Issues Archives - Page 191 of 222 - Voting Integrity Institute

Federal Court Overturns Part of NC Voting Reforms

A federal appeals court granted a temporary order on Wednesday that will allow same-day registration and provisional ballots in this fall's North Carolina elections, but refused to intervene on changes that shortened the early voting period. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in Charlotte last Thursday in the case that came after the Republican-led N.C. General Assembly passed a series of changes in 2013. Supporters say the measures are intended to strengthen the integrity of elections. Those who sued to overturn the laws say the changes are unfair because they disproportionately hurt young voters and minorities. Wednesday's ruling means voters can register and vote on the same day during the in-person early voting period, Oct. 23-Nov. 1. The temporary order also allows voters to cast ballots even if they show up at the wrong precinct. All three of the judges who heard the arguments last week were appointed to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals by Democratic presidents.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:06+00:00October 1st, 2014|Early Voting, In the Courts, News, Same-Day Registration, Voter ID|

Connecticut Lawmaker Arrested on Vote Fraud Charges

HARTFORD -- State Rep. Christina "Tita" Ayala, D-Bridgeport, was arrested on Sept. 26 on 19 voting fraud charges. Ayala, 31, is accused of voting in local and state elections in districts in which she did not live, the Chief State's Attorney's Office said in a press release. The arrest warrant affidavit also alleges Ayala provided fabricated evidence to state Election Enforcement Commission investigators that showed she lived at an address in a district where she voted while actually living outside the district, according to the release.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:19:29+00:00September 30th, 2014|News, Vote Fraud|

Holder’s Legacy of Racial Politics

By Edwin Meese III and J. Kenneth Blackwell Attorney General Eric Holder, who announced his resignation on Thursday, leaves a dismal legacy at the Justice Department, but one of his legal innovations was especially pernicious: the demonizing of state attempts to ensure honest elections. As a former U.S. attorney general under President Reagan, and a former Ohio secretary of state, we would like to say something that might strike some as obvious: Those who oppose photo voter-ID laws and other election-integrity reforms are intent on making it easier to commit vote fraud. That conclusion is inescapable, given the well-established evidence that voter-ID laws don't disenfranchise minorities or reduce minority voting, and in many instances enhance it, despite claims to the contrary by Mr. Holder and his allies. As more states adopt such laws, the left has railed against them with increasing fury, even invoking the specter of the Jim Crow era to describe electoral safeguards common to most nations, including in the Third World. Ascribing racial animus to people who are trying to safeguard democratic integrity is a crude yet effective political tactic that obscures the truth. But there's something even worse than name-calling: legal interference from Washington with valid laws. Attorney General Holder has sued Texas and North Carolina since the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last year in Shelby County v. Holder. That decision invalidated Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which made inoperable Section 5, a provision requiring the Justice Department or a D.C.-based federal court panel to pre-clear all election-law changes in nine states and multiple jurisdictions. The court rightly noted that the data on which the law was based are no longer valid, and that times have changed.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:06+00:00September 29th, 2014|ACRU Commentary, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

‘Catalist’: Obama’s Database for Fundamentally Transforming America

The Democrats and the institutional left have a new political tool that allows them virtually to ignore moderates yet still win elections. This tool, the Catalist database, was employed in the 2012 election. That election defied conventional wisdom: Mitt Romney sought and won independent voters overwhelmingly, but still lost. If you wondered why the conventional wisdom about independents and moderates didn't seem so wise in 2012, the answer is Catalist. Beyond winning elections, Catalist also allows the Democrats to turn the policy narrative upside down and suffer no political consequence for implementing radical policies which appeal to their base. The Obama administration's lurch to the far left without consequence can be understood by understanding Catalist. Obama thrives politically by satisfying his base. Simply, Catalist is a game changer not just for politics, but for policy. It is the left's machinery for fundamentally transforming America.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:06+00:00September 18th, 2014|ACRU Commentary, Voter ID|

