News
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.
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."
Wisconsin Man Charged with Multiple Counts of Vote Fraud
In one of the biggest cases of voter fraud ever in Wisconsin, a Milwaukee area health insurance executive has been charged with casting multiple votes for Republican candidates -- including Gov. Scott Walker in the 2012 recall election. Robert Monroe of Shorewood was charged Friday with 13 felonies related to his voting a dozen times in five elections between 2011 and 2012, using his own name along with his son's and his girlfriend's son. https://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/writers/mike_ivey/voter-fraud-case-targets-scott-walker-backer/article_7afa077e-faf2-11e3-b655-0019bb2963f4.html
Mississippi Sails Through Voter ID Test in Primary
Mississippi's new voter ID law caused few problems on June 3 in the first election since its controversial passage, with only one report of a voter turned away for lack of identification. A Pike County poll worker mistakenly told a person he couldn't cast a ballot without an ID, said county Election Commissioner Trudy Berger. "It was a misunderstanding," Berger said. "We trained on it that nobody is ever told they can't vote, period. As soon as we heard that had happened, we sent an election commissioner down there to solve the problem." According to the new law, voters must present a driver's license or other government-issued ID to cast a ballot through the normal process. Those without ID can vote by affidavit ballot, after which they have five business days to show an acceptable form of photo ID, or apply for a Mississippi voter ID card, at the circuit clerk's office. The Secretary of State's Office was notified of the incident, Berger said. But beyond that, the agency had few calls about voter ID issues.
Alabama Gave Out 2,300 Free Photo IDs Before Primary
MONTGOMERY-- Over 2,300 free photo voter ID cards have been produced in Alabama leading up to Tuesday's primary elections, Secretary of State Jim Bennett announced. Photo voter identification cards can be obtained by a voter up to, on and even after the day of the election. There is no cut-off date to receive a free photo voter ID. Bennett said he hoped to see many voters at the polls on June 3 and predicted that 25- 27% of registered voters will show up to vote. In the last gubernatorial election for Alabama in 2010, there was 32% turnout in that primary.
Mississippi Using New Voter ID Law in Primaries
JACKSON, Miss. -- Mississippi will use its new voter-identification law for the first time Tuesday, culminating a long political fight in a state with a troubled past of voting rights suppression. People will be required to show a driver's license or other government-issued photo identification at the polls during the Republican and Democratic primaries for U.S. House and Senate.
308,000 Virginia Voters Registered in Other States, Report Shows
Some 308,000 Virginia voters are also registered elsewhere, according to an analysis of 22 states' election records. The finding follows Watchdog.org's report of 44,000 people who appear to be registered in both Virginia and Maryland. The latest survey found the 308,000 double registrations by matching names, birth dates and the last four digits of Social Security numbers. The Virginia Voters Alliance, which reported the results, identified "big gaps" in the voter-registration process.
ACLU Sues over Pullback on Early Voting in Ohio
COLUMBUS - The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups filed a federal lawsuit on May 8 against Ohio's elections chief over limits to when voters can cast an early ballot in the perennial battleground state. Ohioans can cast an absentee ballot by mail or in person before Election Day without giving any reason. About 33 percent of those who voted in the 2012 presidential election cast an early ballot. The lawsuit filed in Columbus federal court claims that recent cuts to early voting will make it difficult for tens of thousands of residents to vote and will unfairly affect black voters, who the groups say are more likely to use weekend and evening hours to vote early in elections.
Wisconsin Voter ID Authors to Reintroduce Bill
MADISON -- The Republican authors of a new voter ID bill that passed the state Assembly, but not the Senate, said Tuesday that they plan to reintroduce the legislation after the November elections. Reps. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, and Michael Schraa, R-Oshkosh, wrote in a column they distributed by email that they believe their bill is constitutional because it's based on an Indiana law upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Born and Schraa also responded to a criticism of their bill by state Sen. Joe Leibham, R-Sheboygan, who is running for Congress and authored the state's current voter ID law that passed in 2011. Leibham said last week, after a federal judge struck down the law, that he believes the current law is constitutional and the new bill would create "such a big loophole in the voter ID requirement" that the system would be "substantially similar to the one we have now."
Liberal Donors Eye New Strategy
A group of wealthy liberal donors who helped bankroll the Center for American Progress and other major advocacy groups on the left is developing a new big-money strategy that could boost state-level Democratic candidates and mobilize core party voters. The plan, being crafted in private by a group of about 100 donors that includes billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros and San Francisco venture capitalist Rob McKay, seeks to give Democrats a stronger hand in the redrawing of district lines for state legislatures and the U.S. House.