Eric Holder v. MLK.

Link here.

It seems like a good idea. Why not move elections to the weekend in an effort to boost voter turnout?  But the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, has found challenges to the proposal. It could be difficult to find workers to staff polling places on weekends and locate replacements for some of the usual voting sites like churches.

“Most election officials we interviewed expect great difficulty and costs associated with a weekend election,” the GAO said.

The report, ordered by a House committee, was drafted in response to the Weekend Voting Act, a bill by Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.). Israel has proposed holding federal elections on Saturday and Sunday. Weekend voting, he has contended, would increase voter turnout and reduce lines at the polls by eliminating the peak voting times that occur on a Tuesday.

Full story at the LA Times:

An editorial in The Post and Courier:  The credibility of the electoral process is of critical importance. Voting is a treasured right of citizens. They deserve assurance that their votes will be fairly and accurately counted, and that only registered — and living — voters are allowed to cast ballots.

An editorial and cartoon at the Beaufort Observer: As with the video showing the Black Panthers brandishing their weapon and using racial slurs at the polling place, this video will not soon be forgotten.

Opponents of the Voter Photo ID bill recently debated in the N. C. General Assembly have consistently said that voter fraud is rare and in some cases they suggest the system if “fail-safe” and allows virtually no room for fraud. But a recent project of Veritas in New Hampshire shows how very easy it is for a person to get a ballot even though they are not registered or even live in the state. An undercover reporter visited polling places in New Hampshire and gave the poll a false name and in some cases a false name and address (simply gleaned from voter registration rolls). The video recorded the events. You can see how easy it is if a person(s) were to set out to rig the vote.

It sounds like Georgia Democrats have the real problem with disenfranchising voters, using voter ID as a weapon rather than legitimate ballot integrity.  

State Rep. Stacey Evans (D-Smyrna) and state Sen. Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna) spoke to party members on Saturday morning at the Cobb Democrats’ monthly breakfast at Piccadilly Cafeteria on Cobb Parkway in Marietta. How to work through the state’s voter identification law, which some Democrats feel unjustly disenfranchises voters, was a topic of concern.

… Stoner, who faces a tough re-election bid after his 6th district was redrawn to include conservative-leaning areas, said his party is good at getting people to vote early, but must also do a better job at informing individuals about voting by mail, which happens to not require voter ID.

“The biggest fraud by the way in the state of Georgia is not at the polls; it’s vote by mail,” Stoner said.

“The Republicans do an excellent job at getting people to vote by mail. So they made sure their folks didn’t have to show ID. But we do a better job at getting people to the polls, so guess where they put the omnibus. So let’s take advantage of that. Let’s use it against them.”

Evans, who beat Republican candidate Scott McDearman in 2010 for the seat vacated by former Democratic state Rep. Rob Teilhet, agreed. Although she won 68 percent of the total vote, she said she lost the mail-in votes to her opponent by two to one. 

full story at the link

At the Gilbert Watch, a look back at the Keystone Cops approach by DOJ to guidance and enforcement of the MOVE Act.  DOJ is signaling that they may take a more aggressive approach, but the priorities and resources inside the Voting Section are primarily dedicated to fighting voter ID laws, Texas redistricting, and defending the constitutionality of Section 5.  As a result, actual voters take a back seat and the participation rate of overseas and military voters decreased in 2010.

To the story:  Remember the MOVE Act of 2009? It was signed by President Barack Obama in the fall of 2009. The intention was to “ensure that absent uniformed services voters and overseas voters are aware of their voting rights and have a genuine opportunity to register to vote and have their absentee ballots cast and counted.”

It required every state to send military voters their requested ballots no later than 45 days before an election, so that the time it takes to return a “snail mail” ballot would be received before the election was over. MOVE also required every military installation to have a voter registration office.

Sound good? Before the MOVE Act of 2009, only 5.5% of eligible military voters cast an absentee ballot that counted. In 2010, it was 4.6%. The disenfranchisement of our overseas military only got worse.

How did that happen?  By selective enforcement of Voting Rights laws under the Obama Administration and the Department of Justice. And by the Pentagon and the DOJ to be allowed to simply drag its feet.

It took the DOJ nine months after the MOVE Act became law to update its website with the new standard. As the 2010 election approached, the DOJ allowed states to widely ignore the MOVE act, so absentee ballots were not mailed out 45 days before the election. Many ballots weren’t counted, because they arrived after the election was over. Political appointees waited until three weeks after the 2010 election to issue the order to establish the voter registration offices.

Story at the link

Today I argued the ballot access case on behalf of the Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum campaign.  U.S. District Court Judge John Gibney agreed that that statute we were challenging violated the First Amendment in that it restricted political speech by limiting ballot collection activities to only in state residents.  On the other hand, the judge held the doctrine of laches applied and the case was filed too late  You can read more about it here.

An important aside: somebody took my coat from the courthouse coat rack outside the courtroom.  I suspect you thought you were taking your coat, because the only coat left was a Tommy Hilfiger grey herringbone coat that looked very much like mine.  I have your coat.  You have mine.  There were only so many men in the courtroom so the possibilities are limited.  My coat is a Ralph Lauren grey wool herringbone.  The email is adams at election law center dot com.  I will be in Richmond next week, so perhaps we can arrange a swap. 

Kevin Ferris has more at the Weekly Standard.