Texas Tribune: “A Texas House committee voted early Sunday morning to advance a revived GOP-backed bill that would bring back many of the proposals that failed to pass in the spring. A panel of Senate lawmakers followed suit later in the day … The votes from the Republican-majority committees put the bills on a path to be voted on by the full chamber this week.”
Democrats Craft Voting Bill With Eye on Supreme Court
Associated Press: “As congressional Democrats gear up for another bruising legislative push to expand voting rights, much of their attention has quietly focused on a small yet crucial voting bloc with the power to scuttle their plans: the nine Supreme Court justices.”
“Democrats face dim prospects for passing voting legislation through a narrowly divided Congress, where an issue that once drew compromise has become an increasingly partisan flashpoint. But as they look to reinstate key parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a landmark civil rights-era law diminished over the past decade by Supreme Court rulings, they have accepted the reality that any bill they pass probably will wind up in litigation — and ultimately back before the high court.
Texas Democrats Weigh Options for Blocking Voting Bill
“As Texas Republicans prepare to force votes next week on far-reaching legislation that would introduce new restrictions on voting, Democrats are left facing a gnawing question: Should they fight or flee?,” the New York Times reports.
“The issue dominated internal discussions on video calls among Democrats in the Texas Legislature this week as lawmakers began a special session, with an aggressive group of progressive members pushing for a repeat of the dramatic late-night walkout that ended the regular session in late May. The walkout denied Republicans a quorum and blocked a vote on the elections bill in the final hours.”
“But a more cautious coterie of Democrats, many of whom hold powerful leadership positions, have argued for staying and fighting the bill on procedural grounds.”
Nebraska GOP Hopes to Put Voter ID on the Ballot
Nebraska Republican leaders have decided to take the party’s long-sought quest for voter photo ID requirements to a vote of the people, the Lincoln Journal Star reports.
The proposal would place the issue on the 2022 general election ballot in the form of a constitutional amendment.
Texas GOP Unveils Far-Reaching Voting Restrictions
“Republicans in the Texas Legislature fully unveiled their plans to overhaul the state’s election apparatus, outlining a raft of proposed new restrictions on voting access that would be among the most far-reaching election laws passed this year,” the New York Times reports.
“The GOP bills, which will be debated in the coming days during the Legislature’s special session, largely resemble those from the Republicans’ initial attempt to pass a sweeping voting bill, which failed in the last legislative session after Democrats staged a late-night walkout.”
Wolf Blasts Pennsylvania GOP’s Demand for ‘Audit’
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) said it is a “disgrace to democracy” that a Republican state lawmaker is trying to launch what he calls a “forensic investigation” of Pennsylvania’s 2020 presidential election, similar to what is happening in Arizona, the Associated Press reports.
“Wolf’s administration has discouraged counties from cooperating, saying they risk decertifying their voting machines and costing taxpayers millions of dollars.”
Arizona Official Calls For Probe Into Trump’s Interference
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) has called for a criminal investigation into what she described as former President Donald Trump’s “intense efforts to interfere” with the counting of ballots in last year’s presidential election, the Arizona Republic reports.
Top Montana Election Official Denies Trump’s Claim
Former President Donald Trump claimed last week that a bunch of mail-in ballots were missing in Montana, the Missoula Current reports.
Said Trump: “In Montana, over 6 percent of a certain county’s mail-ballots are missing, evidence to prove that if they were legitimate or not, that they’re missing. All this evidence. Think of it, Montana. You know, a lot of mail-in ballots. Where you have mail-in ballots.”
But the Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen (R) says it’s not true and that all ballots are accounted for.
Democrats Face High New Bar In Opposing Voting Laws
“The 6-to-3 decision by the Supreme Court on Thursday that upheld voting restrictions in Arizona has effectively left voting rights advocates with a higher bar for bringing federal cases under the Voting Rights Act: proving discriminatory intent,” the New York Times reports.
“That burden is prompting civil rights and voting groups to recalibrate their approach to challenging in court the raft of new restrictions that Republican-controlled legislatures have passed … No longer, they say, can they count on the federal courts, including the Supreme Court, to serve as a backstop for preventing racially discriminatory voting restrictions.”
