Issues Archives - Page 192 of 222 - Voting Integrity Institute

Rock the Vote’s Designs on the Young

By Robert Knight When I was 18, I thought I knew plenty about life and politics. I was wrong. My views had not yet been honed by the experience of trying to live on a paycheck that the government seized in order to hand much of it over to someone else. I also believed that people who created the monstrous federal bureaucracy really cared about the poor, even as their wrong-headed policies destroyed marriage and families and plunged urban centers into unimaginable violence. In short, I was easily manipulated by the welfare state's emotional appeals, just the sort of sucker that Rock the Vote (RTV) is looking for today. Before you accuse me of waging a "war on young people," I readily admit that not everyone my age at the time was naïve, nor are some young people as naïve today - just whole bunches of them. Facing astronomically high unemployment or under-employment, with the world blowing up around them, the majority of 18- to 29-year-olds still identify as liberals in survey after survey. I'd say "mug them again," but you can mug people and suffer disappointment only so many times. Instead, I remain cautiously optimistic that time and reality will steer them toward more conservative views, as it did me and many other former useful idiots. Getting a job and getting married boosts the whole process. Having kids is another huge reality check. Rock the Vote is gearing up for a repeat of 2008, when millions of teens and twenty-somethings were recruited as shock troops for the Obama campaign. By 2012, RTV claimed that it had registered 5 million new voters under 30. Founded in 1992 as a "non-partisan" creation, with funding from George Soros and other lefty sugar daddies, RTV has fresh-faced new leadership, such as its president, Ashley Spillane, a veteran of the Atlas Project, whose mission is "to arm the progressive community with historical elections data, sophisticated analysis and real time updates for all 50 states." RTV also sports a lengthy roster of celebrities such as Lady Gaga and Sheryl Crow.

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

Rock the Vote Targets Voter ID Laws

Rock the Vote has state voter ID laws in its cross hairs, announcing a new coalition to tackle such legislation and enlisting support from stars in the music industry. Rock the Vote, which focuses on youth voting rights, announced the launch of the ProtectVoting coalition in a release on August 11 following the Aug. 8 court ruling to uphold voter ID laws in North Carolina, the organization said.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:46+00:00August 12th, 2014|News, Voter ID|

Court Smacks Down Holder in NC Voter ID Law Case

The left trumpeted a voter ID decision in Wisconsin as if it were the end of the issue. Let's see what they do with this one. A federal court on Aug. 8 smacked down the Holder Justice Department and refused to enjoin (block) North Carolina's voter ID law, curtailment of costly early voting and end of fraud-infested same day registration. This means the state's voter ID law will be in place for the midterm congressional (and Senate) elections in November. The Justice Department had actually argued that even if black voters turned out at higher rates under voter ID (which they do), because blacks have to take the bus more and their life is generally harder, then voter ID and curtailing early voting violates the Voting Rights Act. The opinion lays waste to the theories of those opposing North Carolina's election integrity laws, including the Justice Department.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:46+00:00August 12th, 2014|ACRU Commentary, Early Voting, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

Citizenship Rule Takes Effect in Arizona, Kansas Primaries

Election rules in Kansas and Arizona that require proof of U.S. citizenship are set to take effect in coming weeks in state primaries. Some people will be barred from voting in state races, even as the federal government allows some of them to vote in congressional races. The split system is the result of a growing battle between federal officials and a handful of states over the necessity of verifying that a newly registered voter is a U.S. citizen. Kansas and Arizona say the federal registration process doesn't rigorously check citizenship. They have established their own verification systems and are barring people who register using the federal system from voting this month for such offices as governor and local posts. In recent years, mostly Republican-controlled states have tightened voting rules, including requiring voters to produce picture identification at the polls, arguing it prevents fraud. "There is a very real problem with aliens being registered to vote," said Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who said about a dozen states are likely to pass such measures in coming years.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:06+00:00August 4th, 2014|News, Proof of Citizenship, Vote Fraud, Voter ID|

Wisconsin Supreme Court Upholds Voter ID Law

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has upheld a 2011 law backed by Republicans requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls. The rulings in two separate voter ID cases were released Thursday morning among several major decisions issued simultaneously. The law already was ruled unconstitutional by a federal court judge in Milwaukee this spring, meaning that Thursday's rulings have no immediate effect. That federal court decision is under appeal. For the law to take effect, both the state Supreme Court and the federal courts would have to find it to be constitutional. In April, U.S. District Judge Lynn struck down the law, saying it violates the federal Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution. Gov. Scott Walker praised Thursday's rulings and said he was confident voter ID would ultimately be upheld in federal court. "Voter ID is a common-sense reform that protects the integrity of our elections," Walker said. "People need to have confidence in our electoral process and to know their vote has been properly counted. We look forward to the same result from the federal court of appeals."

