From the Washington Post: New voting laws in swing states could shape 2024 election

Catching up with state legislatures and the modifications they continue to make to their election laws.

- Click here for the article.

Voting in Michigan will be easier for many people this fall than it was four years ago. There will be nine days of early voting. All mail ballots will have prepaid return postage. And every community will have at least one drop box for absentee ballots because of a measure adopted by voters with the support of the state’s top Democrats.

Those casting ballots in North Carolina, where Republicans enjoy a veto-proof legislative majority, will see dramatic changes in the opposite direction. For the first time in a presidential election, voters there will have to show an ID. More votes are expected to be thrown out because of new absentee ballot return deadlines. And courts will soon decide whether to allow a law to go into effect that would reshape the state’s elections boards and could result in fewer early-voting sites.

The two states illustrate how much voting has changed since the last presidential election. But whether Americans will have an easier or harder time casting a ballot than they did in 2020 will depend on where they live and, often, whether Democrats or Republicans have been in charge.

“It’s really kind of a tale of two democracies,” said Liz Avore, a senior adviser at the Voting Rights Lab.

States across the partisan spectrum abruptly changed their voting policies in 2020 to provide more options at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Many eased the criteria for voting by mail, and some sent absentee ballot or ballot applications to all voters. Election officials installed ballot drop boxes, set up curbside voting programs and in some cases extended the deadlines for returning absentee ballots.

Former president Donald Trump has baselessly accused Democrats of using the loosened rules to rig the 2020 vote, turning election policy into the object of hyperpolarized disagreement.

Particularly in swing states, Republicans have generally pushed for tighter laws, such as voter ID requirements and limits on mail-in voting, in the name of election integrity. Democrats have advocated eliminating barriers that could suppress voter participation, including by making rules for registering to vote and casting ballots more flexible.

Some states have made the rules they established in 2020 permanent or further expanded options for voting. Others have enacted restrictions that go beyond what were in place before 2020 and made it easier to challenge others’ voter registrations and ability to cast ballots. Not all the rules are set yet; some could change because of last-minute legislation and a wave of litigation.

Nowhere are the changing rules more important than in the seven states most likely to determine the presidential election. Many of those states were decided by tiny margins in 2016 and 2020 and are again expected to be crucial.

From ProPublica: Clay Pigeons: How Lobbyists Secretly Woo Top Election Officials - Secretaries of state, who oversee ballot measures on topics from gun control to the minimum wage, are increasingly courted by interest groups and industries with billions of dollars at stake.

If elections are indeed rigged, this might be why.

- Click here for the article.

Big-money corporate lobbying has reached into one of the most obscure corners of state government: the offices of secretaries of state, the people charged with running elections impartially.

The targeting of secretaries of state with campaign donations, corporate-funded weekend outings and secret meetings with industry lobbyists reflects an intense focus on often overlooked ballot questions, which the secretaries frequently help write.

The ballot initiatives are meant to give voters a direct voice on policy issues such as the minimum wage and the environment. But corporate and other special interests are doing their best to build close ties with the secretaries because a difference of even a few words on a ballot measure can have an enormous impact on the outcome.

The influence campaign has intensified, with more citizen-driven ballot initiatives to be decided on Election Day this year than at any time in the past decade.

Emails and internal memos show top election officials soliciting industry groups for contributions specifically because they are facing unfavorable ballot initiatives. Read more.

Secretaries of state from Washington, Ohio, Colorado and Nevada — all Republicans — participated in closed-door meetings in May with representatives from Reynolds American, the nation’s second-largest tobacco company; the National Restaurant Association; and the National Rifle Association, while ballot initiative signatures in those states were still being collected, documents obtained through open records requests show.

At a weekend retreat last month at a hunting lodge in Kansas, Republican secretaries of state mingled with donors, including a representative from Koch Industries, as they shot pheasant and clay pigeons. The owners of Koch Industries — Charles G. and David H. Koch — have funded groups involved in several ballot initiative fights this year, including over a solar energy measure in Florida.

“The Koch brothers out with the Republican secretaries of state — that’s a news story I don’t need,” Allen Richardson, a Koch lobbyist, joked, unaware that a reporter was in attendance.

Groups aligned with Democrats have also targeted secretaries of state, mobilizing during the 2014 campaign to try to elect more officials sympathetic to their causes.

From the Washington Post: Can you rig a U.S. presidential election? Experts say it’s basically impossible.

This is topical.

Expect much more on the subject.

- Click here for the article.

What would rigging an election actually entail?

