Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

In the aftermath of the presidential primaries, stories of unprecedented voter registration and turnout are drifting to the back burner. But with an exceedingly imbalanced electorate, the fight to create access to the voting rolls and enforce the voting rights of all Americans continues. With historic voter registration drives underway and a preview of the types of problems that could occur in November, the focus of the media is beginning to shift towards the less sexy, but crucial elements that work to maximize voter participation while ensuring eligible voters can cast their ballots and have them counted. In Project Vote's view, this is a welcome development since many of the potential issues require more time to sort out than is available if problems are noted only weeks in advance of the election. This week, election officials, advocates and a presidential candidate worked to assist in or restore voting rights for hospitalized veterans in Connecticut, minority citizens in Georgia, and former felons in Tennessee.

Cross-posted at Project Vote's blog, Voting Matters

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

"Party politics is driving up registration at unusually high rates," Project Vote Deputy Director Michael Slater said in Sunday's New York Times. Slater was referencing the surge of voter registration from both partisan and non-partisan drives "in an effort to change the demographics" of an imbalanced electorate. The flood of interest in the electoral process reportedly has election officials in Louisiana overworked and concerned over how many rejected voter applicants will show up in November thinking they are on the voting rolls.

By Nathan Henderson-James

In These Times' July 2008 cover story, Expand The Vote, posted to its website on June 11, prominently features Project Vote's work to create an electorate that is representative of the American citizenry. 

Adam Doster, an In These Times  senior editor, frames the article by showcasing Project Vote's 1992 Illinois voter registration drive, directed by young recent law school graduate Barack Obama, and shows the impact that members of underrepresented groups can have in elections, no matter who they choose to support. 

By Nathan Henderson-James

A new Research Memo published today by Project Vote shows that while youth voter participation has been setting records this election cycle, participation by young people still lags behind other age groups. Further the data show that participation has largely been confined to young people with at least some college experience.In Project Vote's view, this data suggests that continued focus on college-attending youth without reaching out to non-college youth threatens to leave at least half of this key constituency out of the most important election in a generation.

By Erin Ferns

"Someone needs to the tell the VA that veterans don't check their citizenship rights at the door when they enter a VA facility," editorialized the Sacramento Bee on Sunday, referring to the continued refusal of the Department of Veterans Affairs to assist with voter registration. The Calif. publication urged the VA to change a policy restricting voter registration drives before October registration deadlines for the 2008 presidential election.

Cross-posted at Project Vote's blog, Voting Matters
Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

The battle  to protect the voting rights of low income and minority citizens was marked by several victories last week. In addition to the "three key battles" on voting rights outlined by Steven Rosenfeld last Friday - Missouri's controversial voter ID defeat, Arizona's agreement to comply with federal voter registration law, and voter ID crusader, Hans von Spakovsky's withdrawal from his Federal Election Commission nomination- on Monday Kansas governor, Kathleen Sebelius vetoed a voter ID bill citing "I cannot support creating any roadblock to prevent our citizens from adding their voices to the democratic discourse that makes our nation great," she said.

Yesterday, the Justice Department announced an agreement (PDF) to bring Arizona's Department of Economic Security, which administers Food Stamps and TANF, into compliance with the public agency registration provisions of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).  The agreement comes three months after Project Vote and Demos sent  Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer a notice letter (PDF) advising her that the state was not in compliance with the law and asking her to take steps to improve compliance to avoid litigation.

2008 has been a good for the Dems in Oregon.

Since December 07, total Democratic registration is up 113,000 or 15%, Republican registration is down 9,000.  The Democratic registration advantage over Republicans increased from 71,000 to 193,000 or a percentage advantage increasing from 39%-35% up to 43%-33%.  This is really good news as we look forward to November and the opportunity to replace Gordon Smith, our Republican Senator.

The greatest percentage of growth was seen in the state house districts located in close-in Portland neighborhoods, Eugene (University of Oregon), Corvallis (Oregon State University), Ashland (Southern Oregon) and Bend (Central Oregon).  These areas are considered the most progressive in the state.  A lot of college kids, young families, professionals, well-educated.  Every district in the state saw increases but each of the areas noted here grew by 20%-27%, again compared to 15% statewide.