Weekly Primer: How Greitens’ Apparent Spite For GOPers Could Boost Voting Rights

As primary elections get underway, we’re seeing new voter ID laws going into effect for the first time in various states. Iowa’s 2017 law got its “soft rollout” last Monday, when early voting began in the state’s June 5 primary. Last Tuesday’s West Virginia primary marked the state’s first election with a voter ID law. Ohio’s primary, meanwhile, brought a major win for voting rights advocates. A gerrymandering-reform ballot initiative that encouraged bipartisan cooperation in drawing the state’s U.S. congressional maps passed overwhelmingly. Tuesday also brought a defeat for voting rights activists in Oklahoma, where the state Supreme Court upheld the state’s 2010 voter ID law. Texas has until Thursday to tell a federal judge how it will fix in issue in its voter registration system, which the judge previously ruled was in violation of the National Voter Registration Act. The state was sued by civil rights activists because it did not allow Texans to register to vote when they updated…