Leading Off
● New Jersey: On Tuesday, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signed automatic voter registration into law, making New Jersey the 11th state (plus the District of Columbia) to approve this reform. Eligible voters who do business with the state Motor Vehicle Commission will be automatically registered, unless they opt out. Consequently, this law could add hundreds of thousands of new voters to the rolls, make voting more accessible, and help keep records more secure and up-to-date.
Importantly, this law also gives the secretary of state the option to expand automatic registration to other state agencies that can verify voter eligibility, although only the Motor Vehicle Commission would be required to implement automatic registration. Expanding the policy to other agencies is key for reaching the sizable minority of eligible voters who don't drive, such as the elderly, disabled, and those who rely on public transportation.
Now that New Jersey has passed automatic registration, roughly one quarter of Americans will live in states that have the policy. But there's still a long way to go to enact automatic registration in the rest of the country, given how Republicans are increasingly opposed to the idea. However, Democrats have the power to pass or expand automatic registration without needing any Republican support four states—Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, and Massachusetts—but only the last of these states is even seriously considering a bill to do so this year.
But there’s a way reformers can push automatic registration even in states where Republicans are recalcitrant. As shown on the map at the top of this post, many states give voting rights advocates a way to circumvent hostile legislators entirely: ballot initiatives. In 2016, Alaska became the first state to approve an initiative on automatic registration, and Nevadans will vote on it this November. Activists are also trying to put a voting rights amendment that includes automatic registration on the ballot in Michigan. Hopefully, more states will pass automatic registration, whether it be via the legislature or ballot measures.
Redistricting
● North Carolina: Gerrymandering opponents recently experienced a setback after a panel of state court judges refused to grant an injunction against the GOP's mid-decade gerrymander of several state House districts in Wake County, home to the state capital of Raleigh. As we have previously explained, North Carolina's state constitution bans mid-decade redistricting. However, because a federal court ordered GOP legislators to remedy a set of districts they’d drawn that had unconstitutionally weakened the power of black voters, Republicans used that opportunity to protect several vulnerable GOP districts, even though they didn't need to be changed to comply with federal law.
Frustratingly, the state court agreed that the GOP's backdoor gerrymander likely violated North Carolina's constitution. However, with the May 8 primary swiftly approaching, the judges decided it would be too disruptive for this year's elections to order more changes to the map, since doing so would have likely entailed delaying the primaries for the affected districts.
Plaintiffs have said they will keep pursuing their case, which would ultimately involve a trial over the merits of their claim. If they succeed, North Carolina would once again have to redraw its state House map for 2020, but voters in Wake County would still have gone four of five elections this decade under unconstitutional Republican gerrymanders.
Voter Registration
● Michigan: A committee in Michigan's majority-Republican state House has sent a bill to the full chamber that would allow voters to register online if they have a Michigan driver's license or state ID card. The GOP-run state Senate already passed this same bill in March, and its chances of becoming law appear strong.
Ballot Measures
● Maine: On Tuesday, Maine's Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the state will use instant-runoff voting (sometimes called ranked-choice voting) in the June 12 primaries for federal and state offices, resolving the latest chapter of this long-running ordeal. As we have previously explained, the legislature has fought this voter-initiated law by passing a measure to effectively repeal it last year. However, that repeal effort was frozen as the result of a veto referendum that will take place concurrently with the primaries, meaning voters will use this new voting system while simultaneously deciding whether to keep it.
Election Consolidation
● Arizona: GOP Gov. Doug Ducey and Republican lawmakers recently passed a law that will require local governments to consolidate their odd-year or spring elections with the even-year statewide election calendar if those localities see eligible voter turnout that is 25 percent lower than the average statewide turnout in those even-year elections. Since local elections typically see dramatically lower participation when they take place in odd years or in the spring, this law will likely force almost all localities to align their local elections with state and federal races.
Republicans have been trying for years to consolidate these elections, and this law passed strictly along party lines. However, combining down-ballot elections with federal and state races would likely boost turnout in local elections more than any other realistic reform. Doing so would also likely make the electorate in local elections more demographically representative of the eligible voter population, since voters who are young, low-income, or people of color typically vote at disproportionately lower rates in odd-year and spring elections for local offices.
However, it's unclear if this new law will survive judicial review. Republicans have previously passed a similar measures, but state courts have struck them down after cities like Tucson sued. GOP legislators believe relying on the "trigger" mechanism, where turnout has to drop by 25 percent or more, will make it more likely that the courts will uphold the new law, since new lawsuits are expected.
Felony Disenfranchisement
● Illinois: A committee in Illinois' Democratic-run state House has sent a bill to the full chamber that would require county jails to make voter registration and casting a ballot much easier for eligible prisoners. Illinois currently disenfranchises those who are incarcerated for felony convictions, but it automatically restores voting rights after they are released. Many of those citizens in county jails are awaiting trial and haven't been convicted of any crimes, but they often don't realize they retain their voting rights unless and until they are in fact found guilty.
Consequently, this bill would require jails and local election administrators to offer voter registration forms and even set up polling places in jails themselves in counties with a large population. Furthermore, jails and prisons would be required to inform citizens that their voting rights are automatically restored upon release.
● Louisiana: A state appellate court recently upheld a lower court ruling that said Louisiana's system of disenfranchising those with felony convictions who are on parole or probation doesn't violate the state constitution. Civil rights advocates announced they will appeal, but they might not have better success taking their case to the conservative-leaning state Supreme Court.
