for the minority of the population even in straight up-or-down vote situations.

Put another way: even without the filibuster, there can be a Senate majority party whose senators represent less than half the country. There can also be a transpartisan coalition of 51 senators who represent less than half the country and who can stop essentially anything.

The filibuster just makes this undemocratic system more undemocratic, in ways that cannot be justified. In the name of preventing a tyranny of the majority, it creates what I have called a tyranny of the tiny minority. It takes a House of Lords-style institution that has been rationalized by glib “we’re a republic, not a democracy” logic and transforms it into a cartoonishly undemocratic weapon of reactionary power.

The rationale for that transformation has amounted to vapid paeans to the founders. Everybody seems to have forgotten that Alexander Hamilton admitted: “To give a minority a negative upon the majority (which is always the case where more than a majority is requisite to a decision), is, in its tendency, to subject the sense of the greater number to that of the lesser.”

Even without the filibuster, the lesser number of the country will have more than enough Senate representation to express many of its political desires. Keeping the filibuster simply lets that lesser number completely rule everything.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/26/just-how-severe-will-ameri...

Lawmakers in 47 states have introduced bills that would make it harder to vote. See them all here
Janie Boschma, Fredreka Schouten and Priya Krishnakumar | April 3, 2021

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/03/politics/state-legislation-voter-suppression/inde...

Let me get this straight: I can vote with a gun permit in Texas, but not a student ID?

- Robert Reich (Berkeley professor, former Secretary of Labor) @RBReich | 7:39 PM · Apr 8, 2021

The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln | 9:30 AM · Apr 19, 2021
An idea called America
0:55 ( https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1384137205120122880 )

Walt Disney World is in a blue county--wonder what they'll make of sheriff's pronouncement?
FL Rs must be worried about Atlanta effect in their state?

Florida Sheriff Tells People Moving to State Not to 'Vote the Stupid Way You Did Up North'
Alexandra Hutzler | 4/19/21 at 2:57 PM EDT

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd warned new Florida residents not to "vote the stupid way you did up north" during a press conference alongside Governor Ron DeSantis on Monday.

"This is what we enjoy in Florida. This is the Florida we know and love," Judd said as he held up photographs showing residents at Walt Disney World and the beach.

"We're a special place, and there are millions and millions of people who like to come here. And quite frankly, we like to have them here. So we only want to share one thing as you move in hundreds a day: Welcome to Florida. But don't register to vote and vote the stupid way you did up north, you'll get what they got," the sheriff added, prompting applause from the group of law enforcement officers, lawmakers and state officials gathered.

Judd's remarks were made moments before DeSantis signed the state's controversial "anti-riot" bill into law. The legislation, which was passed in Florida's GOP-controlled Senate last week, contains several provisions that crack down on protests in the Sunshine State.

The law will now define a "riot" as a public disturbance involving three or more people "acting with the common intent to assist each other in violent and disorderly conduct" that results in injury to another person, damage to property, or "imminent" danger of injury or damage.

The 61-page bill established new felonies for organizing or participating in a violent demonstration and enhanced penalties for crimes committed during a riot. It will also authorities to hold arrested protesters without bail until their first court appearance, as well as grant civil immunity to those who drive into protesters who are blocking a road.

Opponents of the legislation have argued it will have a chilling effect on all forms of protest in the state and claim it is a violation of the First Amendment...

https://www.newsweek.com/florida-sheriff-tells-people-moving-state-not-vote-stup...

Map of counties with ~ same population as NYC (8.42 million):

https://twitter.com/ebottcher/status/1384175032969031690/photo/1

#35–the GOP in Florida trying to reinvent the Old South before that pesky Martin Luther King Jr. came along.

Stacey Abrams' Senate Testimony Leaves Lady Lindsey's Guts on the Floor

LG: "Do you believe the Republicans in Georgia -- House, Senate -- when they are making the changes to your state voting laws, do you think they are motivated by trying to suppress the African-American vote?"

SA: "I have seen it happen that sometimes they are. I have seen other bills that have been truly bipartisan in nature."

LG: "But do you believe that's the motivation behind these laws?"

SA: "I believe the motivation behind certain provisions in SB 202 are a direct result to the increased participation of communities of color in the 2020 and 2021 elections."

LG: "I'm out of time. Do you think the Georgia Speaker of the House Jan Jones is motivated by trying to limit the African-American voters in Georgia?"

SA: "I believe there is racial animus that generated those bills. I would not assume that that racial animus is shared by every person. But the result is that racial animus exists and if it eliminates access to the right to vote then regardless of a certain person's heart, if the effect is deleterious to the ability of people of color to participate in elections then that is problematic and that is wrong."

https://www.rawstory.com/stacey-abrams-lindsey-graham/

>35 margd: or you'll get what they got

Is it customary in Florida for state officials to threaten new residents?

>39 kiparsky: Typical to want the dollars, but not input, in tourist areas, but never so blatant?

Election subversion (voter suppression 2.0):

Republicans Aren’t Done Messing With Elections
Not content with limiting voting rights, they are threatening the integrity of vote counting itself.
Richard L. Hasen | April 23, 2021

...The new threat of election subversion is even more concerning. These efforts target both personnel and policy; it is not clear if they are coordinated. They nonetheless represent a huge threat to American democracy itself.

..Georgia’s current Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger...The Georgia law removes the secretary of state from decision-making power on the state election board...giving the legislature a greater hand in who counts votes and how they are counted.

Michigan’s Republican Party refused to renominate Aaron Van Langevelde to the state’s canvassing board.

Even those who have not been stripped of power have been censured by Republican Party organizations...The message that these actions send to politicians is that if you want a future in state Republican politics, you had better be willing to manipulate election results or lie about election fraud.

Republican state legislatures have also passed or are considering laws aimed at stripping Democratic counties of the power to run fair elections. ...

A Texas bill would similarly stymie future efforts like the one in Harris County to expand access to the ballot and give challengers at the polls the ability not only to observe but also to interfere with polling place procedures meant to ensure election integrity...Republican legislators have proposed at least 148 bills in 36 states that could increase the chances of cooking the electoral books.

State legislatures and others also have been taking steps to amplify false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, solidifying the false belief among a majority of Republican voters that the November vote count was unfair. ... Arizona State Senate demanding the seizure of November ballots from Democratic-leaning Maricopa County and ordering an audit ....

Combating efforts that can undermine the fair administration of elections and vote counting is especially tricky. Unlike issues of voter suppression, which are easy to explain to the public (what do you mean you can’t give water to voters waiting in long lines?!?), the risks of unfair election administration are inchoate. They may materialize or they may not, depending on how close an election is and whether Mr. Trump himself or another person running for office is willing to break democratic norms and insist on an unfair vote count.

So what can be done?...paper ballot that can be recounted in the event of a disputed election...

Next, businesses and civic leaders must speak out not just against voter suppression but also at efforts at election subversion...

Congress must also fix the rules for counting Electoral College votes...

Congress (should) also require states to impose basic safeguards in the counting of votes in federal elections. ...

Finally, we need a national effort to support those who will count votes fairly. ... Local election administrators need political cover and the equivalent of combat pay, along with adequate budget resources to run fair elections. ...

...Support should go to those who promote election integrity, regardless of party, and who put in place fair and transparent procedures.

...the time to act to prevent a democratic crisis is now. It may begin with lawsuits against new voter-suppression laws and nascent efforts to enshrine the right to vote in the Constitution. But it is also going to require a cross-partisan alliance of those committed to the rule of law — in and out of government — to ensure that our elections continue to reflect the will of the people.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/23/opinion/republicans-voting-us-elections.html

Florida Republicans rushed to curb mail voting after Trump’s attacks on the practice. Now some fear it could lower GOP turnout.
Amy Gardner | May 3, 2021 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

...1988 U.S. Senate race...absentee ballots...went 3 to 1 for (Republican Connie Mack), delivering him a 34,518-vote victory.

...So began a long and fruitful relationship between the GOP and absentee voting. Republican campaigns invested millions of dollars encouraging their supporters to cast ballots by mail. State legislators passed laws making it easier. Over the ensuing decades, GOP voters in Florida became so comfortable with casting ballots by mail that in 2020, nearly 35 percent of those who turned out did so, according to state data compiled by University of Florida political science professor Daniel A. Smith.

Virtually every narrow Republican victor of the past generation — and there have been many, including two of the state’s current top officeholders, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott — owes their victory, at least in part, to mail voting.

Now, some Florida Republicans are reacting with alarm after the GOP-dominated state legislature, with DeSantis’s support, passed a far-reaching bill Thursday night that puts new restrictions on the use of mail ballots...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/florida-republicans-mail-voting/2021/05/...

Voices on the Vote
Impediments and Confidence in the 2020 Election (report)
Karlyn Bowman, Samantha Goldstein | May 2021

Key Findings
A vast majority of Election 2020 voters said voting was easy, despite major changes in how people voted.

Pluralities of Republicans and Trump voters voted in person. Majorities of Democrats and Biden voters cast ballots by mail.

Sixty-two percent of white, 47 percent of Black, and 51 percent of Hispanic voters waited 10 minutes or less to vote; 7 percent of white, 13 percent of Black, and 8 percent of Hispanic voters waited an hour or more.

Out of eight possible impediments to voting, none were experienced by more than 3 percent of Americans nationally.