Rigging an election would require a widespread, nationwide effort with the two major parties colluding at every level. This is why election law experts say it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to “rig” an election. In this country, voting is an open, multi-step process with scores of witnesses from both parties each step of the way.
Chris Ashby, campaign finance and election lawyer at Virginia-based Ashby Law, points out that American elections are held in open, public rooms, such as school gyms, community centers and community centers.

“There are no back rooms, secret doors or hidden hallways,” Ashby wrote recently. The ballots, voting machines and election materials are locked and sealed when they arrive in the voting place, and when they are removed after the election is over, they are locked and sealed again.

In most states, there are “poll observers” in each county who have been chosen and trained by both the Republican and Democratic parties to watch for problems or efforts to disenfranchise voters during the voting process. The poll observers are allowed to watch the poll workers and other election officials, who have also undergone training to run the polling places and help conduct the election.

Voters use equipment that is publicly tested and observed by party representatives and representatives of the campaigns, Ashby said. After it’s tested, voting equipment is locked and sealed. 

“Rigging” an election would require the cooperation of the Republicans and Democrats who are the polling place election officials, along with the poll watchers from each party who are watching the election officials conduct the election, Ashby said. It would also require, he points out, the cooperation of the another group of Republicans and Democrats after the election who are watching the counting of ballots.

From the Texas Tribune: Odd Texas voting law on interpreters scuttled before November election

More voting rights conflict between Texas and the U.S.

And more adjustments to election law in Texas.

- Click here for the article.

Mallika Das, a U.S. citizen who was born in India, walked into a Williamson County polling place in 2014 eager to cast her ballot.

Because she was not proficient in English and had found it difficult to vote in the past, Das brought her son, Saurabh, to help her. They both spoke Bengali, an Asian dialect. But when Saurabh told poll workers he was there to interpret the English ballot for his mother, the duo ran into an unexpected requirement.

By law, a poll official determined, Saurabh could not serve as an interpreter for his mother because he was not registered to vote in the county. Saurabh was registered to vote in neighboring Travis County.

Das proceeded to vote without her son’s assistance but was unable to “vote properly” for all of the electoral measures because she could not “sufficiently comprehend the ballot,” according to a lawsuit she later filed.

Das died before the lawsuit was resolved, but her dilemma, laid out in court filings, is part of an ongoing legal battle over a little-noticed provision of Texas election requiring interpreters to be registered voters in the same county in which they are providing help. Ahead of the November election, a federal district judge has blocked Texas from enforcing that provision, ruling it violates the federal Voting Rights Act. Texas is appealing that ruling to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The requirement will not be in effect during the upcoming election. The Secretary of State’s office has updated poll worker training material to be consistent with the ruling, said spokeswoman Alicia Pierce. And voter education groups that focus on language-minority voters like Asian Texans are working to ensure that voters get the word they can bring just about anyone, including their minor children, to help them vote.

But the case has highlighted a provision of Texas election law that appears to be at odds with federal protections for voters unable to read or write in English. At the heart of the case is whether voters are expected to know the difference between an “interpreter” and an “assistor” in the eyes of Texas election law.

The federal Voting Rights Act requires that any voter who requires assistance because of visual impairments, disabilities or literacy skills can be helped in casting a ballot by the person of their choice, as long as it’s not their employer or a union leader.

From Ballotpedia: Ballot access requirements for political parties in Texas

For more detail on how to create a party in Texas - the state recognizes only four.

- Click here for the post.

The Texas Secretary of State's office offers the following advice:

- Starting a Party and Nominating Candidates.

For their fuller look at ballot access for major and minor party candidates across the nation click here.

Here's a total list of minor parties and the number of ballots each is on across the nation - this includes DC - which is why it adds to 51.

America First Party	1
America's Party	1
American Constitutional Party	1
American Independent Party	1
American Party	1
Americans Elect Party	3
Conservative Party	1
Constitution Party	12
D.C. Statehood Green Party	1
Democratic Party	51
Ecology Party	1
Grassroots Party	1
Green Independent Party	1
Green Party	18
Independence Party	5
Independent American Party	3
Independent Party	5
Justice Party	2
Labor Party	1
Legal Marijuana Now Party	1
Libertarian Party	34
Liberty Union Party	1
Moderate Party	1
Mountain Party	1
Natural Law Party	2
Pacific Green Party	1
Party for Socialism and Liberation	1
Peace and Freedom Party	2
Progressive Party	2
Reform Party	3
Republican Party	51
Socialist Party	1
Socialist Workers Party	1
Tea Party	1
U.S. Taxpayers Party	1
United Citizens Party	1
United Independent Party	1
Veterans Party	1
Working Families Party	4
TOTAL	221

From the Texas Tribune: Analysis: The Winner-Take-Some Texas Primaries

- Click here for the article.

