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New felon rights win: Californians will decide on letting parolees vote
Jul 01 2020
Another big moment for efforts to expand the voting rights of former prisoners will come in November, when Californians decide whether almost 50,000 parolees should be given access to the ballot box.
Sponsors of the referendum, which last week won final legislative approval for a spot on the ballot, say they're confident the vote will go their way. That would add the nation's most populous state to the roster of 16 that permit felons to vote as soon as they get out of prison.
Restoring the franchise to ex-convicts has become a top cause of civil rights groups, who say democracy is enhanced when political power is given back to people who have paid their debt to society. The campaign has gained additional momentum this summer from the nationwide protests against police violence and systemic racism.
<p>Resistance to the idea comes mainly from Republicans, who say the ability to vote should not be granted too easily to violent or repeat offenders. But there's also clearly partisan politics at work. About 56 percent of the nation's prison population is Black or Latino — double the share of the population overall — and they vote decidedly Democratic.</p><p>Still, more than 2 million felons have seen their voting rights expanded in the past decade thanks to actions by state legislatures and gubernatorial orders. In the last year, for example, laws enacted in Nevada and Colorado did what the California measure would accomplish and allowed a combined 87,000 people on parole to vote again.</p><p>Iowa is the only state left where felons lose the right to cast a ballot for life, unless the governor steps in, and last month Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds promised to sign an executive order before the election restoring the right to vote to about 60,000 people with felony convictions.</p><p>In the most important referendum on the topic so far, Floridians voted overwhelmingly in 2018 to allow 1.4 million criminals to cast ballots after completing both parole and probation — the law in almost half the states now, including California.</p><p>Thousands are now registering in the presidential battleground while GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis appeals a federal judge's May ruling that struck down a state law, enacted a year ago, requiring felons to pay all their court-ordered financial obligations before voting.</p><p>California was one of the first states to restore any sort of political rights to the formerly incarcerated, adopting a referendum in 1974 allowing felons to vote after both probation and parole were complete. That is too strict by today's standards, sponsors of the ballot measure say. </p><p>The referendum "gives Californians the chance to right a wrong and restore voting rights for a marginalized community and people of color," said Democratic state Rep. Kevin McCarty, whose bill passed the House easily last fall and cleared the Senate by a lopsided 28-9 last week. "This is good for democracy and good for public safety."</p><p>Republican state Sen. Jim Nielsen called the proposal a "criminal injustice" policy because former criminals should be "subject to consequences for their behavior."</p>
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Alex Wong/Getty Images
Harmeet Dhillon, one of the state's Republican National Committee members, says a new law's extension for postal delays creates "a lot of opportunity for mischief."
California will mail ballots to all and count those arriving 17 days late
Jun 26 2020
Griffiths is the editor of Independent Voter News.
Ballots will be delivered to every registered, active California voter this fall under a law signed Thursday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The measure assures everyone in the nation's most populous state will be able to vote by mail in the presidential contest. It's the biggest single expansion so far of this alternative for the general election, when a surge of interest in absentee balloting nationwide seems guaranteed as a result of the coronavirus.
The bill also assures the outcome of close contests won't be known until nearly Thanksgiving, because a provision mandates that envelopes postmarked by Election Day be tabulated if they arrive as long as 17 days later. No other state has that long a grace period to allow for slow postal service.
<p>California's 55 electoral votes can be counted to go for Joe Biden, but President Trump will still have the opportunity to raise the state's unusually long delays in finalizing the returns if he decides to contest a close election nationwide. He has recently sowed doubt about the vote by amplifying his many unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud — which have included several unfounded allegations about California in recent weeks. </p><p>More substantively, the new rule could create an exceptionally long wait time for final results of hotly contested ballot measures and races for congressional, state and local offices.</p><p>Passed overwhelmingly in the Democratic-majority Legislature with some GOP votes, the law closely mirrors <a data-linked-post="2646153281" href="https://thefulcrum.us/california-voting-2646153281" target="_blank">a pair of executive orders</a> the Democratic governor issued in the past month in the name of boosting turnout and keeping polling places healthy.