Witnesses to be finalized in Texas voter ID case

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Officials from the U.S. Department of Justice and the state of Texas will confer today to determine who will testify in federal court next week in the case over the Texas voter ID law.

One representative from each party will join a conference call with the Washington D.C. District Court at 3 p.m. EDT to designate which witnesses will testify in person or whether depositions will be provided.

Each party also will have a chance to object to the final witness lists.

The court also will address scheduling.  The trial is set to begin at 9:30 a.m. EDT Monday.

By Annelise Russell, News21

News21 prepares for Texas voter ID court case

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On Monday, Washington, D.C., District Court will hear testimony over the Department of Justice’s rejection of the Texas voter ID law.

The News21 team is gearing up for the trip to D.C., and as we prepare for this case, we wanted to give you a brief look at the major players and what is at stake.

The law

The Texas Legislature passed its voter ID law in March 2011 on a party line vote — Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed.

Federal approval

Texas is one of nine states subject to preclearance by the U.S. Department of Justice under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. After a slow response by Justice and the denial of a similar law in South Carolina, Texas officials decided to sue Attorney General Eric Holder before the Texas law could be denied preclearance.

The state sued on Jan. 23, although the department did not
formally deny preclearance until March.

What’s at stake

Texas legislators argue that the law is an attempt to prevent voter fraud by instilling confidence in the electoral process and giving election officials the tools to maintain the integrity of elections.

In court documents filed by Texas, the state also argues that federal oversight of the law overreaches authority.

Attorney General Holder and advocacy groups assert that the
law could disenfranchise thousands of registered voters — particularly Latinos,
who are one in five registered voters in Texas.

By Lindsey Ruta, News21

Coffee Break Ballot, July 4: Current Trends in Voting Rights

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Welcome back to the work week!

We, like many of you, enjoyed the tease of a midweek faux-weekend. We also enjoyed the onslaught of Independence Day-themed voting rights columns, blogs and articles (some of which we’ll sample here today).

Nothing like a national holiday to encourage talk of freedom, unity and fundamental rights.

What We’ve Been Reading

“Celebrate Our Independence By Committing to the Right to Vote,” (Eva. M. Clayton, 07/04, Huffington Post)

“Graduating from the Electoral College,” (Jaime Fuller, 07/05, the American Prospect)

“Roberts Faces Shot at Republican Redemption in Race Cases,” (Greg Stohr, 07/04, Bloomberg)

“9.2 Percent of Pennsylvania Voters Lack Valid ID,” (David Weigel, 07/05, Slate)

“8 things the U.S. election system could learn from Mexico’s,” (Robert. A. Pastor, 07/02, CNN)

Twitter Trends

If we’ve tracked anything of note this past week on social media search engine Topsy.com, it’s been the considerable bounce that progressive voting rights Twitter users have provided to a few news items.

Tuesday’s Mother Jones package on voter suppression and election administration continues to buzz, as does a telling report from Slate on what the more than nine percent of registered Pennsylvania voters lacking photo ID could mean for the November election.

Despite a series of broadcast news network pieces on possible election fraud in the federal election Sunday in Mexico, we haven’t seen as many mentions of that country’s voter ID system as we originally expected. As seems to be the case for many international stories, the American Twitter audience has moved on to other flash points, accepting that the election is largely finished there and no longer worth 140-character debate points.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on the diverse threads of progressive commentary in the coming days and weeks, with a special focus on the conservative reaction that has yet to arrive.

For more of the latest voting rights trends and links, be sure to follow us @WhoCanVote.

J. Morgan Kousser: The Voting Rights Act and Hispanic Voters

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UPDATE: 07/10 — J. Morgan Kousser testified today in the Federal Appeals Court hearing. Lawyers for both sides came to a last-minute agreement on witness lists.

The Voting Rights Act faces a sustained legal challenge that could threaten its existence, a Cal Tech researcher says, and there are striking similarities – with a notable demographic difference – to historic voting rights battles.

“After the initial passage of the Voting Rights Act, there was a huge attempt to inhibit the growth of political participation,” J. Morgan Kousser, a professor of history and social science at the California Institute of Technology, said of the 1965 law.

“But today, what we see is more than anything a reaction to the growing Latino population and a reaction to Latino growth in places where it really hasn’t been before.”

States such as Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, Georgia and Virginia fit that profile, Kousser said. He planned to testify in the scheduled federal court hearing on the constitutionality of the new Texas voter ID law, but the state’s legal team successfully petitioned last week to deny his testimony calling it opinionated and tangential.

If the U.S. Supreme Court takes up a case challenging all or parts of the Voting Rights Act in its next term, Kousser said it is possible that the entire law could be ruled unconstitutional, opening the door to a new series of election laws.