Every presidential candidate wants to win in Texas, but the state’s major parties will also be rewarding second- and even third-place finishers in this year’s primaries.

It’s not a winner-take-all state unless a winner proves to be extravagantly popular with Texas voters.

In all likelihood, the Republicans and the Democrats will be awarding delegates to the top candidates in proportion to the votes they receive. Winning just one vote in five might sound bad in the headlines, but it could add to the all-important delegate tallies that will ultimately determine the party nominees.

The two parties allocate their delegates differently, but with the same idea in mind: sending a delegation to the national conventions that reflects the voting for top candidates here.

Republicans

The Republicans have 2,472 national delegates, including 155 from Texas. It’ll take 1,237 to win.

The state GOP doles out delegates in two batches: 47 of them are awarded based on statewide results, and 108 are awarded based on the results in each of the state’s 36 congressional districts.

How many a candidate gets depends on how well the candidate does. Winning more than half of the state votes gets a candidate all of the 47 delegates at stake. If the top candidate has fewer than half of the votes, the delegates are assigned on a proportional basis, but there is a nuance there, too. If the lead candidate is the only one with more than 20 percent of the vote, that candidate splits delegates on a proportional basis with the second-place finisher. Nobody else gets any delegates. If more than one candidate gets 20 percent or more, each of them gets delegates on a proportional basis. And if no candidate gets more than 20 percent, all of the candidates win delegates based on each one’s proportion of the vote.

Democrats

The Democrats have 4,763 national delegates, meaning it will take 2,382 to win the nomination. Of that total, 252 will come from Texas. That number includes 30 “superdelegates” from Texas, a term that refers to unpledged delegates who are not bound to a particular candidate except by their own choice. The group includes members of Congress from Texas, Democratic National Committee members and other party nobles in Texas.

Of the 222 delegates without that “super” label, 145 come out of the state’s 31 state Senate districts. The number available from each district is based on average Democratic voter turnout in the most recent general elections for president and governor. It ranges from a high of 10 delegates in Austin’s Senate District 14 to a low of two delegates in Senate District 31, which ranges from the Texas Panhandle down to the Permian Basin.

Candidates have to get at least 15 percent of the vote to get any delegates; those who meet that mark get delegates on a proportional basis.

The final 77 delegates are apportioned according to the statewide votes for the candidates. Again, anyone with at least 15 percent of the vote gets some delegates, and delegates are handed out proportionately to everyone above that mark.

For more on state election law . . .

We spend more time with these later in the semester, but they are applicable today for two reasons. First, the presidential campaign begins today since the Iowa Caucus will be held later. Iowa runs the thing however it chooses to - this is true for all states ad their methods for presidential selection. Second, in both 2305 and 2306 we are reviewing the U.S. Constitution. In each we'll look at the role states are given in running elections.

- TSHA: Election Laws.
- Texas Election Code.
- NCSL: Election Laws and Procedures Overview.

For local stuff - since we will hit this soon:

- Alvin Code of Ordinances: Elections.
- Houston Municipal Code: Elections.

From Bloomberg: RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE The Secret Science of Winning the Iowa Caucuses

In order to participate effectively in the Iowa Caucuses, one has to know what to do. Here's a look at how people learn what that is.

- Click here for the article.

On caucus night, turning out the most voters is only the first step. The ultimate trophies are delegates—party members who are elected by each caucus to represent their neighbors at county conventions later in the year. Some of those delegates will become the party faithful who will vote for the next Republican nominee at the national convention. That process begins at the caucuses, where winning delegates can be a whole other game, requiring a long night of political maneuvering and strategic execution.

A look at a literacy test

We looked at the decision in Shelby v Holder in 2305 recently and noted that one of the criteria used to determine whether a state was to have its election laws pre-cleared by federal judges was whether it used literacy or citizenship tests in the 1964 election.

Here are examples of the tests used:

- Slate: Take the Impossible “Literacy” Test Louisiana Gave Black Voters in the 1960s.
- Addicting Info: Harvard Students Take 1964 Literacy Test Black Voters Had To Pass Before Voting — They All Failed.

Election Dates 2015 and 2016

From the Texas Secretary of State's webpage:

- Important 2015 Election Dates.
- Important 2016 Election Dates.

And for good measure:
- Texas Election Code.
- LOC: Election Law.

Some highlights from the training.

