Author Archives: ELECTIONLAWCENTER.COM

New York asks for waiver for military voter protections, Part 2

The Department of Justice granted a conference call with New York regarding their application to be exempt from military voting protections passed in 2009 for the 2012 election.  Namely, New York has not changed laws to ensure that military voters serving overseas get their ballots in time to be counted.  This is deeply unfortunate and military families from New York should be urging the Department of Justice and Defense to reject the waiver, now, without further delay.

After the conference call with DOJ, New York submitted this supplemental letter, and supplemental material.  Albany is notorious for passing all manner of laws, but apparently military voting protections take a back seat to same sex marriage and transit lock boxes.

“Operation Vote” 2012: a base appeal

Perhaps this is the former Project Vote Part 2, the ill chosen campaign name from a few weeks ago.  More from the Washington Post.


“President Obama’s campaign is developing an aggressive new program to expand support from ethnic minority groups and other traditional Democratic voters as his team studies an increasingly narrow path to victory in next year’s reelection effort.


The program, called “Operation Vote,” underscores how the tide has turned for Obama, whose 2008 brand was built on calls to unite “red and blue America.” Then, he presented himself as a politician who could transcend traditional partisan divisions, and many white centrists were drawn to the coalition that helped elect the country’s first black president.


Today, the political realities of a sputtering economy, a more polarized Washington and fast-sinking presidential job approval ratings, particularly among white independents, are forcing the Obama campaign to adjust its tactics.


Operation Vote will function as a large, centralized department in the Chicago campaign office for reaching ethnic, religious and other voter groups. It will coordinate recruitment of an ethnic volunteer base and push out targeted messages online and through the media to groups such as blacks, Hispanics, Jews, women, seniors, young people, gays and Asian Americans.”

Arizona Redistricting: “The fix is in”

“This week, two members of the Gila County Board of Supervisors signaled their willingness to play politics behind a smokescreen of lawyers. Specifically, the board rejected a redistricting map that would reflect population shifts in favor of a lopsided gerrymander.

But thanks to the tortured rationalizations of the county’s hired consultants, the board majority hopes to blame it all on the Voting Rights Act.


Nonsense.”  Full op ed here.

Texas voter ID moves closer to DOJ objection

The Justice Department has made a “more information” request regarding the Texas voter ID bill. More here. Make no mistake, this is a sign that an objection may be coming from Justice.  The more information request reveals the Voting Section is willing to use disparate impact on language minorities to justify an objection in Texas.  Politicians in Texas has previously made assurances that the voter ID bill would be sent to the federal court for approval.  That didn’t happen, and now supporters of Texas voter ID are likely to soon learn what a mistake that was.  There were suggestions from every corner of Texas to include a provision in the bill, sponsored by Senator Troy Fraser from Horseshoe Bay, to require the law to be submitted to federal court for approval, and not to DOJ.  That also didn’t happen.  Look for the real possibility that DOJ will object at the end of the 60 day period (renewed by the more information request). 

If Texans really want voter ID to become law, they will ask their elected officials to withdraw the submission (which can be done with a fax machine) and submit the law to District Court on Monday for approval.  Otherwise, odds are against the law being in place in Texas anytime soon.

Pajamas Media: “Welcome back Jim Crow”

 Pajamas Media:  “Judith Browne Dianis, co-director of the Advancement Project, said in a statement that the Texas law is “part of the largest legislative effort to turn back the clock on voting rights in our nation in over a century.” Dianis, who is black, alluded to America’s favorite corpse, Jim Crow, a system of government-approved racial segregation.”

Frustrated with its failures, DOJ Voting goes after State Election Officials on MOVE Act

The latest press release from DOJ contains its recommended amendments to the MOVE Act.  After reviewing the language provided to lawmakers, the big news is how embarrassed officials at the DOJ and DOD so readily throw the nation’s state and local election officials under the bus.

Burned by multiple failures that resulted in disenfranchised military voters, a reactive and vindictive Civil Rights Division now tries to cover their lax preparation in 2010.  They try to shift the blame squarely onto the States by requesting civil penalties up to $110,000 be levied on election officials for the first violation of the MOVE Act.  And then for each additional violation thereafter, they want to be able to request civil penalties up to $220,000.

And the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) at the Department of Defense appears to fully support this proposal.  One must wonder if DOD and their “assistance program” will be required to pay these same excessive fines for their repeated failure to comply with the requirement to create installation Voting Assistance Offices under the MOVE Act.    

Instead of steadily enforcing the law with thorough investigations and timely litigation, the hapless leadership in the Voting Section are shifting the responsibility of their failures in 2010 to the election officials.  After delayed implementation and the dearth of guidance coming from DOJ after passage of the MOVE Act, these same failed bureaucrats are now proposing death penalty-type civil penalties to scare election officials into submission.