09/24/2021

Our system of government relies on two strong political parties that, whatever their disagreements on policies, share a common agreement to abide by the outcome of free and fair elections. Elections alone are not sufficient to sustain our democracy. It is what comes after these elections — a peaceful transfer of power — that is as essential to democracy as fair election rules themselves.

Yet, there simply is no historical analog in American politics to the current war the Republican Party is waging on election results and the transfer of power.

In my piece published today, “A Dangerous Time in Our Country’s History,” I highlight how Trump’s Republican Party is threatening our democracy: by politicizing election officials, undermining confidence in our election systems with bogus audits and reviews and making it clear that if they lose an election — even as far in the future as the 2022 midterms — that their loss is the result of fraud.

What can be done to prevent our country from losing all semblance of democracy?

Read my latest piece, “A Dangerous Time in Our Country’s History” to find out.

Let’s keep up the fight,

Marc

Freedom to Vote Act Awaits Senate Vote

On Monday, House Democrats introduced the Protect Our Democracy Act, H.R. 5314, led by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), which tackles a handful of pro-democracy and ethics issues, including safeguards against foreign interference in our elections. H.R. 5314 reins in the executive branch by curtailing presidential pardon powers and restrengthening the Constitution’s Emoluments Clauses. H.R. 5314 empowers Congress through its subpoena enforcement, spending authority and oversight on emergency powers. The bill was created after former President Donald Trump made clear the potential for abuse in the executive branch, issues that both preceded and will follow the 45th president.

On Wednesday, The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution held a hearing on restoring the Voting Rights Act, underlining the urgency of passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

Last week, Senate Democrats introduced the Freedom to Vote Act, a compromise bill that is now the centerpiece of federal efforts to protect voting rights. We broke down the new bill in “The Freedom to Vote Act Unpacked” and Marc added his personal analysis in “My Thoughts on Manchin’s Compromise Bill.” “If Republicans are unwilling to move forward, Democrats will have to move on our own," said Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) who has not yet set a date to vote on the bill.

Partisan Redistricting Proposals Spark Disagreement

Maine — The Maine state Legislature released two sets of proposed maps for U.S. congressional and state Senate districts, drawn by the Democratic and Republican caucuses, respectively. The Legislature also released a unified proposal for county commissioner districts. Both congressional maps pushed the capital city Augusta into the 2nd District for the first time. The central disagreement falls on Kennebec County and which towns — including liberal stronghold Waterville — should also be pushed from the reliably-Democratic 1st District into the Republican-leaning 2nd District. The Legislature later released a unified proposal for the Maine House of Representatives.

Texas — The Texas Senate released the first draft of its district maps ahead of a 30-day special session. In Texas, the Republican-controlled state Legislature is responsible for the decennial process. According to the census data, Texas gained nearly four million residents in the past decade, with growth concentrated in urban centers and their suburbs. Notably, 95% of the Lone Star State’s growth is attributed to communities of color, with the state’s Hispanic population reaching the same size as its white population. However, the proposal has fair maps activists calling foul. “The map, which doesn’t have a single competitive seat, proves that Republicans have no interest in representing the people of Texas, only in cementing their power in 2022 and beyond,” wrote the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. The maps will need to be passed by both chambers of the Legislature and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R).

AND MORE:

• Commissions in Washington and Virginia also could not reach a compromise, publishing two sets of initial state legislative maps. The early drafts released by Michigan’s first-ever citizen redistricting commission raised complaints from Democratic activists while New Mexico’s Native American communities are weighing in on their state’s proposals. In Nebraska, the Republican-proposed congressional map to split Omaha’s county failed to overcome a Democrat filibuster. The Oregon Legislature proposed partisan congressional maps, but is moving forward with the Democratic proposal as Republican lawmakers consider a walkout to block the map’s passage.
• Does a single party control the map-drawing process in your state? A divided government? Or do you live in the handful of states increasingly choosing the use of independent commissions? To understand who is designing maps in 2021 and what that means for fair representation, read our latest Data Dive, “To Understand Redistricting, First Look At Who Holds The Power.”
• What do Pennsylvania, Michigan and Massachusetts have in common? Republican leaders in these three states are turning to ballot initiatives as a means to enact voter suppression laws to avoid their Democratic-controlled legislatures or governors’ veto power. A ballot initiative is a means by which voters can vote directly on policy measures. In Monday’s Explainer, “The Petition Process and Ballot Initiatives Explained,” we cover the basics of ballot initiatives so you can understand how and why a state law or constitutional amendment may appear on your very own ballot.

