Voting Rights
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New York
Jan 2025
Voting Rights
New York Communities for Change v. Nassau County
Voters of color in Nassau County, N.Y., are no strangers to having to organize to ensure their votes count. But in 2023, the county’s Legislature took vote dilution to new heights. In places like Elmont, Freeport, Inwood, Lakeview, South Valley Stream, New Hyde Park, and Uniondale, the Legislature “cracked and packed” communities of color with the effect of squashing their growing electoral power. But the landmark John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York (NYVRA), enacted in 2022, and the New York Municipal Home Rule Law prohibit New York State and localities from diluting the voting strength and political influence of Black, Latino, and Asian residents.
U.S. Supreme Court
Jan 2025
Voting Rights
Republican National Committee v. Genser
Voters in Butler County, Pennsylvania made a mistake in voting their mail ballots in the April 2024 primary election, forgetting to use the required secrecy envelope. Because their mail ballots could not be counted, they went to the polls in Election Day and voted provisional ballots. The County later determined that it would not count their provisional ballots, and the voter’s appealed, arguing that Pennsylvania law requires that when an eligible voter attempts to vote by mail but the mail ballot is rendered void due to some defect like lacking a secrecy envelope, the eligible voter may cast a provisional ballot and have that ballot counted notwithstanding the failed attempt to vote by mail.
Louisiana
Jan 2025
Voting Rights
Nairne v. Landry
Nairne v. Landry poses a challenge under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to Louisiana’s House and Senate legislative maps on behalf of plaintiff Black voters and Black voters across the state.
Georgia
Oct 2024
Voting Rights
Eternal Vigilance Action, Inc. v. Georgia
The ACLU and partner organizations have sought to intervene in this case to represent the rights of voters and voting-rights organizations in a case challenging a number of rules passed by the Georgia State Election Board. We challenge a rule that requires that the number of votes cast be hand counted at the polling place prior to the tabulation of votes. This rule risks delay and spoliation of ballots, putting in danger voters’ rights to have their votes count.
Texas
Oct 2024
Voting Rights
OCA-Greater Houston v. Paxton
Texas has growing Hispanic and Black populations that helped propel record voter turnout in the November 2020 election. The Texas Legislature responded to this increased civic participation with an omnibus election bill titled Senate Bill 1—SB 1 for short—that targeted election practices that made voting more accessible to traditionally marginalized voters like voters of color, voters with disabilities, and voters with limited English proficiency. Since 2021, SB 1 has resulted in tens of thousands of lawful votes being rejected, and it remains a threat to democracy in Texas.
Ohio
Jul 2024
Voting Rights
League of Women Voters of Ohio v. LaRose
In Ohio, HB 458 makes it a felony for any person who is not an election official or mail carrier to return an absentee voter's ballot—including voters with disabilities—unless the person assisting falls within an unduly narrow list of relatives. We are challenging the law because it violates Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) by making it exceedingly difficult for voters with disabilities to cast their ballots.
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149 Voting Rights Cases
New Hampshire
Sep 2024
Voting Rights
Coalition for Open Democracy v. Scanlan
This lawsuit challenges HB 1569, a new law that will make New Hampshire the only state to require every person to produce documentary proof of citizenship when they register to vote for both state and federal elections. It also challenges HB 1569’s elimination a preexisting protection for voters—namely, an affidavit option that allowed voters who faced surprise challenges to their eligibility at the polls to swear to their qualifications and cast a ballot. Accordingly, HB 1569 violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution by placing substantial burdens on New Hampshirites at all stages of the voting process, and will arbitrarily disenfranchise hundreds, if not thousands of qualified voters.
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New Hampshire
Sep 2024
Voting Rights
Coalition for Open Democracy v. Scanlan
This lawsuit challenges HB 1569, a new law that will make New Hampshire the only state to require every person to produce documentary proof of citizenship when they register to vote for both state and federal elections. It also challenges HB 1569’s elimination a preexisting protection for voters—namely, an affidavit option that allowed voters who faced surprise challenges to their eligibility at the polls to swear to their qualifications and cast a ballot. Accordingly, HB 1569 violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution by placing substantial burdens on New Hampshirites at all stages of the voting process, and will arbitrarily disenfranchise hundreds, if not thousands of qualified voters.