Seventy-three percent of voters said they were confident their vote was accurately counted. There was a chasm in vote confidence between Trump and Biden voters that was larger than in previous elections...

Image- D&R confidence in vote count 2004-2020 ( https://twitter.com/leedrutman/status/1389296738188541960/photo/1 )

https://voterstudygroup.org/publication/voices-on-the-vote

Mississippis Medical Marijuana amendment has been struck down on a technicality in the law allowing ballot measures.

https://www.rawstory.com/mississippi-medical-marijuana/

Effectively, this would stop any future ballot measures. And, IANAL, but I would think that if applied retroactively, this ruling would nullify any measures passed since the state dropped to only four districts.

After drastic changes made behind closed doors, and an overnight debate, Texas Senate approves voting bill
Alexa Ura | May 30, 2021

...Senate Bill 7, the GOP’s priority voting bill, emerged Saturday from a conference committee as an expansive bill that would touch nearly the entire voting process, including provisions to limit early voting hours, curtail local voting options and further tighten voting-by-mail, among several other provisions. It was negotiated behind closed doors over the last week after the House and Senate passed significantly different versions of the legislation and pulled from each chamber’s version of the bill. The bill also came back with a series of additional voting rule changes, including a new ID requirement for mail-in ballots, that weren’t part of previous debates on the bill.

But instead of giving senators the 24 hours required under the chamber’s rules to go over the committee’s report, including those new additions, state Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, moved to ignore that mandate so the Senate could debate and eventually vote on the final version of the bill just hours after it was filed....

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/05/30/texas-voting-restrictions-senate/

>45 margd: contd.

Texas Democrats Walk Out, Stop Republican's Sweeping Voting Restrictions
AP | May 31, 2021 2:09 AM ET

Democrats pulled off a dramatic, last-ditch walkout in the Texas House of Representatives on Sunday night to block one of the most restrictive voting laws in the U.S. from passing before a midnight deadline.

The sudden revolt torpedoed the sweeping measure known as Senate Bill 7, which would have reduced polling hours, empowered poll watchers and scaled back ways to vote in Texas, which already has some of the nation's strictest voting laws.

For Democrats, the victory may be fleeting: Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who had declared new voting laws in Texas a priority, quickly announced that he would order lawmakers back to the state Capitol for a special session. He did not, however, say when that would happen.

...Less than 24 hours earlier, the bill seemed all but guaranteed to reach Abbott's desk. The Texas Senate had approved the measure in a vote before sunrise, after Republicans used a bare-knuckle procedural move to suspend the rules and take up the measure in the middle of the night during the Memorial Holiday weekend.

But as the night wore on in the House, the GOP's chances wobbled. About two hours before the midnight deadline, Democrats began filing out of the chamber in greater and greater numbers, denying Republicans the quorum necessary to hold a final vote. The walkout handed Republicans a rare defeat in the Texas Capitol where they control every lever of power and wield overwhelming majorities in both the House and Senate...

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/31/1001811919/texas-democrats-walk-out-stop-republic...

BetoMedia @BetoMedia | 4:34 PM · May 30, 2021
Beto O’Rourke-“Why is it a tactic of voter suppression to require an ID?”

His answer is so perfectly spot on.
If you know anyone who asks this question, play this clip back to them.
They will have no response.
Beto’s answer is the right answer.

5/29/21 (2:20) https://twitter.com/BetoMedia/status/1399101865539870724

How the Texas voting bill would have created hurdles for voters of color
Amy Gardner | May 31, 2021

Texas Democrats late Sunday headed off passage — at least for now — of one of the most restrictive voting bills in the country, a 67-page measure with a slew of provisions that would have made it harder to cast ballots by mail, given new access to partisan poll watchers and imposed stiff new civil and criminal penalties on election administrators, voters and those who seek to assist them.

While Senate Bill 7 would have had wide-ranging effects on voters across the state, it included specific language that critics say would disproportionately affect people of color — particularly those who live in under-resourced and urban communities.

House Democrats blocked the bill by walking out of their chamber Sunday night, but Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has said he plans to add the bill to a special session he plans to call later this year...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/30/texas-voting-law/

Opinion: A frantic warning from 100 leading experts: Our democracy is in grave danger
Greg Sargent | June 1, 2021
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/01/frantic-warning-100-leading-e...

----------------------------------------------------------

Statement of Concern
The Threats to American Democracy and the Need for National Voting and Election Administration Standards
Statement
June 1, 2021

We, the undersigned, are scholars of democracy who have watched the recent deterioration of U.S. elections and liberal democracy with growing alarm. Specifically, we have watched with deep concern as Republican-led state legislatures across the country have in recent months proposed or implemented what we consider radical changes to core electoral procedures in response to unproven and intentionally destructive allegations of a stolen election. Collectively, these initiatives are transforming several states into political systems that no longer meet the minimum conditions for free and fair elections. Hence, our entire democracy is now at risk.

When democracy breaks down, it typically takes many years, often decades, to reverse the downward spiral. In the process, violence and corruption typically flourish, and talent and wealth flee to more stable countries, undermining national prosperity. It is not just our venerated institutions and norms that are at risk—it is our future national standing, strength, and ability to compete globally.

Statutory changes in large key electoral battleground states are dangerously politicizing the process of electoral administration, with Republican-controlled legislatures giving themselves the power to override electoral outcomes on unproven allegations should Democrats win more votes. They are seeking to restrict access to the ballot, the most basic principle underlying the right of all adult American citizens to participate in our democracy. They are also putting in place criminal sentences and fines meant to intimidate and scare away poll workers and nonpartisan administrators. State legislatures have advanced initiatives that curtail voting methods now preferred by Democratic-leaning constituencies, such as early voting and mail voting. Republican lawmakers have openly talked about ensuring the “purity” and “quality” of the vote, echoing arguments widely used across the Jim Crow South as reasons for restricting the Black vote.

State legislators supporting these changes have cited the urgency of “electoral integrity” and the need to ensure that elections are secure and free of fraud. But by multiple expert judgments, the 2020 election was extremely secure and free of fraud. The reason that Republican voters have concerns is because many Republican officials, led by former President Donald Trump, have manufactured false claims of fraud, claims that have been repeatedly rejected by courts of law, and which Trump’s own lawyers have acknowledged were mere speculation when they testified about them before judges.

In future elections, these laws politicizing the administration and certification of elections could enable some state legislatures or partisan election officials to do what they failed to do in 2020: reverse the outcome of a free and fair election. Further, these laws could entrench extended minority rule, violating the basic and longstanding democratic principle that parties that get the most votes should win elections.

Democracy rests on certain elemental institutional and normative conditions. Elections must be neutrally and fairly administered. They must be free of manipulation. Every citizen who is qualified must have an equal right to vote, unhindered by obstruction. And when they lose elections, political parties and their candidates and supporters must be willing to accept defeat and acknowledge the legitimacy of the outcome. The refusal of prominent Republicans to accept the outcome of the 2020 election, and the anti-democratic laws adopted (or approaching adoption) in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Montana and Texas—and under serious consideration in other Republican-controlled states—violate these principles. More profoundly, these actions call into question whether the United States will remain a democracy. As scholars of democracy, we condemn these actions in the strongest possible terms as a betrayal of our precious democratic heritage.

The most effective remedy for these anti-democratic laws at the state level is federal action to protect equal access of all citizens to the ballot and to guarantee free and fair elections. Just as it ultimately took federal voting rights law to put an end to state-led voter suppression laws throughout the South, so federal law must once again ensure that American citizens’ voting rights do not depend on which party or faction happens to be dominant in their state legislature, and that votes are cast and counted equally, regardless of the state or jurisdiction in which a citizen happens to live. This is widely recognized as a fundamental principle of electoral integrity in democracies around the world.

A new voting rights law (such as that proposed in the John Lewis Voting Rights Act) is essential but alone is not enough. True electoral integrity demands a comprehensive set of national standards that ensure the sanctity and independence of election administration, guarantee that all voters can freely exercise their right to vote, prevent partisan gerrymandering from giving dominant parties in the states an unfair advantage in the process of drawing congressional districts, and regulate ethics and money in politics.

It is always far better for major democracy reforms to be bipartisan, to give change the broadest possible legitimacy. However, in the current hyper-polarized political context such broad bipartisan support is sadly lacking. Elected Republican leaders have had numerous opportunities to repudiate Trump and his “Stop the Steal” crusade, which led to the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Each time, they have sidestepped the truth and enabled the lie to spread.

We urge members of Congress to do whatever is necessary—including suspending the filibuster—in order to pass national voting and election administration standards that both guarantee the vote to all Americans equally, and prevent state legislatures from manipulating the rules in order to manufacture the result they want. Our democracy is fundamentally at stake. History will judge what we do at this moment.

Signatures...

https://www.newamerica.org/political-reform/statements/statement-of-concern/

Opinion: The Republican plot to steal the 2024 election
Max Boot | June 1, 2021

...I hope I am being overly alarmist. I really do. But after the storming of the Capitol — and the Republican failure to hold the instigators to account — we have crossed a Rubicon. The best way to protect our electoral system is to pass the For the People Act, which would curb partisan gerrymandering and protect voting rights. Senate Democrats have to choose between saving the filibuster and saving democracy. They can’t do both.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/01/republican-plot-steal-2024-el...

Ron Filipkowski (attorney, D) @RonFilipkowski | 8:13 AM · Jun 5, 2021
Texas AG Ken Paxton said yesterday that if he hadn’t been successful with lawsuits to block mail-in ballots,
Trump definitely would have lost the election in Texas.