Courts Weigh In on Voting and Representation

North Carolina — Last Friday, a three-judge panel in a North Carolina state court struck down a strict voter ID law, finding that the law was passed with the intent, at least in part, to discriminate against African American voters. The court held that Senate Bill 824, which provides a narrow list of qualifying photo IDs acceptable for voting, violates the North Carolina Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and cannot stand. In its detailed opinion, the court laid out North Carolina’s long history of voter suppression, concluding that “North Carolina’s unfortunate history of using voting laws to suppress minority political participation continues into the present.” The court pointed to S.B. 824’s path to passage as a signal of its racial intent, writing that the bill’s history “shows that the proponents of S.B. 824 enacted the law in the lame duck session, over Governor Cooper’s veto, in order to pass their preferred, and more restrictive version of a voter ID law — one that was less flexible and included fewer forms of qualifying ID than the law that likely would have been enacted once the duly elected legislature was seated in 2019.” Furthermore, evidence presented to the court showed that Black voters are 39% more likely to lack qualifying ID than registered white voters.

Pennsylvania — Friday night, Democratic state senators in Pennsylvania sued their Republican counterparts in state court in order to stop an expansive subpoena request. A Republican-controlled state Senate committee voted last week to subpoena the acting secretary of the commonwealth for election materials that provide the “names, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, portions of social security numbers and addresses of all registered voters in the Commonwealth.” In an action similar to the ongoing audit in Arizona, the committee plans to hand this information over to a third-party contractor to investigate election allegations and voter information. State Democrats argue that this request is yet another attempt to contest the 2020 election results, while Republicans counter that the subpoena and audit serve only a legislative purpose in seeking to address problems with the state’s elections processes.

Ohio — On Thursday, a lawsuit was filed in the Supreme Court of Ohio challenging the state’s newly-drawn state Senate and House maps. The complaint argues that the new maps are drawn to lock in Republican veto-proof supermajorities in both chambers of the General Assembly. The maps, which were passed last week on a party-line vote, give Republicans in the state a projected 67% of House and 69% of Senate districts, despite the fact that “Republicans have received between 46.2% and 59.7% of the statewide vote” in Ohio over the past decade, according to the complaint. The complaint alleges that these new maps are a partisan gerrymander that violate both the will of Buckeye voters and a state constitutional amendment adopted by voters in 2015 that bans partisan gerrymandering. The parties ask the state Supreme Court to declare the new maps invalid and order the creation of fair maps.

Wisconsin — The Wisconsin Supreme Court granted a petition challenging Wisconsin’s congressional and legislative district maps following the release of 2020 census data. The petition, filed by the conservative group Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) on behalf of voters, argues that the state’s current maps are malapportioned in violation of the constitutional principle of one person, one vote and asks the court to require new maps be used for future elections. The suit also asks the court to intervene in the redistricting process in the event that either maps passed by the Wisconsin Legislature are challenged or the state government fails to enact new maps in time for the 2022 election. Conservative justices currently hold a slim majority on the state Supreme Court.

