Issues Archives - Page 184 of 222 - Voting Integrity Institute

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 "We hope to see these unfair laws, which often disproportionately affect the most vulnerable in our society, repealed," Soros told the Times.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|

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|

Most Democrats Think Illegal Immigrants Should Be Allowed to Vote

Are voters ready to let illegal immigrants vote? A sizable number, including most Democrats, are. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that one-out-of-three Likely U.S. Voters (35%) now believes that illegal immigrants should be allowed to vote if they can prove they live in this country and pay taxes. Sixty percent (60%) disagree, while five percent (5%) are undecided. Fifty-three percent (53%) of Democrats think tax-paying illegal immigrants should have the right to vote. Twenty-one percent (21%) of Republicans and 30% of voters not affiliated with either major political party agree.

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

Crucial Texas Voting Case to Be Heard

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 26, 2015) -- The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to states giving more political power to areas with high illegal alien populations. In a brief filed in March, the (ACRU) argued that Texas and a U.S. District Court erred in approving state senate districts based on "total population" rather than on eligible citizen voters. "Total population" includes illegal aliens. Counting non-voters, including illegal aliens, when assessing the size of senate districts, gives citizens living in areas with high numbers of illegal aliens more senate seats than areas with mostly U.S. citizens, the ACRU says in the brief, filed on behalf of the plaintiffs in Evenwel and Pfenninger v. Abbott et al. The ACRU brief notes that even the United States Department of Justice uses only citizen population in allocating legislative seats in redistricting litigation. "The current Texas method violates the one-man, one-vote concept that ensures fair elections," said ACRU President Susan A. Carleson. "We're pleased that the Court is taking the case."

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:04+00:00May 27th, 2015|In the Courts, News, Redistricting, Voter ID|

Don’t Believe Voter Fraud Happens? Here Are More Examples

By Hans von Spakovsky In the interest of helping out the editorial writers and pundits of media outlets who don't think voter fraud occurs, I wanted to note just a few recent cases (and readers interested in seeing almost 200 more such cases can do so here.): In McAllen, Texas, two campaign workers (known as politiqueras in local parlance) who bribed voters with cocaine, beer, cigarettes and cash during a 2012 school board election have been sentenced separately to serve eight and four months in prison, respectively. U.S. District Court Judge Randy Crane called this election fraud "terrible" and said that "our country requires that our voting process be clear and free of fraud for democracy to work... it's dangerous for this to occur without consequence." A couple in Le Sueur, Minn., was charged with felony voter registration fraud for lying about where they lived so they could vote in a school bond referendum in another town. A woman in Dothan, Ala., was sentenced to six months in prison for her part in a voter fraud scheme that got a city commissioner re-elected. She was the second of the four people charged to have been found guilty of voter fraud in the case, which may have involved more than 100 absentee ballots.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:36:58+00:00May 26th, 2015|Absentee / Mail-in Voting, ACRU Commentary, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

New Hampshire Supreme Court Strikes Down Voter ID Law

CONCORD, N.H. --The New Hampshire Supreme Court on May 15 upheld a lower court ruling that struck down a 2012 voter registration law, saying language that links voting to getting a driver's license is unconstitutional and could discourage some people from casting ballots. The court, in a unanimous decision, said because the language is confusing and inaccurate, and because it could cause an otherwise qualified voter not to register to vote in New Hampshire, "the burden it imposes upon the fundamental right to vote is unreasonable."

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:43+00:00May 18th, 2015|In the Courts, News, Voter ID|

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