0:52 ( https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1401150079138996225 )

BREAKING: Attorney General Garland has announced that the Justice Department will double its Civil Rights Division staff
in the next 30 days to protect voting rights in the U.S.
- Kyle Griffin (MSNBC) @kylegriffin | 12:55 PM · Jun 11, 2021

AG Garland: "Particularly concerning... are several studies showing that in some jurisdictions
non-white voters must wait in line substantially longer than white voters to cast their ballots."...
- saki saki saki @radiocandied | 1h

These current-day district maps DO resemble salamanders!

If you can’t win an election unless your district looks like this, you are a fraud and do not belong in Congress.

Image-district map, Rep. Jim Jordan (OH) ( https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1406383352177848322/photo/1 )
Image-district map, Dan Crenshaw (TX) ( https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1406383352177848322/photo/2 )

-MeidasTouch.com @MeidasTouch | 6:48 PM · Jun 19, 2021

Justice Department sues Georgia over GOP voting restrictions
Erin Doherty | June 25, 2021

...The lawsuit is being overseen by Kristen Clarke, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Pamela Karlan.

..."Our complaint alleges that recent changes to Georgia's election laws were enacted with the purpose of denying or abridging the right of Black Georgians to vote on account of their race or color, in violation of Section Two of the Voting Rights Act," (AG Merrick) Garland said at a briefing Friday.

...Georgia’s Election Integrity Act, includes measures that cut the time period voters have to request absentee ballots, limit drop boxes, impose new identification requirements and give greater control of election administration to the state legislature.

..."This lawsuit is the first of many steps we are taking to ensure that all eligible voters can cast a vote, that all lawful votes are counted, and that every voter has access to accurate information," Garland said...

(Garland also announced Friday that DOJ is launching a task force to investigate and respond to threats against election officials.)

https://www.axios.com/justice-department-georgia-voting-lawsuit-d3584b47-5169-48...

Opinion: The Roberts court systematically dismantles the Voting Rights Act
WaPo Editorial Board | July 1, 2021

At times, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has labored to maintain the Supreme Court’s legitimacy against the gale-force pressures of partisan acrimony and social division. When it comes to voting rights, he has pushed in the opposite direction, presiding over the court’s systematic dismantling of the Voting Rights Act, overriding Congress’s clear intentions and gravely injuring U.S. democracy...

...2013...the court eviscerated the act’s Section 5, which required states with a history of racial discrimination to preclear changes to voting rules with the Justice Department.

...(On Thursday, the Roberts court sharply limited) Section 2, which allows legal challenges to discriminatory election rules after they have been enacted.

...as Justice Kagan put it, “the Court has (yet again) rewritten — in order to weaken — a statute that stands as a monument to America’s greatness, and protects against its basest impulses.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/01/voting-rights-act-roberts-sup...

----------------------------------------------------------
ETA:

The Supreme Court Is Putting Democracy at Risk
Richard L. Hasen | July 1, 2021

...(Brnovich) a state can now assert an interest in preventing fraud to justify a law without proving that fraud is actually a serious risk, but at the same time, minority voters have a high burden: They must show that the state has imposed more than the “usual burdens of voting.”

...(Americans for Prosperity) the majority opinion, by Chief Justice John Roberts, ...held the disclosure law could not be applied to anyone, even those not facing a risk of harassment. He also rejiggered the First Amendment standards to call many other laws into question...redefined the “exacting scrutiny” standard to judge the constitutionality of disclosure laws so that the government must show its law is “narrowly tailored” to an important government interest. This makes it more like strict scrutiny and more likely that disclosure laws will be struck down. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent, “Today’s analysis marks reporting and disclosure requirements with a bull’s-eye.”

...As in Shelby County and in the 2010 Citizens United case, which struck down Congress’s limit on corporate campaign spending, this conservative Supreme Court in today’s rulings shows no deference to democracy-enhancing laws passed by Congress, states or local governments.

...If you put the Brnovich and Americans for Prosperity cases together, the court is making it easier for states to pass repressive voting laws and easier for undisclosed donors and big money to influence election outcomes.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/opinion/supreme-court-rulings-arizona-califor...

Facebook Post Misleads on H.R. 1’s Proposal on Voter Rolls
Joseph A. Gambardello | July 2, 2021

Quick Take
Democrats say their bill, H.R. 1, the For the People Act, would expand voter access in federal elections. But a Facebook post falsely claims the legislation would prevent the removal of dead people from voter rolls. The bill doesn’t say that, and existing federal legislation requires states to remove names of the deceased from voting lists.

...H.R. 1 seeks to prevent purging eligible voters from election rolls by requiring states to obtain “objective and reliable” evidence before notifying a person that they have been removed from the rolls.

The bill says three things cannot be considered as evidence: The failure of the registrant to vote in any election; the failure of a registrant to respond to any notice unless the notice has been returned as undeliverable; and the failure of a registrant to take any other action with respect to voting or their status as a registrant.

Death is an exception, and none of that needs to be considered to remove a deceased person’s name from a voting list. Aside from death, the main reason for removing a voter from the rolls is that they have moved out of the jurisdiction where they were registered...

https://www.factcheck.org/2021/07/facebook-post-misleads-on-h-r-1s-proposal-on-v...

They're amateurs by comparison, sounds like, but Ds gerrymander too.

Andy Harris, Maryland’s only Republican in Congress, fears being written off the map. Some say it could happen.at 12:24 p.m. EDT

Ten years ago, as Maryland Democrats sat down to redraw the state’s eight congressional districts, they considered making Republican members of Congress go extinct.

There were two in office at the time: brand-new Andy Harris on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and Roscoe Bartlett in rural Western Maryland. As former governor Martin O’Malley (D) later admitted in federal court, Democrats ultimately decided just to go after Bartlett, if only because it was easier. And their plan worked: A Republican has not won that seat since...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/07/02/andy-harris-redistricting-mar...

To a standing ovation, Texas AG Ken Paxton tells CPAC that Trump would not have won Texas if he hadn’t won 12 voter suppression lawsuits to stop mail-in ballots and drop boxes.

1:22 ( https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1414259308351602688 )

- Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski | 12:24 PM · Jul 11, 2021

Almost all eligible Georgians are registered to vote, data show
Mark Niesse, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution | 8/19/2021

Federal election report: 95% of voting-age Georgians registered

...Many of those who aren’t registered to vote are ineligible because they’re serving felony sentences...serving parole or on felony probation

Most new voter registrations, about 67%, came from Georgia’s automatic voter registration program at driver’s license offices, according to the Election Assistance Commission.

Georgians have been signed up to vote when they fill out driver’s license forms since September 2016 unless they check a box to opt out. Before then, voters had to opt in.

Automatic registration significantly increased Georgia’s active voter registration rates, from 76% in 2016 to 95% in 2020...

Online applications on the secretary of state’s website accounted for 16% of new registrations, and mailed or emailed applications made up 12%. The rest of registrations came from applications completed at county election offices, public assistance offices or disability offices.

Eight states had higher registration rates than Georgia, led by Maine, New Hampshire and Illinois.

...Though almost all eligible voters are registered, that doesn’t mean they turned out... in the 2020 presidential election, a turnout rate of 66% of the state’s citizen voting age population. The national average for turnout was 68%.

https://www.ajc.com/politics/almost-all-eligible-georgians-are-registered-to-vot...

Democrats cut deal with (US Sen) Manchin to get party behind long-shot voting overhaul bill
Manu Raju | September 14, 2021

...the new proposal will almost certainly fall well short of the 60 votes needed to break a GOP-led filibuster. Plus Democrats lack the votes to change the rules and weaken the filibuster as many in their party want them to do, meaning the plan is expected to stall when the Senate casts a procedural vote on the matter next week.

...The new bill would make it easier to register to vote, make Election Day a public holiday, ensure states have early voting for federal elections and allow all voters to request mail-in ballots. In addition, the measure would bolster security on voting systems, overhaul how House districts are redrawn and impose new disclosures on donations to outside groups active in political campaigns.

...In the face of the GOP opposition, liberals have pushed Manchin to agree to a "carveout" -- and allow for a change to Senate rules so such voting legislation can advance with a simple majority of 51 votes. But Manchin, along with a handful of other Democrats, has long opposed such a carveout, worrying it would lead to a slippery slope and ultimately kill a tool meant to protect the minority party's rights.

"The filibuster is permanent," Manchin said Monday...

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/14/politics/democrats-manchin-voting-overhaul-bill/i...

Matthew Dowd @matthewjdowd | 8:54 AM · Sep 28, 2021
We are at the point in Texas and the country as a whole
where the majority of Americans are not being listened to.
It is a tyranny of the minority today.
A majority of Texans support a women’s right to decide, gun reform, increased minimum wage, voting access, science, etc

Opinion: A step-by-step guide to heading off the next coup attempt
Jennifer Rubin | Oct 12, 2021

...disincentives to keep conmen from running for president or other federal office in the first place
...remove the operational machinery Trump tried to exploit in 2021
...clean up the Electoral Count Act
...address attempts to strong-arm or threaten election officials and interfere with a state’s counting process
...reform social media platforms
...lawyers — at least ones who want to keep their licenses — should be prevented from engaging in efforts to overturn democratic elections
...an incumbent president must not be able to throw sand in the gears of the transition process under the Presidential Transition Act
...defensive laws (i.e., legislation to prevent subversion of an election) are not subject to a filibuster by the same party whose actions require extra safety measures to prevent future coup attempts...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/10/12/step-by-step-guide-heading-of...