“Suppose you made everybody re-register in a central location in a limited amount of time, and did not make that registration permanent,” Kousser said. “Nobody’s proposed this yet, but we had the umbrella of the Voting Rights Act protecting against such things.”

By Nick Andersen, News21

Juan Rosa: Living the American Dream at the ballot box

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Juan Rosa: Living the American Dream at the ballot box

Juan Rosa immigrated to the United States from El Salvador and voted for the first time in 2002. Photo by Lizzie Chen/News21.

Juan Rosa, 45, of Del Valle, Texas, is the healthy living coordinator at El Buen Samaritano Episcopal Mission.

Rosa escaped the Salvadoran Civil War and immigrated to California to live what he called the American Dream. Part of that dream includes the right to vote, and Rosa believes it is important to have his voice heard.

“As soon as I got my citizenship, I made plans to go vote, and I did. I was so proud. It was something amazing,” Rosa said of his voting in 2002. “I still have the little sticker that said “I voted” and I’m proud of it.”

Many Latino advocacy groups in Texas argue the state’s voter ID law will hamper legal access to the ballot for Latino voters like Rosa, but he understands the need for a photo ID law, he said.

“I think there are always pros and cons when things like that come up. I see the pro because it may take sometime to get used to it, but Im pretty sure that it will save some problems that I’ve seen in the past or heard about in the past with people and voting when they are not supposed to,” Rosa said.

“We have to be all for changes, and I think this is a good one. I think it’s just an extra step they are taking to be safe on the voting side,” he said.

By Lizzie Chen, News21

Coffee Break Ballot, July 3: Current Trends in Voting Rights

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We should probably stop calling specific days “big news days” for voting rights legislation. With legal challenges to Texas and South Carolina voter ID laws and Alabama’s Voting Rights Act challenge moving forward, it’s possible that many days in the weeks and months to come could be big days for voting rights.

Today:

  • Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed a trio of controversial bills – voter registration, photo ID and citizenship verification.
  • South Carolina set a deadline for implementing a photo voter ID law if it is approved by a federal appeals court.
  • An aide to Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad confirmed that the governor will not change regulations for restoring felons’ voting rights.
  • And Florida elections officials acknowledged that they likely will not restart the state’s voter roll cleanup despite a court ruling on its legality.

It’s safe to say a few things happened today.

What We’ve Been Reading

“Snyder vetoes voting reform bills,” (Rick Pluta, 07/03, Michigan Radio)

“Florida Voter Purge Is Unlikely to Resume,” (Ari Berman, 07/03, The Nation)

“Commentary: One citizen, one vote: Clearing the air on voter ID reforms,” (Ruth Johnson and Pete Lund, 07/03, Detroit News)

“The Dog that Voted and Other Election Fraud Yarns,” (Kevin Drum, 07/03, Mother Jones)

“Aide: Iowa Governor Will Keep Felon Voting Policy,” (Associated Press, 07/03)

“Voter ID in Michigan,” (Pew Center on the States, 07/03, Pew Charitable Trusts)

“New schedule tightens window to implement voter ID,” (Meg Kinnard, 07/03, Associated Press)

Twitter Trends

The most notable Twitter trend today is the buzz among progressive opponents of voter ID laws. If the struggle for election reform is a battle, today was a big win for progressives, as multiple states and multiple cases were resolved in their favor.

A Mother Jones article detailing voter fraud allegations — Mickey Mouse voting, a dog registering to vote — and calling Republican election reform policy intentional voter suppression has bounced back and forth on Twitter, with social media search engine Topsy.com showing growth in usage of the term “voter suppression.”

The Mother Jones story likely will get conservative pushback by the end of today, with talking points and retweetable factoids flying in the face of gloating partisans on one side of the issue or the other.

We’ll be the first to tell when the mood shifts. Be sure to follow us @WhoCanVote.

Latinos represent millions
of untapped voters

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Amid elections and voter ID legislation in states such as Texas and Arizona, “the Latino vote” has become a hot topic — and for good reason.

About 50,000 Latinos reach voting age every month, according to a
study by the Pew Research Center. That’s 600,000 voting eligible Latinos a year — a trend that is expected to continue for the next two decades.

By July 2050, the Hispanic population will represent 30 percent of the nation’s population, according to Census projections.

Texas has the second highest Latino population in the nation after California,
according to Census data. The Lone Stare State also is preparing to defend its voter ID in federal court next week against opponents who argue the law disproportionately affects Hispanic voters.

In Texas, the number of unregistered Latinos — 2,154,600 — exceeds the margin that John McCain had over Barack Obama in the state — 950,695,
according to the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank.

