ACRU’s Complaint against Starr County, Texas
ALEXANDRIA, VA (March 7, 2016) —- The (ACRU) is suing [...]
Virginia Voter Photo ID Law Challenged in Court
A Virginia law requiring voters to show photo identification went on trial in federal court on Feb. 22, challenged by Democratic Party activists who allege it throws up barriers to voting by minorities and the poor. Lawyers defending the 2013 Virginia law said it prevented voter fraud. The trial in U.S. District Court is one of several voting rights legal battles as Democrats and Republicans square off before November's presidential and congressional elections. The Democratic Party of Virginia and two party activists are suing the Virginia State Board of Elections and want Judge Henry Hudson to strike down the law. Attorney Bruce Spiva, representing those challenging the measure, said the photo ID law was an effort to hamper the Democratic Party in the state. It creates "irrational hoops that people have to jump through" and has a "disproportional impact on people of color," Spiva said. Mark Hearne, an independent counsel for the state attorney general, dismissed the allegations. "It is impossible to show a suppressive effect on minorities from the photo ID law," Hearne said. He added the law was an effort to protect against voter fraud.
Judge Won’t Suspend Alabama Voter Photo ID Law
MONTGOMERY (AP) A federal judge will not suspend Alabama's photo voter identification requirement in the upcoming elections. U.S. District Court Judge L. Scott Coogler Wednesday denied Wednesday a preliminary injunction sought by groups that challenged the law requiring voters to present photo identification. The groups had asked the judge to expand the state's alternative identification process so people without photo identification can vote if they present certain documents or identification. Coogler said he would not use a backdoor method to effectively do away with the photo identification requirement that took effect in 2014. Coogler also said plaintiffs offered no convincing reason why obtaining a valid photo ID is an undue burden.
Closing Arguments Begin in North Carolina Voter ID Trial
Closing arguments are set to begin this afternoon in the closely watched federal trial on North Carolina's photo ID requirement. Janet Thornton, a labor economist at Economic Research Services in Florida, was the last witness that state attorneys called. Plaintiffs, including the N.C. NAACP, rested their case Thursday. The photo ID requirement was passed in 2013 as part of a sweeping elections law that state Republican legislators pushed soon after the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a key section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That section required mostly southern states and 40 counties in North Carolina to seek federal approval of major changes in elections laws. Voting rights activists consider North Carolina's election law, known as the Voter Information Verification Act, to be one of the most restrictive in the country. The photo ID requirement didn't take effect until this year and was amended last year just weeks before a federal trial on other provisions of the law. The N.C. NAACP, the U.S. Department of Justice and others filed a federal lawsuit in 2013, alleging that the elections law places undue burdens on blacks and Hispanics, is unconstitutional and violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Thornton was called to criticize the work of one of the plaintiffs' experts -- Charles Stewart, a professor of political science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Stewart testified last week that based on his analysis matching databases from the State Board of Elections and the Department of Motor Vehicles, blacks were twice more likely to lack a photo ID than whites. Thornton testified that Stewart's methodology was flawed and that it was hard to know exactly how many people did not have a photo ID. She also testified that his analysis failed to account for voters who were later removed from voter registration rolls or were considered inactive.
Judge Rejects Insanity Defense in Voter Fraud Case
MILWAUKEE (WTAQ) - A judge is not buying a suburban Milwaukee man's claim that he was insane when he voted 13 times in six elections in 2011 and '12. 51-year-old Robert Monroe of Shorewood pleaded no contest Monday to six felony election fraud charges. After a two-day sanity trial, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Dennis Cimpl ruled Wednesday that Monroe knew he was voting illegally -- and he'll go to prison instead of a mental institution when he's sentenced February 26th. The judge refused to accept a doctor's claim that Monroe had a dissociative disorder when he voted five times for Governor Scott Walker in his 2012 recall election.
