The Project On Government Oversight POGO Blog: Internal Draft Document Reveals Bloch-Headedness
The Project on Government Oversight Blog reports: POGO has gained access to an extraordinary internal DOCUMENT from the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency charged with protecting whistleblowers from reprisal. Clearly marked DRAFT, it is a memo dated January 18, 2008, to Special Counsel Scott Bloch from the members of a special task force. The task force was created, according to the memo, in May 2007, to pursue certain complex and high profile investigations, such as the firing of the U.S. Attorneys and the political presentations given by the White House Office of Political Affairs OPA . The stated subject of the memo is Summary of Task Force Activities and Recommendations, but it reads at times like an anguished cry from investigators charged with an important mission but virtually every recommendation they make is countermanded by their boss. If they recommend going forward with an inquiry, Bloch says no. If they say they lack evidence or jurisdiction, he orders them to go forward.

The inescapable conclusion reached from poring through the contents of this 13-page memo is that Bloch was deliberately creating the impression of a huge ongoing multi-faceted investigation of the White House--at the same time that he himself was being investigated by another arm of the White House for various forms of misconduct. ...

Voter Registration Fraud Case:
Indictments were filed against four individuals associated with a liberal organization, ACORN, for engaging in election fraud. ACORN had reported the fraud itself and had fired the individuals, but a senior Justice official in Washington rushed to file the indictments a few days before the 2006 election, despite clear DOJ policy against bringing such actions right before an election because of the possibility of influencing the outcome.

The task force wrote a memo "outlining the reasons that the Hatch Act case investigating this matter should be opened.” The Hatch Act expressly forbids any Executive Branch official from taking actions that might influence an election. The task force was told they were "not authorized to open up this file." The task force protested strongly:

Because the facts raise the strong possibility of violations of two Hatch Act provisions, the TF requests that a case file be opened into these allegations. OSC is the only agency charged with enforcement of the Hatch Act…it could be perceived that the Office of Special Counsel was abdicating its responsibility to enforce the Hatch Act if we were to take no action in this matter. More importantly, [if the actions were]…an attempt to affect the results of an election, this would constitute one of the most egregious violations of the Hatch Act.

The draft document is here.

Hat-tip to Left in Alabama for the link to this extraordinary document.

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From a press release via email: Today, the parties to LWV v. Browning, a lawsuit challenging Florida’s onerous restrictions on third-party voter registration, entered into a binding agreement filed in federal court. The agreement comes the day after plaintiffs sought a temporary restraining order that would have barred state authorities from enforcing the restrictions. Under the agreement, Secretary of State Kurt S. Browning stated that he will not enforce the restrictions until the administrative rulemaking process is completed, which he estimates will occur no earlier than early July 2008. As a result, groups and individuals who conduct voter registration drives in Florida can proceed with their voter registration activities without fear of being fined under the law, until at least early July 2008.

Plaintiffs to the lawsuit, League of Women Voters of Florida, the Florida AFL-CIO, and Marilyn Wills, president of the Tallahassee League of Women Voters, are thrilled with this result.

Plaintiffs are represented by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and the Advancement Project, and by pro bono counsel Debevoise & Plimpton (representing the League of Women Voters of Florida), and Becker & Poliakoff, P.A.

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The New York Times reports: The League of Women Voters of Florida sued state election officials on Monday to challenge a law that fines voter registration groups for losing registration forms or returning them late.

The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court here, is likely to amplify the political battle over a handful of laws that have tightened the rules for registration and voting in Florida.

It comes less than two weeks after the league suspended its registration drive, fearing penalties of up to $1,000 per volunteer. And in its complaint, the group said the law “severely burdens efforts by the league and other plaintiffs to encourage civic engagement and strengthen democracy.”

State officials have defended the law as an effort to preserve the integrity of the voter registration process. Jennifer Krell Davis, communications director for Secretary of State Kurt S. Browning, said Monday that she could not comment on the league’s complaint because she had not yet received it. -- Voting Group Sues Florida Over Penalties - New York Times

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The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports: Voting-rights activists filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against Missouri public aid officials and election authorities in St. Louis and Kansas City, saying that agencies have failed to help poor people stay active on the voter rolls.

