Author Archives: ELECTIONLAWCENTER.COM

To avoid wasting taxpayer dollars in low turnout elections, North Carolina State Board denies appeal for more early voting sites

This article in the Winston Salem Journal highlights the determination of number of early voting sites to reduce the high costs of operating multiple sites in low turnout elections.  More sites = More costs and less money for election day.  Trying to reduce the cost of elections in a tough economy and tight budget is not exactly evidence of racial discrimination.


During a teleconference Wednesday, the N.C. State Board of
Elections voted unanimously to deny Fleming El-Amin’s appeal to open two
additional early voting sites for the Winston-Salem primary election. Low voter turnout at previous Winston-Salem primary elections was
a key theme in the discussion by the five members of the state board,
which has a Republican majority.

…Paul Foley, a Republican from Winston-Salem who serves on the state
board, said he attended the Forsyth County Board of Elections meeting
and had a good perspective on the request. He said only 297 voters
showed up for early voting at the 2009 municipal primary election, with
overall voter turnout at 3.66 percent.

…State board member Joshua Malcolm, a Democrat from Robeson County,
said the Forsyth County Board of Elections would not be out any money if
it offered additional sites since the city is responsible for the
election costs.

“Wasting taxpayer money is wasting taxpayer money, regardless of where it’s coming from,” Foley argued….


“Redistricting plan reflects Alaska’s political reality”

This op-ed piece provides some history on previous Democrat redistricting in our nation’s largest state and why author believes the proposed redistricting maps reflect political reality in Alaska.
The 2002 Democrat redistricting map was neither fair nor equitable in terms of state Senate representation. The 55,000 Republican voter registration advantage was buried in a 10-10 Senate in 2010.

Today, Democrats have dwindled to 69,925 in Alaska while Republican registrations have swelled to 133,317. With a 63,392 registration advantage, Republicans have elected twenty-six representatives and thirteen senators.

The 2012 Alaska Redistricting map reflected both our changing demographics and our politics. The July 14, 2013, proclamation map created districts with even smaller population deviations for strict compliance with our Alaska State Constitution.

Let’s acknowledge this political change. Alaskan voters deserve this fair and equitable map for the balance of the decade.

Alabama has a new but highly experienced Secretary of State

After the recent departure of former Secretary of State Beth Chapman, a new Secretary of State is sworn into the position in Alabama.  However, the new Secretary is Jim Bennett, not a newcomer to the position.  

In a ceremony today with Governor Robert Bentley, Jim Bennett was sworn in as Alabama’s 52nd Secretary of State. Bennett, who previously held the post from 1993 to 2003, was already the longest continuously serving Secretaries of State in recent history and is among the longest serving secretaries of state in Alabama history.

“Felon accused of voting in 2012 election”

The Times-News in North Carolina reports that a convicted felon in Alamance County was charged with illegally casting a ballot in the 2012 general election. 

…Casting a ballot as a convicted felon is a class I felony and
punishable by up to 59 months in prison for those with the most severe
criminal records. According to state sentencing laws, someone convicted
of voting as a felon can also be placed on probation.
Over the last five years, more than 50,000 felons’ names have been
removed from voter rolls, a document by the State Board of Elections
said. In 2011 and 2012, 19,424 convicted felons’ names were removed from
registration lists, the document said.

Left Wing Common Cause Demands DOJ Action in NC

The Common Cause presser:


Common Cause Urges Holder to Challenge North Carolina Voter Restrictions


 


Attorney General Eric Holder should seek a court order overturning North Carolina’s discriminatory new voting laws and requiring that future changes in the Tar Heel State’s election statutes be cleared in advance by the Justice Department, Common Cause said Tuesday.


“The attorney general’s strong response to a new Texas law imposing discriminatory Voter ID requirements has put states on notice that the administration intends to continue enforcing the Voting Rights Act,” said Arn Pearson, Common Cause’s vice president for policy and litigation. “Mr. Holder needs to back up those words with action in North Carolina as well.”


North Carolina lawmakers approved a bill last week reducing early voting days, eliminating Election Day voter registration, repealing a program that allowed high school students to register before they turn 18, and dramatically restricting the types of voter identification that officials will accept at the polls.


“It’s clear that this legislation was written to make it more difficult for tens of thousands of North Carolinians to exercise their right to vote. It will disproportionately impact minority voters and students, as well the elderly and those with disabilities who may not be able to obtain the kinds of ID it requires or get to a polling place on one of the designated early voting days,” Pearson said.


“These are exactly the kinds of maneuvers the Voting Rights Act is designed to prevent,” Pearson said. “Until the Supreme Court’s ruling in June in Shelby County v. Holder, the Justice Department had authority to block them through a process called pre-clearance. The Texas and North Carolina laws that have emerged since that decision demonstrate why pre-clearance is so important and why the department should go into court now to restore it.”


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Common Cause is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to restoring the core values of American democracy, reinventing an open, honest, and accountable government that works for the public interest, and empowering ordinary people to make their voices heard

Welcoming Section 3 Litigation

“We hope that Texas and the other states targeted by the DOJ will put up a vigorous defense. We have to admit, however, that in one sense we are happy to see Holder’s lawsuits, as opposed to a congressional effort to revive Section 5. In all likelihood, new voting-rights laws would either curtail perfectly reasonable election-integrity laws (such as those requiring voter identification) or facilitate racially gerrymandered and segregated districts (the principal use to which Section 5 has been put).”

National Review Online

“Yes, the RNC Really DID Support Federal Oversight of State Elections”

 PJ Rule of Law:

“Yes, the RNC really did support federal preclearance oversight of state elections, just as Eric Holder does now.  When this support ended is an unanswered question after the RNC on Friday unequivocally stated it opposes any fix to Section 4 that would place states such as Texas, South Carolina, and Virginia back under a federal boot.  That’s good news. . . .


According to the unequivocal position announced last Friday, any RNC effort to reactivate federal oversight of state elections under the Voting Rights Act is dead and buried.


The decades-long flirtation between the RNC and the racial left that ended last Friday has been an unfortunate saga of politics over principle. . . .


He who rides a redistricting tiger becomes afraid to dismount.  As the RNC clutched the tiger’s ears tightly and created safe racially gerrymandered districts using federal oversight, Section 5 was also used to destroy election integrity and aid the institutional left.  Until you see the abuse of power as it happens from inside the DOJ Voting Section as an employee, you simply cannot fathom how the federal power over the states is abused by DOJ bureaucrats.


Or, just ask Texas Governor Rick Perry or South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson about the abuse.


And abuse they did – to the tune of millions of dollars in sanctions against DOJ lawyers and even DOJ employees who have committed perjury in an effort to conceal these abusive ideological biases in the unit given the power to review state election laws.”

Pennsylvania: “Statistical duel in trial on voter ID”

A statistician hired by the state Thursday criticized the methodology of another expert who claims that hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania voters lack the photo identification they would need to cast ballots under a pending law.

William Wecker testified Thursday about his review of Philadelphia statistician Bernard Siskin’s report during a Commonwealth Court trial of a lawsuit seeking to overturn the photo ID law on constitutional grounds.

Wecker said Siskin overstated the number of voters without IDs by failing to subtract those who have died, moved out of state or are barred from voting because they are incarcerated felons.

“He’s not ascertained that they’re even alive,” he said.

Wecker, who is based in Wyoming, claimed Siskin’s report also did not adequately reflect voters who have acceptable IDs from non-government sources such as the armed forces, universities or assisted living centers.


More at the article here.