Michael Collins.  “Collins gave a false address to establish eligibility to vote in East St. Louis, even though he lived in Swansea. He was even elected to be a precinct committeeman in East St. Louis after getting family members to sign petitions to get him on the ballot. Prosecutors said Collins falsely reporter his family members’ addresses on the petitions.”  Full story here.

Boston Globe.  A Bay State voter integrity group is encouraging citizens to show photo identification voluntarily when they go to vote.  It is not a requirement in the state, but they want citizens to volunteer to show it.  Their encouragement is drawing fire:

“Some Latino advocates, however, said the billboard and the observers are meant to intimidate Latino voters, especially newly registered immigrants.”

Texas legislators are debating whether to send various election laws to the Department of Justice for approval. Story here.  Understanding Georgia’s experience with Section 5 submissions is invaluable for the debate in Texas.  Kemp recently testified before the Texas legislature.  His experiences with the DOJ are important for any state which must submit redistricting or voter identification plans for Section 5 preclearance.

“But neither King nor Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, said they thought the process through the Department of Justice is necessarily unfair.  Fraser said the process works as it is, but he would consider backing the legislation if it moves to the Senate. The bill is currently pending in committee.”

Legislators should speak with citizens in Kinston, North Carolina about their experiences with the Section 5 preclearance process.  Better still, speak with Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp about his experiences trying to get Justice to preclear citizenship verification.  DOJ objected to the submission.  How did Georgia get the plans approved?  By suing, and only by suing. 

The process has not worked for Georgia or Kinston.  If Texas wants newly passed voter identification requirements to become law, it will need to go to district court to have them approved, not to DOJ.

Cincy.com

“Secretary of State Jon Husted sees dead people  – on the state’s voter rolls.

In fact, he checked voter rolls against death records and found that Hamilton County has more dead people on their rolls than any of Ohio’s other 88 counties.  The county has 1,637 according to this list.

Husted, a Republican, said he was ‘trying to maintain an accurate voter database statewide, thus reducing potential voter fraud.’ His report founds 18,460 matches between death records and voter rolls, which he is asking county boards of elections to further investigate for removal.”

No mention of why Husted’s predecessor, Jennifer Brunner, didn’t manage to catch this problem.

Reports from Nashville and Raleigh on the voter ID debate. 

While the voter verification legislation in North Carolina seems poised for passage, all eyes will be on Governor Perdue and whether she will veto the bill despite support in the polls for the requirement.  As this article reveals, if there is a veto, the key will then be whether the bloc of conservative Democrats in the state House join the Republicans in overriding the veto. 

In Tennessee, the Associated Press quotes the Secretary of State as favoring the legislation: “Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett, a Republican, said he believes his state’s proposed photo ID law will increase citizen confidence in the process and combat fraud that could be going undetected.  “I can’t figure out who it would disenfranchise,” Hargett said. “The only people I can think it disenfranchises is those people who might be voting illegally.”  Hargett said the measure currently moving through Tennessee’s legislature — now controlled by Republicans — would accommodate people who don’t have IDs by having them sign oaths of identity, which provide more prominent warning to potential fakers than the standard name-signing.”

News reports from Colorado report that a bill bringing the state into compliance with the MOVE Act is making its way to through the Colorado Legislature.
 
“A bill moving Colorado’s primaries from the second Tuesday in August to the last Tuesday in June won preliminary approval in the Senate (Senate Bill 189). The change is needed to put Colorado in compliance with a new federal voting law giving overseas and military voters more time to cast ballots.”

I will be speaking Wednesday at noon at St. Mary’s University Law School in San Antonio Texas.  Topic: The Eric Holder Justice Department and election law.

Washington Post.

Every state subject to Section 5 should follow Texas (and Georgia): “A House committee on Monday heard a bill that would send any redistricting or Voter ID bills straight to a three-judge panel in Washington, D.C. for “pre-clearance” under the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The law requires Texas and other states, mostly in the south, to get federal approval before making major election law changes.

The bill by GOP Rep. Phil King would require the state to get approval for redistricting and Voter ID changes from a federal court — not President Barack Obama’s Justice Department.”

Houston Chronicle.

Arlington Virginia.  Washington Post.