The suit, filed in Kansas City by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, focuses on a 1993 federal law that requires voter registration to be offered at drivers license facilities and government assistance offices — those that offer aid such as food stamps, Medicaid and welfare. But although registering at drivers license offices is now commonplace, activists claim the Missouri Department of Social Services has shirked its obligations.

ACORN, represented by lawyers from national groups Project Vote, Demos and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, also says election authorities need to better instruct local public aid offices.

The lawsuit carries all the overtones of a traditional political brawl, pitting groups allied with minorities and the poor — who typically lean Democratic — against a key department of a Republican administration. -- STLtoday - Civil rights groups sue state officials over voter registrations

The case is Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now et al v. Scott et al, #: 2:08-cv-04084-NKL (WD Mo). You may download the complaint here.

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Stars and Stripes reports: A new Web site unveiled last week will give overseas military voters a one-stop site for voter registration, ballot requests and other election-related needs.

Organizers with the Overseas Vote Foundation, a nonpartisan voter advocacy group, unveiled the site — https://military.overseasvotefoundation.org — during the foundation’s second annual overseas voting summit Friday in Munich.

Using drop-down navigation menus divided by state, the site features election official directories, a voter help desk, state-specific information and write-in ballot services.

After military personnel or their eligible family members choose a state, the system prompts the user for the information required to register there, according to a news release. Billed as an alternative to voters navigating bulky and confusing regulations on their own, the site features safeguards to ensure forms are filled out correctly and legibly for stateside election officials, the release stated.

Once a voter fills in their information, the site generates a PDF file with the address of the voter’s county election office. Users print it out, sign it and throw it in the mail. -- Stars and Stripes: Web site aims to make absentee voting easier

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The Des Moines Register reports: A Polk County District Court judge has ordered Iowa Secretary of State Michael Mauro to stop using languages other than English in the state’s official voter registration forms.

Judge Douglas Staskal ruled in favor of U.S. Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican, who sued state officials last year, contending they were violating the state’s English-language law. He brought the suit against Gov. Chet Culver, who previously served as secretary of state, and Mauro, contending they had placed illegal voting forms on the secretary of state’s Web site.

The dispute began shortly before Election Day in 2006, when King demanded that Culver remove voting information in languages other than English from the Web site. The site offered information in Spanish, Laotian, Bosnian and Vietnamese.

Non-English voter forms were removed from the the state's Web site late Thursday afternoon.

King, a former state senator, said the materials were illegal because under an English-language law authored by King and signed by Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack in 2002, all official government communications must be in English. -- Judge: Iowa voting forms violate official English law | DesMoinesRegister.com | The Des Moines Register

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In Florida State Conference of the NAACP v. Browning, the 11th Circuit has reversed the injunction against Florida's voter registration law. Here is the opening paragraph of the decision:

This is an appeal of a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of a Florida voter registration statute as being preempted by two different federal statutes. The state law would require as a precondition of registering to vote for the first time in Florida that the voter disclose her driver’s license number or the last four digits of her Social Security number on the registration application, and that this number match up with the number for this voter contained in the state driver’s license database or the Social Security Administration’s database, respectively. The district court held that plaintiffs, several organizations representing the interests of minority communities in Florida, had standing to challenge the statute, would likely succeed at trial on the merits of their claim that federal law preempts the enforcement of the state law, and would suffer irreparable injury absent provisional relief. Accordingly, the court preliminarily enjoined the enforcement of the state statute. We affirm the district court’s decision on plaintiffs’ standing to prosecute this action and reverse its decision granting the preliminary injunction.

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CBS 13 in Sacramento reports: A man suspected of state voter registration fraud was arrested on Sac State's campus. Accused of signing up fake people to vote!

Why would there be a manhunt by the election fraud unit of the Secretary of State for this mystery guy, 45-year-old Don Cornell Williams.

He's known by state officials for registering voters in Southern California.

"That's what he does for a living," says Corey, a friend of the suspect. ...

Corey says some unknown organization pays Williams to get signatures. He says Williams told him gets cash for every signature or registered voter card he turns in. Yesterday the state election fraud unit got a tip Williams was at Sac State trying to register more people. They asked campus police to capture him on a warrant out of Orange County for completing voter registration cards using false names. -- cbs13.com - Man Arrested For State Voter Registration Fraud

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Steven Rosenfeld writes on AlterNet: For at least four years, since the 2004 presidential election, when a veteran, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., was the Democratic Party nominee, the Department of Veterans Affairs has blocked efforts to help U.S. soldiers register to vote at its facilities in all 50 states.

