The Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network's monthly recap of news, articles, studies and more, on election reform, voter turnout and voter participation.  For more on NVEN's work on nonprofit and democracy issues, please visit us here.

 

This Month:

• Voter ID After Crawford: Month in Review
  
• Rock the Vote: Young Voters Fastest Growing Group in 2008
  
• North Carolina's One-Stop Voting Success
  
• New Reports: EAC, Election Protection, and Pew Center
• Instant Runoff Voting in November
• Mobilize.org Grant Summit

Voter ID After Crawford: Month in Review

 

Despite the Supreme Court's April 28th refusal to overturn Crawford vs. Marion County Board of Elections - keeping intact Indiana's photo ID requirement for voters - the weeks since the decision have produced a list of states declaring their unwillingness to follow Indiana's example. 

 

Though the issue is far from resolved, with several legislators vowing to continue pressing for tighter ID requirements at their state's polls, the past month has rendered a series of victories for proponents of making the polls easily accessible to all.  Recently in Kansas, Governor Kathleen Sebelius used her veto power to halt House Bill 2019 which would have required Kansas voters to produce a photo ID in order to vote in the 2010 elections.  In a May 19th statement, Governor Sebelius said:

I cannot support creating any roadblock to prevent our citizens from adding their voices to the democratic discourse that makes our nation great....The needless, additional identification requirements of HB 2019 will only work to disenfranchise many of the electorate and serve as a barrier to their participation in the democratic process.

Other examples of states that recently halted a tightening of ID requirements include:

 
Oklahoma: Senate Bill 1150 failed to pass last month, which would have required voters to produce a photo ID, bank statement, government check or pay check at the polls.   The legislature vote split along party lines, garnering 24 votes in favor and 23 opposed (one short of the 25 votes needed to pass the legislation). NewsOK.com 

Mississippi - A U.S. Circuit Court of appeals recently overturned a 2007 ruling by US District Judge Allen Pepper that would have required Mississippi voters to both provide photo ID at the polls and declare a political affiliation upon registering to vote.  The appeals court's ruling "speaks to the urgency of (voter identification), because that mandate is not there," said House Apportionment and Elections Committee Chairman Tommy Reynolds (AP Press).  Secretary of State Desbert Hosemann said, "After the Supreme Court case allowing voter ID and the dismissal of this case, voter reform is where it should be - in the hands of the Mississippi legislature (AP Press).   Read more.

 

Missouri - Missouri ended its legislative session on May 17th without taking action on a bill that would have required voters to provide proof of citizenship to cast a ballot.   Currently, Missouri requires either a school or a government-issued photo ID or a utility bill to cast a vote.  Read the New York Times article.

 

To learn more about the ongoing photo ID debate, including the continuing analysis of the Crawford decision, visit:

• Rick Hasen's Election Law Blog
• Election Law @ Moritz
• The Constitutionality of Requiring Photo Identification for Voting (Congressional Research Service)
• Brennan Center for Justice
• Electionline.org, Pew Center on the States

Young Voters Fastest Growing Group in 2008

Voter turnout records have been set again and again in 2008 as new data accumulates from each primary - now, Rock the Vote has state-by-state numbers showing that not only is young voter turnout up in every primary so far (doubling and tripling in some states), but voters under 30 of both parties are comprising a larger percent of the total electorate, making young voters the fastest growing age group at the polls.  At the time of the study, nationwide youth turnout had jumped an astounding 109% from the last comparable elections.

 

Some other notable youth turnout increases include:

• 55,080 new voters in Oklahoma, a 188% increase
• 95,942 new voters in Tennessee, a 209% increase
• 465,460 new voters in Texas, a 301% increase

In addition to RTV's report on the data, attempts to explain recent trends in young voter participation are in the works.  One such attempt is a new report from CIRCLE, The Informed Political Participation of Young Canadians and Americans, which shows there was a strong correlation between political knowledge and voting likelihood amongst Canadians and American youth in the 2006 elections.  Read the report. 

 

North Carolina's One-Stop Voting Success

 

North Carolina's new "One Stop, No Excuses" voting program bore fruit last month as the state experienced record voter turnout levels during its early voting period and through its May 6^th Primary Day. The program, which allowed North Carolina voters to register and cast a ballot at the same time in the period 19-3 days before an election, brought in nearly a quarter of the record 2.1 million ballots cast in the state's primary and represented 6 times the number of absentee ballots cast in 2006 (North Carolina Board of Elections).  A new report from Demos' Steven Carbó and Joyce Kirschner explains how and why Same Day Registration was able to pass successfully through the North Carolina legislature. 

 

"How Same Day Registration Became Law in North Carolina" attributes the bill's success to three main factors:

• New political leadership in the North Carolina General Assembly
• The support of influential election officials
• A strong, unified coalition of advocates and organizers.

For more information on Same Day Registration in North Carolina, visit the state Board of Election website.

 

Shorts

New Reports from Election Protection, Electionline and the EAC 

• The Lawyer's Committee and the National Campaign for Fair Elections have collaborated in their Election Protection program to compile this new report, Looking Ahead to November, which remarks on recent primary mishaps and makes recommendations for preparing for the General Election.  Download the report.

• Dispatches from the Polls, a new collection of election day observations from Electionline, remarks on ways that individual observers of the nation's elections - such as a recent study by UC-Berkeley graduate students of poll waiting times -  can aid election reform efforts.  Read the report here.

• The EAC has released 2 new studies on voter information resources.  The first, a Voter Hotline Study, examines and evaluates a variety of types and usages of voter hotlines such as poll worker training and assignment information, provisional ballot status inquiries and general voter complaints.  Another report, the Voter Information Website Study (released in draft form) looks at a sampling of the thousands of helpful voter information web sites that have cropped up this election season, and outlines a set of best practices for use in the future.

Instant Runoff Voting: Memphis, Colorado

The Memphis Charter Commission recently approved a charter amendment that will ask Memphis voters to decide whether to use Instant Runoff Voting in city elections, joining Los Angeles, St. Paul, and Glendale, Arizona in placing IRV on the ballot this November (Memphis Daily News, Ballot Access News).  IRV also made strides in Colorado, where Governor Bill Ritter signed HB 1378 on May 27^th enabling all Colorado municipalities and special districts to use instant runoff and choice voting (read more at FairVote). 

 

Mobilize.org Announces 2008 Grant Summit

Mobilize.org announces the application launch for its Democracy 2.0 Entrepreneur Grant Summit, Money in Politics, to be held July 18-21, 2008, in Denver, Colorado.  Mobilize.org is seeking innovative projects focused towards clean election practices at the local, state and national level, with grant summit winners receiving a $3,000-$5,000 grant and the network resources needed to pursue their proposal.  Participation is free.  Learn how to apply.

   

This month's Election Reform News and Turnout was prepared by Rachel Adams, Communications Associate at the Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network. 

View past issues of Election Reform and Turnout News.