Voter Suppression

Voting rights are under attack in this country. States are making it harder for people to vote as legislatures pass voter suppression laws under the pretext of preventing voter fraud and safeguarding election integrity. These regressive laws take many forms and pose significant barriers for eligible voters trying to exercise their most fundamental constitutional right.

11/08/2012

Voter Suppression

Who Really Won the Election? Democracy Did.

By Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:00pm

On Tuesday, despite the massive hurdles put in front of voters since 2010 – citizens nonetheless, fought through voter suppression tactics, misinformation, long lines, then longer lies, and the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy to have their voices heard and votes count.

For the last two years, there was a wave of voter suppression laws passed in states. As the ACLU, has long argued many of the laws took different forms -- voter ID and citizenship requirements, limitations on early voting, restrictions on third-party voter registration, purging, and criminal disfranchisement laws -- but their impact and intent are the same: a cynical attempt to push certain constituencies out of the electorate in advance of an election. This is particularly true for voters of color, students, voters with disabilities and the elderly.

11/06/2012

Civil Liberties in the Digital Age

Unsettling Questions About Voting Machines In Ohio

By Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 1:46pm

As America heads to the polls to elect the next president, stories are circulating about, and a lawsuit has been filed over, a last-minute software patch apparently being installed on voting tabulation machines in Ohio, as described in a secret contract between Ohio’s Republican secretary of state and the nation’s largest electronic voting machine manufacturer. (See this roundup and analysis of the story by Brad Friedman at Salon, which links to other key coverage of the story.)

10/02/2012

Challenges to Voter Suppression Laws

No Pictures Please: Pennsylvania Voter ID Law Put on Hold

By Steve Gosset, ACLU at 7:30pm

In a victory for Pennsylvania voters, a state judge today halted the enforcement of the state’s voter ID law, which threatened to disenfranchise thousands of elderly residents, students, the homeless and communities of color this November.

Judge Robert Simpson Jr. ruled that he was “not convinced” that the requirement to show photo ID at polling stations would not lead to voter disenfranchisement, as the state had argued.

09/20/2012

Election 2012: Let Me Vote

Why Won’t Ohio Politicians Let People Vote Early?

By Mike Brickner, ACLU of Ohio at 4:44pm

Voters have been caught in the middle as local election officials have created vastly different early voting hours in rural and urban counties, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted set restrictive uniform hours, and lawsuits left early voting hours undecided.

09/12/2012

Election 2012: Let Me Vote

By Elizabeth Beresford, ACLU at 5:16pm

Do you know what you need in order to vote this year? How about your grandmother? Or your neighbor?

With a pivotal election less than two months away, we’re launching “Let Me Vote,” a nationwide voting rights campaign to make sure all Americans have the information they need in order to vote.

In a time when dozens of states are trying to make it harder to vote, we need to ensure that everyone—especially students, the elderly and communities of color—know their rights. We all need to fight back against voter restrictions, but in the meantime, we can beat these new barriers by getting ready to vote now.

09/04/2012

Voter Suppression

South Carolina Doesn’t Need a Voter ID Law

As a former South Carolina State Election Commissioner, I hope that the U.S. District Court will see the new South Carolina voter ID law for what it is and block its implementation.

08/30/2012

Voter ID

ACLU Lens: Federal Court Blocks Texas Voter ID Law

By Vesna Jaksic, ACLU at 2:46pm

A federal court today struck Texas’s discriminatory voter ID law, which would have prevented many eligible citizens from exercising their fundamental right to vote.

The ACLU had intervened in the case in order to represent individuals and organizations who would be negatively impacted, and protect the right to vote. Today’s decision by a three-judge Washington, D.C. panel comes at a time when the right to vote is under attack nationwide.

“By blocking this law, the court reaffirmed the right of all people in this country to participate in our democracy,” said Nancy Abudu, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Voting Rights Project, which intervened in the case along with the ACLU of Texas.

08/13/2012

Voter ID

States to Young Voters: We Don’t Want a Repeat of ‘08

By Demelza Baer, Washington Legislative Office at 5:21pm

Defying the stereotype that they are apathetic or disengaged, young voters turned out in droves in the 2008 presidential election, capping off their record-setting participation in many state primaries and caucuses. Although the high water mark for turnout among voters under 30 remains 1972, which was the first presidential election after the Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the Constitution lowered the voting age to 18 years, the highest youth turnout in the past four decades happened in 2008 and 1992. Perhaps most significantly, 2008 marked the third consecutive presidential election that youth turnout increased, and nearly six out of ten young African-American voters turned out in 2008, which is the highest voter turnout among young people of any racial or ethnic group since the voting age was lowered.

08/13/2012

Voter Suppression

Sorry, We’re Closed: Some Ohio Counties Opt Against Extra Early Voting Hours

By Mike Brickner, ACLU of Ohio at 4:59pm

Ohio elections are once again making national news, but not exactly in the way we’d hoped. County Boards of Elections are deciding whether they will be open extended hours on evenings and weekends for early in-person voting. In 2008, many counties, including Cuyahoga and Franklin (home to Cleveland and Columbus) had large numbers of voters use these extended hours.

PODCAST
3 prominent Ohio pastors talk about why early voting is important to their communities>>

07/28/2012

Voter ID

Pennsylvania’s Voter ID by the Numbers

By Sara Mullen, ACLU of Pennsylvania at 3:18pm

This week marked the opening of the trial in the ACLU of Pennsylvania’s challenge to the state’s restrictive voter ID law. The trial began with testimony from Ms. Viviette Applewhite, a feisty 93-year-old African-American great-great-grandmother who uses a wheelchair. Ms. Applewhite, who once marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., has voted in almost every election for the past 50 years and cast her first vote for president for FDR. Despite her age and limited physical mobility, Ms. Applewhite traveled two hours from Harrisburg to Philadelphia to testify as to how she may not be able to vote in this year’s presidential election because she does not have has not been able to obtain an acceptable ID under the state’s new law.

American Civil Liberties Union