Author Archives: ELECTIONLAWCENTER.COM

Colorado: Pueblo clerk backs down on ballots

The Denver Post reports:



In a letter to sent to Pueblo County Clerk and Recorder Gilbert Ortiz on Friday evening, Secretary of State Scott Gessler warned the county clerk that if he mailed ballots to inactive voters, he would be named in a lawsuit by Gessler’s office. Gessler, a Republican, maintains that the law does not allow for inactive voters to receive a mail ballot for the Nov. 1   election.  A lawsuit has been filed against Denver Clerk and Recorder Debra Johnson, who has already mailed ballots to inactive military and overseas voters.


“Inactive” voters did not vote in the 2010 general election, did not vote in a subsequent election and have not returned postcards mailed to them asking whether they want a ballot.  Friday afternoon, Ortiz announced he would “reluctantly” comply with Gessler’s order not to mail ballots to 64 inactive military voters but indicated that the dispute of whether inactive voters should receive mail ballots was not over, The Pueblo Chieftain reported.

The wide gulf of opinion on voter photo identification….

Here is a taste of the back and forth across the country over the weekend.

Democracy under Attack – “Today, we are witnessing the greatest assault on democracy in over a century.”

Why voter photo identfication is crucial to our Republic – Voter identification requirements have been a source of contention for some time, despite increased evidence of voter fraud in recent elections. 

Voter ID laws subvert Democracy – Could Bill Clinton have it right — that we’re seeing the most “determined effort” in half a century to limit Americans’ right to vote? That the new wave of restrictions are the worst, as the former president puts it, “since we got rid of the poll tax and all the Jim Crow burdens on voting”?

Early voters reminded of new voter ID law – In Tennessee, each early voter received pamphlets explaining the voter id legislation, something that’s caused quite the controversy since given the green light.

But this next one shows an headline is always designed to get one’s attention.

Voter ID laws create stink everywhere 

Will Federal Request (from DOJ) Delay Texas Voter ID Law?

The Texas Tribune points out that DOJ is asking Texas to break up the state by race, knowing full well that they cannot answer the question.  “Doubts are being raised as to whether the state’s controversial voter identification bill will be implemented on schedule because Texas does not ask its citizens their race when they register to vote”

“The Justice Department seeks details about the 605,576 registered voters who do not currently possess a valid ID, including how many have Spanish surnames, which counties they reside in and an estimated breakdown by race. The Justice Department also requests that the state provide the same breakdown for the registered voters who currently possess a valid form of identification, or one that has expired within 60 days. The department requested the information to determine if SB 14 will “have neither the purpose nor will have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group.”


The Texas Secretary of State’s office says it is working diligently to fulfill the department’s request, which also includes providing details about the state’s voter education program, but it says it cannot provide the racial breakdown as requested.”  We will not be able to provide race, since voters are not asked to provide race when registering to vote in Texas,” said Richard Parsons, the secretary’s communications director.


The Department of Justice declined to comment when asked what the repercussions could be if the state did not fulfill the request. It would only say it has an additional 60 days to render a decision once the state resubmits its request.  Attorneys for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which alleges the bill will infringe on minority groups’ voting rights, said failure to provide the information may likely delay the bill’s implementation.

You can already smell a rat as DOJ is setting up a straw man in the Texas voter ID analysis.  DOJ is trying to require evidence they know doesn’t exist and which has little relevance to the ultimate question.  DOJ is laughing in the halls as Texas toils up the hill as Sisyphus, trying to do all the right things the Supreme Court pointed out in Crawford.  And despite instituting measures that mitigate any burdens beyond even those identified in Crawford,  it won’t be enough.  The AAG for Civil Rights Perez will sign the letter stating that Texas was simply unable to meet its burden in proving to Voting Section bureaucrats that there is any retrogression or intentional discrimination towards minority voters.  There will be no daylight between DOJ and MALDEF and the list of voting rights groups.    

One question for Texas leaders, do you really think the Federal courts will require such racialist evidentiary requirements with Spanish Surname analysis and imaginary burdens set up by the Voting Section.  Do you think you will run into the same resistance with the Crawford decision and Judge Roberts reflections on “this sordid business, this divvying us up by race.”  Going to court is sometimes the long slog but the only way to find justice.  

Obama chimes in on voter ID

A well timed message to the employees at the Justice Department from the Commander in Chief has been given.  President Obama has offered his opinion on Voter ID and ordered the Justice Department to scrutinize voter ID laws.  More at the Sacramento Bee.  Currently there are multiple voter ID laws pending before the Justice Department for approval under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.  Texas inexplicably submitted their law to DOJ for approval.  This mistake may well cost Texas a voter ID law in the 2012 election because the Texas legislature does not meet often enough to cure a DOJ rejection of their law.   South Carolina also submitted their voter ID law to DOJ instead of to Federal Court.

Once DOJ objects to a law, it taints any subsequent review in federal court, and in the media.

Had President Bush ordered his Justice Department to do anything in a Section 5 (or Section 2) review, the front pages of the New York Times or Washington Post could not have contained the story.  The word “politicization” would have been a macro on the keyboard of particular biased reporters at these publications.  But no matter, new administration, new levels of press scrutiny.  These are the sorts of issues I cover in my forthcoming book, Injustice, which releases Tuesday nationwide.

I will have much much more to say about this next week as my book tour launches nationwide.  I will be in New York City and Chicago next week, but you can tune in at home.  Details will follow here shortly.  A link to the book is over there (<——-) on the left of the page. 

A New Black Panther opposes voter ID in Texas

My Fox Houston.  Click here to see an otherwise reputable news station put a member of a hate group on television to oppose voter ID, Quanell X of the Houston New Black Panthers.  Take note of the some of the folks who oppose voter ID.  At least Quanell X got cleaned up and didn’t appear in his New Black Panther uniform and beret.  Quanell X has been invited to debate me at South Texas School of Law in Houston on October 18.  So far he’s not been willing to do so.  The invitation remains open.  Imagine if a local news station put a Grand Wizard on to discuss voter registration issues.  KRIV in Houston should be ashamed of themselves to put Quanell X on in the first place, but to merely call him a “community activist” is disgraceful.  For more about the organization to which Quanell X is a leader, click here.