Tag Archives: voter suppression

The Guardian reports: Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani has admitted to a “dirty trick” that his campaign used to suppress the Hispanic vote during the city’s 1993 mayoral race. Giuliani explained that he spent $2m to set up a so-called Voter Integrity Committee which was headed by Randy Levine, current president of the New York Yankees baseball team, and …

Politico reports: A federal appeals court sided with Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday when it overturned a lower court’s decision on a controversial voting law. That law, approved by the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature in 2021, placed restrictions on the use of drop boxes and set new requirements for voter registration groups, among other things. A federal judge in March 2022 …

The Texas Tribune reports: Countywide polling locations on Election Day would be banned in Texas under a bill approved by the Texas Senate on Thursday. Senate Bill 990, authored by Republican Sen. Bob Hall [photo] of Edgewood, passed 17-12 along party lines. The bill — if approved by the state House — would eliminate countywide voting centers on Election Day …

The Washington Post reports: A top Republican legal strategist told a roomful of GOP donors over the weekend that conservatives must band together to limit voting on college campuses, same-day voter registration and automatic mailing of ballots to registered voters, according to a copy of her presentation reviewed by The Washington Post. Cleta Mitchell, a longtime GOP lawyer and fundraiser …

Bloomberg News reports: Republican lawmakers are making it harder for students to cast ballots where they attend school, after the GOP suffered stinging recent electoral losses largely due to a historic surge in turnout from younger voters backing Democrats. A new law in Idaho specifically bars the use of student identification cards to vote, while a change in Ohio law …

Austin’s CBS affiliate reports: One state lawmaker says she wants to see voting banned on college campuses. District 73 Texas House Representative (R), Carrie Isaac, filed a bill on Thursday, Feb. 16 prohibiting polling places on higher education campuses. “I’ve knocked a lot of doors on the campaign trail, spoke with a lot of concerned parents about safety of their …

Via press release from the Justice Department: The Justice Department announced today its plans to monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in 64 jurisdictions in 24 states for the Nov. 8, 2022 general election. Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Civil Rights Division has regularly monitored elections in the field in jurisdictions around the …

The Associated Press reports: A federal judge Friday refused to bar a group from monitoring outdoor ballot boxes in Arizona’s largest county where watchers have shown up armed and in ballistic vests, saying to do so could violate the monitors’ constitutional rights. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Liburdi said the case remained open and that the Arizona Alliance for Retired …

Courthouse News Service reports: An immigrant rights advocacy group sued Arizona on Thursday to block a new law requiring individuals to provide proof of citizenship when they register to vote. House Bill 2492 passed the Republican-controlled Legislature down party lines last week and Governor Doug Ducey signed the bill into law Wednesday. He did so despite pleas from county elections …

The Associated Press reports: A federal judge struck down portions of a Florida election law passed last year, saying in a ruling Thursday that the Republican-led government was using subtle tactics to suppress Black voters. The law tightened rules on mailed ballots, drop boxes and other popular election methods — changes that made it more difficult for Black voters who, …

Common Dreams reports: The Arizona Senate on Wednesday passed a Republican-authored bill that advocates warn could prompt “the most extreme voter purge in the country” by requiring state residents to provide proof of citizenship to stay on the rolls. Just one of a slew of voter suppression measures that the GOP-controlled Arizona legislature is currently working to advance—including a bill …

The Associated Press reports: More than 27,000 mail ballots in Texas were flagged for rejection in the first test of new voting restrictions enacted across the U.S., jeopardizing votes cast by Democrats and Republicans alike and in counties big and small, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. It puts the rate of rejected mail ballots in Texas on …

Courthouse News reports: The Republican-controlled Arizona House voted Monday to amend and advance election reform bills that would require voters to furnish proof of citizenship upon registration and prohibit election officials from being on hand counting teams. House Bill 2492 would require all potential voters in Arizona to present an ID at registration or within 30 days of registering to …

Politico reports: Sen. Joni Ernst on Sunday pushed back strongly on the Democratic narrative on voting rights, arguing that Republicans care about the issue as much or more than Democrats. “My point is that we have Democrats that are targeting red states like Iowa again, when our voter policies are far more liberal than blue states’ voting systems,” the Iowa …

Salon reports: The number of rejected mail-in ballot applications is skyrocketing in Texas counties under new Republican-authored voting restrictions recently signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott. The Texas crackdown on mail-in voting appears to be hitting hardest in the state’s most densely populated counties, which also tend to have more voters of color and predominantly vote Democratic. In Travis …

Florida Politics reports: Democratic state attorneys general in 16 states and the District of Columbia who have intervened in litigation challenging Florida’s new law making it harder to vote argue in a legal brief that the state has mounted bogus arguments that the measure fights fraud and boosts voter confidence. That’s because there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud …

The Texas Tribune reports: The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Texas over its new voting law, passed earlier this year in the Legislature. The Texas voting law will “disenfranchise eligible Texas citizens who seek to exercise their right to vote, including voters with limited English proficiency, voters with disabilities, elderly voters, members of the military deployed away from home, …

Playbook reports: Remember when Major League Baseball moved the All-Star Game out of Atlanta in protest of Georgia’s new law imposing restrictions on voting? Well, consider it payback time. Heritage Action is launching a new six-figure ad buy to air in Georgia and D.C. during Game 3 of the World Series tonight — when the Atlanta Braves will play host …

Politico reports: Florida Republicans this spring insisted a contentious new election law curtailing access to ballot boxes was needed to prevent electoral fraud. It was not, they said, an attempt to gain a partisan advantage. But a raft of internal emails and text messages obtained by POLITICO show the law was drafted with the help of the Republican Party of …

Via press release from the NAACP: Today, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), Reed Smith LLP, and The Arc filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the Houston Area Urban League, Houston Justice, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and The Arc of Texas challenging S.B. 1, a new Texas law targeting voting rights. S.B. 1 includes a …