9am - intro by county commissioner el Franco Lee

9:05am - assistant county attorney Douglas Rae offers his help and catches is up on the status of the voter ID requirement. It has been ruled unconstitutional by a federal district judge, that decision was upheld by the court of appeals. That had been appealed by the state of Texas to the Supreme Court, but the decision was stayed meaning it is still in force. One of seven forms of ID are required. 

- attorney with Stan standarts office walks through the process for voting provisionally if a voter does not have acceptable ID. 

- Sonya. An assistant with stanart's office goes over odds and ends. 

- the size of Harris county requires that it conduct its elections differently than the law allows. The law is designed for smaller counties. 

- by the way, I'm getting paid to be here! Plus breakfast. 

- who cannot be an election judge? List includes office holders and campaign officials. Makes sense. 

- one way I can go to jail: let someone in with campaign material. Class C misdemeanor. Electioneering.

- We must bathe! We must not smell bad! We must dress well! We might end up being on TV!

- the day to pick up election supplies is Halloween. Fitting. She's encouraged us to come in costume. 

- I got a 50 cent raise! I'm going to make $11 an hour. Everyone else gets $9 an hour. That's just how valuable I am. 

- If we do not open at 7am we have failed in our job! Failure is not an option! Great. I can always use additional stress. 

- elected officials cannot walk around the polls. The county clerk and staff can. It's a class c misdemeanor to let an ejected official in the poll. 

- new procedure: we have to call the clerk's office to let them know that we have opened the polls on time (or not).

- poll watchers are allowed, but must have a certificate stating who they are. It's another misdemeanor to get in the way of a poll watcher, but they can't interfere with voters. 

- reviewing acceptable forms of ID. Texas allows fewer than other states. That's why it's been challenged in the city's. Other photo ID requirements have been accepted by the courts. 

- what if the name on the poll book does not match the name on the ID? That's what I'm paid the big bucks to reconcile. 

- is Michael Mouse the same person as Mickey Mouse? Look at the totality of the circumstances. 

- they want us to be kind if someone has gained a lot of weight since they took their ID photo. 

- I may have multiple precincts voting at my poll. Each may have a different list of candidates. That means they get different ballots. 

1030am - new speaker. Michelle! She's talking about provisional ballots. This allows someone to cast a ballot who may not be eligible to vote. Maybe they do not have proper id. A question may exist that needs resolution. Once the issue is resolved the provisional ballot will be accepted if it is resolved favorably this is a pain in the butt. No one likes to do this. I don't like to do this. 

- there's a big form to fill out to do this. 

- the voter has six days to clear up the issue. The process is called curing.

- another way to go to jail: if I let a provisional voter vote regularly. And I'll get in big trouble if I lose the provisional ballot. 

- Sonya is back. Walks over how we can and cannot assist voters. 

- there is a different between an interpreter and an assistant. An assistant had to take an oath. This seems new to me. 

- more ways to go to jail. To allow someone who cannot vote to vote, to not allow an eligible voter to vote. It is a felony to disclose how someone voted.

They threatened to keep us until 1pm, but were done by 11. I just made $33 before taxes! The next meeting will be instructions on how to physically set up the voting booth. Stay tuned.

The Supreme Court refuses to hear a challenge to Wisconsin's Voter ID Law

The case is Frank v. Walker.

- Click here for ScotusBlog's info on the case.

- Commentary from Election Law Blog.

Electoral Rules Matter

Here's a warning that despite the early success of the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, the hard part will be surviving the initial elections. Whoever designs the elections can control the outcome:

it serves us well to recall two instances when Arab regimes under duress used the guise of electoral reform to maintain control.

As Christopher Alexander briefly described, Tunisia's autocracy faced its most serious challenge at the end of the 1980s but survived, in part, through electoral manipulation. After taking power in the wake of a political crisis, Ben Ali rewrote the electoral code in advance of legislative elections in 1989. The new system split the Islamist opposition over whether to participate and enticed elements of the secular opposition to compete in single party lists that were built around the ruling party's patronage networks. These so-called reforms helped Ben Ali to control the parliament over the next two decades.

In the case of Jordan, the monarchy regrouped after a series of economic crises in the late 1980s and neutered an assertive parliament by instituting the single non-transferable vote system before elections in 1993. The new law, which was issued by royal decree outside of the political process, dramatically curtailed the ability of Islamists and opposition parties to garner votes in a society dominated by kinship and personal relationships. The "one vote" provision has helped ensure pliant parliaments ever since, most notably after last November's elections when a new "sub-district" system was introduced.