University of Florida bars faculty from testifying in voting rights lawsuit against DeSantis administration
Andrew Jeong | Oct 30, 2021

The University of Florida barred three faculty members from testifying for plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging a voting-restrictions law enthusiastically embraced by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), which activists say makes it harder for racial minorities to vote, in a move that raises sharp concerns about academic freedom and free speech in the state.

The public university said the three political scientists — Daniel A. Smith, Michael McDonald, and Sharon Wright Austin — could pose “a conflict of interest to the executive branch” and harm the school’s interests if they testified against the law signed by DeSantis in May...

The move to bar professors from being expert witnesses in public trials is highly unusual. In a letter to the university, lawyers representing the professors said that faculty retain their First Amendment rights to speech even if their remarks may “make a University’s relationship with funding sources more difficult.”

The attorneys cited U.S. Supreme Court rulings that protect the rights of individuals to disclose information acquired “by virtue of their public employment.”

The academics will file a legal challenge against the university if it does not change its stance, said Paul Donnelly, an attorney representing Smith, McDonald, and Austin.

As Florida’s governor, DeSantis has influence over the funding of public higher-education institutions in the state. He also has the authority to name six of the 13 members on the university’s board of trustees. All appointed trustees are subject to state Senate confirmation...

After the 2020 presidential election, DeSantis and Florida’s Republican-controlled state legislature passed a law that, among other measures, restricts voting by mail and bars everyone except election officials from providing food or water to voters waiting in long lines. In Florida, particularly during early voting in October, casting a ballot can mean standing in line in the hot sun...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/10/30/florida-voting-rights-desantis-...

-------------------------------------------------------

Florida Bars State Professors From Testifying in Voting Rights Case
Michael Wines | Oct. 29, 2021
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/29/us/florida-professors-voting-rights-lawsuit.h...

Murkowski joins Democrats in effort to broaden support for voting rights measure
Alex DeMarban | Nov 2, 2021

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski and three Senate Democrats on Tuesday introduced amendments to the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, creating a bipartisan effort to broaden support for the measure after Republicans have opposed it.

The move came a day before the Senate is scheduled to hold a vote to allow debate on the measure.

Murkowski released the proposed amendments with Democratic Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Dick Durbin of Illinois and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, according to a statement from Leahy’s office.

...Murkowski said in the statement issued by Leahy’s office on Tuesday that the new amendments are a starting point for bipartisan consensus. The proposal incorporates the Native American Voting Rights Act and is designed to address longstanding obstacles that American Indians and Alaska Natives face in the voting process, Murkowski’s statement said.

“Voting rights are fundamental to our democracy and how we protect them defines us as a nation,” she said. “I have supported this particular legislation in previous Congresses and continued to work with my colleagues on it, because it provides a framework through which legitimate voting rights issues can be tackled.”...

https://www.adn.com/politics/2021/11/02/murkowski-joins-democrats-in-effort-to-b...

States are redrawing every congressional district in the U.S. Here is where we stand.
Last updated Nov. 17, 2021, 8:17 p.m. EST
https://www.politico.com/interactives/2022/congressional-redistricting-maps-by-s...

Georgia teens become unlikely warriors in redistricting fight
Jane C Timm | Nov 25, 2021

...dozens of teenagers mobilizing and testifying in Georgia’s redistricting process this year, juggling finals and extracurriculars with special legislative sessions and injecting an unusual level of youth engagement into a typically wonky, insiders' political routine.

In the last few years, a surge of interest in redistricting has raised awareness about the effects of gerrymandering and propelled many states to revamp their map-drawing processes, prompting more young people to get involved around the country. Middle school students in New York created an algorithm for drawing maps, while North Carolina college students lobbied against the gerrymandering that split their campuses into multiple districts...

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/georgia-teens-become-unlikely-warrior...

G.O.P. Cements Hold on Legislatures in Battleground States
Democrats were once able to count on wave elections to win back key statehouses. Republican gerrymandering is making that all but impossible.
Nick Corasaniti | Nov. 25, 2021Updated Nov. 26, 2021

...In Texas, North Carolina, Ohio and Georgia, Republican state lawmakers have either created supermajorities capable of overriding a governor’s veto or whittled down competitive districts so significantly that Republicans’ advantage is virtually impenetrable — leaving voters in narrowly divided states powerless to change the leadership of their legislatures.

Although much of the attention on this year’s redistricting process has focused on gerrymandered congressional maps, the new maps being drafted in state legislatures have been just as distorted.

And statehouses have taken on towering importance: With the federal government gridlocked, these legislatures now serve as the country’s policy laboratory, crafting bills on abortion, guns, voting restrictions and other issues that shape the national political debate.

“This is not your founding fathers’ gerrymander,” said Chris Lamar, a senior legal counsel at the Campaign Legal Center who focuses on redistricting. “This is something more intense and durable and permanent.”.

...Republicans have held both houses of state government in all three places (MI, PA, WI) for the entire decade. They never lost control of a single chamber, even as Democrats won some of the states’ races for president, governor and Senate.

All three of those Northern states are likely to see some shift back toward parity this year, with a new independent commission drawing Michigan’s maps, a state legislative commission drawing maps in Pennsylvania, and a Democratic governor in Wisconsin likely to force the process to be completed by the courts...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/25/us/politics/republican-redistricting-swing-st...

Ungerrymandered: Michigan’s Maps, Independently Drawn, Set Up Fair Fight
Nick Corasaniti | Dec. 29, 2021

A citizen ballot initiative took redistricting out of the hands of partisan legislators. The result: competitive political districts — and an example of how to push back against hyperpartisanship...

...“Michigan’s a jump ball, and this is a jump-ball map,” said Michael Li, a senior counsel who focuses on redistricting at the Brennan Center for Justice. “There’s a lot of competition in this map, which is what you would expect in a state like Michigan.”...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/29/us/politics/michigan-congressional-maps.html

GOP redistricting group signs Chris Christie, Mike Pompeo, and Karl Rove to boost efforts
David M. Drucker | September 17, 2021

...Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, previously a House member from Kansas, are signing on as co-chairmen of National Republican Redistricting Trust. The organization is charged with boosting party efforts in the states to draw congressional maps that maximize the number of seats drawn to elect Republicans while providing legal assistance to defeat opposing lawsuits brought by the Democrats. Karl Rove, a top Republican strategist, is joining NRRT as a senior adviser...

https://www.yahoo.com/now/gop-redistricting-group-signs-chris-151100502.html

The Future of Our Democracy Will Come Down To State Legislatures
Daniel Squadron | January 12, 2022

The dangerous constitutional theory that gives state legislatures unprecedented power over elections seems almost fantastical — it is also a uniquely potent threat to our democracy...

For decades, conservatives have been investing in state legislative elections with a fervor and consistency that progressives failed to match. Now, they’re quietly and methodically using those investments to ensure their state legislative majorities will select the next president — no matter whom their state actually elects....

In state capitals around the country, right-wing lawmakers are preparing to decide the 2024 presidential election. And the GOP knows that if they can maintain control of key state legislatures this November, they can capture the White House in 2024 — no matter what the voters say.

It is not an overstatement: The 2024 presidential election could effectively be decided in 2022.

https://www.democracydocket.com/news/the-future-of-our-democracy-will-come-down-...

>70 margd: Fake electoral certificates prepared for SEVEN states in 2019!
Rs are preparing to override voters "legally" in 2024...

Bill Kristol (Bulwark editor) @BillKristol | 8:25 AM · Jan 15, 2022:
https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1482343171103277065

The forged electoral certificates show coordination across seven states.
Those fake certificates were key to the plan of the Eastman memo and to the Jeffrey Clark DOJ draft letter to Georgia.
The conspiracy involved fraud and force.
At the head of the conspiracy: Donald Trump.

Florida governor proposes special police agency to monitor elections
Lori Rozsa and Beth Reinhard | Jan 18, 2021

...while his fellow Republicans have reacted tepidly, voting rights advocates fear that it will become law and be used to intimidate voters.

The proposed Office of Election Crimes and Security would be part of the Department of State, which answers to the governor. DeSantis is asking the GOP-controlled legislature to allocate nearly $6 million to hire 52 people to “investigate, detect, apprehend, and arrest anyone for an alleged violation” of election laws. They would be stationed at unspecified “field offices throughout the state” and act on tips from “government officials or any other person.”...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/18/florida-governor-proposes-speci...

Elephants in musth, Charlottesville... (cartoon :/ )

https://twitter.com/AgapeLove28/status/1483710830587883526/photo/1

>73 margd: Never-let-a-bad-idea-go-to-waste dept...

GOP gubernatorial candidate David Perdue calls for new election police unit in Georgia
Dan Merica | January 20, 2022
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/20/politics/david-perdue-election-police-force-georg...

Alabama Redistricting Ruling Sparks Hopes for Democrats
Nick Corasaniti and Reid J. Epstein | Jan. 25, 2022

Three federal judges in Alabama ruled that a new congressional map drawn by G.O.P. state lawmakers violated the (56-year-old) Voting Rights Act...by failing to draw more than one congressional district where Black voters might elect a representative of their choice.