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:46+00:00July 31st, 2014|In the Courts, News, Voter ID|

Setting the Record Straight on Jim Crow

Even as the nation celebrates the passage of the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, some liberals are using the occasion to bash Republicans as inheriting the legacy of Jim Crow -- ignoring the fact that a higher percentage of Republicans in Congress voted for the Civil Rights Act than did Democrats. President Obama recently accused the GOP of waging an all-out assault on voting rights. Speaking to a group founded by Al Sharpton, that non-paragon of racial healing, Obama claimed: "The stark simple truth is this: the right to vote is threatened today. . . . This recent effort to restrict the vote has not been led by both parties. It's been led by the Republican party." Leaving aside the fact that clear majorities of both African Americans and Hispanics support voter integrity measures such as showing voter ID at the polls, Obama is using incendiary rhetoric in an area where reasonable people can disagree. The , a conservative group that has filed suit in favor of voter-integrity measures, has had enough of such tactics. Its leaders include former attorney general Ed Meese and former Ohio secretary of state Ken Blackwell. ACRU has just published a booklet on the real history of Jim Crow. Available for free at thetruthaboutjimcrow.org, it sets the record straight on a hidden racial past that many Democrats would rather see swept under the carpet.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:37:09+00:00July 22nd, 2014|ACRU Commentary, Voter ID|

Court to Hear Texas Voter ID Case

In early September, a court in Corpus Christi begins a trial that should decide whether the current law requiring Texas voters to show government-issued photo identification before casting a ballot is constitutional. As it has happened with cases over redistricting, the Texas voter ID fight is expected to get national attention because two years ago a three-judge federal court in Washington ruled the 2011 legislation unconstitutional.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:46+00:00July 16th, 2014|In the Courts, News, Redistricting, Voter ID|

Justice Department to Intervene in Ohio, Wisconsin Voting Law Cases

The Obama administration plans to join lawsuits against Republican-backed voting restrictions in Ohio and Wisconsin -- two major swing states, Attorney General Eric Holder has said. The moves would represent the first time that Holder's Justice Department has intervened against statewide voting laws outside the areas that the Supreme Court freed from federal oversight in last year's Shelby County v. Holder ruling. They underline the administration's intention to aggressively protect voting rights across the country, not only in the mostly southern jurisdictions directly affected by Shelby. Earlier this year, Ohio's Republican legislature passed laws that cut six days from the early voting period and ended same-day registration, among other restrictions. Secretary of State Jon Husted then announced that there would be no early voting on Sundays or on week-day evenings. A federal judge recently restored early voting on the last three days before the election, but the other cuts remain in force. They're being challenged by the ACLU and other civil rights groups, which allege that they disproportionately affect non-white voters. A brief filed recently by the laws' challengers uses detailed voting records to establish that blacks are far likelier than whites to take advantage of early voting. In 2012, 20% of blacks did so, compared to just 6% of whites. Wisconsin's strict voter ID law was recently struck down by a federal judge, who ruled that it discriminated against black voters. But the state has appealed the ruling, and the litigation is ongoing.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:37:09+00:00July 16th, 2014|Early Voting, News, Same-Day Registration, Voter ID|

Study on North Carolina Voter ID Law Shows Increase in Minority Turnout

If there was a hidden agenda behind North Carolina's voter ID law to suppress minority turnout - as the law's opponents claim - it hasn't worked, based on a study showing not only more voters overall, but an increase in black voter turnout especially, after the law's implementation. The findings came before a scheduled hearing next week where the U.S. Justice Department will ask a U.S. District Court for an injunction against the law going into the November midterms. The Obama administration has argued that such a law will make it more difficult for minorities to vote. Comparing May 4, 2010 North Carolina primary election data with the May 14, 2014 primary data, the study found that voter turnout increased across the board, but particularly among black voters, where it increased by 29.5 percent, compared to an increase of white voter turnout of 13.7 percent. The findings were based on Census Bureau data and public names who signed the voter rolls. Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, commissioned the study and included the findings in an amicus brief for the July 7 hearing. Judicial Watch was joined in its legal brief by the Allied Educational Foundation and by former Buncombe County commissioner candidate Christina Kelley Gallegos-Merrill.

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:34:46+00:00July 3rd, 2014|News, Voter ID|

Mississippi Election Rolls Under Scrutiny in Primary

According to a pair of advocacy organizations for free and fair elections, Tuesday's U.S. Senate GOP runoff in Mississippi might not meet that ideal. The has sent warning letters to five Mississippi counties -- Clarke, Humphreys, LeFlore, Madison and Noxubee -- to purge their voter rolls of ineligible voters or face federal court action. The ACRU found, using state voter data and the most current U.S. Census numbers, that all five had more registered voters than voting-age eligible residents. This is a violation of both state and federal law. The counties have 90 days to comply with the order. Christian Adams, the ACRU attorney who is monitoring Tuesday's election results, said the findings are a serious threat to free and fair elections in the state. "When you've got more people than you've got people alive, there's a problem with the rolls and they need to get them cleaned up," Adams said. "Unfortunately, year after year, there's a failure to keep the rolls maintained correctly. Federal law and frankly, Mississippi law, requires they purge their rolls. It's not an option."

ACRU Staff2020-05-03T23:38:06+00:00June 24th, 2014|News, Voter ID|

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