</p><p>Republicans had <a data-linked-post="2646090939" href="https://thefulcrum.us/voting/vote-by-mail-california" target="_blank">challenged</a> Newsom's actions as illegal executive overreach, but those lawsuits have now been rendered moot by the actions in Sacramento. Instead, the GOP is likely to focus its criticism on the newly lengthened extension for mailed votes.</p><p>Most voters in California are already registered permanent absentee, which means they automatically receive a ballot by mail for every primary and general election. Already this year, nearly 80 percent of active registered voters received a ballot by mail. The latest Public Policy Institute of California survey about attitudes toward state government found nearly <a href="https://www.ppic.org/press-release/many-in-state-say-the-worst-of-covid-19-is-ahead-for-u-s-most-prefer-caution-in-easing-restrictions-in-their-area/" target="_blank">three-quarters of likely voters</a> support expanding mail-in options for November.</p><p>"No one should have to risk their health — and possibly their life — to exercise their constitutional right to vote," said Democratic state Rep. Marc Berman, author of the new law. "In the midst of a deadly health pandemic, giving all California voters the opportunity to vote from the safety of their own home is the responsible thing to do."</p><p>The 17-day window, however, is being targeted by the GOP. One of the state's delegates to the Republican National Committee, Harmeet Dhillon, for instance, <a href="https://abc7.com/california-mail-in-ballots-2020-election-gavin-newsom-governor-november/6256365/" target="_blank">has labeled the expansion "bizarre"</a> and said it could open the floodgates to legal challenges over ballot signatures, raising integrity issues and dragging some races out for weeks.</p><p>"There is a lot of opportunity for mischief," she said. "There is a tremendous amount of uncertainty."</p><p>Much of the concern is over a practice colloquially known as <a href="https://ivn.us/2018/11/30/what-is-ballot-harvesting" target="_blank">ballot harvesting</a>. A state law enacted in 2016 makes it legal for anyone, paid political operative included, to collect and turn in mail-in ballots on behalf of voters. Democrats organized to take advantage of the liberalized rules and their collection efforts helped flip several Orange County congressional seats from red to blue in the 2018 midterm.</p><p>Democratic state Rep. Lorena Gonzales, an author of the law, said the change was simply meant to offer a public service, and that the rules prior to the bill's passage "provided yet another obstacle for individuals attempting to vote."</p><p>Those who object to the practice, however, say there is little protection against coercion, either by a family member or by a campaign collecting the ballots.</p><p>Last-minute ballot submissions slowed the count in several races in 2018, and bolstered a massive Democratic get-out-the-vote effort in several races. However, there is no evidence of widespread fraud. Republicans are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/we-got-our-clocks-cleaned-gop-quietly-works-to-expand-ballot-harvesting-in-california-while-criticizing-democrats-for-the-practice/2019/03/13/a432d902-41b7-11e9-922c-64d6b7840b82_story.html" target="_blank">reportedly</a> working to improve their own on-the-ground ballot collection operation for this November.</p><p>Many states have adopted measures to increase the use of mail-in voting in 2020, and some have already conducted all-mail elections with little problem. Nonpartisan reformers who <a href="https://ivn.us/posts/national-reformers-spotlight-record-setting-elections-under-vote-at-home-ranked-choice-voting" target="_blank">support increased use of vote-at-home methods</a> point to these elections as evidence that claims of widespread fraud under vote-by-mail are largely unfounded.</p><p>The biggest cast of voting fraud in recent years, forcing the do-over last year of a <a href="https://www.rollcall.com/2019/02/21/state-board-votes-for-new-election-in-north-carolinas-9th-district/" target="_blank">tainted congressional contest</a>, centered on Republican misbehavior. Testimony after the 2018 election described how GOP political consultant Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr. paid workers to collect ballots and return them to him, promising to then mail the ballots himself. Such ballot harvesting is illegal in North Carolina.</p><p><em>Visit </em><a href="https://ivn.us/" target="_blank"><em>IVN.us</em></a><em> for more coverage from Independent Voter News.</em></p>
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Another expansion of voting options ordered by California's governor
Jun 04 2020
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California wants more changes to make voting easier this fall in the nation's most populous state. And he's pushing his Democratic colleagues in the Legislature to turn his moves into law, expecting that would brush back Republican lawsuits seeking to keep the status quo in place.
The governor's latest executive order, announced Wednesday, tells all 58 counties to create at least one venue for in-person voting on Election Day and also permit voting on the three days before.
Last month he told those local election officials to send all 20.6 million registered voters a general election ballot as a way to make mail-in voting the dominant system and minimize the public's exposure to the coronavirus.
