Issues Archives - Page 175 of 222 - Voting Integrity Institute

Missouri Senate Reaches Voter ID Compromise

FACED with a filibuster as the Missouri legislative session winds down, state senators struck a deal Monday that will allow them to proceed with a voter identification plan to be decided by voters. State Sen. Will Kraus, R-Lee's Summit, said "a good compromise" is making it possible to pass his proposal before the Legislature adjourns May 13. Kraus and fellow Republicans want voters to decide the fate of a constitutional amendment requiring that voters show a photo ID at polling places to protect against election fraud. Democrats have generally opposed the bill, saying it would "disenfranchise voters" with low incomes, the elderly, the homeless and minority communities. For nearly a month, it appeared the bill would stall. Democrats launched a filibuster. They read stories from newspapers, recited election results, and read passages from a book. Off the Senate floor, Democrats said they wanted some type of safety net so that qualified voters would not be turned away from the polls. Kraus and other supporters eventually agreed to allow people without photo IDs to cast ballots if they present a paycheck, utility bill or a similar confirmation of their names and addresses. Those voters also would sign paperwork confirming that they lack photo IDs, triggering perjury charges if fraudulent statements are made. State Sen. Jason Holsman, D-Kansas City, still opposes photo IDs but welcomed what he called "earnest and sincere" negotiations to find a compromise. The Missouri House still must act and could bypass Gov. Jay Nixon to have a statewide vote later this year. If the measure becomes law, Missouri would join 17 other states that require a photo ID to vote, according to the nonpartisan National Conference of ?State Legislatures.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:40+00:00May 4th, 2016|News, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

Election Fraud Feared as Hackers Target Voter Records

A series of data breaches overseas are spurring concerns that hackers could manipulate elections in the United States. Since December, hundreds of millions of voters in the U.S., the Philippines, Turkey and Mexico have had their data discovered on the web in unprotected form. In some instances, legitimate security researchers found the information, but in others, malicious hackers are suspected of pilfering the data for criminal purposes. The data breaches are raising questions as the U.S. considers whether to move toward electronic balloting. More people than ever are using the internet to register to vote and to request mail-in ballots. Some states have even become vote-by-mail only in recent years. "If you can't keep the voter registration records safe, what makes you think you can keep the votes safe?" asked Pamela Smith, president of election watchdog Verified Voting. For a politically inclined hacker, insecure voter data could "very easily" create a pathway to "massive" voter fraud, said Joseph Kiniry, CEO of Free & Fair, which advocates for secure digital election systems.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:36:33+00:00May 3rd, 2016|News, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

Supreme Court Refuses to Block Texas Voter ID Law — for Now

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an emergency appeal to stop Texas from enforcing its challenged voter ID law. But the court said it could revisit the issue as the November elections approach. The law has been in effect for recent elections, even after a trial judge struck it down in 2014 and an appellate panel found last year that the law had a discriminatory effect on minority voters. The challengers in the ongoing lawsuit argue there is no reason to allow the requirement to show picture identification at the polls to remain in place. But justices rejected the plea in a brief order Friday. The full New Orleans-based appeals court will hold a new hearing on the Texas law in May. The high court said that it is aware of "the time constraints the parties confront in light of the scheduled elections." If the full appeals court has not issued a ruling by July 20, the court said, it would entertain a renewed emergency appeal over the voter ID law. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called the identification requirement a "common-sense law to provide simple protections to the integrity of our elections and the democratic process in our state." He said the state looked forward to defending the law in the appeals court next month.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:40+00:00April 29th, 2016|In the Courts, News, Voter ID|

Federal Judge Upholds North Carolina Voter ID Law

RALEIGH -- A federal judge has upheld North Carolina's voter ID law in a ruling posted Monday evening. U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder issued a 485-page ruling dismissing all claims in the challenge to the state's sweeping 2013 election law overhaul. Schroeder, a George W. Bush appointee, also upheld portions of the 2013 law that reduced the number of days people could vote early, eliminated same-day registration and voting and prohibited people from casting a ballot outside their precinct. The decision comes nearly three months after a trial on the ID portion of the law. Schroeder noted that North Carolina had "become progressive nationally" by permitting absentee voting, early voting for 17 days before the Election Day, a lengthy registration period, out-of-precinct voting on Election Day and a pre-registration program for 16-year-olds. "In 2013, North Carolina retrenched," Schroeder said in his opinion. Ultimately, though, Schroeder said the state had provided "legitimate state interests" in making the changes and the challengers failed to demonstrate that the law was unconstitutional. "This ruling further affirms that requiring a photo ID in order to vote is not only common sense, it's constitutional," Gov. Pat McCrory said in a statement. "Common practices like boarding an airplane and purchasing Sudafed require photo ID, and thankfully a federal court has ensured our citizens will have the same protection for their basic right to vote." In reaching the decision released on Monday, Schroeder conducted a two-part trial that spanned more than 21 days in July and this past January. He considered the testimony of 21 expert witnesses and 112 other witnesses, and more than 25,000 pages that are part of the record.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:40+00:00April 26th, 2016|Absentee / Mail-in Voting, Early Voting, In the Courts, News, Same-Day Registration, Voter ID|