This is politically motivated voter suppression, said Scott Rafferty, an attorney based in Washington, D.C., who has fought the VA in federal courts since 2004 over the right to assist homeless people, including veterans, register to vote at a shelter on VA property in Menlo Park, Calif. Now the political motivation might be different that the veteran running for president is a Republican.

The issue has resurfaced, not merely on the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and in the midst of a heated presidential campaign, but because the VA -- whose public affairs office did not answer telephone calls nor return requests to comment Monday -- apparently has also stonewalled requests by U.S. senators for an explanation.

We write today to once again highlight our concerns about voter registration in VA facilities, began a March 6, 2008, letter from Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., chair of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, and Sen. Kerry, to James B. Peake, secretary of Veterans Affairs. Nearly one year ago, your predecessor, Secretary Nicholson, was questioned about the lack of access to nonpartisan voter registration services for our nation s veterans. A response to this inquiry was never received. -- Veterans Administration Won t Help Soldiers Register to Vote | Democracy and Elections | AlterNet

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Voting Matters Blog reports: February 26 was not a good day for Asheesh Agarwal, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the U. S. Department of Justice. During a hearing of the House Committee on the Judiciary, the bookish bureaucrat was raked slowly over the hot coals by several irate members of Congress.

At issue was the DOJ’s enforcement of key provisions within the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which was passed by Congress in 1993 to increase participation in federal elections. Committee members attempted, with little success, to get Agarwal to explain why DOJ has spent the lion’s share of its resources to pressure states to purge voters rather than ensuring their rights.

"Rights on paper are not the same as rights in fact," intoned Congressman Jerrold Nadler of New York. "For that we need vigorous enforcement."

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Congresswoman from South Florida, cited alarming statistics about voter registration decreases documented in Unequal Access: Neglecting the National Voter Registration Act, 1995-2007, a report written by Project Vote and Demos. The report found that voter registrations generated from public assistance agencies within that period had declined by 79 percent, despite the NVRA’s specific requirement that states offer the service in agencies that help the disadvantaged. -- House Members Grill Justice Dept. Official Over NVRA Enforcement

Note: the Voting Matters Blog has a link to the video of the hearing, but be prepared to spend 2+ hours.

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AP reports: Welcome to the first presidential election in which nearly every state must have a list of every registered voter. Here's the catch: if your name isn't on it, you may have trouble casting a ballot in this historic race for the White House.

The lists have already caused problems in New Mexico, Arizona and California, where people waited hours to choose a presidential nominee only to find they weren't listed as registered voters — or they weren't listed in the party of their choice.

On Tuesday, when folks line up in the crucial states of Ohio and Texas, election observers fret that similar snafus will confuse and delay primary vote counts that could help decide whether the Democratic nominee will be the first woman or the first black man to hold that title. ...

The problems stem from a federal law that was supposed to deter voter fraud. Under the Help America Vote Act, every state was required to have a computerized database listing all registered voters. The deadline was 2006, which several states missed. Some of them, including New York and New Jersey, were sued by the Justice Department for not having databases up and running. -- The Associated Press: Is Your Name on the Voting List?

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The Las Vegas Sun reports: Poor people have less say at the polls in Nevada than in most of the nation — and public assistance offices appear to be partly to blame, according to a recently released report.

In 2006 workers at those offices registered fewer Nevadans to vote than they did in 1995, the year federal law began requiring such agencies to offer voter registration. The decline, the report says, might explain why 53 percent of Nevada’s low-income citizens 18 and older are not registered to vote — the third-highest percentage of the 44 states examined in the study.

The result is that even as Nevada’s population increases, participation by the poor in elections in the Silver State is shrinking, said Scott Novakowski, senior policy analyst for Demos, a New York-based think tank and advocacy center. Novakowski is one of the authors of the report “Unequal Access: Neglecting the National Voter Registration Act, 1995-2007.”