Alabama’s Republican attorney general, Steve Marshall, quickly appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit on Tuesday, and asked for a motion to stay the ruling.

Still, the unanimous ruling — signed by two judges appointed by former President Donald J. Trump and one by former President Bill Clinton — was a sign that a key weapon against racial discrimination in redistricting could still be potent, even as other elements of the landmark Voting Rights Act have been hollowed out by Supreme Court decisions. The case hinged on Section 2 of the act, which bars racial discrimination in election procedures.

...in Alabama — where the Black residents make up 27 percent of population yet Black voters are a majority in just one of seven House districts ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/25/us/politics/alabama-redistricting-map-court.h...

North Carolina Court Says G.O.P. Political Maps Violate State Constitution
Michael Wines | Feb. 4, 2022

...The North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday upended Republican efforts to lock in political dominance in the state, saying that congressional and state legislative maps were partisan gerrymanders that violated the State Constitution.

The ruling requires the Republican-controlled legislature not only to submit new maps to the court, but to offer a range of statistical analyses to show “a significant likelihood that the districting plan will give the voters of all political parties substantially equal opportunity to translate votes into seats” in elections.

The requirement rebuffed the argument against redrawing the maps that the legislature offered in oral arguments before the court this week: that the court had no right to say whether and when political maps cross the line from acceptable partisanship into unfairness.

The justices’ 4-3 decision, split along party lines, not only sets a precedent for judging the legality of future maps in the state, but could play an important role in the struggle for control of the House of Representatives in elections this November. The Republican-drawn maps had effectively allotted the party control of at least 10 of the 14 House seats the state will have in the next Congress, even though voters statewide are roughly equally divided between the two parties...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/us/north-carolina-redistricting-gerrymander-u...

Opinion: This is gerrymandering at its worst. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Editorial Board | Updated Feb. 4 at 7:44 p.m.Originally published Feb. 1, 2022

...Republicans pack Democratic cities into tiny blue districts and spread other Democrats across light red areas, diluting their influence.

...Democrats combine urban and suburban areas where the party is most powerful with small-towns and rural areas where Republicans dominate.

...The problem is not just the disproportionate number of seats one party might win; it is also that the politicians elected under these maps face less popular accountability than they should. The nation’s policies are determined not by median voters, who should call the shots, but by electorates that have been artificially skewed district by district. Parties that gerrymander can more easily impose radical ideologies, spurn compromise and ignore the majority’s wishes.

...A better solution to redistricting: Independent commissions...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2022/gerrymandering-examples...

Supreme Court Restores Alabama Voting Map That a Court Said Hurt Black Voters
Adam Liptak | Feb. 7, 2022 Updated Feb. 8, 2022

...The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joining the court’s three liberal members in dissent. (In a concurring opinion on Monday, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, joined by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., said that “the stay order does not make or signal any change to voting rights law.” It was necessary, he wrote, because the lower court had acted too soon before a coming election.)

The Supreme Court’s brief order, which included no reasoning, was provisional, staying a lower court’s decision while the case moves forward. The justices said they would hear Alabama’s appeal of the lower court’s ruling, but they did not say when.

...If the court follows its usual practices, it will schedule arguments in the Alabama case for the fall and issue a decision months later, meaning that the 2022 election would be conducted using the challenged map.

Alabama has seven congressional districts and its voting-age population is about 27 percent Black. In the challenged map, Black voters are in the majority in one district. The lower court, relying on the Voting Rights Act, had ordered the State Legislature to create a second district in which Black voters could elect a representative of their choice...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/07/us/politics/supreme-court-alabama-redistricti...

Georgia Chief Justice David Nahmias of the State Supreme Court has turned in his resignation, to take effect in July. Governor Brian Kemp (R) will appoint Nahmias's replacement.

Reminders: In 2018, Kemp was Secretary of State, overseeing part of his own gubernational election in which voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams (D) was his opponent. In 2020, Kemp appointed interim Senator Kelly Loeffler (R)-- CEO of ICE (stock company), wife of the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, not a resident of Georgia except by what appears to be the loosest definition counting one of her estates as a home, and previously inexperienced serving in government-- to replace Senator Johnny Isakson, who had suddenly retired. (Loeffler lost in her first and only campaign to date to Democratic Reverand Senator Raphael Warnock, whose special election is this upcoming November.)

Governor Kemp himself is up for reelection this November, again with Abrams running against him.

See >2 margd:, >17 margd:, and everything else with "Georgia" for related posts in this thread.

Supreme Court Signals It May Empower Legislatures to Subvert Elections
Cristian Farias | March 9, 2022

The U.S. Supreme Court signaled on Monday that at least four justices are ready and willing to bless a legal theory that was never really taken seriously until the 2020 elections. The so-called independent state legislature doctrine, if adopted, would provide new legal cover for Republicans to use their vast powers in states to subvert elections, shield aggressive gerrymanders, and restrict access to the vote in Democratic strongholds at the local level.

Their feverish idea is that state legislatures should have complete and unfettered control over how federal elections are run and regulated, shielded even from the oversight of state courts. Against the backdrop of efforts by President Donald Trump’s supporters to reverse the last presidential election and prepare for the next one, the doctrine would give carte blanche to Republican-run legislatures in swing states like Georgia and Wisconsin, which the GOP has gerrymandered, to ensure it never loses...

https://boltsmag.org/independent-state-legislature-doctrine/

Aaron Blake @AaronBlake | 8:08 AM · Mar 10, 2022
A new poll shows 1 in 6 local election officials say they have been threatened -- more than half in-person

https://brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/local-election-officials-sur...
Pie chart, bar graph ( https://twitter.com/AaronBlake/status/1501907836732948481/photo/1 )

Texas mail ballot rejections soar under new restrictions
PAUL J. WEBER and ACACIA CORONADO | March 16, 2022

...Roughly 13% (23,000) of mail ballots returned in the March 1 primary were discarded and uncounted across 187 counties in Texas. While historical primary comparisons are lacking, the double-digit rejection rate would be far beyond what is typical in a general election, when experts say anything above 2% is usually cause for attention.

... the rejection rate was higher in counties that lean Democratic (15.1%) than Republican (9.1%).

...At least 17 other states in the coming months will cast ballots under tougher election laws

...Last week, AP reported that 27,000 ballots had been flagged in Texas for initial rejection, meaning those voters still had time to “fix” their ballot for several days after the primary and have it count. But the final figures suggest most voters did not.

The most rejections were around Houston, a Democratic stronghold, where Harris County elections officials reported that nearly 7,000 mail ballots — about 19% — were discarded. During the last midterm elections in 2018, Texas’ largest county only rejected 135 mail ballots. Harris County elections officials said they received more than 8,000 calls since January from voters seeking help, which they attributed to “confusion and frustration” over the new requirements...

https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-elections-texas-voting-only-on...

Black voters suffer another significant loss in the Supreme Court
The justices are concerned that Wisconsin’s legislative maps may give too much political power to Black people.
Ian Millhiser | Mar 23, 2022

...The equal protection clause of the Constitution largely forbids mapmakers from considering race when drawing legislative lines. But the Voting Rights Act also forbids maps that dilute the voting power of racial minorities, even if those maps were not intentionally drawn to diminish the political power of voters of color.

These two requirements often come into tension. In order to draw maps that do not unlawfully dilute minority voting power, mapmakers often have to pay very close attention to the state’s racial demographics. For this reason, the Supreme Court held in Cooper v. Harris (2017) that a state has some “breathing room” to draw maps that benefit racial minorities.

Under Cooper, when a state “invokes the VRA to justify race-based districting,” its maps will be upheld if the state had a “strong basis in evidence” for concluding that it needed to consider race while drawing its maps. In close cases, Cooper suggests that judges should err on the side of upholding maps drawn in order to comply with the Voting Rights Act.

The Court’s new decision in Wisconsin Legislature, however, appears to flip this rule on its head, applying a presumption in favor of fewer majority-minority districts. The majority opinion claims that the state supreme court erred because it did not consider “whether a race-neutral alternative that did not add a seventh majority-black district would deny black voters equal political opportunity.”

...law professor and election law expert Rick Hasen writes that “the way this case was handled is quite bizarre and is another signal of a conservative supermajority of the Supreme Court showing increasing hostility to section 2 of the Voting Rights Act” — there are a number of procedural problems with the Wisconsin Legislature opinion.

For one thing, the Court reaches this new, precedent-setting conclusion despite only minimal briefing — the case arose on the Court’s “shadow docket,” a mix of historically very brief orders and emergency rulings that the justices decide on a expedited basis.

The Court, moreover, raced to decide issues that were barely litigated in the lower courts. As Justice Sotomayor notes in dissent, the state supreme court selected the map at issue here, and it explicitly “preserved the possibility that an appropriate plaintiff could bring an equal protection or VRA challenge” to that map in the future...

Finally, it’s unclear how Wednesday’s decision can be squared with the so-called “Purcell principle.” In Purcell v. Gonzalez (2006), the Court warned that judges should be reluctant to hand down decisions impacting elections as the election itself draws nigh.

...The Court, in other words, appears to have gone out of its way to decide an important voting rights case, with minimal briefing, and on an extraordinarily expedited schedule. It also did so despite warnings from conservative justices that judges should be more cautious in election years...

https://www.vox.com/2022/3/23/22993107/supreme-court-wisconsin-race-gerrymander-...
_______________________________________________

ETA:

Opinion: The Supreme Court isn’t bothering to hide its designs on our democracy
Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent | March 23, 2022

...here’s a deep tension here. On one hand, it’s true that the courts — including the Supreme Court — stood fast against Donald Trump’s effort to destroy our political order and upheld the rule of law under extraordinary duress. It’s a serious mistake to downplay or delegitimize that.