AND MORE:

• The Virginia Supreme Court rejected a petition filed by Virginia State Senator T. Travis Hackworth (R) and individual voters. The petitioners sought to reinstate prison gerrymandering, arguing that counting prisoners at their last known address (as opposed to the prison in which they are incarcerated) will dilute the voting power of Republicans in rural Virginia. The petitioners asked the court to prohibit the Virginia Redistricting Commission from using the new redistricting laws, but the state Supreme Court denied the petition.
• A fourth lawsuit was filed against House Bill 176, a recently passed Montana law that ends Election Day voter registration for almost all voters. Montana enacted Election Day registration in 2006 with “overwhelming bipartisan support” and it has been used by thousands of Montana voters, according to the complaint. Voters now must complete or update their registration by noon the day before Election Day. The complaint argues that H.B. 176 violates multiple provisions of the Montana Constitution because it burdens the right to vote, particularly for working voters and voters with disabilities.

Three things to do today to stay engaged in the fight!

We’re taking action: The redistricting process only happens once a decade, so don’t miss the opportunity to demand fair representation for your community. Visit All on The Line to find community trainings and public hearings in your state.

We’re attending: Marc will join Leslie Small of America Votes Georgia and Kelly Burton of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC) for a virtual conversation about this year's redistricting process and the fight for fair maps. Swing Left is hosting the panel on Sept. 28 at 8 pm ET — RSVP here.

We’re listening: Another Way is a weekly podcast hosted by Larry Lessig and Equal Citizens where politicians, authors and activists come together to discuss national-level democracy reforms and the necessary steps to move these forward. Subscribe to the podcast or listen to select episodes here.

Mobilizing the New American Majority

In this week's Spotlight, Denise Juneau and Gail Leftwich Kitch, the board chairs for the Voter Participation Center and the Center for Voter Information, illustrate the uphill battle faced by civic engagement groups across the country. 60% of eligible voters in the U.S. are members of the New American Majority — people of color, young people and unmarried women — however, this group makes up 70% of unregistered eligible voters. “The work that voting rights groups around the country do to register, inform, mobilize and turn out the New American Majority... is an essential antidote to the current attacks on our democracy,” write Juneau and Kitch. “These census numbers make clear why some politicians are actively seeking to limit access to voting.” Read “Mobilizing the New American Majority” on Democracy Docket now.

Each week, we pick a few reader questions about all things elections and share Marc’s answers. Got a question? Submit it here!

Kendra asks: If the For the People, Freedom to Vote or John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Acts are passed and signed into law, will the state laws still have to to be challenged in the courts and struck down? And, if so, can all of this happen before the next elections?

Marc: You raise an excellent question. While many states would adopt the needed changes to their election procedures to comply with the new laws, recent experience shows us that some red states would not. In those instances, we would need to be prepared to litigate to ensure full voting rights are in place for the 2022 midterm elections. It will be a lot of work, but we can do it if Congress moves quickly to enact the new laws.

Faith asks: I want to provide input at a public redistricting hearing but don’t feel like I know enough. What’s the best thing to say?

Marc: First, I applaud you for being willing to stand up and speak out for democracy! There is no right or wrong thing to say. Just tell the people conducting the hearing how you think you and your neighbors should be represented. Is there a natural community of interest that you think should be kept together? Are there geographical boundaries that should be respected? If you want more specific guidance, check out All On The Line’s trainings.

“In the 1992 election, these new VRA-compliant gerrymanders succeeded in tripling the House’s southern Black ranks, from five to 17. But their creation also had the side effect of “white-washing” adjacent districts, making them less Black and more Republican… In the South, where partisan voting patterns remain highly polarized by race, disentangling mapmakers’ partisan motives — which can be legal — from impermissible racial ones can be virtually impossible.” The Atlantic

“It started as one big, false claim — that the election was stolen from Donald Trump. But nearly a year later, the Big Lie is metastasizing, with Republicans throughout the country raising the specter of rigged elections in their own campaigns ahead of the midterms.” Politico

“Of the 1,994 individuals who have had the privilege of serving as U.S. senators, we are the only ones who were subject to an attack on the Capitol by domestic insurrectionists intent on disrupting the peaceful transfer of political power. That shared experience puts a unique responsibility on our shoulders to “support and defend” this democracy. Only by passing comprehensive voting rights legislation can we live up to that responsibility.” The Washington Post