Up to 100,000 voters could be disenfranchised as the North Carolina election board coordinates with the Department of Justice on a legal settlement. The plan raises major red flags, according to voting advocates who say neither side of the lawsuit is actually defending voters.
North Carolina election board, DOJ coordinating to create new stumbling block
DOJ sues Orange County, California over voter records
In Montana, a fight to protect election day voter registration
NORTH CAROLINA
Nearly 100,000 voters could face another stumbling block
The North Carolina State Board of Elections is coordinating a settlement after being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) last month – but voting advocates say the proposal is raising red flags because neither side is looking out for voters.
At issue is the state’s voter registration form; the DOJ claims it did not require voters to provide proof of identification. Most applicants included the information anyway, but the state board estimates around 200,000 voters are missing necessary information. The DOJ says because of that misstep on the registration form, the state has failed to properly maintain its voter rolls in violation of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).
But now the main problem is how the lawsuit will be resolved.
Voting advocates say they’re alarmed that neither side appears to be defending North Carolina voters. As Democracy Docket readers already know, under the Trump administration, the DOJ isn’t protecting voters anymore. Meanwhile, the election board (which the GOP dramatically took control of last month) appears to be not only on the same side as the DOJ, but actively coordinating with them to put another hurdle in the way of registered voters. Under the proposed plan, half of the impacted voters would need to respond to a mailing and provide identification information in order for their ballot to be counted. (The other half can vote normally because they’ve provided alternate identification information.)
Now several groups are trying to intervene as defendants in the lawsuit, saying someone needs to represent the impacted voters – and it’s not going to be the DOJ or the election board. Read more about the North Carolina lawsuit here.
This week, the Trump administration’s obsession with noncitizen voting produced its latest legal challenge, this time aimed at Orange County, California.
And according to emails obtained by Democracy Docket, the county was looking to resolve the dispute cooperatively before the U.S. Justice Department abruptly broke off communication and filed suit.
The DOJ began an investigation this month to find out whether noncitizens in the county were registered, or received mail ballots. While Orange County Registrar of Voters Robert Page provided records, his office redacted sensitive personal information, as required under state law.
“If the Department of Justice can provide legal authority that requires the Registrar of Voters to produce the sensitive information… we would certainly be open to further consideration of the matter,” the county wrote to the DOJ last Friday in an email obtained by Democracy Docket.
Days later, DOJ filed suit, accusing Page of withholding voter registration records in violation of federal voting law.
The fight to protect election day voter registration
Montana voting advocates are challenging several new restrictions in court, and now the ACLU of Montana is joining the fight.
The Montana Federation of Public Employees (MFPE) filed a lawsuit last month challenging state laws that repeal election day voter registration, heighten voter ID requirements and make it harder for someone unable to provide approved ID to have their vote counted.
The MFPE argues its tens of thousands of members are among those harmed by the laws because in many counties, election day is the only day when county election offices are open outside of regular business hours.
The ACLU of Montana says another group is seriously impacted, too: Native American voters. And that’s nothing new, their filing argues.
“Barely a year after the Montana Supreme Court held that multiple laws the Legislature passed unconstitutionally burdened the right to vote of Native Americans in Montana, the Legislature has turned around and passed yet another law that exploits the vulnerabilities faced by Native voters,” the ACLU’s complaint says.
Eliminating election day registration will disproportionately affect Native American voters living in rural tribal communities, the ACLU argues. Read more about the Montana lawsuit here.
OPINION
SCOTUS Says Human Rights Should Be Left to the Same ‘Democratic Process’ It Undermined
The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in United States v. Skrmetti – upholding a Tennessee ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender youth – puts a frightening trend in the spotlight: the country’s highest court has decided that minority groups’ basic human rights are a matter for voters to decide.
“We shouldn’t even be in a place where people get an up or down vote on their neighbors’ humanity, but this is the reality in the United States today,” independent journalist Susan Rinkunas writes in an opinion piece for Democracy Docket.
In her dissent in Skrmetti, Justice Sonia Sotomayor pointed to the flaw in this approach – the trans community obviously lacks the size and political power to protect itself from discrimination without the courts.
It’s no accident that the Supreme Court has put minorities in this position, Rinkunas argues.
“Through decisions like Citizens United v. FEC and Shelby v. Holder, they took care and time to erode the power of the people at the ballot box. Now, as they hand human rights to the states, they know that the very people they’re putting at risk have their voices suppressed,” Rinkunas writes. Read more here.
NEW VIDEO
Elie Mystal on the Voting Laws Ruining America
Our right to vote is under attack at all sides. Elie Mystal sits down with Marc to discuss threats to free and fair elections and the history of restrictive voting laws that got us here today. Watch on YouTube here.
What We’re Doing
The Democracy Docket team is looking forward to the release of a double album by Democracy Forward (where Marc Elias, the founder of Democracy Docket, serves as board chair). The pre-sale sold out in less than 24 hours (!!) but more copies will be available once the album launches July 3. Featured on the album: Michael Stipe and Big Red Machine, Tyler Childers, Brandi Carlile, Brittany Howard, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, John Prine and more.
It’s just another way to support the work of Democracy Forward, which has been on the legal frontlines fighting President Donald Trump’s onslaught of unconstitutional actions.
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