On the other, the Supreme Court is “basically removing all the obstacles in the way of Republicans ruling as a political minority in many states and the country at large,” Lee Drutman, a senior fellow at New America, told us.

The conservative majority’s hostility to voting rights has left state courts as a crucial place for those rights to be protected — if not reliably, then at least sometimes. In recent cases, those courts, interpreting their own states’ constitutions, have acted in ways that made voting easier and not harder, and maps fairer and less skewed.

At times, the U.S. Supreme Court has let those decisions stand. But the Wisconsin case appears to demonstrate a readiness to overrule state courts in ways that are legally questionable but play to Republicans’ raw political advantage. And the high court’s conservatives don’t seem shy about it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/23/supreme-court-wisconsin-gerry...

🚨BREAKING: Montana Court GRANTS @MTDems motion to block GOP's voter suppression laws that eliminate Election Day voter registration; narrows eligible voter IDs, and bans certain types of ballot assistance. Great result for voters in Montana!
- Marc E. Elias (Democracy Docket) @marceelias | 3:16 PM · Apr 6, 2022
---------------------------------------

Montana Voter Suppression Bills (MDP)
Montana Democratic Party v. Jacobsen
Filed: April 18, 2021

Lawsuit brought by the Montana Democratic Party challenging the passage of three voter suppression bills:
House Bill 176 eliminates Election Day voter registration;
Senate Bill 169 narrows eligible voter IDs, particularly limiting the use of student IDs; and
House Bill 530 bans certain types of ballot assistance.

...The court granted a preliminary injunction ..., blocking them as litigation continues...

https://www.democracydocket.com/cases/montana-voter-suppression-bills/

! once-in-a-decade !

Rick Wilson (Lincoln Project) @TheRickWilson | 3:19 PM · Apr 11, 2022:
Let me translate for you what the greatest abrogation of legislative authority in the state of Florida that I’ve seen in 30 years looks like: Ron DeSantis will produce a legislative map that knocks out three African-American members of Congress.

----------------------------------------------------

Legislature makes unusual move, says DeSantis will map Florida congressional districts By Ana Ceballos Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau Updated April 11, 2022

Florida’s Republican legislative leaders announced on Monday that they are not crafting a new congressional map but will rather defer to Gov. Ron DeSantis to draft new maps that will be to his liking. The unusual move comes a week before state lawmakers are scheduled to head back to Tallahassee to address the state’s redistricting maps after DeSantis vetoed a congressional map approved by the GOP-dominated Legislature last month. Historically, the Legislature had led the redistricting process. The change to the status quo shows just how much influence and power DeSantis wields over legislators and the once-in-a-decade process of redrawing lines for congressional districts.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article26031...

The Extreme Bias Of Florida’s New Congressional Map
Nathaniel Rakich | 21 April 2022

...On Thursday, the Florida Legislature finally caved to (Gov. Ron) DeSantis’s wishes and passed one of his proposed congressional maps — the last major piece in the national redistricting puzzle. And befitting DeSantis’s national reputation (and ambitions), it is a dream map for partisan Republicans, single-handedly adding four new Republicans to the U.S. House of Representatives. But while DeSantis’s uncompromising insistence on maximizing Republican power may give him a nice story to tell if he runs for president, it could also be the map’s undoing in court.

Florida’s soon-to-be congressional map (it will go into effect once DeSantis signs it) creates 18 seats with a FiveThirtyEight partisan lean1 of R+5 or redder and only eight seats with a partisan lean of D+5 or bluer. (The remaining two seats fall into the “highly competitive” category between R+5 and D+5.)

(Choropleth map of the partisan lean of districts in Governor Ron DeSantis’s proposed new congressional map in Florida, showing a dramatic partisan advantage for Republicans.)

This map will significantly shake up Florida’s congressional delegation, as it virtually guarantees that Democrats will lose three of their House seats in Florida: The 7th District goes from a D+5 partisan lean to R+14, the 13th District now has a partisan lean of R+12, and Rep. Al Lawson’s North Florida district is completely refigured into a solidly Republican seat. In addition, the new congressional seat that Florida gained from the 2020 census — numbered the 18th — is dark red under this map, for a GOP gain of four seats in total.

This is about as big of a Republican bias that Florida’s congressional map could have — and darn close to the most egregiously partisan map in the country. The map has an efficiency gap of R+20, which means Republicans would be expected to win 20 percent more seats under this map than under a hypothetical, perfectly fair map. Because Florida has 28 congressional seats, that translates to a 5.7-seat Republican bias — right on Texas’s heels for the “honor” of having the biggest bias of any state...

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-extreme-bias-of-floridas-new-congressio...

Florida Judge Finds DeSantis-Drawn Congressional Map Unconstitutional
Sarah Rumpf | May 11th, 2022

...Judge J. Layne Smith of Florida’s Second Judicial Circuit (Leon County, where the state capital of Tallahassee is located), ...was originally appointed by former Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) and elevated to his current court by DeSantis himself.

...Judge Smith cited 2015 Florida Supreme Court case that upheld the current boundary lines of the 5th congressional district, pursuant to the 2010 Fair Districts amendment to the Florida Constitution that required districts to be compact and logical but also prohibited the intentional diminishment of minority votes.

...Smith called for an adapted version of a map previously submitted by Harvard Professor Stephen Ansolabehere, which preserves a lot of DeSantis’ map but preserves the core of Lawson’s (49% black) district. Plaintiffs are likely to still be not completely satisfied, as this map still partially dilutes other majority-minority districts, like the Orlando-area one currently held by Rep. Val Demings (D-FL). Demings is challenging Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) instead of running for re-election and numerous contenders from both parties are running to take her seat...

https://www.mediaite.com/news/florida-judge-finds-desantis-drawn-congressional-m...

>80 margd: contd.

Laurence Tribe (Harvard Law) tribelaw | 11:10 AM · Jul 5, 2022:
I’m honored to be in full agreement with the great @judgeluttig on this fundamental matter. My op-ed, coauthored with @DennisAftergut, explains the fatal constitutional defects of the misleadingly named “independent state legislature” theory and spells out how to confront it.

Quote Tweet
@judgeluttig @judgeluttig | 10:56 AM · Jul 5, 2022:
Professor Laurence H. Tribe and I understand the perilous consequences for American democracy of the Supreme Court's embrace of the so-called "independent state legislature" theory exactly the same way. In a word, the theory itself is unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court is poised to cut the heart out of majority rule
Laurence H. Tribe and Dennis Aftergut | July 5, 2022

...In Moore (v Harper), Republican state legislators petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, advancing a debunked right-wing doctrine innocuously labeled the “independent state legislature” theory. It maintains that state courts can play no role in overseeing their legislatures in federal election matters.

...Four justices — Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh — had previously signaled support for this idea. One more justice would provide a majority to give state legislatures absolute control of electoral votes in presidential elections....

https://latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-07-05/supreme-court-independent-legislatu...

Documentary film ‘Suppressed and Sabotaged’ by Robert Greenwald. 44 minutes

https://youtu.be/9EGuGClzZCE

The Brennan Center on the Independent Legislature Theory, which threatens ultimately to end this republic within the next few months with the decision of Moore v. Harper. To be intentionally inflammatory about it, let's just say it could essentially write "Hang Mike Pence" into the Constitutional jurisprudence.

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/spread-word-about-danger...
(Spread universally, yesterday, please.)

cf.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/06/the-most-terrifying-case-o...
https://theconversation.com/the-independent-state-legislature-doctrine-could-rev...
(Short and sweet)

https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Independent-State-Le... (Meaty, yet digestible)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RccLFGUARh8 (discussion in passing in second half of the episode of GBH's Greater Boston which tackles the final January 6 hearing, and ends with the host and Harvard Law's Lawrence Tribe both musing about needing info on plane tickets to New Zealand).

and especially
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9YrPe2Vr84 (which should be required watching for every American, though the short attention span set may have to start an hour or so in). (transcript for those who must, but I warn you that after the first hour, it quickly becomes a riveting watch you don't want to miss: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interview/j-michael-luttig/ )

And finally, how ISLT and the Eastman Memo relate (such that my clickbait headline above is not entirely inaccurate). https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/the-fringe-legal-theory-heading-to-the-...
Same hydra, different venue. They're out for all the marbles this time. Inform yourselves accordingly.

Intimidation in AZ and FL:

Josh Marshall @joshtpm | 12:44 AM · Oct 22, 2022:
Founder and reigning monarch at TPM. Lapsed historian. Polk Award winner. ✡️

So excellent. armed militia freaks in tactical gear near the ballot drop off boxes to make sure there aint no fraudin'

Quote Tweet
Nicole Grigg @NicoleSGrigg | 11:34 PM · Oct 21, 2022:
Reporter for @abc15 📺 AZ native 🌵Mama x 🧒🏽🧒🏽👧🏽 ASU Cronkite grad ☀️ 👿 Previous 🎤 MT:OH:FL:AZ

BREAKING: @mcsoaz tells @abc15 they are looking into several individuals watching a voter drop box in Mesa, AZ.

