ACRU Staff, Author at Voting Integrity Institute

Evidence Lacking in Charge that Voter ID Laws Reduce Turnout

Hillary Rodham Clinton and her Democratic allies are shining a bright light on voter ID laws and other perceived roadblocks to the ballot box, yet drawing a straight line from laws designed to crack down on fraud to low turnout in a single contest is notably difficult, analysts say, and data on the most recent elections tend to lag behind the fast-moving debate. Individual contests, the amount of time and money spent on each campaign and the weather can be major factors in how many people show up at the polls on Election Day, clouding a debate that has roiled courts and kicked up dust among progressives who say minorities and the poor have been disenfranchised. Many analysts point to a Government Accountability Office study that found turnout dropped by roughly 2 percent in Kansas and Tennessee from the 2008 to the 2012 contests, compared with states that didn't change their voter ID laws. Yet analysts say the record of impartial studies is limited, and researchers are still breaking down November's midterm contests.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:43+00:00July 6th, 2015|News, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

ACRU Demands Documents from South Dakota Voter Discrimination Trial

In June 2015, the ACRU filed a Freedom of Information [...]

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:36:58+00:00June 24th, 2015|In the Courts, Press Releases, Resources, Voter ID|

New York’s Expanding Electorate

"Start spreading the news I'm voting today " If the Democratic Party and its constituent groups have their way, the Big Apple's non-citizen immigrants will be singing that variation on the Sinatra anthem "New York, New York" at the polls next year. That's the plan, as outlined at a recent press conference announcing the "Engaging Immigrant New York City" campaign, which its organizers call "an initiative to mobilize immigrant New Yorkers in preparation for the 2016 Presidential elections." This is exactly the kind of grass-roots activism envisioned by billionaire George Soros, who has committed $5 million to expand the electorate and loosen voting requirements by getting rid of photo ID laws and other recent election reforms. Increasingly, citizenship -- a prime condition for voting -- is being treated as an annoying speed bump on the way to the election booth. President Obama's Justice Department has even sued Kansas and Arizona over their laws requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. Although New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has not publicly embraced the idea of registering non-citizens, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito has gone on record supporting legislation to allow legal residents who are not citizens to vote in city elections, according to capitalnewyork.com.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:29:05+00:00June 23rd, 2015|ACRU Commentary, Proof of Citizenship|

Nevada Conservatives Irked at GOP Legislators for Not Passing Voter ID

WASHINGTON -- Nevada conservatives are disheartened that another attempt to pass a voter identification measure out of the legislature failed this session, even though the GOP has full control of the state government for the first time since 1929. Many expected Nevada to join the list of states that require people to show a government-issued ID in order to vote. Texas, where the GOP also is in control, passed a voter ID law in 2011, but is currently bogged down in litigation over its law's intent and impact. Republican legislators had tried to pass a Nevada voter ID bill in previous sessions, but had more muscle on their side this time, with majorities in both chambers of the state legislature. Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval had previously said he would support a voter ID law, though he refused this year to take a stance before any proposal reached his desk. But, as the session closed June 1, bills in the Senate and Assembly hadn't gotten out of committee, leaving Democrats feeling gleeful and conservatives glum. The repeated defeat of voter ID bills in Nevada comes in contrast to states like North Carolina. A large package of voting rights restrictions, including a strict photo ID bill, was passed swiftly in that state in 2013 after Republicans gained control of both the governorship and legislature for the first time in more than 100 years. A challenge to that law will be heard in court next month.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:43+00:00June 23rd, 2015|News, Voter ID|

Soros to Spend $5 Million to Attack Voter ID Laws

Billionaire investor George Soros has committed $5 million to aid to fight voter ID laws and other legislation in several key states that Democrats argue keeps voters away from the polls. Attorney Marc Elias, who also represents Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, talked with Soros in January 2014 about supporting planned federal lawsuits for that year and the 2016 election aimed at overturning voter ID laws, according to the New York Times. "We hope to see these unfair laws, which often disproportionately affect the most vulnerable in our society, repealed," Soros told the Times. The Hungarian-born billionaire, a generous donor to liberal causes, is currently writing lawsuits in Ohio, Wisconsin and North Carolina.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:43+00:00June 23rd, 2015|News, Voter ID|

