Tag Archives: voter rights

The Guardian reports: A Texas appeals court has thrown out a five-year prison sentence for Crystal Mason, a Texas woman who was sentenced for trying to cast a provisional ballot in the 2016 presidential election that was rejected. Mason, now 49, attempted to vote in Fort Worth in the 2016 even though she was ineligible because she was still on …

The Washington Post reports: Democratic Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia are urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate whether the Youngkin administration violated the Voting Rights Act when it wiped at least 270 fully qualified Virginia voters off the state’s rolls. In a letter dated Friday and released to the media Tuesday, Warner, Kaine and the …

The New York Times reports: The city council here on Thursday approved a measure that will allow immigrants who are not U.S. citizens to vote for mayor and other key municipal positions, a historic move that is igniting threats of legal challenges from Republicans and hopes from Democrats that other cities will follow suit. The council voted 33 to 14 …

The New York Times reports: Three University of Florida professors have been barred from assisting plaintiffs in a lawsuit to overturn the state’s new law restricting voting rights, lawyers said in a federal court filing on Friday. The ban is an extraordinary limit on speech that raises questions of academic freedom and First Amendment rights. University officials told the three …

Axios reports: Senate Republicans’ main campaign arm will unveil a seven-figure ad campaign in Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and New Hampshire targeting Democrats’ effort to expand voting, Axios has learned. These are the  NRSC’s first TV ads of the 2022 midterms cycle and show how potent S.1 (the Senate’s version of H.R. 1) is for Republicans — both in how it …

ABC News reports: H.R. 1, known as the For the People Act, seeks to abolish hurdles to voting, reform the role of money in politics and tighten federal ethics rules. Among the key tenets of the bill to overhaul the nation’s election system: allowing for no-excuse mail voting, at least 15 days of early voting, automatic voter registration and restoring …

ABC News reports: In a hearing late Thursday, legislators said their package of election law changes would drop some of the most controversial elements. State Rep. Barry Fleming (R), who heads the Special Committee on Election Integrity, said the new version of the bill would allow up to four weekend days of early voting, more than what is currently required. …

Just in via press release: Governor Ralph Northam today restored the civil rights of more than 69,000 Virginians using new eligibility criteria that mirror a proposed change to the Constitution of Virginia that would automatically restore voting rights to individuals upon completion of their sentence of incarceration. Governor Northam announced that going forward, any Virginian released from incarceration will qualify …

From a statement issued today by the Carter Center: As our state legislators seek to turn back the clock through legislation that will restrict access to voting for many Georgians, I am disheartened, saddened, and angry. Many of the proposed changes are reactions to allegations of fraud for which no evidence was produced—allegations that were, in fact, refuted through various …

USA Today reports: The Supreme Court refused Thursday to let Florida felons who have completed their sentences vote in an upcoming primary without first paying fees, fines and restitution, as the state requires. Voting rights groups had challenged the requirement as unconstitutional, given that state voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 giving hundreds of thousands of felons the right …

Courthouse News reports: Three voters and two nonprofits brought a federal complaint Tuesday that says the failure by Texas to register voters through its online driver’s license application is illegal. The lawsuit comes eight days after a cadre of Democrats sued the Texas secretary of state on voter-suppression claims; thousands of Texans were improperly barred from voting in the 2018 …

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports: White House hopeful Mike Bloomberg will take part in a voting rights summit in Atlanta on Friday organized by the group Stacey Abrams launched after her 2018 campaign for governor. The former New York mayor will join Abrams at the invite-only event launched by Fair Fight 2020. State Sen. Nikema Williams, chairwoman of the state Democratic …

The Raleigh News & Observer reports: North Carolina voters might not have to show a photo ID in the 2020 elections, due to a ruling in federal court that’s expected in the coming days. A federal judge in North Carolina said Thursday she would block the law, at least temporarily, as the voter ID lawsuit against the state continues. She …

NBC News reports: Advocates for Spanish-speaking voters in Florida are celebrating a significant win Friday after District Judge Mark Walker issued an order requiring 32 of the state’s 67 counties to provide election materials and assistance to Spanish-speaking voters before the 2020 presidential primary. Walker’s decision comes after several civic engagement groups and individuals sued the state secretary of state …

Talking Points Memo reports: A federal judge on Monday ruled that Kansas’ proof of citizenship voter registration requirement was a violation of the Constitution as well as the National Voter Registration Act. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson had in previous orders temporarily blocked the requirement, which was championed by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Robinson on Monday handed down …

The Washington Examiner reports: The U.S. Supreme Court sent back a partisan gerrymandering case from Wisconsin that challenged the legislative map drawn by Wisconsin Republicans to the lower court. With its ruling, the high court tossed out a ruling from a district court and sent the case back. It ruled against Wisconsin Democrats who argued state Republican lawmakers engaged in …

NBC News reports: In a 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court gave Ohio a victory Monday in a fight over the state’s method for removing people from the voter rolls, a practice that civil rights groups said discourages minority turnout. At least a dozen other politically conservative states said they would adopt a similar practice if Ohio prevailed, as a …

The Associated Press reports: Voting-rights advocates have joined the legal wrangling over the counting of votes in North Carolina’s close governor’s contest. Lawyers from Southern Coalition for Social Justice asked a federal judge late Wednesday to reject a lawsuit questioning the verification of voters who used same-day registration to cast ballots. The filing was done by some of the same …

NBC News reports: A federal appeals court on Wednesday said New Hampshire’s ban on voting booth selfies “is like burning down the house to roast the pig.” In a unanimous vote, a three-judge panel of the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston upheld a lower court ruling that declared the state’s ban unconstitutional. It was the first time a …

The Texas Tribune reports: The federal government is accusing Texas of circulating “inaccurate or misleading information” to poll workers and would-be voters about relaxed identification requirements for the November elections. “Limited funds are being spent on inaccurate materials,” the U.S. Department of Justice wrote in a legal filing Tuesday. The filing asked U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos to “issue …