The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Aug. 16, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

In the last report of our series on protections against overturning the Presidential election, we consider what happens if the state official authorized to certify your state’s election results refuses to do so.   It’s not as far-fetched as you think.  

Ohio’s hyperpartisan Secretary of State Frank LaRose made no attempt to hide recent partisan attempts to change the rules for citizen ballot initiatives, try to stop initiatives his party didn’t like, and aggressively purge Black and Brown voter registrations.  Pro-democracy organization Public Wise is also tracking statewide officials considered “election threats,” including the election board chair and vice chair in Wisconsin, the secretary of state in Florida, and the lieutenant governor of Georgia, among seven battleground states.   

Democracy Docket disturbingly pointed out that in states including Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Nevada, candidates elected November 5th could be sworn in BEFORE the federal December 11th certification deadline, meaning an incoming governor or secretary of state election denier COULD be the executive authorized to certify.  A good reason to do your homework, and vote the whole ballot. 

Most states have penalties for willful obstruction of election proceedings. Failing that, the U.S. Justice Department could enforce the new Electoral Count Reform Act, Voting Rights Act, or civil rights laws.  But those deterrents may not keep rogue officials from trying. 

We’ve linked analysis at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Protect Democracy – Report: Election Certification Is Not Optional
National Conference of State Legislatures – Election Certification Deadlines & Procedures by State
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) – Full Report ‘Election Certification Under Threat”
Public Wise – Election Threat Index
Democracy Docket – What Happens When Election Officials Refuse to Certify Results?

Democracy Docket – This November’s State Legislative Elections Are Key To Protecting the Presidential Election

Groups Taking Action:
Public Wise, Protect Democracy, CREW

Check Your Voter Registration:

• U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State
• USA Vote Foundation – Registration, Eligibility, State Election Office Links
• Vote.Gov – Register to Vote in Your State
• Vote.Org – Check Your Registration to Vote
  
  

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#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #ProtectElections #ElectionProtection #ElectionCertification

The post What if Your State’s Chief Election Executive Blocks Certification of the Presidential Election? appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for June 28, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

A 2023 decision in an Arkansas redistricting case found individual voters did not have a “private right of action” to challenge the maps. The State of Louisiana tried the same tactic in its chaotic gerrymandering case, but was refused on June 24th. It appears to be the latest legal strategy to dismantle the 1965 Voting Rights Act.   

Defying precedent, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals held in a 2023 Arkansas racial gerrymandering case that individual voters do not have a “private right of action” under the VRA Section 2.  It said only the U.S. Justice Department could bring such cases, despite individuals having filed  90% of previous challenges.  Calling it “radical,” scholars expected it to be quickly overturned, but this January, the full 8th Circuit refused to rehear the case. 

Seeing an opening, Louisiana asked the full 5th Circuit to rehear its gerrymandering case on the same grounds, with 13 other Republican attorneys general urging a “no private right of action” decision.  In a close vote Monday, the 5th Circuit refused that rehearing.  

For now, the 8th Circuit decision still only affects Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. But it’s clear that private right of action is the new battleground for voting rights challenges, and will almost certainly reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

We’ve  linked to explainers on the private right of action at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Brennan Center for Justice – The Newest Attack on the Voting Rights Act
Law360 – 8th Circ. Redistricting Ruling Imperils The Voting Rights Act
Congressional Research Service – Recent Developments in the Rights of Private
Individuals to Enforce Section 2 of the Voting
Rights Act
American Democracy Minute – Ripple Effects After Radical Federal 8th Circuit Court of Appeals Ruling Restricting Who Can Bring Voting Rights Act Suits; Red State AGs Pile On
American Democracy Minute – Federal Appeals Court Denies Rehearing of Radical Arkansas Voting Rights Act Ruling Shutting Out Voters & Democracy Groups from Bringing Cases
Democracy Docket – 5th Circuit Denies Louisiana Hearing on Whether Voters Can Sue State Under Section 2

Groups Taking Action:
NAACP Legal Defense Fund, ACLU Louisiana,  Power Coalition for Equity and Justice,  Arkansas Public Policy Panel

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#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #PrivateRightofAction #RacialGerrymandering #LouisianaNews #VRA #VotingRightsAct #FreedomtoVote

The post Federal 5th Circuit Refuses Challenge to ‘Private Right of Action’ – For Now.  It’s the New Battleground to Dismantle the 1965 Voting Rights Act appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for April 12, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

We reported last October that 11 Michigan GOP legislators used the “Independent State Legislature” theory to challenge two Michigan ballot questions expanding voting rights.  A federal judge dismissed their case April 10th.

You’ll remember that the fringe ISL theory was used in a North Carolina case last year, with the state legislature arguing in Moore vs. Harper that it alone had the U.S. Constitutional authority to make election law.  The U.S. Supreme Court rejected that argument.  

In 2018, Michigan voters approved voting rights citizen ballot initiatives which established automatic voter registration, no-excuse absentee voting and same-day voter registration.   In 2022, voters approved another voting rights amendment which allowed drop boxes, established nine days of early voting and a permanent absentee list, among several democracy reforms.  They passed with approvals of 60% and 67%.

Eleven Michigan GOP senators and representatives objected, arguing they had the U.S. Constitutional right to cast a vote on such election laws and were harmed by the ballot initiatives.

Judge Jane Beckering did not rule on the validity of the ISL theory, but did concur with the state’s argument that the plaintiffs had no standing to bring the case.   The case was dismissed, but without prejudice, so ISL may still not be dead.

