North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, et al. v. Patrick L. McCrory, et al.
ALEXANDRIA, VA (June 20, 2016) —- Opponents of North Carolina’s [...]
Ohio to Invite New Voters, Purge Dead Voters from Rolls
COLUMBUS -- More than 1.5 million Ohioans who are eligible to vote but haven't registered will get an invitation in August to join the voter rolls and thousands who have died or moved out of state will be dropped, under a new partnership between the Ohio Secretary of State and a national non-profit organization. Secretary of State Jon Husted predicted on Tuesday that the total number of registered voters will climb beyond the current 7.6 million and the records will be more accurate as Ohio -- once again -- undergoes the added scrutiny of being a crucial swing state in a hotly contested presidential election. "Our goal has always been to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat in Ohio," Husted said. Ohio will join 18 states and the District of Columbia participating in the Electronic Registration Information Center, a national non-profit formed in June 2012 to focus on maintaining accurate voter registration records. It is funded by the Pew Center for the States. ERIC states cross check voter files against Social Security death records, driver's license and vehicle registration records and other databases. Pew is awarding Ohio a $400,000 grant to cover most of the cost of sending notice about the easiest path to register to an estimated 1.5 million to 2.25 million Ohioans who are eligible but not yet registered.
Illinois Governor Eyes Automatic Voter Registration Bill
SPRINGFIELD Illinois lawmakers in both houses have endorsed automatic voter registration. The measure approved 86-30 by the House on May 31 would provide automatic registration for would-be voters visiting certain state agencies, according to the Associated Press: Each person would have a chance to opt out at some point. Senate approval of House changes sent it to Gov. Bruce Rauner, who expressed support but wants to see legislative language. "Supporters say it could expand the franchise to 2 million people. Republicans fear a ploy to gin up Democratic voters. People visiting the Department on Aging or the departments of Human Services, Healthcare and Family Services, Employment Security and the Secretary of State's office could register."
Four Connecticut Republicans Oppose Automatic Voter Registration
HARTFORD -- An agreement between Secretary of the State Denise Merrill and Department of Motor Vehicle Commissioner Michael Byzdra to develop an automatic voter registration system is an unnecessary and expensive proposition. That was the message from four Republican lawmakers who held a press conference in late May at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford to criticize the decision. In response to the U.S. Department of Justice's threat to sue Connecticut for not complying with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, Merrill and Byzdra inked an agreement to come up with an automatic voter registration system for drivers to use at the DMV when they renew their license. Sen. Michael McLachlan, R-Danbury, said the current paper process has no new implementation costs. It involves making sure drivers are given voter registration cards by an employee at the counter and that those cards are mailed to their respective towns. The memorandum of understanding between Merrill and Byzdra sets forth a two-year process for coming up with an automated way for drivers to register to vote at the DMV.
The Coming Ohio Election Mess
By J. Christian Adams Left-wing organizations and Soros-funded lawyers have been busy making a mess in Ohio just in time for the Presidential election. They have been engaged in a multi-year litigation campaign to make it easier for Hillary Clinton to win the state this coming November. Unfortunately, their campaign has been largely successful. Important election integrity reforms implemented by the Ohio legislature and Secretary of State John Husted have been recently undone by multiple federal courts relying on dubious legal theories. Whoever says voter fraud is a myth doesn't know much about Ohio. Just last month, Rebecca Hammond was charged with filing thirty-five fictional voter registration applications. An election in Lorain was invalidated because voter fraud made the difference in the outcome. Aliens are voting in Ohio elections. In 2008, Obama campaign volunteers such as Amy Little and Yolanda Hippensteele committed criminal voter fraud when they illegally voted in Ohio even though they lived elsewhere. And who can forget Cincinnati election official Meloweese Richardson who boasted she voted six times for President Obama and was treated as a hero by Ohio Democrats when she was released from jail? Meloweese Richardson Meloweese Richardson Criminal voter fraud in Ohio helps Democrats win elections, and Democrats know it. That's why they are pouring millions into overturning election integrity laws in the federal courts. The laws enacted in Ohio were specifically designed to stop election gangsters like Little, Hippensteele and Richardson. Without winning Ohio, the Left cannot retain power over the executive branch in November. That's why Democrats are fighting so hard in court to strike these election reforms down. That's why they've brought so many lawsuits, to undo the efforts of Secretary Husted and the Ohio legislature to stop the gangsters. As a result, a mess may come this November.
Kobach Predicts Chaos if Court Order Stands in Kansas Case
DENVER -- Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach contends massive voter confusion will occur if an appeals court doesn't block a lower court's order to register thousands of state residents for November's presidential election. Kobach made the prediction in a document he filed with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The dispute centers on residents who submit voter registration forms at Division of Motor Vehicles offices and don't provide proof of citizenship. A 2011 state law requires newly registering voters to provide proof of citizenship. A preliminary injunction issued May 17 by U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson prohibits election officials from enforcing the proof of citizenship requirement for residents who register at DMV offices. Robinson's order will take effect Tuesday if the Denver-based appeals court doesn't block it by issuing a stay. Kobach requested a stay in the document he filed May 28. Attorneys for the League of Women Voters and American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday opposed Kobach's request. The dispute involves whether about 18,000 residents will be allowed to vote, court filings state. Early voting for the primary election begins July 13.
