Author Archives: ELECTIONLAWCENTER.COM

Dem Campaign Chief predicts San Antonio Federal Court will draw interim lines to pick up five additional seats

@ the link. 

Democrats hope to pick up as many as five U.S. House seats in Texas by challenging two freshmen Republicans and gaining three new seats through legal challenges to a GOP redistricting plan.  The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is targeting Rep. Francisco Canseco, R-San Antonio, and Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Corpus Christi, freshmen lawmakers who knocked off incumbent Democrats in 2010.

The Republican freshmen “have enormous vulnerabilities,” said Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., the DCCC chairman. A Canseco spokeswoman said Democrats are reeling from the “terrible job they did in handling the economy.” Israel said federal challenges to the GOP redistricting plan could also yield three new Democratic leaning districts. Two federal courts are reviewing the GOP map.

Paper: The Left’s Army of Election Law “Experts”: They Are Getting Ready for the 2012 Election

 A paper published by the Capital Research Center.  A portion of:

“Liberal foundations, public interest law firms and advocacy groups have created a permanent network of experts and organizations devoted to an arcane but critical task: monopolizing the narrative on election laws and procedures. Cloaking their actions in the rhetoric of civil rights and the right to vote, they seek to affect the outcome of the election. They challenge any effort to protect the integrity of the ballot box by denying the possibility of vote fraud and crying “Jim Crow.”


Americans used to believe their elections ran smoothly: You left the voting booth, the votes were counted and reported. Although voters lacked first-hand knowledge, they had faith that whomever gets the most votes wins. The presidential election of 2000 changed all that. The 36-day battle for the presidency revealed mechanical flaws in the electoral system; it showed elections can be decided in courtrooms instead of at the ballot box. In 2000 competing teams of highly paid lawyers argued over hanging chads, military ballots, and uniform statewide counting standards. Like a 15-round heavyweight prize fight, one team of election lawyers eventually knocked the other out.


These days Americans have grown accustomed to elections that end in legal maneuvering, but they assume both sides are evenly matched and similarly funded. Even if today’s electoral fights aren’t front page news, the public expects each contender to have a battery of lawyers and experts, equally prepared to tangle in court or before the media over the rules and procedures of the election.


That assumption is false. With the 2012 national election fast approaching, it’s important to understand that the Left is fully engaged. It is ready to dispute how the next election is organized and administered by state and local election officials. The conduct of that election has genuine consequences—and the battle over the interpretation of election law next year is already taking place.”



 

Rhode Island Sen. Metts: Why is Voter Integrity Still Being Ignored?

In the spirit of former U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, Rhode Island State Senator Metts, who happens to be a Black American, speaks from the heart of the disenfranchishment caused by vote stealing and the need for photo voter identification.

For those still questioning my motivation and loyalty, I sponsored the Voter I.D. legislation in the Senate on behalf of Black and Latino constituents concerned about voter fraud. They want the integrity of the system to be above reproach, and so do I.

For decades many of us have heard complaints about voter fraud. My State Representative, Anastasia Williams, and her daughter, whom I represent in the Senate, had their vote stolen one election.  There have been numerous anecdotal complaints that have spanned the last two decades that have been ignored.  My question is, why are some so willing to sacrifice the voter integrity of our system on the altar of fear, while only being concerned about what may potentially happen?

and concludes:  For me it is not about red or blue states, or who is on the right or who is on the left.   It’s about doing the right thing!  I would unashamedly and unabashedly take the same action, knowing that God knows my heart and my efforts on behalf of my constituents.  It’s time to stop crying wolf and make the voter I.D. law work for those on both sides of this issue who want to insure the integrity of the system, while guarding against disenfranchisement. This is the goal that we all should have and now the challenge is to move beyond talk and take action.

GA Representative John Lewis threatens to ban voter ID in federal elections

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that Lewis and 195 House colleagues wrote to all 50 secretaries of state, urging them to “serve as advocates for enfranchisement” and oppose laws that would make voting more difficult. He also raised the prospect of Congressional intervention to standardize voting laws in federal elections, though Lewis did not offer specifics and he acknowledged the effort would not go far in the Republican House.

Ohio congressional map stalls as ‘unholy alliance’ falters


The Hill reports that Republicans in Ohio fell eight votes short of fast-tracking a new congressional map through the state House on Thursday, leaving the future of redistricting efforts in limbo.


The new map will instead go through the committee process, the Columbus Dispatch reported, and Democrats have already been working to overturn a previous GOP map passed earlier in the year through a voter referendum.

Democrats choose chaos over compromise.  But there is this silver lining:

One unlikely advocate who was supporting the initial Republican-drawn map was Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who shocked Democrats by launching robo-calls over the weekend to urge state lawmakers to back the map, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

If Kuchinich was for it, perhaps it was best to die on the vine.

It’s almost 2012 and New York still trying to comply with MOVE

At the link… the Justice Department has taken New York to court to force it to move up the Congressional primaries to no later than mid-August. A 2009 federal law, the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, requires that ballots be mailed to military and overseas voters at least 45 days in advance of regularly scheduled federal elections. It would be very difficult for even an efficient state holding primaries near the middle of September to get its act together to send out the ballots in time. As you may have noticed, Albany and efficiency rarely appear in the same sentence.

In 2010, the state obtained an exemption from the 45-day rule. It is seeking a similar waiver for 2012. No way, the Justice Department says — enough with the delays. In a few weeks, it will be up to a federal judge in Albany, Gary L. Sharpe, to offer his opinion.  If he refuses to grant the requested exemption, and the appellate courts uphold his ruling, the result could be three primary days — one for president in April, one for Congress in August and one for state offices in September.

What a disgraceful mess.