He argues that Nevada and other states could do more to put into effect the federal law that seeks to make voter registration routine at offices offering food stamps, welfare and Medicaid benefits. At stake is “political empowerment,” Novakowski said — particularly in light of the 2008 presidential election. -- Agencies slip in registering poor to vote - Las Vegas Sun

Thanks to Scott Novakowski for the link.

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From a press release by Project Vote: As the nation prepares for the 2008 election, a new study reveals that many states are routinely failing to offer low-income Americans an opportunity to register to vote as required by the federal National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). Unequal Access: Neglecting the National Voter Registration Act, 1995-2007, published this week by the non-partisan voting rights groups Demos and Project Vote, shows that 12 years after the NVRA's requirements went into effect, voter registrations from public agencies that provide services to low-income Americans have declined dramatically.

Unequal Access: Neglecting the National Voter Registration Act, 1995-2007 examines voter registration data state by state, finding that in states across the nation--Virginia, Florida, Texas, Nevada and many others--public assistance agencies are neglecting to offer voter registration to all clients and applicants, as required by the law. Because of noncompliance with the NVRA, the rights of thousands of low-income citizens are violated daily.

"All Americans should have an opportunity to register and vote, but states are ignoring a federal law that requires them to offer voter registration to low-income citizens. In 2006, more than twice as many low-income Americans were unregistered as upper-income Americans. States need to follow the law. If they do, we can close the registration gap between rich and poor," says Unequal Access: Neglecting the National Voter Registration Act, 1995-2007 co-author Douglas R. Hess. "Our democracy works best when everyone, not just some, are allowed to participate." -- Low-Income Americans Denied Voter Registration Opportunities, New Report Shows

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The Birmingham News reports: Alabama voter rolls swelled by nearly 60,000 in the three months leading up to next week's Super Tuesday presidential primaries.

Perhaps fired up by a flurry of visits by presidential hopefuls, frenzied voter registration drives and Alabama's new prominence in the primary process, the rush of people to sign up has Secretary of State Beth Chapman expecting an unusually high turnout Tuesday. ...

When registration closed Monday, 58,341 Alabamians had added their names to voter rolls since Nov. 1, bringing the total number of people eligible to vote in Tuesday's primaries to 2,757,111.

"These numbers would suggest there's an increased interest in this election," Ed Packard, the state's interim supervisor of voter registration, said. "And it would indicate we're tapping into people who were not registered to vote before." --

White women were the largest group of registrations in the final three months, at 21,568. They were followed by white men at 18,347; black women at 9,452 and black men at 6,390.

Packard said that racial and gender breakdowns are consistent with past years. Voter rolls in state swelled for primaries- al.com

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The Coshocton Tribune reports: The Morgan County Board of Elections has determined Prosecutor Rick Welch is not a qualified elector and his right to vote in the county has been revoked.

Now the acting county prosecutor will be reviewing whether further action should be taken after it was determined Welch does not live in the county.

Welch withdrew from the March primary on Tuesday after a complaint was filed with the elections board concerning his residency. The elections board met with a special prosecutor and a representative with Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to discuss the matter on Wednesday.

Welch, who has been prosecutor since 2000, sent a letter to the board members stating he was withdrawing from the race due to his becoming a "catalyst for division and not unity." -- Coshocton Tribune - www.coshoctontribune.com - Coshocton, OH

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CentralOhio.com reports: Mississippi was a brutal place in the civil-rights era of the 1960s, from the perspective of two veterans of the movement who were there -- Flonzie Goodloe Brown-Wright and Hellen O Neal-McCray.

They shared their experiences Monday morning at Denison University during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day commemoration breakfast. Their presentation was "The Power of Story: A Dialogue Between Two Women."

"The date June 12, 1963, was the defining moment in my life," Brown-Wright told the standing-room-only crowd in the Welsh Hills Room of the Burton D. Morgan Center. "That s the day Medgar Evers was assassinated in his front yard in front of his wife and his children for trying to help people register to vote. I realized it was time for me to get out of my comfort zone. I began to work in the movement to get people registered to vote."

When Brown-Wright, now 65, tried to register to vote she was asked to define habeas corpus as part of the registration form -- a form only black Mississippians were expected to answer. She didn t know what it meant at the time, but she studied the state constitution and later returned to successfully register to vote.