<p>But his new order says disabled, non-English-speaking and homeless Californians, among others, need the option to go to a voting station. It also says counties need to create at least two places with drop boxes, set up a month ahead of time, for voters who don't want to rely on the Postal Service to deliver their ballots in time.<br/></p><p>The easing of the rules, especially if they survive legal challenges, could help boost turnout significantly this fall in the place where 13 percent of the country's voters live — and minimize the long lines, populated by people complaining about undelivered mail-in ballots, that marred primaries this week in eight states and Washington, D.C.</p><p><em><a href="https://nationalsecurityzone.medill.northwestern.edu/covidanalyzer/voting-status/" target="_blank">[See how election officials in California — and every other state — are preparing for November.]</a></em></p><p>California is reliably blue overall, its 55 electoral votes a lock for former Vice President Joe Biden and Democrats sure to remain in control in Sacramento, but the GOP has a shot at picking up a handful of congressional seats. </p><p>President Trump has focused much of his rhetoric about easier voting rules fomenting fraud on recent results from California, but <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/vote-by-mail-california" target="_blank">his claims are almost completely unsubstantiated</a>. </p><p>His party has already gone to court <a data-linked-post="2646090939" href="https://thefulcrum.us/voting/vote-by-mail-california" target="_blank">to stop Newsom's send-everyone-a ballot move</a>, saying that he's overstepped his authority, and similar legal claims against Wednesday's orders are likely. But those claims would presumably be moot if the Legislature clears measures doing what Newsom wants, and this week the state Senate advanced one such bill.</p><p>The cost to implement the latest guidelines will be substantial, easily exceeding California's share of the federal funding sent to all states so far for conducting smooth and safe elections during the Covid-19 outbreak. That means legislators will have to provide funding to carry out Newsom's plan in the annual state budget, which is supposed to be completed by June 15.</p><p>Some large counties, including Los Angeles and Orange, already allow several options for early voting and balloting by mail — which was how three of every five ballots were cast in the state two years ago. But many of the more rural counties operate a very traditional system, with almost everyone going to a local polling station on a single day. </p><p>Newsom's order pushes these counties to save money, and work to reduce long lines that threaten social distancing, by setting up countywide voting centers that open starting Oct. 31 — perhaps with county officials acting as poll workers. </p><p>"As the demonstrations across the country remind us, civic participation is critical to our democracy," he said. "If we are to address the racial inequities that exist in our institutions, policies and representation, we must ensure that all eligible Californians have an opportunity to safely cast their ballot."</p>
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Declaration for American Democracy
Activists practiced social distancing while rallying in Contra Costa, Calif., on Saturday to demand more federal funding for the 2020 elections.
GOP sues to stop California's plan for an all-by-mail general election
May 26 2020
The most sweeping promotion of mail voting in the presidential election so far, California's plan to send an absentee ballot to every voter, must first overcome legal challenges from the Republican Party.
The GOP has sued to prevent the effort to conduct the November election almost entirely by mail in the nation's most populous state as a way to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The lawsuit, filed Sunday in federal court, says Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom exceeded his authority this month by telling county election officials to send all 20.7 million registered Californians a ballot this fall.
His order would potentially double the number of Americans who are provided with absentee ballots automatically, without having to ask for them. That's now the practice across just five states — Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Utah and Hawaii — although state law already allows 14 smaller counties in California to hold elections entirely remotely.
<p>The lawsuit is one of the most aggressive moves at the courthouse yet by the GOP. It has announced plans to spend $20 million on lawyers this year, mainly to defend against the similarly financed push from Democrats and voting rights groups to persuade state and federal judges to ease limits on voting.</p><p>It says the governor's "brazen power grab" was not permitted by state law, which puts such rules only in the hands of the Legislature, and violates the Constitution. Newsom says his move is permissible because his job is to protect the public's health even while people are exercising their civic duty.</p><p>"We're on firm legal ground," Newsom said, arguing that "public health is a nonpartisan issue."</p><p>The new litigation — brought by the Republican National Committee, the state party and the House GOP campaign arm — says the voter fraud that would ensue under Newsom's plan would deprive honest Californians of their constitutional right to vote.</p><p>"No State that regularly conducts statewide all-mail elections automatically mails ballots to inactive voters because it invites fraud, coercion, theft, and otherwise illegitimate voting," the suit argues. "Fraudulent and invalid votes dilute the votes of honest citizens and deprive them of their right to vote in violation of the 14th Amendment."</p><p>That is the formalized version of the argument President Trump has been making with increasing ferocity — most recently in a series of Memorial Day weekend tweets.</p><p>"The United States cannot have all Mail In Ballots. It will be the greatest Rigged Election in history," <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1264558926021959680" target="_blank">the president tweeted Sunday</a>, without offering any justification for his suspicions. "People grab them from mailboxes, print thousands of forgeries and 'force' people to sign. Also, forge names. Trying to use Covid for this Scam!"</p><p>There is no evidence of what Trump described, and a range of studies have found <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/voting/vote-by-mail-studies" target="_blank">no evidence of widespread voter fraud</a> — in elections mainly reliant on the mail or in-person polling places. Part of what GOP operatives lament is that the Democrats have done much better at capitalizing on a state law that permits operatives to gather the completed envelopes of other Californians. They have come up with no evidence, however, to support their suspicions that this so-called ballot harvesting has led to such crimes as completing the ballots of others or destroying ballots collected in GOP precincts.</p><p>California's overall political color is deep blue, so Joe Biden can be confident of securing its 55 electoral votes no matter how many people cast ballots. But the GOP, which took a drubbing in the state in the midterm election, has a decent shot at winning back three or four congressional seats — and believes its prospects would be bolstered by a low-turnout election.</p><p>One of the state's top House races is a comeback bid by Republican Darrell Issa, who filed a similar suit last week with the help of the conservative advocacy group Judicial Watch. </p>
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