ACRU Wins Consent Decree in Third Mississippi County to Clean Up Voter Rolls
ALEXANDRIA, VA (Nov. 30, 2015) - The (ACRU) has settled its federal lawsuit against the Clarke County, Mississippi Election Commission, marking the third time a Mississippi county has agreed by consent decree to clean up its voter rolls. In July, ACRU, represented by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), sued the county because it has more voters on the rolls than living citizens. The lawsuit, filed by PILF and Mississippi attorney Henry Ross, alleged a violation of Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which requires maintenance of accurate voter rolls. In 2013, the ACRU secured Section 8 agreements with Walthall and Jefferson Davis counties, and two weeks ago, on Nov. 12, sued a fourth Mississippi county, Noxubee, over its corrupted voter rolls. The agreement between the parties was approved by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, Hattiesburg Division, on Nov. 25. The agreement requires the Commission to begin identifying and removing voters who are no longer eligible to vote in Clarke County as early as April 2016. The ACRU originally notified the Commission by letter in June 2014 that its voter rolls were potentially in violation of federal election law. According to U.S. Census data and other public records, Clarke County, Mississippi had 12,646 registered voters, despite having a voting-age population of only 12,549. The Commission never responded to the notice letter. The agreement also requires the Commission to periodically notify the ACRU in writing about the Commission's efforts to clean up its voter rolls. "Corrupted voter rolls have been a problem in Clarke County for years," said ACRU Policy Board member J. Christian Adams, who is president and general counsel of the Public Interest Legal Foundation. "This settlement is a positive step towards a cure and should give Mississippians confidence that their legitimate votes will not be cancelled out by an ineligible voter." The Obama Justice Department has shut down enforcement of Section 8 of the NVRA and thus allowed voters rolls around the nation to remain corrupted and filled with ineligible registrations. The ACRU is the only private party under NVRA to successfully sue to clean up county voter rolls.
Kennedy Halts Race-Based Hawaiian Election
ALEXANDRIA, VA (Nov. 30) - Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy has issued an emergency injunction to stop a race-based election in Hawaii, as per a request in a brief filed by the . "The government has been operating a brazenly racially based voter registration process," the brief states. Kennedy's order, issued on Nov. 27, enjoins the state from counting ballots or determining winners until he or the court further rules. Submitted on behalf of the ACRU by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), the brief in Akina, et al. v. State of Hawaii notes that this is the second time that Hawaii has conducted a racially exclusionary election. The last time, appeals courts did not have time to review the law thoroughly before the election took place. "The election of delegates [to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs] had occurred and tens of thousands of Hawaiian residents were denied the right to vote," the brief states. "This court must not let that happen again...." Eventually, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Hawaii's justifications for having racially exclusive rolls and elections and declared that such ancestry tests violated the 15th Amendment, which bans racial tests by governments to register to vote and participate in the political process. The plaintiffs in this case, who are Hawaiian residents, are asking the Supreme Court to issue an injunction to halt the election until a full appellate review is conducted and thus prevent Hawaii from getting away with an unconstitutional voter registration test a second time. "The Supreme Court's language in Rice v. Cayetano (2000) is sweeping in scope and unforgiving to racial tests to register to vote," said J. Christian Adams, ACRU Policy Board member and president of PILF. "The right to register to vote on a government-run registration roll without passing an ancestry test is a fundamental Constitutional right. Hawaii escaped full review of this policy once before. It should not happen twice."
ACRU v. Clarke County, Miss — Consent Decree
ALEXANDRIA, VA (Nov. 30, 2015) - The (ACRU) has settled [...]
ACRU Asks Supreme Court to Stop Race-Based Registration and Election
ALEXANDRIA, VA (Nov. 24) --- An emergency injunction is needed to stop a race-based election now underway in Hawaii and ending Nov. 30, a brief filed today at the U.S. Supreme Court by the argues. "The government has been operating a brazenly racially based voter registration process," the brief states. Submitted on behalf of the ACRU by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), the brief in Akina, et al. v. State of Hawaii notes that this is the second time that Hawaii has conducted a racially exclusionary election. The last time, appeals courts did not have time to review the law thoroughly before the election took place. "The election of delegates [to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs] had occurred and tens of thousands of Hawaiian residents were denied the right to vote," the brief states. "This court must not let that happen again...." Eventually, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Hawaii's justifications for having racially exclusive rolls and elections and declared that such ancestry tests violated the 15th Amendment, which bans racial tests by governments to register to vote and participate in the political process. The plaintiffs in this case, who are Hawaiian residents, are asking the Supreme Court to issue an injunction to halt the election until a full appellate review is conducted and thus prevent Hawaii from getting away with an unconstitutional voter registration test a second time.
Akina, et al. v. State of Hawaii
Hawaii’s Actions “Brazenly” Violate 15th Amendment, Brief States ALEXANDRIA, VA [...]