Author Archives: ELECTIONLAWCENTER.COM

Utah: “GOP self-interest may have helped Matheson”

Only 768 votes separated Congressman Matheson and challenger Mia Love, and according to emails and this story, in the Salt Lake Tribune, if comfortable incumbent Republicans had been less greedy with grabbing high turnout Republican areas during the redistricting process, the sole Democrat Matheson would be packing instead of celebrating a very narrow win.  Republicans apparently also hoarded safe conservative areas in their districts thus reducing the chance that a challenger to Matheson would have an easy path to victory.

“The Voter ID compromise” – Photo ID for early voting, not Election Day?

One columnist in North Carolina has a suggested voter ID compromise.  He wants to use the Chicago voter ID model  as a compromise solution – photo ID for early voting, but no photo ID for election day voting based on the reasoning below: 

The irony, of course, is that Democrats oppose Republican efforts to require a photo ID to vote.

And yet President Obama happily pulled out his driver’s license to vote in his hometown and even joked that the photo didn’t show as much gray hair as he has now.

I didn’t support the voter ID law proposed in North Carolina, but it may be that Illinois has a good compromise. Only require a photo ID for early voting.

Why? Because voter fraud by impersonation probably would be much easier to pull off at an early voting site where election officials are less likely to know you.

At my relatively small precinct, people know each other. You’d be taking a big risk to walk in there and claim to be someone you aren’t.

The reasoning is flawed as most communities except in the most rural areas, are so populous and transient, that even neighbors in a highly populated suburb or city often don’t know each other well enough to confirm the identity with a high degree of certainty – much less know all voters in a particular precinct.  Poll workers would have to serve as the identity police vouching for all voters in a precinct.  Just as photo identification makes sense in early voting for the unique identity security reasons associated with the form of voting, it also makes sense for election day precinct voting for many of the same reasons.  Reactionaries against photo ID should note that the process can work in all types of voting situations and is not some nefarious racist plot to suppress voters.  Just as photo ID is appropriate for early voting in heavy blue states like Illinois and federal law for first time voters, it is appropriate for other states in other situations and forms of voting, including absentee voting.

Michigan Secretary of State recommends expansion of absentee voting and integrity measures

Michigan Live has the op-ed piece from the Secretary of State Johnson – excerpt below:


“While some communities saw lines at local precincts, largely due to a lengthy two-page ballot, nearly 4.8 million residents voted in the Nov. 6 election, determined to be a part of democracy, to have their say.

More than 1.2 million of those voters cast their vote by absentee ballot. I believe it’s time to expand Michigan’s absentee voting by allowing all voters to cast an absentee ballot without an excuse – not just those who qualify now because they’re age 60 and older, will be out of town during the election or have a disability.

This change, however, must be paired with measures to ensure integrity in the process, namely to require the same reasonable photo ID rules now required at local precincts on Election Day.“

Comments updated

I just approved a bunch of comments dating back through election day.  Sorry it took so long.  Surprisingly, I didn’t get any fussy emails from any of you demanding I approve the comments immediately.  I guess that behavior is reserved for law professors.

“Did Attorney General Holder Mislead the Public to Justify DOJ’s Assault on Voter ID Laws?”

 National Center for Public Policy Research:

“On April 13, the National Center sent a FOIA request to the U.S. Department of Justice concerning a December 13, 2011 speech by Attorney General Eric Holder in which Holder claimed he was hearing “a consistent drumbeat of concern from many Americans, who – often for the first time in their lives – now have reason to believe that we are failing to live up to one of our nation’s most noble, and essential, ideals [protecting voting rights].”

This communication with Americans, Holder said, helped lead him to challenge state voter protection measures, such as the Texas and South Carolina voter ID laws, in federal court.


The National Center requested copies of those communications. The law specifies that DOJ was to comply by May 11.


The DOJ emailed its response on November 9. The DOJ said, “no records responsive to your request were located.”


So, while General Holder, in the words of the FOIA request, claimed his department’s “policy shift to vigorously challenge voter identification laws” was spurred by his communications with Americans concerned about voting rights, the DOJ has no record of any such communications. “

I’m not so sure Holder was lying when he talked about the constant drumbeat as much as DOJ’s FOIA response was another denial in a pattern of denials and delays.

Vote-Recount Mayhem in Florida – Again



Congressman Allen West (FL-18) fights on amid vote-recount mayhem in St. Lucie County, where the Supervisor of Elections “has a history of abetting or ignoring sloppy election procedures”:


 


Then there is Gertrude Walker, the 32-year-veteran election supervisor of St. Lucie County, who has spent much of the last two weeks explaining why her office completely botched the count. She admitted that her office had acted in “haste” in issuing election results, and that “mistakes were made.” Among her mistakes was failing to count 40 of the 94 precincts under her jurisdiction on Election Night — and then counting the other 54 twice. Indeed. On Friday, her office announced it had “discovered” 304 additional early votes left in a box. None had been counted.


 


But Walker wasn’t available for comment. She has been hospitalized for unknown reasons.



Meanwhile, West’s challenger, Democrat Patrick Murphy, is more than happy to accept the admittedly-inaccurate first count, and has declared victory – twice – while fighting recount efforts.