The Connecticut Senate approved a bill to allow voters to register and cast a ballot on Election Day, a measure the Brennan Center has pushed for months. “These new reforms are a big step forward for Connecticut's voting system,” argued Myrna Pérez and Nic Riley in a Connecticut Mirror op-ed. The measure, which has helped many states improve voter turnout, will also allow online registration starting in 2014 and give current voters a better opportunity to correct errors in their registration status. Gov. Dan Malloy said he will sign the bill, which passed the House last week.
States Shouldn’t Divert Foreclosure Funds
Lawmakers in 15 states have chosen to divert funding from a federal foreclosure settlement. In Arizona, Governor Jan Brewer just signed a state budget that transfers $50 million from the settlement to a general fund to balance the state budget. This not only violates the legal terms of the settlement agreement, it ignores smart fiscal policy, Mark Ladov and Meghna Philip wrote in the Arizona Republic. “Experience shows that foreclosure prevention is a smart investment in our hardest-hit communities, which will lift state budgets and our national economy,” they said.
Machine Error Causes Thousands to Lose Their Vote
Overheated voting machines may have caused over 30 percent of votes in a South Bronx precinct to go uncounted in 2010. Recent tests found the machines misread ballots and cast “phantom votes” when they malfunctioned. A 2011 Brennan Center report found that tens of thousands of ballots in the 2010 New York state elections were voided after voters marked too many choices and didn't understand machine warnings. The Center filed a lawsuit predicting that machine error could lead to disenfranchisement. That suit later led to finding the South Bronx precinct where votes were invalidated.
Tide Turning on Voting Rights?
With suppressive voting laws meeting resistance at the polls and in the courts, we have an opportunity to push bipartisan reforms to our ramshackle registration system, says Brennan Center President Michael Waldman in The New York Times. “Voter registration modernization could unite the combatants in the ‘voting wars,’” he writes. “If lawmakers really want to protect the integrity of our elections, modernizing our registration system is the answer.” Read the Brennan Center’s modernization proposal.
- Civil Rights Groups Launch Voter Registration Drives Earlier
(USA Today, 05/11/12) - Electronic Voting 2012: Here We Go Again
(American Public Media, 05/11/12) - Ladov and Philip: Halting Foreclosure is Good Investment
(The Arizona Republic, 05/10/12) - Machine Casts Phantom Votes in the Bronx, Invalidating Real Ones: Report
(WNYC, 05/09/12) - Obama Campaign Helps Supporters with New Election Laws
(USA Today, 05/09/12) - Simple Steps Could Catch Technical Failures
(Palm Beach Post, 05/08/12) - The Fraud Over Voter Fraud
(MSNBC Hardball, 05/07/12) - The Long Wait: Surviving Foreclosure in Brooklyn
(The Brooklyn Ink, 05/06/12) - Senate Gives Final Approval to Election Day Registration
(The Connecticut Mirror, 05/05/12) - Vote Fraud Targeted by New Pa. Voter ID Law No Longer Common
(The Philadelphia Inquirer, 05/03/12)
Money in Politics: This Week in New York
A roundup with the latest news highlighting the corrosive nature of money in New York State politics — and the need for public financing and robust campaign finance reform.
What We’re Reading Today: Act Again
A daily round-up of quick hits, clips, and opinion pieces touching on key issues of democracy, justice, liberty and national security.
Overvotes: Phantoms of the Ballot Box
Election officials should take steps to detect overvote problems when they arise in order to prevent lost votes in the future.
Illustrations by Risko
Fighting Foreclosure
In this multi-part video series, homeowners speak about the devastating consequences of facing the loss of a home without an attorney. Based on interviews conducted around the country, the videos feature homeowners, legal aid lawyers, housing counselors, and community leaders.
Fighting Foreclosure: Why Legal Assistance Matters is a project of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and the National Coalition for the Civil Right to Counsel. The series was produced by Sarah P. Reynolds.
What We’re Reading Today: Act Again
A daily round-up of quick hits, clips, and opinion pieces touching on key issues of democracy, justice, liberty and national security.