Tag Archives: voter suppression

Roll Call reports: When Americans head to the polls on Tuesday for the midterm elections, voters in 35 counties — from Las Vegas to Dallas to Tampa — will head to precincts that are being closely monitored by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division for “compliance with the federal voting rights laws,” the DOJ announced Monday. “Voting rights are constitutional …

Reuters reports: Twitter deleted more than 10,000 automated accounts posting messages that discouraged people from voting in Tuesday’s U.S. election and wrongly appeared to be from Democrats, after the party flagged the misleading tweets to the social media company. The number is modest, considering that Twitter has previously deleted millions of accounts it determined were responsible for spreading misinformation in …

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports: A federal judge on Friday ordered that new U.S. citizens must be allowed to vote if they show proof of citizenship at the polls. U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross ruled against Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who had argued that state law already provides a process for new citizens to vote. But Ross’ order said that …

Axios reports: Former president and Georgia native Jimmy Carter has written a letter to Brian Kemp, the state’s Republican nominee for governor, urging him resign as Georgia’s secretary of state, a position that requires him to oversee the gubernatorial election. Georgia’s gubernatorial race has also been clouded by voter suppression concerns. Kemp has been sued by a coalition of civil …

Courthouse News reports: The American Civil Liberties Union sued a Kansas county election official in federal court Friday, alleging that her moving of Dodge City’s only polling location to a site half a mile outside of the city’s southern border creates a burden on the city’s majority Hispanic population. Dodge City, located in southwest Kansas about 160 miles west of …

Rolling Stone reports: Brian Kemp, Georgia Secretary of State and the Republican nominee for Georgia governor, expressed at a ticketed campaign event that his Democratic opponent Stacey Abrams’ voter turnout operation “continues to concern us, especially if everybody uses and exercises their right to vote,” according to audio obtained by Rolling Stone. Not long after Kemp began his remarks, the …

Talking Points Memo reports: A Georgia Tech student, who recorded Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) snatching his cell phone out of his hand when he asked the senator a question about voter suppression, sued Perdue for battery on Monday. The student, Georgia Tech junior Nathan Knauf, alleges that Perdue committed unlawful battery when “he seized Mr. Knauf’s phone, touching Mr. Knauf …

From Atlanta’s WABE and APM Reports: Even by Georgia standards, the voter purge of late July 2017 was remarkable. In a single day, more than half a million people — 8 percent of Georgia’s registered voters — were cut from the voter rolls. Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp, an avid supporter of President Donald Trump who has described himself …

Law & Crime reports: U.S. Senator David Perdue (R-GA) ripped a phone out of a constituent’s hand late Saturday morning as the constituent was recording their encounter. The Republican senator was being asked a question about Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp‘s widely-reported attempts to purge the voter registrations of thousands of black voters in the Peach State. As the …

Talking Points Memo reports: Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s (R) office is blocking 53,000 people from registering to vote, according to records obtained by the Associated Press, a huge number that could sway his gubernatorial race against Democrat Stacey Abrams. Kemp has used a controversial “exact match” program to block voter registrations that disproportionately impacts minority voters. The secretary …

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 …

Kansas City’s CBS affiliate reports: Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has brought his Jeep to another parade. This time, in Lecompton. The Jeep, which Kobach previously described as a “souped up Jeep with a replica gun,” caused some to be concerned at a parade in Shawnee last weekend. Then, it sparked what Kobach called “outrage” after pictures of it …

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 …

Just in from the White House: Despite substantial evidence of voter fraud, many states have refused to proved the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity with basic information relevant to its inquiry. Rather than engage in endless legal battles at taxpayer expense, today I signed an executive order to dissolve the Commission, and have asked the Department of Homeland Security …

ProPublica reports: The Justice Department is pushing for a question on citizenship to be added to the 2020 census, a move that observers say could depress participation by immigrants who fear that the government could use the information against them. That, in turn, could have potentially large ripple effects for everything the once-a-decade census determines — from how congressional seats …

Reuters reports: The American Civil Liberties Union on Monday said it had filed a lawsuit against U.S. President Donald Trump’s election commission, saying it had failed to follow federal law governing public access and transparency for such advisory groups. The ACLU said in a statement that the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity had already held its first meeting without …

McClatchy reports: Civil rights groups say a tangle of Republican-backed “voter suppression” laws enacted since 2010 probably helped tip the scale for Republican nominee Donald Trump in some closely contested states on election night. “When we look back, we will find that voter suppression figured prominently in the story surrounding the 2016 presidential election,” said Kristen Clarke, the president and …

The above two images are being widely shared on Twitter today as reports come in about voter intimidation attempts by presumed supporters of Donald Trump. From the Washington Post: Voters in Florida, a key battleground, have reported multiple accounts of voters saying they have encountered aggressive, intimidating behavior, according to a nonpartisan group monitoring election issues nationwide. “In Florida we …

“African American Early Voting is down 8.5% from this time in 2012.” Via Daily Kos: This morning, the NC GOP sent out a press release bragging about how successful the state party has been in suppressing the vote. As a reminder, the state “surgically” slashed the early voting methods used by most often by African Americans — including eliminating “Souls …