I’m told they have magazine clips, dressed in tactical gear, fully disguised. @Garrett_Archer

0:10 ( https://twitter.com/NicoleSGrigg/status/1583663180013674497 )
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Videos of stunned Floridians being arrested on voter fraud charges sparks renewed criticism (2:36)
Wayne Washington / Palm Beach Post | 21 Oct 2022

Miami judge dismisses voter fraud case trumpeted by DeSantis
The Palm Beach Post found the majority of those in that first wave of arrests are Black
Opponents of the new Florida election crimes unit are calling for change

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/2022/10/21/videos-spark-criticism-flori...

>91 margd: contd.

This evening's Mesa drop box watchers covered up their license plate.

Photo ( https://twitter.com/Garrett_Archer/status/1584049600834392064 )

- The AZ - abc15 - Data Guru @Garrett_Archer | 1:10 AM · Oct 23, 2022

>92 margd: contd.

Welcome to Mesa, AZ where gun toting people videotape voters’ faces and license plates at ballot drop boxes while they cover their faces and license plates. This man was there on Friday and Saturday night.

0:25 ( https://twitter.com/__8675309___/status/1584197707727392768 )

- Elëa @__8675309___ | 10:59 AM · Oct 23, 2022
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https://twitter.com/__8675309___/status/1584197715520458785/photo/1
https://twitter.com/__8675309___/status/1584197715520458785/photo/2
0:35 ( https://twitter.com/__8675309___/status/1584197795195387904 )
1:55 ( https://twitter.com/__8675309___/status/1584198219638022144/video/1 )
2;20 ( https://twitter.com/__8675309___/status/1584198219638022144/video/2 )

Elëa @__8675309___ | 11:33 AM · Oct 23, 2022:
These two gun toting yahoos from last night were the same two wearing tactical vests on Friday night.
Photos
https://twitter.com/__8675309___/status/1584206346416635904/photo/1
https://twitter.com/__8675309___/status/1584206346416635904/photo/2
https://twitter.com/__8675309___/status/1584206346416635904/photo/3
https://twitter.com/__8675309___/status/1584206346416635904/photo/4

Elëa @__8675309___ | 2:36 AM · Oct 24, 2022:
Here is the same guy at the AZ Capitol in August crying that MAR A LAGO was raided by the FBI.
Photos
https://twitter.com/__8675309___/status/1584433752435937281/photo/1
https://twitter.com/__8675309___/status/1584433752435937281/photo/2

Correction: FBI office. He is with two of the women from this weekend at Mesa drop box.
14:58 ( https://twitter.com/__8675309___/status/1584440018059243520 )

Two right-wing political operatives have pleaded guilty in Ohio to a telecommunications fraud charge for arranging thousands of robocalls that were intended to discourage residents of minority neighborhoods from voting by mail in 2020, prosecutors said. https://nyti.ms/3DaILEC

- The New York Times @nytimes | 2:50 PM · Oct 25, 2022

>93 margd: contd

Judge Allows Arizona Vigilantes To Continue Monitoring Drop Boxes
Democracy Docket | October 28, 2022

...While the judge found that the “Defendants’ conduct does not fall into any traditionally recognized category of voter intimidation” and there was no “evidence that Defendants’ conduct constitutes a true threat,” he “acknowledged that Plaintiffs and many voters are legitimately alarmed by the observers.” In the end, though, the judge decided this alarm does not constitute grounds for an order temporarily preventing the defendants from further engaging in this behavior. The plaintiffs have already appealed this decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/judge-allows-arizona-vigilantes-to-c...

>96 margd:

Andrea Junker @Strandjunker | 12:00 PM · Oct 30, 2022:
I need someone to explain to me why it’s legal for armed, masked men to threaten people who want to vote, but illegal for people to give voters water to drink.

Explain it to me like I’m in kindergarten.

>97 margd: "Sometimes the bad guys are in charge. That's when voting is harder, maybe scarier, but as important as it ever is for the adults who vote."

The last time Dems controlled Michigan's House and Senate was 1984...

Michigan Legislature: Redistricting paves way for Democrats to seize control
Mike Wilkinson | November 9, 2022

Democrats’ victory in legislative races has roots in gerrymandering reform approved in 2018

In 2018, similar turnout resulted in GOP majorities in the House and Senate districts drawn by Republicans {19-17 in the Senate and 58-52 in the House}

Tuesday, after independent redistricting, similar turnout resulted in Democratic control

https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/michigan-legislature-redistricting-...
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THE DAY BEFORE the 8 Nov 2022 election, Michigan Republicans were still contesting map drawn by a redistricting commission per constitution as revised in 2018 by referendum.
http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(4g0vlduhcl4zcdl2j4eaxqze))/mileg.aspx?page=GetO...

U.S. Supreme Court dismisses Michigan redistricting challenge to Congress map
Melissa Nann Burke | 7 Nov 2022

...(Michigan) Republicans had argued that the congressional map unjustifiably deviated from constitutional requirements for apportionment by failing to have more equal population among the 13 districts, pointing to a roughly 1,200-person difference between the largest and smallest districts by population...

Mathematicians Crunch Numbers to Demonstrate Texas Gerrymandering
A mathematician with Math for Unbiased Maps TX explained to the Texas Senate
how the group was able to mathematically prove how the state’s voting district maps are biased

1:57 ( https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1620361999795322881 )

Republicans Face Setbacks in Push to Tighten Voting Laws on College Campuses
Neil Vigdor NYT | March 29, 2023

...Between the 2018 and 2022 elections in Idaho, registration jumped 66% among 18- and 19-year-old voters, the largest increase in the nation, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. The nonpartisan research organization, based at Tufts University, focuses on youth civic engagement.

Out of 17 states that generally require voter ID, Idaho will join Texas and only four others — North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee — that do not accept any student IDs, according to the Voting Rights Lab, a group that tracks legislation.

Arizona and Wisconsin have rigid rules on student IDs that colleges and universities have struggled to meet, though some Wisconsin schools have been successful.

Proponents of such restrictions often say they are needed to prevent voter fraud, even though instances of fraud are rare. Two lawsuits were filed in state and federal court shortly after Idaho’s Republican governor, Brad Little, signed the student ID prohibition into law on March 15...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/republicans-face-setbacks-push-tighten-113821207.html

Gerrymandering is a top issue in Wisconsin.

“Liberal Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz crushed her opponent on Tuesday in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election. The outcome of the contest will likely determine the fate of abortion rights and other key issues in the top presidential battleground.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/04/wisconsins-supreme-court-race-00090253

She won with 55.5% of the vote.

Results map:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/2023_Wisconsin_Supreme...

The green is Protasiewicz.

The Washington Post @washingtonpost | 11:34 AM · Apr 20, 2023

Exclusive:
A top Republican legal strategist told a roomful of GOP donors over the weekend that conservatives must band together to
limit voting on college campuses,
same-day voter registration and
automatic mailing of ballots to registered voters,
according to a copy of her presentation reviewed by The Post.

https://wapo.st/41sUw4o

Michigan Rs proposed something similar: reduce impact of Detroit area in state referenda.

Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️ (Harvard Law) tribelaw | 9:17 AM · Apr 25, 2023:

Ahead of an effort to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution with a ballot measure that would go to voters in November, Ohio Republicans are advancing a ballot measure to raise the threshold for passage to 60 percent.

Opinion | Republicans Don’t Like the Political Consequences of Dobbs. So They’re Changing the Rules.
The party has opened new fronts in the war for minority rule.
nytimes.com

Texas Senate passes bill to allow secretary of state to overturn Harris County {Houston} elections
Rose Horowitch | May 3, 2023

The Texas Legislature is advancing a bill that would allow the secretary of state to redo elections in Harris County, where a number of Democratic candidates posted strong midterm election results and which has been dogged by GOP claims of election mismanagement.

The Republican-controlled Senate passed the bill Tuesday and sent it to the state House. If it is enacted, it would allow the secretary of state to toss out election results in the state's largest county and call a new vote if there is "good cause" to believe that at least 2% of polling places ran out of usable ballots during voting hours.

The bill would apply only to counties with populations greater than 2.7 million, effectively singling out Harris County, which is home to Houston and has by far the largest population in the state, at nearly 5 million. In recent decades, Harris County has become more Democratic...

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/texas-senate-passes-bill-allowing...

Of course, in the last election, it was important that every county had one and only one drop box, for equality's sake, but now we need to mess with the vote only in the biggest county.

‘This Is a Really Big Deal’: How College Towns Are Decimating the GOP
Growing population in America’s highly educated enclaves has led to huge gains for the Democratic Party. And Republicans are scrambling for answers.
Charlie Mahtesian and Madi Alexander | 07/21/2023

...In state after state, fast-growing, traditionally liberal college counties like Dane are flexing their muscles, generating higher turnout and ever greater Democratic margins. They’ve already played a pivotal role in turning several red states blue — and they could play an equally decisive role in key swing states next year.

...The American Communities Project, which has developed a typology of counties, designates 171 independent cities and counties as “college towns.” ...

Of those 171 places, 38 have flipped from red to blue since the 2000 presidential election. Just seven flipped the other way, from blue to red, and typically by smaller margins. Democrats grew their percentage point margins in 117 counties, while 54 counties grew redder. By raw votes, the difference was just as stark: The counties that grew bluer increased their margins by an average of 16,253, while Republicans increased their margins by an average of 4,063...