And this base of untapped voters would largely vote Democratic.

A study by the conservative public opinion group Resurgent Republic, indicates that 51 percent of Latinos are registered Democrats, 31 percent are registered Independents and 18 percent are Republican.

By Lindsey Ruta, News21

Rachael Torres: Campaigning in Austin’s Latino community

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Rachael Torres: Campaigning in Austin's Latino community

Rachael Torres grew up in the Latino community in East Austin, Texas. Photo by Lizzie Chen/News21.

Rachael P. Torres was born and raised in predominantly Latino East Austin where she recalls her grandmother walking about a mile to pay a poll tax to vote. Torres is an office temp who lives in East Austin and stays connected to her community by volunteering for political campaigns.

“I do think that it’s necessary for people to know that I’m just a regular person, but I feel very adamant about how important voting is,” Torres said. “I know that there are lots of countries that women cannot do a lot of things, and voting is one of them.

“As a Latina, it’s the same thing… There are many places in the world … that people just don’t have that right,” Torres said.  “It’s only professional men, or only men in power that can do those things, and I think that as an American, as a woman, as  a Latina, as a parent, we have to teach our children that we have that right. People fought for that right, and if we don’t use it, it was all for naught.”

By Lizzie Chen, News21

Coffee Break Ballot, July 2: Current Trends in Voting Rights

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Nothing like the nation’s birthday week to get voters interested in political affairs.

There’s a closely watched presidential election this week for the U.S. southern neighbor Mexico, and it is important for several reasons. The liberal Institutional Party of the Revolution is widely expected to return to power after 12 years of conservative rule; the election includes Mexico’s first major female candidate for president, and Mexico is one of America’s most important trade partners.

But this morning on Twitter and Facebook, American voters are making connections between Mexican election laws that require voters to use a federally provided photo ID and U.S. Department of Justice legal challenges to state laws requiring such IDs at the polls.

Mexican elections have a much more complicated history of voter suppression and election fraud, reports suggest, but it is interesting to see these kinds of cross-continent connections. The 2006 Mexican presidential election was decided by fewer than 300,000 votes, leading to widespread allegations of election mischief.

Even more, a purported video example of election fraud has exploded on Facebook, giving election wonks and fraud opponents everywhere something to chew.

What We’ve Been Reading

“20 Years of Registering Voters in High School!” (League of Women Voters, 07/02)

“Mess in Texas,” (Bill Buck, 07/02, CBS Atlanta)

“Lehman declared winner in Senate recall,” (Todd Richmond, 07/02, Associated Press)

“Charges of voter suppression in Rangel primary election,” (Eric Shawn, 07/02, FOXNews)

“PICKET: Mexico’s poll workers ask voters for ID at polls,” (Kerry Pickett, 07/01, Washington Times)

“LETTER: US DOJ to Bancroft PLLC,” (Thomas E. Perez, 06/29, via Election Law Blog)

“Planned Detroit-to-Lansing protest march opposing emergency manager, voting laws,” (Kathleen Gray, 07/02, Detroit Free Press)

Twitter Trends

As we mentioned, some of the biggest social media buzz today comes in the form of American users drawing attention to alleged instances of voter suppression in the Mexican general election.

According to social media search engine Topsy.com, the Mexican election is making big waves, especially in relation to News21 daily general search terms “voter ID” and “voter suppression.”

Social media encourages a chorus of anger, meaning that upcoming state primaries in some key presidential states — North Carolina and Michigan prime among them — might spark some new calls for stronger ballot protection initiatives and insidious suggestions of voter suppression.

For more contributions to social media, be sure to follow us @WhoCanVote. And remember to follow @MichaelCiaglo and @AndreaRumbaugh, who are reporting from Florida this week.

Lillian Johnson: Putting Florida felons back to work

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Lillian Johnson: Putting Florida felons back to work

Lillian Johnson, director of the Havana Learning Center, gives felons and community members who are down on their luck, a place to come together to look for work and get back on their feet. Photo by Michael Ciaglo/News21

Lillian Johnson is the founder and director of Havana (Fla.) Community Technology and Learning Center Inc. She works with felons by helping them find jobs.

“I think that after they’ve done their prison time, when they walk out of that door, they should be free citizens, right then. They should be able to have everything that they had before they went in,”Johnson said. “They’ve done the time for the crime that they’ve done. They should be free.

“They should be able to come right back out and pick up where they left off at — to be able to vote, especially. Because at this time, it’s critical. It’s critical. Do you realize how many prisoners come out and they can’t vote?”

By Andrea Rumbaugh, News21