“The high court gutted the central protection of the Voting Rights Act in a 2013 decision, and on Thursday the court further limited the act’s reach in combating discriminatory laws, establishing strict new guidelines for proving the laws’ effects on voters of color and thus requiring litigants to clear the much higher bar of proving purposeful intent to discriminate.”
Dan Balz: Do Democrats have a strategy to counter GOP state laws restricting voting.
New Hampshire Supreme Court Strikes Down Voter Law
The New Hampshire Supreme Court has struck down in its entirety the 2017 Republican-authored voter registration law, WMUR reports.
Kansas League of Women Voters Suspends Voter Drives
“The League of Women Voters of Kansas and other nonprofits are suspending voter registration drives for fear of criminal prosecution under a new state law,” the Kansas Reflector reports.
Trump Backers Want to Export the Arizona ‘Audit’
Politico: “A monthslong examination of all the ballots from the 2020 election in Arizona’s most populous county may be winding down soon. But now the state is spreading the ‘audit’ playbook across the country. Supporters of former President Donald Trump … are behind a new push to review the results in states including Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
“The new drive is worrying state election administrators, who say the efforts will further inflame conspiracy theories and erode faith in the American democratic system. The burden of these reviews could fall on the shoulders of state and local election officials, further complicating a field where many are worried about a brain drain due to exhaustion and threats workers faced in the aftermath of the 2020 election.”
Charlotte Delays Municipal Elections Until Next Year
“All Charlotte City Council elections, including the mayoral race, are delayed until 2022 — as some had expected to happen all along, despite a recent curveball from the General Assembly,” the Charlotte Observer reports.
“The decision on how to handle municipal elections was triggered by delayed census data that is needed to redraw City Council district maps. The information, initially expected to be released three months ago, will not be available until September.”
New York City Debacle Gives Opening to Election Deniers
First Read: “In these polarized and conspiracy-fueled times, election administrators have one job: to get their counts right.”
“That didn’t happen in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, which had already increased its degree of difficulty by using ranked-choice voting (for the first time) in a multi-candidate field… And the confusion, chaos and lack of transparency all gave an opening to the conspiracy theorists and election-deniers.”
One of them was Donald Trump, who released a statement: “Just like in the 2020 Presidential Election, it was announced overnight in New York City that vast irregularities and mistakes were made and that Eric Adams, despite an almost insurmountable lead, may not win the race. The fact is, based on what has happened, nobody will ever know who really won.”
Gavin Newsom Sues His Own Elections Chief
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is suing his own appointed elections chief to get two words next to his name on the recall ballot: Democratic Party, Politico reports.
“The governor and his staff overlooked paperwork last year that would have allowed him to state his party preference on a recall ballot… That apparent misstep means that Newsom would appear on the recall ballot without a party designation, while dozens of challengers will have their party preferences listed.”
Latest New York City Mayoral Count Voided
“Tallies released Tuesday afternoon indicated that Kathryn Garcia had come within 2.2 points of leading Democratic candidate Eric Adams after ranked-choice tabulations were processed. But, shortly after the results were released, reporters and campaign staffers noticed there were roughly 135,000 more votes counted than those reported on election night,” Politico reports.
“Three hours after releasing the numbers, the Board of Elections issued a statement acknowledging a ‘discrepancy’ and subsequently took down the totals from their website, but offered no clear explanation for what had happened. After 10 p.m. Tuesday, the board finally came clean with a statement: The ‘test’ ballots were never cleared out of the tabulation system and thus added the additional votes into the total, skewing the numbers.”
“The board said that it has removed all of the erroneous ballots from the count and will re-run the results — though when the new rankings will be ready was still unclear.”
New York City Pulls Back Election Results
“The New York City mayor’s race plunged into chaos on Tuesday night when the city Board of Elections released a new tally of votes in the Democratic mayoral primary, and then removed the tabulations from its website after citing a ‘discrepancy,’” the New York Times reports.
Pennsylvania GOP Wants Permanent Election Audit Office
Philadelphia Inquirer: “It’s not in the legislative text, but Republicans who control the General Assembly say the roughly $40 billion budget includes extra money for the state Auditor General’s Office, with the understanding that it will fund a new Bureau of Election Audits.”
“Democrats say there’s no such agreement, even informally, and that they oppose a new audit bureau.”
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- …
- 94
- Next Page »