Subsequently, she vowed she would get the job of the man who denied her the right to vote, and she did. She became the first black woman to be elected the county registrar. She frequently was persecuted for her efforts. -- Central Ohio - www.centralohio.com - Central Ohio, OH

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TPM Muckraker reports: Earlier this month, we reported on a Florida law that requires the state to reject voter registration applications if the data does not match driver's license or Social Security records. The law, first implemented in January, 2006, was based on advice from Hans von Spakovsky -- yet another addition to his legacy of voter suppression at the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. Civil rights groups, calling the measure “disenfranchisement-by-bureaucracy," have sued to halt the law in an attempt to minimize the effect on the 2008 election.

This weekend, Southwest Florida's News-Press ran an analysis of state records, and, well, the law seems to have had a predictable effect (enjoy the spin from election officials); ...

Blacks were 6 1/2 times more likely than whites to be rejected at that step.

Hispanics were more than 7 times more likely to be failed. -- Vote Suppression Measure Hits the Mark

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The Denver Post reports: El Paso County Clerk Bob Balink brings up an interesting point but one that always raises political hackles.

If the state is going to require that people be U.S. citizens in order to vote then it should allow election officials to verify that citizenship Balink argues.

But if the state doesn t want to require a check of citizenship then the law shouldn t even mention the word in its definition of eligibility. It would make sense Balink says to remove it.

But Balink doesn t want to remove the requirement. He just wants to be able to check for citizenship. Or else he says "How can I be sure I m following the law "

Balink a Republican insists "It s not a political issue. It s a legal issue." But of course it s a political issue too.

Republicans generally favor requiring potential voters to prove they are who they say they are. It discourages fraud they say.

Democrats generally oppose identity or citizenship checks because it discourages people from voting. Voting should be comparatively easy they say. -- The Denver Post - Should voters have to prove citizenship?

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McClatchy Newspapers reports: The Justice Department s Civil Rights Division is reversing course and has begun taking steps to enforce a 1993 law that s intended to make it easier for poor minorities to register to vote.

The division, which has come under attack for allegedly pursuing policies aimed at suppressing the votes of Democratic-leaning minorities, has demanded that 18 states provide evidence that they re complying with the National Voter Registration Act.

If it is fully pursued, this new action will represent the first significant return to traditional enforcement of voting-rights laws since a scandal erupted earlier this year over the alleged politicization of the Justice Department. ...

The states receiving the letters include three that frequently are battlegrounds in presidential and Senate races — Iowa, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The others are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New York, South Carolina, Utah and Vermont. -- McClatchy Washington Bureau | 11/09/2007 | Justice Department returns to enforcing voter laws

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AP reports: A judge ruled Wednesday that Alabama finally has a statewide computerized system for voter registration that meets federal requirements.

U.S. District Judge Keith Wat-kins praised Gov. Bob Riley for doing in 14 months what other state officials had failed to accomplish in three years. ...

The U.S. Justice Department sued Alabama last year after then-Secretary of State Nancy Worley missed the Jan. 1, 2006, deadline for developing the computerized system. Watkins turned over the duties to Riley in August 2006 and set a new deadline of Aug. 31.

Riley had to get an extension of two months, but he and his staff reported to the judge Wed-nesday that the new system began working properly on Monday.

Justice Department attorney Don Palmer agreed. -- Judge approves state's new voter system

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Media General News Service reports: Voting registrars say a new statewide computerized voter registration system is so flawed that potential voters will be at best inconvenienced and at worst not allowed to vote on Election Day.

The State Board of Elections has reminded registrars in all 134 voting jurisdictions that provisional ballots could be offered as an alternative if names don’t match up with the poll books.

In a provisional ballot, a person could vote and election officials would check the day after the election to see whether the person is, indeed, registered to vote.

The election is Nov. 6. Because there are no statewide races, turnout is expected to be low. Voters will elect members of the General Assembly, boards of supervisors, school board members and constitutional officers.

But with a slew of candidates to choose among in many localities, registrars are worried that incorrect poll books will prolong the voting process. -- State's registrars reporting registration errors

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David Schultz has posted his article, "Less than Fundamental: The Myth of Voter Fraud and the Coming of the Second Great Disenfranchisement." It will be published soon in the William Mitchell Law Review. The article begins:

When it comes to voting and voting rights, American history is marked by two traditions. One expresses a continuing expansion of the formal right to vote beyond that found at the time of the framing of the Constitution where only white males who owned property, of protestant faith, and of specific age and citizenship, had franchise rights under the Constitution. ...

