The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Feb. 26, 2025

Today’s Script

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

In the coming weeks, Virginia GOP Governor Glenn Youngkin considers multiple pro-voter bills sent to his desk by a Democratic-majority legislature.  A state constitutional amendment also moves to the November ballot which restores voting rights to returning citizens after felony convictions.

Almost a dozen pro-voter bills have advanced in January and February, most recently protecting voters from premature purges.  Last August, Younkin ordered voter registration purges within 90 days of the election, upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court just two weeks before the election.

In response, the Virginia legislature passed House bills 2002 and 2276, prohibiting the purging of a voter using unverified external data as justification, and establishing specific criteria for removal.   SB 813 specifically prohibits voter list purges within 90 days of the election.  

After blocking GOP attempts to shorten early voting in primaries from 45 days to 14 days, the legislature passed SB 760, extending deadlines for returning mail-in ballots to three days after election day and allowing curing of deficient ballots, and passed SB 991, giving more time to voters to register before election day.

In 2023, Governor Youngkin reversed policies of recent governors, and restores voting rights to citizens who’ve completed felony sentences only on a case-by-case basis.   House Resolution 2, now passed in both houses, would  automatically restore those rights, and will appear on the November 2025 ballot.  

Find links to the bills at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

American Democracy Minute – U.S. Supreme Court Allows Virginia to Purge of Alleged Non Citizen Voters Only Days Before the Election, Ignoring Established Federal Law. Eligible Voters Were on the List, Too.
Virginia Mercury – Senate moves to strengthen protections against voter roll purges
Virginia Mercury – Historic push for constitutional protections in Virginia gains momentum

Virginia Legislature – HB 2002, HB 2276, SB 813, SB 760, SB 991, HR 2

Groups Taking Action:

ACLU Virginia,  Virginia Election Protection, UpVote VA, 

Register or Check Your Voter Registration:

U.S. Election Assistance Commission – Register And Vote in Your State

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#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #Virginia #RightsRestoration #VotingRights #DemocracyReform

The post VA Legislature Sends Several Pro-Voter Bills to Gov. Youngkin, and a Constitutional Amendment Restoring Returning Citizen Rights to Voters appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for Oct. 8, 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.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court refused to rehear a challenge to mail-in ballots with missing or inaccurate dates on the merits, after dismissing the case on a technicality in September.  But it also denied a GOP challenge of counties which notified mail-in voters of a mistake, and allowed them to ‘cure’ their ballot.

Citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s “Purcell Principle” as justification, the court ruled Oct. 5th that these and most other voting-related cases were now too close to the election.  “This Court will neither impose nor countenance substantial alterations to existing laws and procedures during the pendency of an ongoing election,” it said.

The missing date decision could affect tens of thousands of Pennsylvania voters who mistakenly don’t date, or misdate, their mail-in ballots.  Under the Commonwealth’s law those ballots are not counted.  The ACLU has also appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court using the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which forbids minor mistakes from disqualifying a voter, but it is unclear if, or when, the high court would consider the appeal.

In her dissent, Chief Justice Debra Todd wrote that the case would be an appropriate use of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s “King’s Bench” power, saying,  “Where, as here, the issue concerns the fundamental right to vote, and where the consequences of inaction risk undermining the electoral process, I deem it imperative to act now.”   

We have a link to the decisions at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:

Pennsylvania Supreme Court – (Missing Date Case) ORDER – PER CURIAM
Pennsylvania Supreme Court –  (Missing Date Case)  DISSENTING STATEMENT – CHIEF JUSTICE TODD
Pennsylvania Supreme Court – (Notification & Curing Case) ORDER – PER CURIAM

Groups Taking Action:

ACLU PA,  PA Conference of the NAACP, Common Cause PA, Black Political Empowerment Project,  League of Women Voters PA

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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Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

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Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #PASupremeCourt #MailBallots #PurcellPrinciple

The post PA Supreme Court Refuses to Rehear Mail-In Ballot Missing Date Appeal and Others As Too Close to the Election appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for May 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.

