‌‌‌‌‌Judge Yells Into Wind On Voting Rights

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His ruling is unlikely to survive the appeals court gamut, but U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker wanted to be sure Florida politicians heard him tell the racist past and present (as in, intentionally disenfranchising Black people for political gain) of voter suppression in Florida. He did it in nearly 300 pages.

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Alright, let’s dig in.

A Primal Scream From Florida

I’m a slow reader, and so I don’t normally describe the length of documents as some indicator of their value. But it was quite an experience reading 288 pages from Judge Walker excoriating FLORIDA Republicans, who he said had for years intentionally harmed Black voters precisely because they tend to support Democrats.

The judge went back to reconstruction -- to literacy tests, the first voter ID laws, and the lynchings of would-be Black voters -- to illustrate a continuum to today’s laws.

Describing voter roll purges, early voting cuts and legislative attacks on ex-felon re-enfranchisement over the past two decades, Walker wrote: “Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern.”

“At some point, when the Florida Legislature passes law after law disproportionately burdening Black voters, this Court can no longer accept that the effect is incidental,” he wrote, blocking several aspects of the voter suppression bill that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law during a Fox News exclusive last year.

Will the order survive the appeals court -- or the Supreme Court? Likely not, if recent history is any indication. But Walker wanted to be heard.

Arizona Republicans Just Want To Be REALLY Sure Voters Are Citizens

ARIZONA Gov. Doug Ducey (R) signed a new law Wednesday requiring all Arizona voters to prove their citizenship to vote -- even those who’ve opted to vote on “federal only” ballots in line with a 2013 Supreme Court ruling.

The law puts the onus on county officials to reject the voter registrations of those federal-only voters who don’t submit sufficient proof -- putting officials in a tight spot, between the Supreme Court precedent and the threat of a felony charge.

Ducey says HB 2492 is about “election integrity." The law applies a citizenship ID requirement to more than 30,000 federal-only Arizona voters, who were previously required only to declare under penalty of perjury that they’re citizens, rather than submitting proof.

The Supreme Court in 2013 ruled that Arizona could not require proof of citizenship for federal-only voters. Ducey literally invited a legal challenge -- “have at it,” he said -- and was quickly met with two. 
 

The bill could potentially also affect thousands of Arizonans with drivers licenses issued before 1996, when the state began requiring citizenship proof. Roughly 192,000 Arizonans have those old licenses, the Arizona Republic reported, though it’s not known how many are citizens and voters, nor how many of those could ultimately have their registrations cancelled. Still others could lack official birth certificates entirely, making proof of citizenship difficult.  

Around The States

After the OHIO Supreme Court rejected the Republican-dominated redistricting commission’s legislative maps a third time, the court ordered the commission to actually make a good-faith effort this time to work across the aisle and get something done. The commission hired two outside experts and actually seemed to be making progress… until Republicans picked up their ball and went home, opting instead to re-submit a slightly tweaked version of the third rejected map, which was quickly challenged in court.
 

Now, again, the state Supreme Court is asking: Tell us why we shouldn’t hold you in contempt?
 

It’s all part of the Republicans’ delay strategy -- which we covered here, and which, we now know, worked in their favor to secure gerrymandered congressional maps. The state Supreme Court has punted arguments over those maps for weeks, effectively meaning the challenged maps will be used this year.
 

A NEW YORK judge threw out Democratic-drawn congressional maps challenged by Republican voters as an unconstitutional gerrymander.  On Monday, a state appeals court judge temporarily stayed the decision.
 

A panel of NORTH CAROLINA judges ruled 2-1 that it was unconstitutional to prevent people convicted of felonies from registering to vote while still serving probation or while on parole. The decision might allow tens of thousands of people to register, the Associated Press reports. For now, a promised appeal of the ruling has left things in limbo.
 

FLORIDA Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed the Republican-controlled legislature’s congressional districts and scheduled a special session to redraw the map. (The governor wants to eliminate two plurality-Black districts.)
 

Five Florida men face felony voter fraud charges for registering to vote despite owing a few hundred dollars in unpaid court fees.

After the LOUISIANA legislature overrode Gov. John Bel Edwards’ (D) veto -- the first such action in 30 years -- and passed gerrymandered congressional maps into law, Edwards’ suggested the state should be placed under federal supervision – i.e., preclearance. 
 

Separately, an appeals court in that state ruled in the Republican attorney general’s favor, saying that state officials could not accept outside non-profit donations to fund election administration. 
 

Civil rights groups quickly filed suit over the maps, which include only one majority-Black district out of six, even though Black Louisianans make up a third of the state’s population.  

The Latest In Election Sabotage

Robin Vos, the Republican speaker of the WISCONSIN Assembly, was held in contempt of court for not releasing public documents related to the partisan “audit” of the state’s 2020 elections. 
 

This is a great New York Times story surveying GEORGIA election officials fighting back against yet another Republican restrictive election bill in that state.

ARIZONA’s Republican attorney general has called for a criminal investigation of its Democratic secretary of state, who’s also running for governor.

The Intercept: At A Pivotal Moment, Democrats Failed To Modernize Elections
 

AP: Election skeptics roil GOP contests for secretary of state
 

The Guardian: The US supreme court’s assault on voting rights hits a new low
 

NYT: G.O.P. Presses for Greater Edge on Florida and Ohio Congressional Maps

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