We have links to more on the case and why the ISL theory is dangerous at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Brennan Center for Justice – Moore v. Harper
BallotPedia – Michigan 2018 ballot measures
BallotPedia – Michigan 2022 ballot measures

American Democracy Minute – Just in Time for Halloween, Michigan Case Tries to Reanimate the Independent State Legislature Theory and Kill Democracy Reforms
U.S. DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN (via Democracy Docket) – JONATHAN LINDSEY v.  GRETCHEN WHITMER Opinion and Order
Michigan Department of Attorney General – Federal Court Rejects Lawsuit of 11 Republican State Legislators, Predicated on Independent State Legislature Theory
Michigan Advance – Federal judge rejects GOP lawmaker suit over state election laws
Democracy Docket – Revisiting Moore v. Harper and the Threats to Democracy

Groups Taking Action:
Michigan Alliance for Retired Americans,  Detroit Downriver A. Phillip Randolph Institute, Detroit Disability Power

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#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #VotingRights #MichiganPolitics  #DemocracyReform #DirectDemocracy #MoorevHarper

The post Michigan Case Which Used the ‘Independent State Legislature Theory’ to Challenge Voting Rights Ballot Questions is Thrown Out appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Jan. 29, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

Opinions in two North Carolina cases offer both good democracy news and bad.   A sweeping voter suppression bill was temporarily blocked, but a gerrymandered state senate map diluting Black voting power was upheld.

Sweeping voter suppression bill HB 747 shortens the number of days when mail-in ballots can be received, limits notifications to a voter before removal from the voter rolls, allows poll observers to take pictures of voters in the polling place, and loosens restrictions on who can “challenge” another voter’s ballot, among many voter suppression tactics.  Democracy Docket reports there are three lawsuits challenging different provisions of the bill.

A provision targeting voters who register and vote on election day, used more by mobile, housing-insecure voters of color and younger voters, does not give those voters the chance to “cure” a registration or ballot issue, resulting in their ballots being thrown out.   The temporary injunction stops rejection of those ballots during the state’s March 5th Presidential primary.

In another federal court, democracy groups challenged the North Carolina legislature’s latest GOP state senate redistricting map as diluting Black voting power in five northeast counties.  Gov. Roy Cooper had vetoed the map, but was overridden.  The judge found there wasn’t sufficient evidence that Black voters met the criteria for a majority-minority district.    

We have more on the cases and the groups taking action at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
American Democracy Minute – North Carolina Legislature Overrides Governor’s Vetoes of Voter Suppression and State Election Board Bills
North Carolina Newsline – Federal judge blocks part of Republicans’ new election law
Democracy Docket – Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Provision of North Carolina Voter Suppression Law

U.S. District Court – NC Middle Division – VOTO LATINO v. HIRSCH

North Carolina Newsline – Federal judge denies Black voters’ request to throw out new Senate districts in northeastern NC
Democracy Docket – Federal Judge Declines to Block New North Carolina Senate Map for 2024 Elections

U.S. District Court – Eastern District – Pierce v. North Carolina Board of Elections

Groups Taking Action:
Voto Latino, Down Home North Carolina, North Carolina Black Alliance, Democracy North Carolina, North Carolina Voter, ACLU North Carolina

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#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #VoterSuppression #HB747 #FairMaps #VotingRights #VotingRightsAct #NorthCarolinaPolitics

The post Mixed News for North Carolina Voters, as Federal Courts Temporarily Block Voter Suppression Bill but Uphold Racially Gerrymandered Maps appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Jan. 16, 2024

Today’s Script

(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

In December 2023, a federal court threw out state redistricting maps for greater Detroit, drawn by the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, or MICRC. Truly independent redistricting is the gold standard; so what happened?

The three-judge panel found that 13 state legislature voting districts had been racially diluted by the 13-member citizen commission, making it harder for a Black majority-minority district to elect a candidate of its choice as stipulated by the Voting Rights Act Section 2.

MICRC members are randomly chosen from a pool of applicants to minimize partisan manipulation. But, the court found that member inexperience meant reliance on experts for guidance to balance communities of interests and requirements of the Voting Rights Act.

Those experts suggested the commission merge some of the primarily Black and less-affluent Detroit districts, with primarily White and highly-affluent suburbs Gross Pointe, Bloomfield Hills, and Birmingham.  Also curious, it was a Republican group which hired a Republican former state solicitor general to file the case.  Republican AGs have openly defied Voting Rights Act rules in other states. 

The Michigan Advance reports that January 8th, the court directed that new maps be drawn by February 2nd.  On January 11th, the MICRC appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay, asking  for the existing maps to stay in place.     

Find more on this evolving story at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Michigan Advance – Bombshell ruling requires 13 Michigan districts to be redrawn before 2024 election
Detroit Free Press – Court orders metro Detroit legislative maps redrawn

U.S District Court via Democracy Docket – Opinion and Order – Agee vs. Benson

Bridge Michigan – Experts: ‘Everything up in the air’ now that Michigan districts must be redrawn
Democracy Docket – Redistricting Decisions Will Reshape Legislative Maps in Wisconsin and Michigan
Michigan Advance – Federal court orders redistricting commission to draw new state House districts by Feb. 2
The Hill – Michigan redistricting panel asks court for permission to use unconstitutional maps
Groups Taking Action:
Voters Not Politicians,  League of Women Voters MI, NAACP Michigan State Conference, Detroit Action, Promote the Vote MI

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Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

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#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #FairMaps #VotingRightsAct  #PromotetheVote #MichiganPolitics

The post Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission’s Maps for Greater Detroit Under Scrutiny for Voting Rights Act Violations. What Happened? appeared first on American Democracy Minute.