...There’s no single factor driving the college town trend. In some places, it’s an influx of left-leaning, highly educated newcomers, drawn to growing, cutting-edge industries advanced by university research or the vibrant quality of life. In others, it’s rising levels of student engagement on growing campuses. Often, it’s a combination of both.

What’s clear is that these places are altering the political calculus across the national map. Combine university counties with heavily Democratic big cities and increasingly blue suburbs, and pretty soon you have a state that’s out of the Republican Party’s reach.

None of this has gone unnoticed by the GOP, which is responding in ways that reach beyond traditional tensions between conservative lawmakers and liberal universities — such as targeting students’ voting rights, creating additional barriers to voter access or redrawing maps to dilute or limit the power of college communities. But there are limits to what those efforts can accomplish. They aren’t geared toward growing the GOP vote, merely toward suppressing Democratic totals. And they aren’t addressing the structural problems created by the rising tide of college-town votes — students are only part of the overall phenomenon...

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/07/21/gop-college-towns-00106974

Sam Levine srl | 1:28 PM · Aug 4, 2023:
Voting rights reporter @guardianus . Formerly @huffpost
. sam.levine@theguardian.com. I write a weekly voting rights newsletter: https://bit.ly/3lY5SeK

Breaking news: Mississippi's policy of permanently barring people convicted of certain crimes from voting is unconstitutional and amounts to "cruel and unusual punishment," a panel of judges on the 5th circuit ruled Friday

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca5.190884/gov.uscourts.ca5...
Text Conclusion ( https://twitter.com/srl/status/1687515967696359426/photo/1 )
Text action ( https://twitter.com/srl/status/1687515967696359426/photo/2 )

Georgia judge blocks provision prohibiting the distribution of water at voting polls
The judge also blocked a requirement that voters include their date of birth on absentee ballots

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/georgia-judge-blocks-provision-prohibiting-dist...

Florida redistricting lawsuit overturns DeSantis map, empowers Black voters
Andrew Pantazi | 2 Sept 2023

...DeSantis had wagered the state’s Fair Districts Amendment against the U.S. Constitution, arguing mandatory protections for Black voters violated the Equal Protection Clause; Second Judicial Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh flatly rejected that gamble, rendering a decision that could reverberate from the halls of Tallahassee to the streets of Jacksonville, paving the way for a new, Democratic district where Jacksonville’s Black voters have more influence.

...The ruling could restore a district similar to the one the Florida Supreme Court ordered last decade that stretched from Jacksonville to Tallahassee and Gadsden County: that district previously elected U.S. Rep. Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee.

...A joint agreement between the state and plaintiffs should ensure a quicker-than-normal appeals process and allow a new map before 2024’s elections unless the appellate courts rule before then.

...Michael Li, senior counsel for the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program, said that the ruling wasn’t a surprise since the governor had already admitted his map violated the state constitution,..“That shouldn’t obscure the fact, though, that this is a huge win for Black voters,” he said. “The dismantling of FL-05 was one of the most brazen acts of discrimination against Black voters this decade. States like Alabama and Louisiana didn’t create new Black opportunity districts, but Florida is one of the few places, at the congressional level at least, where a state proactively dismantled one.”...

https://jaxtrib.org/2023/09/02/florida-redistricting-lawsuit-overturns-desantis-...

Alabama's congressional map is struck down again for diluting Black voters' power
Heard on Morning Edition
Hansi Lo Wang | September 5, 2023

...For the 2024 elections, the judges {panel} have assigned court-appointed experts to draw three potential maps that each include two districts where Black voters have a realistic opportunity of electing their preferred candidate. Those redistricting proposals are due to the court by Sept. 25.

All sides in this case will be able to challenge the proposals produced by the court's "special master" and cartographer, the judges have said. A hearing on any objections is tentatively set for Oct. 3.

And the state of Alabama has previously signaled in court filings it would appeal this kind of ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, where a majority of justices upheld the panel's order in June.

The panel's latest ruling is part of a long-running legal fight over a redistricting plan that could help change the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives after next year's elections...

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/05/1193749552/alabama-congressional-map

Supreme Court rejects Alabama’s attempt to avoid creating a second Black majority congressional district
Ariane de Vogue and Fredreka Schouten, CNN | September 26, 2023

...The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an emergency bid from Alabama, setting the stage for a new congressional map likely to include a second Black majority district to account for the state’s 27% Black population...

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/26/politics/supreme-court-alabama-redistricting/inde...

North Carolina’s new GOP gerrymander could flip four House seats
Republicans are likely to pick up at least three seats, bolstering their thin House majority.
Zach Montellaro and Ally Mutnick | 10/25/2023

North Carolina’s new map, which was approved Wednesday by the state legislature,... packs as many Democratic voters as possible into three blue districts, while distributing Republicans across the remaining districts to make sure they remain largely out of reach for Democrats. The maps were drawn so Republicans would hold a strong majority of the state’s seats even in particularly bad years for the GOP.

...After the decennial census, the Republican-controlled state legislature drew a congressional map in 2021 that was heavily tilted toward the GOP — and the liberal state Supreme Court struck it down as an illegal partisan gerrymander. That led to the court-drawn map in use last year.

But Republicans flipped control of the state Supreme Court in the midterms, and the new conservative majority decided to rehear that decision — a highly unusual move. That court ultimately ruled that it would no longer litigate partisan gerrymandering, giving the Republican legislature a free pass to draw lines to their own advantage.

(The U.S. Supreme Court similarly ruled in 2019, in a case challenging North Carolina’s congressional map at the time, that the federal judiciary also wouldn’t police partisan gerrymandering claims.)...

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/25/north-carolina-congressional-map-gop-ge...

Adam Carlson @admcrlsn | 6:26 AM · Oct 29, 2023
Recovering political pollster (formerly gsg ), aspiring demographer, election nerd & Bay Ridge Democrat.
https://twitter.com/admcrlsn/status/1718574988410650879

With NC officially redrawing its congressional map last week, here’s the current 2024 House landscape (pending a crucial potential redraw in NY)
Ratings are based on a flat avg of the latest ratings from:
• Cook
• Inside Elections
• Sabato’s Crystal Ball
• Split Ticket
Table 2024 House Landscape (https://twitter.com/admcrlsn/status/1718574988410650879/photo/1)

A year is an eternity in politics. A lot can & will change.
But as it stands today, for Dems to win back the majority they would need to win all of the races in which they are currently favored + 11 of 13 Toss-Up races.
Which is why the potential redraw in NY is so critical.
Tallies, if D/R win their seats ( https://twitter.com/admcrlsn/status/1718575165972394330/photo/1 )

Last year, NY’s top court struck down the Dem gerrymander 4-3, and a special master drew the district boundaries we have today
Dems filed a lawsuit against that map, arguing it should’ve been temporary & the independent redistricting commission should be able to draw a new map.

That commission is unlikely to be able to pass a map, so Ds in the state leg would then be able to draw their preferred map
That same court will take up this case starting 11/15
Crucially, the author & swing vote in that 4-3 ruling has been replaced by a more progressive judge

In a redraw, Ds could flip as many as 6 R-held seats — which could make all the difference in who controls the House in 2025.
If Ds redraw the NY map to flip 6 seats, they would only need to win 6 Toss-Up seats (or seats where Rs are currently favored) to win back the majority.

Dems could also potentially benefit from redraws in:
• GA (though Dems may not end up actually gaining any seats)
• LA (may not happen in time for 2024)
• TX (unlikely to happen in time for 2024)
• WI (new liberal majority on supreme court could strike down current map)

Long story short:
• The new NC gerrymander put Rs in a better position to hold the House
• As of now the House is looking like a toss-up — it’ll likely come down to a handful of key districts
• A NY gerrymander would massively improve Ds’ chances of taking back the majority

:(

Florida appeals court reverses ruling on DeSantis’s congressional maps
Nick Robertson - 12/01/23

...The state’s 5th District is at the center of the case. The pre-2020 census district spanned from parts of Tallahassee across the Florida-Georgia border to Jacksonville, while the DeSantis version of the district would instead include a tightly-packed section of parts of Jacksonville and its southeastern suburbs, moving down the coast to St. Augustine.

The old 5th District had a Black population of about 46 percent, while the new district is just 12.8 percent Black — with the remaining Black population split across other districts with significantly fewer Black voters than the previous district.

The lower court ruled in September that the new maps “diminish {the} ability {of a racial minority} to elect representatives of their choice.” But in Friday’s opinion, the appellate court ruled that is not the case.

...plaintiffs expect to appeal the case to the state Supreme Court...

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4338182-appeals-court-reverses-ruling-d...

Inside Trump’s Plot to Corrupt the 2024 Election With ‘Garbage’ Data‘

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-election-plans-cor...

With the demise of Crosscheck, and as larger, conservative-led states have walked away from ERIC, pro-Trump activists like Mitchell have promoted a new tool, dubbed the EagleAI Network, for states that have left the nonprofit. EagleAI was developed in 2022 by John W. Richards, a medical doctor and health care CEO from Alabama.
…

Garber says tools like EagleAI that can facilitate mass voter-eligibility challenges are “concerning” because of the effect they could have on election administration. “The people who run our elections have a lot to do. And when they get hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of challenges at the same time, they often have to investigate and come to determinations on those, which takes them away from their other really important work.” He adds that such tools can also “spread disinformation by giving the appearance that there’s something wrong with the voter rolls when, in fact, there isn’t.”