But while one American tradition was marked by an expansion of franchise, Alexander Keyssar notes another one characterized by efforts to deny the right to vote. There are repeated periods in American history to disenfranchise voters or to scare them away from the polls. For example, after the Civil War many in the South used Jim Crow laws, poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather laws, and not so subtle means such as lynchings, cross burnings, and other techniques to prevent newly freed slaves from voting. ...

A second great disenfranchisement is afoot across the United States as yet again voter fraud is raised as a way to intimidate immigrants, people of color, the poor, and the powerless from voting. This time the tools are not literacy tests, poll taxes, or lynch mobs, but instead it is the use of photo IDs when voting.

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Representational Bias in the 2006 Electorate
Project Vote announces "Representational Bias in the 2006 Election": The proportion of the U.S. population that registers to vote and that does vote is highly skewed towards Whites, the educated and the wealthy. Furthermore, young eligible Americans, particularly young minority males, and those who have recently moved, are disproportionately represented among those who do not participate in the U.S. electorate.

This report provides an introductory review of frequency tables for responses to some of the questions in the November 2006 CPS as well as cross tabulations showing how the responses interact with race, gender and income. Data on voter registration and voter turnout for each state and the District of Columbia for 2002, 2004 and 2006 are also provided.

Hat tip to beSpacific.

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The Columbus Dispatch reports: A man with two residences who thought he had to vote in two counties last fall pleaded guilty today to two counts of illegal voting.

Claudel Gilbert, 38, a citizen who moved from Haiti in 1994 with his family, said he had an apartment in Franklin County before he bought a house in Licking County in 2006. He registered to vote in both counties.

Boards of elections in both counties sent him voter verification cards, and Gilbert thought his vote would not count unless he voted twice, said defense attorney Eric Yavitch.

An investigation was launched after the Nov. 7, 2006, election when his name showed up on a statewide database of all those who voted, officials said. -- The Columbus Dispatch : Immigrant pleads guilty to voter fraud

Hat tip to Gerry Hebert (who took time away from bashing von Spakovsky to send me the link).

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The Montgomery Advertiser reports: A federal judge agreed Monday to give Gov. Bob Riley an extra two months to develop a statewide computerized voter registration system that was due Aug. 31.

U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins said there was no reasonable alternative to allowing the governor the extra time he had requested. ...

The U.S. Justice Department sued Alabama last year after then-Secretary of State Nancy Worley missed the deadline for developing the system. Watkins turned over the duties to Riley with a new deadline of Aug. 31.

On the deadline, Riley told the judge that the state needed two more months to tie together computers in state agencies that are used to verify voter data and remove the names of voters who die or are convicted of certain crimes. -- montgomeryadvertiser.com :: State gets more time on voting project

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Press release: Today voting rights advocates filed suit in a US District Court to strike down a statewide election law that could disenfranchise tens of thousands of eligible citizens from registering and voting in the 2008 elections.

The law bars any Florida citizen from registering to vote if the state cannot match or otherwise validate the driver’s license or Social Security number on a registration form, an error-laden practice struck down in 2006 by a federal judge in Washington State. Plaintiffs bringing today’s suit, including the Florida branch of the NAACP and the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition, contend that this matching law unduly delayed or denied registrations for thousands of Florida voters in 2006, and will jeopardize many more voters in 2008 if not blocked.

Florida and a handful of other states refuse to place eligible citizens on the rolls unless they clear a series of extra bureaucratic hurdles largely dependent on “matching” registration information on a new statewide voter list with information in the state motor vehicle or Social Security systems. Common database errors, however, make “matching” unreliable, jeopardizing the status of up to 30% of new voters. A 2006 study by the Brennan Center for Justice, one of the voting rights groups that brought today’s suit, found that such a procedure misinterpreted the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which told states to create the statewide lists.

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Press release: With an upward trend in young voter turnout in recent years, Democracy Fellow Tova Wang and Kristen Oshyn predict that youth turnout in 2008 will reach a new level of participation, giving young voters the potential to make an unprecedented impact on the campaigns and electoral outcomes. In “Youth Vote 2008,” a new issue brief from The Century Foundation, Wang and Oshyn look at the history of how young voters have been brought into the electoral process compared to more recent and possible future processes. Highlighting research, they argue that the current upward trend of young voter turnout will not only impact the 2008 election but politics for the next generation.

