Welcome to the return of our war on voting series, a joint project of Meteor Blades and Joan McCarter.
New Jersey could have become the third state in the country to dramatically increase its voting base, and likely its voter participation, by adopting automatic voter registration as Oregon and California have done. But what kind of message would that send to big Republican donors, the people Gov. Chris Christie needs desperately to keep his presidential aspirations alive? So, of course, he vetoed it.
The Democracy Act also would have given voters the opportunity to register and update their information online, and created two weeks of in-person early voting, among other reforms. Together, they would have boosted registration rates, cleaned up the rolls, saved money, and made voting more convenient.
With turnout at record-low rates in 2014, every state should seriously consider ways to make registration more convenient and accurate. New Jersey is no exception. Last year, just 30.4 percent of eligible voters turned out, placing the Garden State among the 10 worst-performing states for voter participation. And in last week's election, preliminary turnout analysis by Monmouth University's Polling Institute is pointing toward a new state general-election low of 22 percent or less. […]
With his Monday veto Christie issued a statement claiming that the legislation would be a waste of "hard-earned tax dollars" and implying it would have enabled fraud. However, these reforms would actually reduce the opportunities for fraud by keeping voter rolls updated and accurate. Moreover, as a new Brennan Center report extensively documents, electronic and online registration systems would save taxpayer money.
Christie has to repeat the voter fraud myth, against all evidence, because he is a Republican running for president. That did not go over well with the editors at NJ.com, who blasted Christie in an editorial.
It's always amusing when politicians imply that voters cannot be trusted.
And it's special when a politician who spent $12 million on a special election – in a shameless attempt to hide from the electorate – claims he's looking out for our wallets.
So the Democracy Act is on ice, for now, because there is nothing in Christie's aberrant version of governance that could make him embrace radical ideas such as online registration, more early-voting opportunities, or automatic registration for driver's license applicants.
They're not fans. Legislative leaders are talking about putting automatic registration to the voters in a referendum next fall.
You'll also find some briefs on what's happened this week in the war on voting.
- This story from the Brennan Center isn't necessarily what you think of when you hear "voter suppression," but it's certainly an aspect of it: cable TV executives are winnowing the field of candidates instead of primary voters. Granted 15 (16? How many Republicans are running?) candidates is way too many to get on a debate stage, but these early debate based on really dubious early polls effectively pick the winners and losers before anybody gets a vote. As if cable TV executives needed more control over the system.
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Latino scholars and voting rights activists held a conference this week at the University of Texas, focusing in the history of voting rights for the Latino community and what's at stake for them now.
"With Election Day less than a year away, it is unconscionable that we still do not have a legislative fix in place that will prevent our nation from holding its first presidential election in more than 50 years without crucial protections in federal law to combat the racial discrimination in voting, which continues to plague our democracy," Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials said in a statement.
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Appomattox, the Civil War opera which premiered in 2007 is being revived this weekend, but had to be rewritten by composer Philip Glass and the playwright Christopher Hampton.
"We were writing it in 2005 and 6," Mr. Glass said in an interview. "But it never occurred to me that the Supreme Court would gut the Voting Rights Act." […] So Mr. Glass and Mr. Hampton significantly revised the opera and made voting rights a central theme.
- Speaking of the entertainment world, The Daily Show sent TDS correspondent and Malaysian native Ronny Chieng to explore the status of America's voting machines. His conclusion? They're fucked. "So you're basically getting shitty technology from Ebay, secondhand?" asked a stunned Chieng when he visited an elections office in Michigan. Yes, indeed, they're getting parts for their machines off of Ebay. It's worth the watch.