Voting Rights & Elections
The vote is the heart of democracy. Yet today, our voting systems are deeply flawed. Ineffective election administration, unaccountable purges of voter registration lists and insecure electronic systems threaten to disenfranchise countless American citizens. New barriers to voting such as highly restrictive voter ID requirements threaten to disenfranchise millions more.
Voting rights and election integrity depend upon sound administration in thousands of jurisdictions. For every voting-age citizen, America's irreducible goals should be:
- everyone who wants to be registered, is registered;
- everyone who wants to vote, can vote;
- every vote that is cast is a vote that is counted.
The Brennan Center for Justice fights to strengthen America's voting systems. Presentations on vote suppression strategies and their promotion by the U.S. Department of Justice can be found here and here. In the past two years, we successfully challenged anti-voter laws in Florida, Ohio, and Washington. We published national studies on issues ranging from electronic voting to voter databases. We helped pass pro-voter and defeat anti-voter laws in dozens of states and in Congress. We track federal election reform legislation at Federal Election Reform. Now we are engaged in a long-term effort to reform voting laws, with new proposals to improve electronic voting, restore the voting rights of people with felony convictions, and encouraging universal voter registration.
In addition to its litigation and public education work, the Voting Rights and Elections team has undertaken a range of advocacy projects in response to specific concerns arising in individual states.
Common Cause of Colorado, et al. v. Buescher
A coalition of voting rights groups sued the Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman (who, upon leaving office, was replaced by Brian Buescher) claiming he illegally removed over 27,000 voters from the rolls. They filed a temporary restraining order to get those names reinstated and to ensure additional names cannot be removed before Election Day.
The Ninth Circuit held that Washington’s criminal disenfranchisement law violates the Voting Rights Act. The decision is the first in the country to find that, due to racial discrimination in the state’s criminal justice system, the felony disenfranchisement law results in the denial of the right to vote on account of race.
United States v. Village of Port Chester
Brennan Center represented Fair Vote in providing remedy to a Section 2 challenge against the Village of Port Chester.
Restoring voting rights to millions
Today Congress is listening to 4 million silenced Americans. Leaders of the House Judiciary Committee are holding a hearing on the Democracy Restoration Act, legislation that seeks to restore the right to vote to people with a criminal records who are out of prison, living in the community. This bill would eliminate the last blanket barrier to the franchise, and reverse decade of discrimination create by laws firmly rooted in our country’s Jim Crow history.
Adios 2009, Saludos 2010: A Latino Year in Review
Threats to our democracy in 2009 (moving into 2010); and 2009’s successes/accomplishments: an editorial.
...and it always will. Here’s even more proof, from a flawed ballot in King County, Washington State, that election officials should conduct simple usability testing on their ballots.
Illustrations by Risko
House Leaders Weigh Restoring Voting Rights for Millions
Today, the House Judiciary Committee meets to consider the Democracy Restoration Act, a bill that would restore the right to vote to nearly 4 million American citizens with a criminal conviction, who are now living and working in the community.
Ohio Needs Automatic and On-Line Registration, New Report Shows
New York—A Brennan Center for Justice report, released today, calls attention to the urgent need for automatic and on-line voter registration in Ohio. The report also shows that it is eminently possible to implement voter registration modernization (VRM) in Ohio now.
Brennan Center Applauds Ohio’s Bipartisan Election Reform WorkGroup
New York - Earlier this week, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner issued a final report to the House of Representatives regarding HB 260, introduced in August by Representatives Dan Stewart and Tracy Maxwell Heard.
Testimony of Prof. Burt Neuborne in Support of H.R. 3335, The Democracy Restoration Act
Legal Director and Inez Milholland Professor of Civil Liberties at NYU School of Law, Burt Neuborne, testifies in support of the Democracy Restoration Act before the House Judiciary Committee, Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties Subcommittee.
Testimony Before the New York City Council Committee on Governmental Operations
Testimony before the New York City Council Committee on Governmental Operations regarding Board of Elections oversight, specifically concerning New York’s new voting machines and Board voter registration and list maintenance practices.
Letter to New York State Board of Elections Regarding Overvotes on Optical Scanners
Letter to the New York State Board of Elections from a coalition of civil rights and voting rights groups regarding the high incidence of overvotes seen in voting systems recently adopted in New York.
It Isn’t Complicated: Restore the Vote to 300,000 Americans
A call to Governor Tim Kaine to use the last few days in his tenure to restore to a huge number of citizens their right to vote.
BC work highlighted in Carnegie’s Electoral Reform Report
The newest Carnegie Review focuses on Electoral Reform in the U.S., chronicling advancements in this area over the past year, and highlights much of our work.
Proof of Citizenship Requirements; Chart of State Legislation
In the current session (2009–2010), legislators across the country have begun to propose proof of citizenship requirements for voter registration. The chart here, last updated on 12/2/2009, sets forth the known bills and their current status.