This week in the war on voting is a joint project of Joan McCarter and Meteor Blades
In two rulings announced Thursday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court backed the state's photo voter ID law in split votes. The court ruled 4-3 in one case and 5-2 in the other.
In the short run, this doesn't matter because the law is under review by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals after a lower federal court ruled against the mandated ID. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported:
In one case, the court majority crafted a "saving construction" of the voter ID law to keep it from being unconstitutional. That was aimed at preventing the state from requiring voters to pay any government fees to get a state-issued ID card.
How that would work is unclear. The ruling requires the state Division of Motor Vehicles to give out IDs to those who can't afford birth certificates and other documents, but provides no guidance to how officials could determine people are who they say they are without such documentation. [...]
People can get free ID cards for voting from the state, but they have to produce certified copies of their birth certificates—which cost $20 apiece in Wisconsin—to get them. The majority saw that as a problem.
Under those circumstances, the ID requirement could be considered a poll tax, illegal for federal elections under the 24th Amendment—passed in 1964. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1966 made the prohibition apply also to state elections under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment in its ruling in the case of
Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections.
The League of Women Voters was plaintiff in the second case. League attorneys argued that the state constitution only allows three qualifications for voting—age, U.S. citizenship and Wisconsin residency. In addition, the mentally incompetent and felons can be barred from voting. But requiring a specific kind of ID to vote added a fourth class of people, the league said, and that violates the state constitution. The court majority disagreed.
More on the war on voting can be found beneath the orange butterfly ballot.
• Holder joins battle over voting rights in Ohio, Wisconsin: The Department of Justice stated in an amicus brief filed with the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals that a federal judge was right to rule that Wisconsin's photo voter ID law violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act because it discriminates against blacks and Latinos. Since the Supreme Court overturned Section 4 of the VRA last year, the DOJ has used Section 2 to block new voting laws in cases in Texas and North Carolina.
Both states, along with others mostly in the South, were previously required by the VRA to get "pre-clearance" for changes they proposed to make in voting laws. With Section 4 gone, they no longer must pre-clear such changes. But the latest move marks the first time that the DOJ has joined voting cases in states that weren't previously covered by pre-clearance requirements.
In Ohio, the DOJ said the state is wrongly interpreting its obligations under Section 2.
In Ohio, civil rights groups are challenging a law passed by the Republican-led legislature earlier this year that eliminated a six-day period when voters had the chance to register to vote and cast an early ballot at the same time. In connection with a suit originally filed by the Obama campaign leading up to the 2012 elections, a federal judge recently ordered Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted to restore early voting on the final three days ahead of the elections. The lawsuit DOJ got involved in on Wednesday is a separate suit that revolves around the cuts made earlier this year, which bring the total number of early voting days down to 29 from 35.
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New Hampshire judge strikes down law barring student voting: Strafford County Superior Court Judge Brian Tucker made a preliminary injunction against the law permanent, ruling against a law requiring that students wanting to vote sign a document claiming New Hampshire their domicile and requiring that they register their vehicles and get a driver's license in the state. Tucker said the law was "confusing" and "unduly restrictive."
• Dearborn Heights, Michigan, will have election monitor for August elections: Dearborn Heights Mayor Daniel Paletko asked the Michigan secretary of state to monitor the August elections after allegations of discrimination were made by a member of the Arab-American community over absentee ballots. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, an advocacy organization, expressed its concerns that citizens had not received absentee ballots that city officials had promised would be mailed to them.
• Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced the restoration of voting rights to 2,500 non-violent felons: The felons have completed their sentences. “I am proud of the reforms my administration has undertaken to expand and expedite the rights restoration process and the work my team has done restoring Virginians’ voting rights so former offenders can lead successful, productive lives here in the commonwealth,” McAuliffe said.
The Democrat is continuing a program initiated by the former governor, Republican Bob McDonnell. He had unsuccessfully tried to get the legislature to make restoration of voting rights automatic when a felon completed his or her sentence. But lawmakers shot that proposal down. McDonnell subsequently overcame obstacles to accelerating a process that saw only a relative handful of felons get their voting rights returned each year. Before he left office, McDonnell had restored voting rights to 8,013 felons, far more than his predecessors. Ironically, he and his wife are on trial for corruption. If convicted, they could be sentenced to 20 years in prison.
• Star-Tribune uncovers scores of people illegally registered at private mail centers in Minnesota: County election officials in the Minneapolis metro area are checking into voter registrations using the addresses of commercial mail centers such as United Parcel Service stores. It's illegal to register in Minnesota anywhere except a residential address. An investigation by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune uncovered 95 voters registered at several mail centers last week after previously finding 141 voters registered at a single mail center. There is no evidence that there was a concerted effort by the voters to register at that mail center or the others, or that any of them sought to commit fraud.