Terry McAuliffe vs. the Rule of Law
By Charles J. Cooper Virginia's Gov. Terry McAuliffe recently signed an executive order restoring, with the stroke of a pen, the right to vote for all 206,000 Virginia felons who have completed their terms of incarceration and supervised probation. This includes more than 40,000 felons convicted of violent crimes. The order also restores the rights to serve on a jury and to seek and hold public office, and it makes each of them eligible to ask a court to restore their right to own and carry firearms. The sweeping order has no precedent in Virginia history, and last week Virginia's Republican House Speaker William J. Howell and Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. and four other state voters filed a challenge to its constitutionality. Their petition asks the Virginia Supreme Court to invalidate the governor's order before votes are cast in November, lest the validity of the general election be cast into doubt. Recognizing the urgency of the situation, the state's high court issued an order on June 1 calling a special session of the court to hear argument in the case on July 19. The executive order defies the text of the Virginia Constitution. Article II flatly prohibits all felons from voting, but it grants the governor a narrow power to restore voting rights to deserving felons on an individual, case-by-case basis. Nothing in the constitution gives the governor power to restore political rights en masse to virtually all felons, no matter how heinous or numerous their crimes. Gov. McAuliffe, a Democrat, has acknowledged that for 240 years none of the state's 71 other governors exercised wholesale clemency power. In 2010 another Democratic governor, Tim Kaine, expressly declined to issue a blanket restoration order like Gov. McAuliffe's, concluding that such an order would "rewrite" the law rather than follow it. Three years later, a bipartisan committee convened and headed by Virginia's then-attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, advised Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell that a blanket order restoring voting rights would be unconstitutional. Gov. McAuliffe has attempted to justify his order by claiming that Virginia's felon-disenfranchisement provision was introduced into the Constitution after the Civil War in a racist effort to disenfranchise African-Americans. He told the Nation magazine in April that "in 1901 and 1902 they put literacy tests, the poll tax and then disenfranchisement of felons into the state's constitution." This is not true. The prohibition on felon voting dates back to 1830--a time when African-Americans were prohibited from voting altogether. The felon disenfranchisement provision could not have been introduced for the purpose of disenfranchising them. No wonder the federal courts have uniformly rejected the claim that Virginia's prohibition on felon voting discriminates on the basis of race.
Hundreds of Dead Voters Found in California — Will Media Cover It?
By Tim Graham With the presidential candidates arriving in California to campaign and raise funds, this report from the Los Angeles CBS affiliate should become national news: "A comparison of records by David Goldstein, investigative reporter for CBS2/KCAL9, has revealed hundreds of so-called dead voters in Southern California, a vast majority of them in Los Angeles County." Voter fraud? But liberal Democrats like to claim there is zero evidence of voter fraud. CBS2 compared millions of voting records from the California Secretary of State's office with death records from the Social Security Administration and found hundreds of so-called dead voters. Specifically, 265 in Southern California and a vast majority of them, 215, in Los Angeles County alone. The numbers come from state records that show votes were cast in that person's name after they died. In some cases, Goldstein discovered that they voted year after year. Across all counties, Goldstein uncovered 32 dead voters who cast ballots in eight elections apiece, including a woman who died in 1988. Records show she somehow voted in 2014, 26 years after she passed away. It remains unclear how the dead voters voted but 86 were registered Republicans, 146 were Democrats, including Cenkner.
Virginia Assembly Republicans Sue Governor over Felon Voting
Virginia Republicans on Monday asked the state's highest court to block more than 200,000 felons from voting in November, arguing that Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe abused his power by restoring the voting rights of thousands of convicts who've completed their sentences. In a lawsuit GOP leaders filed in the Virginia Supreme Court, they say McAuliffe violated the separation of powers by effectively suspending the state's ban on voting by felons. They say McAuliffe is ignoring decades of practice, which has made clear that governors can restore voting rights only on a case-by-case basis. "Gov. McAuliffe's executive order defines the plain text of the Constitution, flouts the separation of powers, and has no precedent in the annals of Virginia history. The governor simply may not, with the stroke of the pen, unilaterally suspend and amend the Constitution," their lawyers wrote in the suit. The lawsuit is being brought by House Speaker William Howell and Senate Majority Leader Thomas Norment along with four other Virginia voters. They're asking the justices to prohibit election officials from registering felons and to cancel all such registrations since April 22. As of last week, election officials said nearly 4,000 felons had signed up to vote, media outlets reported.
Judge Rules against Kansas Proof of Citizenship to Vote
WICHITA - A federal judge said Tuesday that Kansas can't require people to show proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote for federal elections at motor vehicle offices. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson ruled that the state's proof-of-citizenship requirements likely violate a provision in the National Voter Registration Act that requires only "minimal information" to determine a voter's eligibility. She ordered Kansas to register thousands of voters whose paperwork is on hold because they did not comply with the requirement. But she put her preliminary injunction on hold until May 31 to give the state a chance to appeal. The state immediately said it would appeal. Unless a higher court halts Robinson's order before the end of the month, it would take effect then, clearing the way for those residents to cast a ballot in the upcoming federal elections.