News. Debate. Community. Levers for a better democracy.
MOST READ
Get some leverage.
Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter.
mapchart.net
Nevada redistricting effort gets more time, but not electronic signatures
Jun 01 2020
Redistricting reformers in Nevada have another shot at getting their initiative on the November ballot after a federal judge allowed for more time to collect signatures.
Judge Miranda Du of Reno has given Fair Maps Nevada six extra weeks to circulate petitions but turned down the group's request to be allowed to collect electronic signatures. Adhering to this month's deadline in light of the coronavirus pandemic would be unconstitutional, she wrote Friday, but relaxing the state's requirement for handwritten signatures could incubate fraud.
<p>Approval of the ballot measure would create a nonpartisan commission to replace the Legislature in drawing both the congressional and state legislative maps for the state, which is now the case in eight other states.</p>
<p>The November election is the last shot at redistricting reform for a decade, because new maps are drawn nationwide once the census provides detailed population counts.</p>
<p>Originally, Fair Maps Nevada had until June 24 to collect at least 98,000 signatures — and said it had gathered only 10,000 when Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak imposed a statewide stay-at-home order in April. He has since reopened most businesses but continues to encourage people to remain out of public places if possible.</p>
<p>Since the group could not collect signatures due to Covid-19, the judge wrote, "it is both unreasonable and unfair not to extend a statutory deadline for a corresponding period of time."</p>
<p>The new deadline is Aug. 5, or 90 days before Election Day. Du said the group and state officials could agree on a different date, but she recommended "an extension corresponding to the precise length of time the stay-at-home order was in effect."</p>
<p>Allowing e-signatures would make the citizen's democracy effort more susceptible to fraud and require the court "to get impermissibly in the weeds of designing election procedures," Du wrote, noting the Supreme Court precedent that strongly discourages lower federal courts from altering election rules.</p>
<p>A similar referendum is already on the ballot in <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/redistricting/virginia-redistricting-amendment" target="_self">Virginia</a> and proponents for such a measure in <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/redistricting/arkansas-signature-lawsuit" target="_self">Arkansas</a> are also asking the courts for more time to get signatures. Missourians, on the other hand, will vote in November on whether to <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/redistricting/arkansas-signature-lawsuit" target="_self">reverse a redistricting reform initiative</a> approved two years ago.</p>
From Your Site Articles
- Voting rights advocates hail victories in Virginia, Nevada - The Fulcrum ›
- Nevada redistricting could become nonpartisan — in 2023 - The ... ›
- Anti-gerrymandering fights make a stop at the courthouse - The ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Keep reading...
Show less
A message from Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske
Claim: Nevada illegally mailed absentee ballots to registered voters. Fact check: False
May 20 2020
Nevada allows any voter to vote absentee by mail. Like in many other states adapting to carrying out elections amidst a global pandemic, Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske declared the upcoming primary would be carried out by mail due to the coronavirus. A federal judge recently ruled that conducting the primary election by mail ballot was lawful in rejecting an injunction to block Nevada's primary.
President Trump's tweet suggests voting-by-mail is fraudulent, despite a lack of evidence to support the claim. In a press release responding to Trump, Cegavske, a Republican, said Nevadans "have been voting by mail with no evidence of election fraud" for over a century, including members of the military, citizens residing outside the state, voters in designated mailing precincts, and voters requesting absentee ballots. Cegavske said all 17 counties have established processes and procedures in place for safe and secure mail-in voting. Research shows voter fraud with mail-in ballots is rare and even with the increase in mail voting over time, fraud rates remain "infinitesimally small," according to the Brennan Center.
The tweet also seems to suggest that Trump has the legal authority to "hold up funds" to the state of Nevada for carrying out its upcoming primary by allowing all voters to vote by mail. No such legal authority exists.
The statements made here are alike to those in another tweet Trump wrote, which levied substantially similar claims about the state of Michigan. Trump falsely accused Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson of illegally mailing out absentee ballots to 7.7 million Michiganders for the state's primary and general elections.
From Your Site Articles
- Nevada, Georgia encourage voters to mail it in - The Fulcrum ›
- Voting rights advocates hail victories in Virginia, Nevada - The Fulcrum ›
- Democrats challenge much of Nevada's mail-in primary plans - The ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Benson responds after Trump threatens funding
Claim: Michigan illegally sent absentee ballots to voters. Fact check: False
May 20 2020
Michigan did not send ballots to registered voters like President Trump said. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who has encouraged all voters to vote by mail for all elections held this year, announced Tuesday all 7.7 million registered voters would receive applications to vote by mail in the August primary and November general elections.
