The Second Amendment doesn’t protect voter intimidation.
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Guns and voting don’t mix. Bringing weapons to a polling place doesn’t promote election security. It intimidates lawful voters and risks bloodshed.
Last weekend, however, armed vigilantes in tactical gear
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were spotted lurking around a ballot drop box in Maricopa County, Arizona. It’s impossible to view this incident as anything other than blatant voter suppression. Just a few days earlier, a voter reported being approached and followed at a second voting site in Maricopa County. It all grows directly out of the Big Lie of a “stolen” 2020 election that has sent misinformed extremists into the street to counter a threat that doesn’t exist.
It also grows from the belief among some Americans that Second Amendment rights have no boundaries. That belief is unfounded. Even under the most expansive reading of the Second Amendment, the government retains the power to prohibit gun possession in sensitive places.
Courts have agreed for more than a century that this includes polling sites. As my colleague Eric Ruben pointed out
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on Twitter, a Georgia court in 1874 called gun ownership at voting sites “improper” and “wholly useless and full of evil.” Even in this year’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen — the broadest interpretation of the Second Amendment ever adopted by the Supreme Court — Justice Clarence Thomas specifically named polling places as locations where the government retains the ability to restrict gun possession. That the government can keep guns away from voting locations is uncontroversial.
Laws against voter intimidation already on the books may be sufficient to prosecute vigilantes who use guns to keep citizens from voting. And some states (including Arizona) have laws barring gun possession around polling places. It’s not enough, though. Guns are carried to polling places with troubling regularity. In the 2016 election, for example, 85 voters in 28 states reported seeing guns at the polls.
There is a bill pending in Congress to place a nationwide ban on possessing a firearm within 100 yards of a federal election site, with exceptions for on-duty law enforcement and security personnel. Congress should bring it to a vote. It’s common-sense legislation that should be acceptable to even the most ardent supporter of gun ownership rights. No good can come from mixing guns with voting.
Debunking Myths About Voting
Despite what misinformation and lies on social media would have people believe, our elections are both secure and trustworthy. From security measures for mail ballots and voting machines to the shortcomings of hand counting votes, a new Brennan Center explainer highlights five key facts that refute some of the most widespread false claims about elections. Read more
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Disenfranchisement in Texas’s 2022 Primary
Texas enacted a law in 2021 imposing several provisions that make it harder to vote. Our new analysis of records from the state’s March primary shows that its new, onerous rule for mail voting caused thousands of Texans’ mail ballot applications and actual ballots to be rejected, with nonwhite voters at least 30 percent more likely than white voters to face rejection. The law “is a prime example of the anti-voter legislation sweeping the nation. Just one of its many provisions is already causing serious problems in election administration, disenfranchising significant numbers of Americans — especially people of color,” Kevin Morris and Coryn Grange write. Read more
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Making the Census Work for Latinos
The 2020 census undercounted Latino communities at a staggering rate of almost 5 percent due to both long-standing issues with census accuracy and the Trump administration’s efforts to meddle with the count. Failing to accurately count Latinos undermines the census’s usefulness and can lead communities to miss out on political representation and federal funding. “This all points to a dire need to reform census law and policy to address both the old and new problems that plagued the 2020 count,” Clara Fong and Kelly Percival write. Read more
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The Checks Against Rogue Poll Workers
Election deniers are organizing nationwide efforts to recruit and train rogue poll workers, raising concerns about the possibility of disruptions to the political process. Fortunately, states already have laws in place to deter those who seek to undermine elections from qualifying as poll workers or interfering with voting. Read more
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What a Post-Hurricane Election Looks Like in Florida
Florida is facing the challenge of trying to hold a successful election while grappling with the devastating impact of Hurricane Ian on its population and infrastructure. Based on an analysis of how Florida’s response to Hurricane Michael in 2018 hurt voter turnout, Peter Miller and Kevin Morris set forth recommendations for how the state can better serve voters this time around. WASHINGTON POST
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Coming Up
VIRTUAL EVENT: The Midterms: What Happened — and Where Do We Go From Here?
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Wednesday, November 9, 3–4 p.m. ET
Join us the day after the 2022 midterm elections for a discussion with expert panelists to unpack results that may impact voting rights, women’s rights, and democracy itself. David Plouffe, former senior advisor to President Obama; Rob Jesmer, FP1 Strategies managing partner and former Republican Party official; and Elise Jordan, NBC News and MSNBC political analyst, will provide analysis alongside moderator Sewell Chan, Texas Tribune editor in chief. RSVP today
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News
Michael German on the FBI’s failure to anticipate violence on January 6 // ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Sean Morales-Doyle on legal safeguards against voter fraud // REUTERS
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Lawrence Norden on the radical “constitutional sheriff” movement // AZCIR
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Wendy Weiser on the election risks fueled by the election denial movement // VPM NEWS
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