Author Archives: ELECTIONLAWCENTER.COM

Georgia Democrat courts Republicans after remap

With the few remaining southern Blue Dog Democrats struggling to survive in North Carolina and Georgia, they better put a few in a zoo before the last one vanishes.

Barrow’s 12th District in eastern Georgia has been a swing seat since he
first won election in 2004. but the stakes are different this year as
he seeks a fifth term. Republican lawmakers redrew the lines of Barrow’s
district last year to cut out Savannah, his home and a huge part of his
Democratic base.  Link to full story

“Tennessee Voter ID Ruling Could Come Next Week”



In contrast to the slow-walking and delayed decisions in cases that eventually and predictably upheld voter ID (or soon will), an expedited decision is expected by Tennessee’s Court of Appeals, where action is required to block voter ID implementation prior to November 6:


 


The city of Memphis filed a lawsuit after the state decided city library cards were not considered valid picture IDs.  New state law requires voters to show a valid state or federal ID to cast a ballot. A court of appeals will decide if the law is valid, and whether library cards are acceptable.


 


“There is just no evidence in this record that this condition, the requirement of a photo ID for these plaintiffs, is oppressive or impossible,” said Janet Kleinfelter, state attorney.

Another DOJ Settlement Contrary to the MOVE Act

The Justice Department has settled the military voting lawsuit with Vermont.  Once again, as in other settlements, the remedy is one that Congress specifically rejected as part of the MOVE Act.  More time is being added for ballots to be counted. 

But Congress specifically looked at this possibility in 2009 and rejected it.  Congress passed a law that said ballots must mail out 45 days in advance, period.  Then when that doesn’t happen, Justice moves slowly to prepare a lawsuit.  Weeks later, Justice sues, instead of immediately.  Then the remedies almost always incorporate a solution that Congress rejected.

The problem lies within DOJ where there is a tolerance for ballots mailing late dating to the pre-Move days.  There is an acceptance of extra time as an acceptable remedy, even though Congress did not view extra time as a solution. 

The solution is an enforcement scheme which is ready to pounce on an offending states with swiftness, days not weeks, instead of the leisurely pace that has characterized MOVE enforcement the last to federal cycles.  Stay tuned.

Senator Cornyn slams DOD over failed express mail return guarantee for military


In his latest letter to DOD, Senator Cornyn slams the Pentagon on its failure to facilitate the express mail guarantee in the MOVE Act for overseas military voters.  He says DOD is shirking overseas ballot obligations.  Cornyn cites evidence that the DOD’s program for express mail overseas had a 1 in 10 failure rate in the previous elecion and there has been no indication of improvement of those failures.  He also accuses the Pentagon attempts to place the responsibility on the service members to find and use the express mail sticker instead of military postal and DOD.  Cornyn is justifiably upset considering the rate of disenfranchisement for the failure to return on time will exponentially increase in a Presidential election year.  One must ask the question how long would private mail carriers survive with only a 9 out of 10 guarantee to deliver ballots on time.
 


FVAP fails to even mention this express mail service for ballots on their website for military members.    Apparently, FVAP did send one email in early October but absolutely nothing else, either with television, newspaper, radio or social media on the express guarantee despite the days ticking down.  Not a single tweet on Twitter.  Not a single post on Facebook.  It is almost like the service doesn’t exist, yet it does.  The guaranteed express service of voted ballots is one of the most significant provisions of the MOVE Act.  And with FVAP hiding the ball, how are service members supposed to even know of this much needed service.

Air Force Times: “Panetta wants proof voting offices are working”


The Air Force Times reports that the Secretary of Defense is demanding proof that all the installation voting assistance offices (IVAOs) are open for business. 

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has directed military officials to provide him a report by Oct. 19 verifying that each of the 221 installation voting assistance offices is appropriately staffed to meet the needs of troops.  He gave officials three days to get it done; the memo was issued Oct. 16 to the service secretaries, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, and chiefs of the combatant commands.  “We must do all we can to ensure that service members know the steps necessary to vote, particularly those service members deployed or based away from home. This issue must be addressed immediately,” he wrote.

Interesting, considering that the acting head of the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) Pam Mitchell, in her statement to Congress, challenged the findings of the Inspector General Report that over half of the installation voting assistance offices could not be contacted and the MOVE Act requirement had not been fully implemented.  In fact, she told the Congress and the public that “voting services had never been better.”

Apparently, the Secretary of Defense is not as confident as FVAP that all the installation voting assistance offices are working as designed and says he is going to get to the bottom of it.