Responding to the president, Benson noted that her office was sending applications, not ballots, "just like my GOP colleagues in Iowa, Georgia, Nebraska and West Virginia." The applications sent out, Benson said, ensure "that no Michigander has to choose between their health and their right to vote."
In a similar tweet, Trump also accused the state of Nevada's election officials of sending mail-in ballots to voters. Earlier this month, Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, announced registered voters would start receiving mailed absentee ballots to vote for the primary, held predominantly by mail.
From Your Site Articles
- Priorities USA files 3rd suit against Michigan voter laws - The Fulcrum ›
- Michigan plans to send vote-by-mail applications to everyone - The ... ›
- Dems win changes in Michigan's handling of absentee votes - The ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Andrew_Rybalko/Getty Images
Suits seek e-signing for anti-gerrymander ballot measures in N.D., Nevada
May 08 2020
Opponents of partisan gerrymandering have asked federal courts in two Western states to keep their referendum proposals alive by permitting electronic signatures on ballot petitions.
The lawsuits, brought Thursday in Nevada and North Dakota, join similar litigation in seven other states filed since the coronavirus pandemic made it effectively impossible to pursue grassroots citizen initiatives the traditional way — by canvassing door-to-door or outside retailers in search of handwritten signatures.
But only one of those, in Arkansas, is similarly in support of a top item on the democracy reform agenda: taking legislative redistricting away from politicians, who have an obvious interest in preserving their power, and turning it over to independent commissions.
<p><a href="https://thefulcrum.us/nevada-congressional-districts" target="_blank">The proposal in Nevada</a>, which needs 98,000 supporters by June 24 to earn a place on the November ballot, is exclusively about forming a panel to reconfigure the state's four congressional districts and the lines for the solidly Democratic Legislature.<br/></p><p>But the state requires its adoption in two elections, meaning such a panel would not be created in time to tackle the redistricting for this decade in response to population changes revealed in the current, Covid-19-delayed census.</p><p>The proposal in North Dakota, which needs 27,000 signatures by July 6, is much more expansive. In addition to a putting the new and nonpartisan state ethics commission (itself created by referendum in 2018) in charge of next year's remapping of the reliably Republican Legislature — the one at-large congressional district cannot be altered — the measure would revamp the state's elections two ways:</p><p>All candidates would appear on a single primary ballot, with the top four finishers (regardless of party) advancing to November. And then the winner would be chosen in a <a href="http://thefulcrum.us/ranked-choice-voting" target="_self">ranked-choice</a> election, with voters listing candidates in order of preference and an automatic runoff weaning out the poorer performers until there was a single candidate on a majority of ballots.</p><p>The lawsuits argue that in-person signature requirements pose unconstitutional burdens on the free speech and equal protection rights of the voters, at least until the public health emergency is over. </p><p>North Dakota is among the few states that have never imposed formal stay-at-home restrictions, and those curbs are on course to get lifted in Nevada at the end of next week. Both suits ask for deadline extensions as well as the use of online or email signature gathering.</p><p>Virginia is for now the only state with a redistricting commission proposal on the November ballot. Approval, which seems likely, would mean at least some maps in 14 states are drawn for the coming decade by independent panels.</p><p>Two weeks ago Massachusetts became the only state so far that's <a href="https://thefulcrum.us/voting/lawsuit-ballot-signature-requirements" target="_self">reversed its policies</a> in response to a lawsuit and allowed electronic signatures for initiatives. Along with independent commission advocates in Arkansas, proponents for ballot measures on an array of topics in Montana, Arizona, Colorado, Ohio, and Oklahoma have also sued in hopes of changing signature rules or getting deadlines extended. But grassroots groups in many more states have suspended their efforts in the face of the pandemic.</p>
From Your Site Articles
- Premier partisan gerrymandering fight settled on a middle ground ›
- High court to voters: You deal with partisan gerrymandering. - The ... ›
- There's a new state-by-state guide for tackling partisan ... ›
- The human cost of the partisan gerrymandering decision - The ... ›
- Federal court OKs e-signatures for ballot petitions - The Fulcrum ›
- Nevada redistricting effort gets more time - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Keep reading...
Show less