Pennsylvania Supreme Court
Sep 2024
Voting Rights
New PA Project Education Fund v. Schmidt
On September 25, 2024, 10 organizations filed a suit in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, asking the court to stop enforcement of the commonwealth’s requirement that voters include an irrelevant handwritten date on the outer return envelope of their mail ballot packets or else be disenfranchised.
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Pennsylvania Supreme Court
Sep 2024
Voting Rights
New PA Project Education Fund v. Schmidt
On September 25, 2024, 10 organizations filed a suit in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, asking the court to stop enforcement of the commonwealth’s requirement that voters include an irrelevant handwritten date on the outer return envelope of their mail ballot packets or else be disenfranchised.
Georgia
Sep 2024
Voting Rights
Frazier v. Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections
The ACLU, along with several partner organizations, have intervened in this case to represent the rights of voters and voting-rights organizations in a case that asks a federal court to compel the purge of nearly 2,000 Fulton County, Georgia voters from the state’s rolls on the eve of a presidential election. The relief that the private plaintiffs seek is presumptively unlawful because this purge would happen within 90 days of a federal election, in violation of the National Voter Registration Act (“NVRA”).
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Georgia
Sep 2024
Voting Rights
Frazier v. Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections
The ACLU, along with several partner organizations, have intervened in this case to represent the rights of voters and voting-rights organizations in a case that asks a federal court to compel the purge of nearly 2,000 Fulton County, Georgia voters from the state’s rolls on the eve of a presidential election. The relief that the private plaintiffs seek is presumptively unlawful because this purge would happen within 90 days of a federal election, in violation of the National Voter Registration Act (“NVRA”).
Arizona Supreme Court
Sep 2024
Voting Rights
Richer v. Fontes (Amicus)
Will nearly 100,000 Arizona voters who have long been registered as “full ballot” voters who can vote in all federal, state, and local elections in Arizona be penalized and disenfranchised from voting due to a technical error by the State of Arizona discovered on the eve of the November 2024 election?
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Arizona Supreme Court
Sep 2024
Voting Rights
Richer v. Fontes (Amicus)
Will nearly 100,000 Arizona voters who have long been registered as “full ballot” voters who can vote in all federal, state, and local elections in Arizona be penalized and disenfranchised from voting due to a technical error by the State of Arizona discovered on the eve of the November 2024 election?
Texas
Sep 2024
Voting Rights
America First Policy Institute v. Biden
The ACLU, along with several partner organizations, are representing the rights of voters by intervening in a lawsuit that seeks to make it harder for Americans across the country to register to vote, including in the upcoming 2024 election. In 2021, President Biden signed an executive order aimed at promoting access to voter registration and election information to eligible voters on a nonpartisan basis. Now, on the eve of the 2024 election, a small group of political candidates and election administrators seek to block the executive order, based on speculation and unfounded claims of election manipulation and noncitizen voting. The ACLU and its partners are fighting to preserve the ability of eligible Americans to register to vote, in accordance with federal law.
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Texas
Sep 2024
Voting Rights
America First Policy Institute v. Biden
The ACLU, along with several partner organizations, are representing the rights of voters by intervening in a lawsuit that seeks to make it harder for Americans across the country to register to vote, including in the upcoming 2024 election. In 2021, President Biden signed an executive order aimed at promoting access to voter registration and election information to eligible voters on a nonpartisan basis. Now, on the eve of the 2024 election, a small group of political candidates and election administrators seek to block the executive order, based on speculation and unfounded claims of election manipulation and noncitizen voting. The ACLU and its partners are fighting to preserve the ability of eligible Americans to register to vote, in accordance with federal law.