Democratic legislators have also tried changing the law directly in the state House, using their control over the relevant committee to advance a bill to the full chamber that would have restored voting rights to roughly 7,000 citizens. However, the Republican majority recently rejected that bill in a vote that fell largely along party lines.
● New York: In a surprise move, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Wednesday that he would issue an executive order to restore the voting rights of most of New York’s 35,000 citizens who are currently disenfranchised because they are on parole for a felony conviction. This is a welcome development that will help curtail a policy that is rooted in white supremacy. However, it will still leave tens of thousands of incarcerated citizens without voting rights. Furthermore, by excluding parolees who have committed certain crimes, this solution gives the governor undeserved discretion over who gets to the right to vote.
And given that Cuomo’s been in office for over seven years, it’s only natural to wonder why he waited so long to use his executive powers. It’s hard to see this decision as anything other than a transparent reaction to the fact that Cuomo now faces a serious primary challenge from the left from actress and activist Cynthia Nixon, who has harshly criticized the governor’s record on voting rights. Indeed, for years, Cuomo has been a master of cynically doing the bare minimum to placate the left while forever thwarting more substantive reforms.
In a true display of chutzpah, Cuomo tried to blame Republicans in the state for blocking a bill to reform the state’s felony disenfranchisement laws. But Cuomo almost single-handedly ensured that those very same Republicans would remain in power by signing off on their extreme gerrymander at the start of the decade and by propping up a faction of renegade Democrats known as the IDC who for years have allowed the GOP to retain control of the Senate.
Cuomo has tried his best to appear as if he's a champion of voting rights, but his actions have repeatedly stymied efforts to improve democracy by passing early voting, automatic and same-day voter registration, and an end to gerrymandering. But only now that he and his IDC allies face a threat to their political careers has Cuomo finally begun to take steps toward expanding voting rights.
Restoring voting rights to citizens who have served their time is the right thing to do, but if Cuomo wins a third term this fall, expect him to suddenly forget how to do the right thing anymore.
Election Security
● Pennsylvania: Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf administration has ordered every county in the state to replace their paperless voting machines ahead of the 2020 elections with a method that leaves a paper trail that voters can verify. Pennsylvania is one of a handful of states where the vast majority of voters cast ballots using paperless electronic voting machines, but many counties have already told the state that they need new equipment anyway.
Making this change should help protect the integrity of election results from potential hacking threats. Furthermore, it would give election administrators the ability to conduct more extensive audits and recounts of results.
Voter Suppression
● Kansas: America's most notorious vote suppressor suffered a humiliating defeat in court on Wednesday, when a federal judge found Republican Secretary of State Kobach in contempt of court after he "willfully failed to comply" with an order to register voters who lacked documentary proof of citizenship. The judge also ordered Kobach to pay the attorneys’ fees of the ACLU, who are the plaintiffs in this ongoing case. Kobach's spokesman has said he will appeal the contempt ruling.
Kobach, who led Donald Trump's bogus voter fraud commission until it was dissolved in December, had convinced Kansas legislators to pass a law in 2013 that required proof of citizenship for voters to be able to register. This law led to one of every seven new registrants having their applications suspended for lack of documentation. It also devastated the ability of civic groups to conduct voter registration drives, since few citizens carry their birth certificate or passport with them day-to-day.
Civil rights advocates subsequently filed a lawsuit claiming Kobach’s statute violated federal law, which only requires citizens to swear under penalty of perjury that they are eligible to vote. A federal court temporarily blocked the law ahead of the 2016 elections and ordered Kobach to inform these formerly suspended registrants that they were indeed eligible to vote. However, Kobach refused to do so, leading to Wednesday's contempt ruling.
The trial over the merits of Kobach's proof-of-citizenship law concluded last month, and Kobach’s lawyering was widely panned as both incompetent and deceitful, with his unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud thoroughly debunked by plaintiffs’ experts. A final ruling is expected to come later this year, but Kobach's reputation has already suffered an unappealable loss.
● Missouri: Civil rights groups have filed a federal lawsuit against Missouri's Republican-led state government over what they argue are violations of the 1993 Voter Registration Act, commonly known as the Motor Voter Law. The NVRA requires that states give eligible voters the chance to register to vote when they do business with certain state agencies like those that handle drivers' licenses. It also instructs states to update a voter's registration when they move and update their address at the motor vehicle agency.
The plaintiffs claim that Republican officials have been refusing to automatically update registrations for people who move within Missouri. They also accuse officials of not making registration forms available when voters lack proof of citizenship, even though the NVRA only requires registrants to affirm under penalty of perjury that they are eligible.
● North Dakota: Republican officials recently filed an appeal and asked for a stay of a federal district court ruling that curtailed North Dakota's voter ID law earlier in April, a case we previously covered in detail.
Early Voting
● Connecticut: Connecticut Democrats in the state House have passed a constitutional amendment that would finally bring early voting to the Nutmeg State if it ultimately becomes law. Connecticut is one of thirteen states that currently have no early voting and require an excuse to vote absentee. Democrats have previously tried to amend the state constitution to allow early voting, but voters narrowly rejected the proposal by a 52-48 margin in 2014.
Because almost every Republican voted against this proposed amendment, Democrats lacked the three-fourths supermajority needed to immediately put it on this year's ballot. Consequently, the soonest it could go before voters is 2020—and only if the Senate passes it this year, and both chambers do so a second time following the 2018 elections. If the law does clear all those hurdles, it might stand a better chance of passing in 2020, since a higher-turnout electorate during what will be a presidential year should be more hospitable than the electorate that showed up in the 2014 midterms.