Democrats and the New Jim Crow

By J. Christian Adams Imagine an election for president where votes cast at the ballot box mean next to nothing. While activist groups gripe about long lines and the return of Jim Crow whenever someone has to pull out a photo ID, it's the Democratic Party primary that deserves scorn for disenfranchising voters this year. With Hillary stacking up the super-delegates even while Bernie Sanders keeps winning, why should anyone bother voting? This is nothing new. The Democrat Party has a long history of disenfranchising its party members and voters through Jim Crow laws that disenfranchised the vast majority of African Americans. Jim Crow was invented by Democrats and administered by Democrats. While the hyperbole of Jim Crow is tossed at Republicans who seek to bring integrity to elections, it is the Democrats practicing systematic disenfranchisement again in 2016. Bernie Sanders won seven of the last eight Democratic primaries or caucuses but he is no closer to winning the Democratic Party nomination.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:01+00:00April 21st, 2016|ACRU Commentary, Voter ID|

Alaska Legislators Approve Voter Information Sharing

The Alaska House has approved a bill calling for the state to share voter information with other states in an effort to deter voter fraud. Representatives voted 36-3 Saturday afternoon to approve Senate Bill 9, one of many items of legislation considered by the Alaska House and Alaska Senate on the 89th day of the Legislative session. The Electronic Registration Information Center is a project of several states and supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts. As of December 2015, 15 states participated in the information-sharing program, including Republican-leaning ones like Alabama and Democratic-leaning ones like Oregon. "ERIC is a proven model that works," said Rep. Dan Saddler, R-Eagle River and the bill's prime sponsor in the House. Rep. Sam Kito III, D-Juneau, spoke up in support. In a speech on the House floor, he explained how one Juneau woman, attending college Outside, was encouraged to register to vote at the college when she couldn't remember if she had previously registered in Alaska. "By registering again, she lost her eligibility for her Permanent Fund Dividend," Kito said. "It's important for us to be able to share information with other states."

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:36:33+00:00April 19th, 2016|News, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

New Yorkers File Suit over Alleged Election Fraud

More than 200 outraged New York voters have joined a lawsuit claiming the party affiliation on their voter registration changed without their consent. The voters say they are unfairly being shut out of Tuesday's primary. The suit, filed Monday in Brooklyn, calls for New York to be an open primary state, allowing anyone to vote in primaries regardless of party affiliation. "For many of our complainants, to have the electoral process deprived of them, it's devastating," Shyla Nelson, an activist and spokeswoman for Election Justice U.S.A., told the Daily News. New York is one of 11 states that has a closed primary system and, due to an obscure election law, voters must have been registered by November of the previous year for the party whose primary they plan to vote in -- this is the earliest change-of-party deadline in the country.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:22:29+00:00April 19th, 2016|In the Courts, News, Vote Fraud|

Texas Defends Voter ID Law at Supreme Court

Arguing that its five-year-old law requiring voters to have a photo ID before they may cast a ballot will not deny anyone in Texas the right to vote, state officials urged the Supreme Court on Monday afternoon to allow the law to remain in effect while a federal appeals court conducts a new review of it. If federal voting rights law would treat the requirement as illegal, the federal law would be unconstitutional under the Fifteenth Amendment, the state contended.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:41+00:00April 13th, 2016|In the Courts, News, Voter ID|

ACRU Sues Philadelphia over Voter Records

The ACRU is suing Philadelphia over city officials' refusal to open voter registration records for public inspection as required by federal law. In a complaint filed April 4 in U.S. District Court under Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (Motor Voter Law), the ACRU seeks "specific records... to ascertain why Defendants have implausible percentages of active registrants as compared to age-eligible United States citizens who live in Philadelphia." Specifically, the ACRU seeks a court order finding the city in violation of NVRA, and requiring officials to allow inspection of voter registration records and the various means by which the city is supposed to be updating them. The ACRU had requested access to the records in a January letter to city officials. Philadelphia voter rolls have contained an implausible number of registrants over the years with the total registered nearly exceeding the number of eligible citizens in Philadelphia. The ACRU seeks to examine why this is occurring and what can be done to ensure that only eligible citizens are voting in Philadelphia elections

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:26:57+00:00April 7th, 2016|ACRU Litigation News, Early Voting, In the Courts, News, Press Releases|

Supreme Court Got It Wrong: Noncitizens Shouldn’t Be Counted

By Hans von Spakovsky and Elizabeth Slattery In a loss for voters, the Supreme Court has ruled unanimously against two residents of Texas who had argued that the Texas legislature diluted their votes when it used total population to redraw state Senate districts. In Evenwel v. Abbott, the Supreme Court allowed states to use total population in redrawing district lines, even though that this includes a large number of noncitizens (legal and illegal), felons, and others who are ineligible to vote. Sue Evenwel and Edward Pfenninger challenged the state Senate districts drawn by the Texas legislature using total population in 2013.They claimed that both the number of citizens of voting age and the number of registered voters in their districts deviated substantially--between 31 and 49 percent--from the "ideal" population of a Texas Senate district. They argued that this disparity significantly diluted their votes in comparison to those of voters who live in districts with large numbers of non-voters. According to this logic, their votes were worth roughly half those of voters in other districts. In other words, they claimed that their Senate districts had the same number of representatives as other districts that contained the same number of people but only half the number of eligible voters. This is a particular problem in Texas, which has almost two million illegal aliens, about seven percent of the state's population.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:01+00:00April 5th, 2016|ACRU Commentary, Voter ID|

SUBSCRIBE