The authors found that campaigns and candidates are increasingly reaching out to young voters but that they continue to fail to address issues of interest to young people in terms that are relevant to their lives. They also found that while campaigns and organizations are capitalizing on the new technologies available in their outreach efforts to the “wired” generation, indications are that without follow up using traditional methods, much of that online interest will not translate into votes.

The report is here.

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The New York Times reports: A federal court ruling in June that forces voters to register by party could return Mississippi to the days of racially polarized politics, as many white Democrats warn that thousands of white voters will now opt definitively for the Republican Party.

Republican-leaning voters in Mississippi have long been able to cross party lines in primaries, voting for centrist Democrats in state and local races while staying loyal to Republican candidates in national races. But political experts here say that by limiting these voters — almost all of whom are white — to Republican primaries, the ruling will push centrist Democratic candidates to the other party, simply in order to survive.

Most black voters in Mississippi are Democrats, and black political leaders have been pushing for years to prevent crossover voting in Democratic primaries. Black leaders say they want to end precisely what white Democrats here seek to preserve, a strong moderate-to-conservative voice in the Democratic Party, and in the process to pick up more state and local posts.

The ruling last month by Judge W. Allen Pepper Jr. of Federal District Court allowed the legal remedy sought by black leaders. Judge Pepper said the Democratic Party in Mississippi had a right to “disassociate itself” from voters who were not genuine Democrats. Most other Southern states also have open primaries. -- In Mississippi, Ruling Is Seen as Racial Split

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McClatchy Newspapers reports: Four days before the 2004 election, the Justice Department's civil rights chief sent an unusual letter to a federal judge in Ohio who was weighing whether to let Republicans challenge the credentials of 23,000 mostly black voters.

The case was triggered by allegations that Republicans had sent a mass mailing to mostly Democratic-leaning minorities and used undeliverable letters to compile a list of voters potentially vulnerable to eligibility challenges.

In his letter to U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott of Cincinnati, Assistant Attorney General Alex Acosta argued that it would ''undermine'' the enforcement of state and federal election laws if citizens could not challenge voters' credentials.

Former Justice Department civil rights officials and election watchdog groups charge that his letter sided with Republicans engaging in an illegal, racially motivated tactic known as ''vote-caging'' in a state that would be pivotal in delivering President Bush a second term in the White House.

Acosta's letter is among a host of allegedly partisan Justice Department voting rights positions that could draw scrutiny on Capitol Hill in the coming weeks as congressional Democrats expand investigations sparked by the firing of at least nine U.S. attorneys. -- Attorney under fire for Ohio voter letter - 06/25/2007 - MiamiHerald.com

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Facing South reports: The major political story in North Carolina yesterday, as Facing South reported, was the State Auditor's office retreating from claims of "voter fraud" and giving the green light to the state senate to pass a bill for same-day registration at early voting sites.

What's striking is how completely the auditor's office back-tracked, after raising the alarm of alleged fraud and delaying passage of the bill for almost two weeks. The Charlotte Observer reports:

State Auditor Les Merritt backed away Tuesday from the early findings of a review of North Carolina's voter rolls, telling lawmakers his office might find no irregularities at all.

"We'll eventually get to a correct, final report," Merritt said, "and that final report, it could very well say there isn't anything here, that everything's fine, we're doing a super job.

One issue won't go away: the role of Chris Mears, former political political director of the N.C. Republican Party, and now a public affairs staffer at the auditor's office. In a private email, he had admitted the "fraud" allegations were raised to stop the same-day bill (even as the auditor's office formally declared they had "no position" on same-day registration). -- Facing South

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The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports: Backers of election-day voter registration believe Massachusetts could see a double-digit spike in voter turnout if people could register and vote all at once.

At a hearing yesterday at the Statehouse, state Sen. Edward M. Augustus Jr., D-Worcester, co-chairman of the legislative committee on Election Laws and a co-sponsor of an election-day registration bill, said people who are busy with their day-to-day lives deserve a more convenient path to the voting booth. ...