Court Lifts Stay on Wisconsin’s Voter ID Law

In a decision that has little substantive meaning, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted an injunction against Wisconsin Voter ID that a lower court imposed. This was not a decision on the merits. It merely means that the 7th Circuit will allow voter ID to go into effect for the November elections absent the injunction being reimposed by the full 7th Circuit or United States Supreme Court. The other significant part of the decision is that it is predictive. It gives an indication what the 7th Circuit will decide in the appeal of the lower court's injunction. The left has been hailing the lower court opinion as providing a new architecture for attacking voter ID under the Voting Rights Act. The Voting Rights Act does not provide an easy fit with voter ID laws, largely because of an absence of proof that they were enacted with a discriminatory intent.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:45+00:00September 15th, 2014|ACRU Commentary, In the Courts, Voter ID|

Georgia Secretary of State Probing Possible Vote Fraud

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp (R) said Tuesday his office was investigating allegations of voter fraud by a group led by the state's Democratic House minority leader that it believes may have forged voter registration documents and signatures and filled out voter applications with false information. Kemp said in a memo obtained by WSBTV that his office has received complaints about the group in five counties in northern Georgia outside Atlanta -- Barow, Butts, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Henry, and Muscogee -- and sent subpoenas to the New Georgia Project and Third Sector Development, its parent organization, led by Georgia Rep. Stacey Abrams (D). "We're just not going to put up with fraud," Kemp told WSBTV. "I mean, we have zero tolerance for that in Georgia, so we've opened an investigation and served some subpoenas."

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:06+00:00September 10th, 2014|News, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

Trial Begins in Texas Voter ID Law Case

(Reuters) - A U.S. court in Texas heard arguments on Tuesday in a case over a law requiring voters to present photo identification, a move the state's Republican leaders say will prevent fraud and which plaintiffs claim is an attempt at suppressing minority turnout. The case is also part of a new strategy by the Obama administration to challenge voting laws it says discriminate by race in order to counter a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that freed states from strict federal oversight. The trial that started on Tuesday at the U.S. District Court in Corpus Christi stems from a battle over stringent voter ID measures signed into law by Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Republican, in 2011. The law requires voters to present a photo ID such as a concealed handgun license or driver's license, but it excludes student IDs as invalid.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:45+00:00September 3rd, 2014|In the Courts, News, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

Appeals Court Delays Wisconsin Voter ID Ruling

MADISON (AP) - A federal appeals court put off a decision until next month on whether to put Wisconsin's voter ID law back in place. Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen had asked the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate the voter ID law while it considers a lower court ruling that found the requirement to present a photo ID at the polls violated the U.S. Constitution and Voting Rights Act. Wisconsin's Republican-led Legislature passed the photo ID requirement and Gov. Scott Walker signed it in 2011.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:45+00:00August 25th, 2014|In the Courts, News, Voter ID|

Poll: 74 Percent Support Voter ID Laws

A federal judge in North Carolina recently struck down the latest challenge by the U.S. Justice Department to a state law that requires voters to bring photo identification to the polls. Voters continue to strongly support voter ID laws and don't consider them discriminatory. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 74% of Likely U.S. Voters believe all voters should be required to prove their identity before being allowed to vote. Nineteen percent (19%) disagree.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:45+00:00August 25th, 2014|News, Voter ID|

NC Voter ID Law Will Fight Fraud, Black Conservative Says

U.S. District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder ruled this month that North Carolina's November election can be held under a new voting law, considered one of the toughest in the nation and approved by Republican lawmakers. Opponents challenging the law say it will suppress minority voter turnout. But Schroeder denied their motion to hold the November vote under the old rules, saying the groups failed to show they would suffer irreparable harm. Horace Cooper of Project 21 serves as Director of the National Center for Public Policy Research's Voter Integrity Project. He says the judge clearly didn't buy into the Justice Department's argument. Cooper, Horace (Project 21)"They made up and distorted the case log to try to come up with an argument in this case," he tells OneNewsNow. "And the judge simply didn't buy it. They had to acknowledge that, yes, under the states that have voter ID, they have seen higher black voter turnout."

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:46+00:00August 20th, 2014|Early Voting, News, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

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