Democrats Sue over Virginia Voter ID Law

Virginia Democrats filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the state's voter ID law, joining an effort backed by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton to overturn voting rules in several swing states ahead of the 2016 elections. The Democratic Party of Virginia said in the lawsuit that the photo ID requirement, which was approved by the Republican-run legislature, would make it difficult for residents to vote. "The commonwealth voted strongly to support Democrats in recent national elections. After Republicans determined they couldn't change the minds of the electorate, they decided to change the makeup of the electorate instead by making it more difficult for Virginians to exercise their right to vote," Susan Swecker, chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Virginia, said in a statement. Similar arguments have been raised in lawsuits challenging GOP-backed voter ID laws in presidential battleground states of Ohio and Wisconsin. Opponents of voter ID laws claim they disproportionally stops blacks, Hispanics and poor Americans from voting. Proponents argue that the laws are a safeguard against voter fraud. But there has been scant evidence of either widespread voter fraud or that the laws cause widespread problems with access to voting. "This is another politically-motivated lawsuit funded by George Soros and out of state interest groups who are seeking to manipulate the court system in order to benefit the Democratic Party," said Virginia House Speaker William J. Howell. Mr. Soros has pledged to spend as much as $5 million trying to overturn voter ID laws and other election rules ahead of next year's elections.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:43+00:00June 16th, 2015|News, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

Clinton Calls for Sweeping Expansion of Voting Registration

HOUSTON -- Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday called for sweeping changes in national voter-access laws aimed at making it easier for young people and minorities to take part in elections, putting her on a collision course with Republicans who say such measures are a political ploy that would lead to widespread abuses. In a speech at a historically black college here, Clinton called for federal legislation that would automatically register Americans to vote at age 18 and would mandate at least 20 days of early voting ahead of election days in all states. Making her most fiercely partisan political speech since her first, failed run for president in 2008, Clinton attacked Republicans for what she characterized as a calculated attempt to turn back the clock on voting rights -- and called out several potential 2016 opponents by name for backing voter restrictions as governors.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:03+00:00June 5th, 2015|Automatic Registration, Early Voting, News, Voter ID|

Justice Department Attacks States’ Power over Elections

The Obama Justice Department has quietly launched an effort to erode traditional state powers over elections. In the first instance, Attorney General Loretta Lynch has drafted and sent a bill to Congress which would force state election officials to turn over power to tribal governments to determine the location and number of polling places on Indian reservations in state-run elections. In the second instance, the DOJ is seeking to erode the power of states to prohibit the mentally incompetent from voting, as long as they express a desire to vote to their caregiver, often a unionized government worker. In both instances, the Justice Department is acting at the behest of activist groups and undermining powers the Constitution gives to the states. Given the election results of the last twenty years, it might be surprising to learn that the California constitution says that "no idiot or insane" person shall be entitled to vote. Understand that 'idiot' is a legal term used to denote someone who is literally incompetent or incoherent. Other states use the term 'imbecile' or the more modern, 'incompetent." While the terms may be anachronisms, the reasons behind the prohibition on voting are as valid today as they were in 1849. Allowing someone who is not competent or aware to vote corrupts elections and invites the patient to be victimized by someone effectively stealing that patient's vote.

ACRU Staff2015-06-04T12:41:36+00:00June 4th, 2015|ACRU Commentary|

Rasmussen Poll: Nearly 8 in 10 Back Voter ID

Despite Democratic charges that conservative states and politicians are engaging in discrimination by demanding that voters show identification, more than three-quarters of likely voters believe photo ID laws are needed. A new Rasmussen Reports poll out Wednesday found support for photo ID laws at 76 percent, nearly exactly the 78 percent support registered in 2006 when the latest movement to scrap the laws kicked off. President Obama and several top Democrats have accused Republicans of attempting to keep minorities from the polls with the photo requirement, but even their own party faithful don't agree. Rasmussen found that 58 percent of Democrats believe a photo ID must be shown before voting. Ninety-two percent of Republicans and 78 percent of voters not affiliated with either major party support photo ID rules.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:43+00:00June 3rd, 2015|Early Voting, News, Voter ID|

Majority Rejects Counting Illegals When Districting

The U.S. Supreme Court has just agreed to hear a case challenging how Texas sets up state legislative districts. The filed a friend of the court brief in that case. Texas currently counts everyone in the state, including illegal immigrants, before carving up districts of proportional population size, but the challenge argues that only eligible voters should be counted because the current system creates some districts with much larger numbers of eligible voters than others. Sixty-six percent (66%) of voters in a Rasmussen survey agree with the legal challenge and say states should only count eligible voters when setting the size of legislative districts for voting purposes. Just 23% favor the current system in Texas that counts all residents including illegal immigrants. Eleven percent (11%) are not sure.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:03+00:00June 1st, 2015|News, Voter ID|

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