You may have heard references to the “Purcell principle” in news reports.  What started as a U.S. Supreme Court opinion to minimize confusion and disruption close to an election, may now be a partisan voter suppression tactic. 

Five weeks before the 2006 midterms, a federal court stayed an Arizona voter ID proof of citizenship law intended to suppress Native American voters.  

The Supreme Court took the case on an emergency basis – the so-called “shadow docket” – and overturned Purcell v Gonzalez, citing confusion for voters and election workers if changes were implemented too close to the election. 

Courts since have cited Purcell to delay voting rights and redistricting cases, sometimes at the expense of the right to vote or fair districts, as with the racially-gerrymander maps in Alabama’s Milligan case.  A lower court struck down the maps in January 2022.  But the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the order, allowing their use for the midterms, only to throw them out in June 2023 as a violation of the Voting Rights Act. It undoubtedly cost Black Alabamians fair representation.  A similar scenario may be unfolding in Louisiana, where fair Congressional maps were struck down with the 2024 election just six months away.

Could a partisan court influence an election just by manipulating a voting rights case on its calendar, then citing Purcell?  We’ll be watching. 

Find more at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  I’m Brian Beihl.

Today’s Links

Articles & Resources:
Fordham Law Voting Rights & Democracy Project – The Purcell Principle: An Evolving Doctrine
Election Law at The Ohio State University via SCOTUS Blog – THE PURCELL PRINCIPLE: A PRESUMPTION AGAINST LAST-MINUTE CHANGES TO ELECTION PROCEDURES

NPR – Illegal voting maps were used in some states in 2022. This legal idea allowed them
Politico – The murky legal concept that could swing the election
Democracy Docket – Alabama Congressional Redistricting Challenge (SCOTUS)
Brittany Carter, American University Law – The Purcell Principle and the Antiblackness of Constitutional Fundamentalism

Groups Taking Action:

NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Campaign Legal Center, ACLU AL

Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter and SHARE!  

Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org

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Are you a radio station?  Find our broadcast files at Pacifica Radio Network’s Audioport and PRX

#Democracy  #DemocracyNews #SCOTUS #VoterSupression #Purcell Principle #EndGerrymandering

The post The Purcell Principle:  A SCOTUS Decision Intended to Avoid Voter Confusion May Now Be a Stealth Voter Suppression Tactic appeared first on American Democracy Minute.

https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/americandemocracyminute/episodes/2022-05-08T08_01_30-07_00

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

We reported last week that the Secretary of State in Florida had held up portions of SB 54, awaiting a court case involving another Florida voter suppression bill, SB 90, signed into law last year by Governor Ron Desantis.  It put further restrictions on the use of drop boxes and the role of groups facilitating voter registration.  

The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday on SB 90  – sort of.   The lower court had ruled that SB 90’s provisions targeting black & brown voters were egregious enough that Florida should be subject to federal Voting Rights Act “preclearance” of any voting laws prior to implementation.

But the three Trump-appointed judges on the appeals court panel ruled Friday not on the merits of the case, but on the timing.  The ruling instead cited the “Purcell principle,” from the 2006 Purcell v. Gonzalez, which found that changes should not be made too close to an election. It also called the historical arguments of the League of Women Voters of Florida “vague,” and questioned the pro-voter group’s assertion that the provisions of the law were “intentional discrimination.”

The ruling grants a stay to the circuit court’s decision, and allows Florida to move forward with implementation pending appeal.   To the less than voter friendly U.S. Supreme Court.

We’d love to hear your thoughts!  Send us an email at WethePeople@AmericanDemocracyMinute.org and tell us the state and station where you listen. 

Granny D said, “Democracy is not  something we have, it’s something we DO.” 

For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl.

The post American Democracy Minute for May 9, 2022: Federal court of appeals issues sides with State of FL on Voting Rights Case appeared first on American Democracy Minute.