Secretary of State William F. Galvin testified in favor of the proposed legislation yesterday but expressed some reservations about the way it would be implemented.

Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray also testified in support, with a reminder that he and Gov. Deval L. Patrick were elected on a day of record voter turnout. The campaign registered and turned out thousands of new voters last fall. -- Same-day voter registration recommended

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The Houston Chronicle reports: More Texas counties are abandoning a centralized voting records system after experiencing difficulties in the May 12 election, as the state struggles to get it running smoothly.

Critics of the system, known as Texas Election Administration Management, or TEAM, say former Texas Secretary of State Geoffrey Connor made a mistake by accepting the higher of two final bids for an unproven system. ...

Enacted in response to allegations of fraud during the 2000 presidential election, the Help America Vote Act of 2002 requires that states have an interactive centralized list in which election workers can easily determine whether a person is eligible to vote and to prevent citizens from being registered in more than one location.

Two counties, Hidalgo and Tarrant, recently confirmed they were leaving TEAM to contract with VOTEC, the vendor that Connor rejected in a close contest. The defections raise the number of counties abandoning TEAM to five, and others are considering a similar move. -- More Texas counties ditching state-OK'd voting system

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AP reports: State Attorney General Troy King said there was no conflict of interest when his staff represented then-Secretary of State Nancy Worley in lawsuits at the same time it was conducting an investigation that led to criminal charges against her.

Worley, a Democrat, has repeatedly complained that the Republican attorney general did a poor job of representing her in civil matters and pursued the criminal case simultaneously to help her Republican opponent, Beth Chapman, and make himself look better.

While Worley was secretary of state, King’s office represented her in a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department that accused her office of missing the deadline for implementing a statewide voter registration database. Worley repeatedly complained that King wasn’t following her wishes when King asked a federal judge to transfer the database responsibilities to Republican Gov. Bob Riley, who had appointed King attorney general. -- King: No conflict of interest

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The Greensboro News-Record reports: North Carolinians would be able to register to vote on the same day they cast their ballot under legislation the state House tentatively approved Wednesday.

The measure only would apply to the period scheduled for early voting. Those wishing to vote on Election Day would have to register in advance. ...

Seven states have similar provisions. Turnout figures show election participation is about 10 percentage points greater there -- as high as 65 percent of eligible voters -- than in states with advance registration requirements. -- News-Record.com - Greensboro, North Carolina: News: Legislature: House tentatively backs voter registration change

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The Mason City Globe Gazette reports: Voter registration got a lot easier Tuesday as the Iowa Senate passed a bill that allows registration at the polls on Election Day, sending the measure to Gov. Chet Culver for an expected signature.

Also Tuesday, the Senate sent a bill to Culver that requires a paper backup for electronic voting machines.

Support for the Election Day registration bill was split 30-20 along party lines. Democrats said the measure would increase citizen participation, while Republicans warned that an easier process would lead to voter fraud. The current cutoff for registration is 10 days before an election. ...

Demos, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy group, issued a report Tuesday that says Iowa would have had 4.9 percent higher turnout in the 2004 general election if Election Day registration had been in place. Iowa set a turnout record in 2004, with more than 1.5 million ballots cast, which was roughly two-thirds of the voting-age population.

The report, written by faculty from New York University and the California Institute of Technology, says a disproportionate share of the new voters will be in the following categories: naturalized citizens, Latinos, African Americans, people ages 18 to 25, and people who have moved within the last six months. -- globegazette.com - Archived News Story

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The Des Moines Register reports: The Iowa House approved a plan Tuesday that would allow Iowans to register to vote the day of an election.

Iowa's current law requires voters to register 10 days before primary and general elections and 11 days before other elections. The change would allow people to bring records to their voting location and register just moments before casting their ballot.

The proposal, House File 653, passed on a 54-44 vote, largely split along party lines. Rep. Walt Tomenga of Johnston was the only Republican to vote in favor of bill. No Democrats voted against the bill, which now moves to the Senate.

House Democrats said same-day voter registration would encourage more people to vote and that, in turn, would strengthen the political process. They based their proposal on a Minnesota law that has been in place more than 30 years.

Republicans, however, said the proposal is critically flawed because it fails to adequately protect against voter fraud. -- DesMoinesRegister.com

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