Austin American Statesman

The James Cole nomination for Deputy Attorney General has been languishing for almost a year.  It was covered here the last time his nomination failed on the floor of the Senate in December.  It happened again on May 9.  50-40, the Senate could not get cloture and his confirmation appears less likely than ever.  First it was military voting, then terror trials, and now it is Senator Grassley not getting the answers he wants from a stonewalling DOJ over project gunrunner.

More here.

Las Vegas Sun. 

In a continuation of the national non-conversation on race, the Washington Examiner explores high-stakes redistricting manuevering in Missouri and how the mainstream media universally ignored the real story – how the interests of minority groups and the Democratic Party dramatically diverged on race.  The result was the override of a Democratic Governor’s veto of a redistricting plan by a coalition of Republican and Black legislators. 

The Dallas Morning News reports that the Texas House is working to meet the federal 45 day mailing requirement for overseas and military ballots.   

 

South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Dick Harpootlian says rationale behind 2006 amendments, and perhaps 1982 amendments, to the Voting Rights Act are gone.  He wants changes.  He “will fight to loosen the Voting Rights Act’s restrictions on the role of race in drawing district lines in a bid to remake southern politics.”  The Democratic Party chair seems ready to litigate against the standards, “up to a Supreme Court.”  Politico.

Video here.

More here.

The Sun Sentinel reports as the most recent Florida elections legislation winds through the Legislature on its way to Governor Scott. The changes would require third-party registration groups to turn in registration applications within 48 hours of receipt or face fines.  This legislation is in response to the influx of bogus registrations that unncessarily waste election administration resources.  The legislation also tries to prevent the submission of applications by these organization days past the registration deadlines by threat of penalties. 

From the Sun Sentinel:  Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, the sponsor of the bill, said it’s “about making every vote count” and rooting out fraud.  “The fact is there’s a lot of bad actors out there and there’s an opportunity currently to game the system,” he said.

Third-party registration groups such as ACORN and the League of Women Voters have long complained about these common sense regulatory requirements arguing it is an infringement on their right to free speech.  However, they ignore the legitimate election administration concerns about the often repeated scenario where completed registration applications are submitted to election officials after the registration deadline despite being fully completed by the registrant well in advance of the election. Such recklessness causes voters to be disenfranchised from participating in elections through absolutely no fault of their own.  Despite the importance of these registrations, some voter groups will hold onto the applications unncessarily long, simply to avoid making multiple trips to election offices or to copy the personal identifying information of the applicant for the organizations’ future political purposes.  The right of the citizen to become legitimately registered after they have placed their right to vote in the hands of these groups should outweigh any convenience the registration group might receive by holding onto the applications and waiting until they unilaterally decide the time is ripe to submit these forms to officials.