After a month in session, the New Mexico Legislature adjourned last week on February 18, 2010. This year session began... Read more
After the state Supreme Court shut down Indiana’s contentious photo voter ID law as unconstitutional last September for unfairly exempting... Read more
Last month, our nation celebrated the remembrance of one of America’s greatest heroes, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who stands... Read more
Last week, the Arizona Legislature introduced a Preregistration bill in the House, bringing it one step closer to allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to preregister to vote. If passed, Arizona would join Florida, Hawaii, North Carolina, and soon, Rhode Island in their efforts to engage youth before they may legally vote. Read more
The Virginia General Assembly is busily grinding out bills that will make it considerably more difficult for Virginians to cast ballots that count. In recent years, voter ID laws have cropped up in states across the country, aimed to stymie a source of fraud that simply does not exist, and Virginia is no different. Under current law, if a voter does not or cannot produce appropriate identification at the polls, the voter can simply sign a sworn document attesting his or her identity, then cast a regular ballot. Proposed legislation in both the House of Delegates and the Senate aims to take this option away from Virginia voters and place still more stringent restrictions on the kinds of ID that are accepted. Read more
Some good news came out of Washington Tuesday. Sound unlikely? That’s because the news comes from the state of Washington, where the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals essentially struck down the state’s felon disenfranchisement law because it’s racially discriminatory and violates the federal Voting Rights Act. Read more
There is a sad truth in America – millions of hard-working and tax-paying citizens are denied one of the most fundamental rights – the right to vote. Felony disenfranchisement laws affect a total of 5.3 million Americans, four million of whom are out of prison and currently living and working in their communities. Aiming to shed light on this terrible injustice, the American Bar Association, ACLU, Brennan Center for Justice, Drug Policy Alliance, and Sentencing Project recently held a Congressional briefing to discuss the Democracy Restoration Act (S.1516/H.R.3335). The groups voiced their concerns with felony disenfranchisement and their reasons for supporting the Democracy Restoration Act. Read more
Today, only three states have enacted laws that voting rights groups argue foster lifelong civic engagement among the nation’s historically... Read more
Resolving a three-year old lawsuit filed against the state of Ohio that charged widespread violations of the National Voter Registration... Read more
Senseless voting barriers in Virginia elections – including misinformed poll workers and “antiquated election laws” – have hurt Virginians as... Read more