Voter Suppression and Election Integrity
Voters are being disenfranchised in record numbers in recent years, as tactics for voter suppression have proliferated. This primary the problem finally took the center stage. While widespread electoral dysfunction persists, laws aimed at suppressing voters are proliferating since Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act was gutted. Since then, 22 states have enacted laws making it harder for people to vote. Greg Palast estimates the number of disenfranchised voters will top 7 million this year.
Of course, some disenfranchisement is unintentional, as rules vary from state to state and are confusing. Of course, many poll workers are hard-working, dedicated people who care deeply, but there are a handful of partisan or incompetent people that are mucking things up. To add to the problem, a lot of the election equipment is old, crappy and prone to tampering. With everything coming to light, it’s time to demand changes that protect every American’s sacred right to vote. We must be vigilant.
We believe it’s time for a complete overhaul and a Constitutional Amendment to protect every American’s right to vote.
THE PROBLEMS
- Reduced Polling Places (Arizona, Rhode Island and beyond)
- Enacting Voter ID Laws (in-person voter fraud is less common than being hit by lightning)
- Voter Caging (purging voters from the rolls)
- Unverifiable Electronic Voting Machines with no paper trail
- Flipping People’s Party Affiliation (Check CanIVote.org)
- Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation (billboards, flyers)
- Partisan & Incompetent Election Officials
- Gutting Section 5 of The Voting Rights Act
- Computer Breach of Voting Records
- It's worth looking at caucuses with their low voter turnouts and closed party voting during the primaries
- Just remember they are pushing Voter Fraud as an issue, but that's not really a problem.
SOLUTIONS:
- DEMAND TRANSPARENT ELECTIONS WITH PAPER BALLOTS
- DEMAND PUBLIC OVERSIGHT OF ELECTIONS
- DEMAND AN AMENDMENT TO PROTECT EVERY CITIZEN
- MAKE ELECTION DAY A NATIONAL HOLIDAY
- DEMAND OPEN PRIMARIES SO THAT ALL VOICES ARE HEARD
- BRING AUTOMATIC VOTER REGISTRATION TO YOUR STATE! (like they have in Oregon, California, West Virginia and Vermont)
- ASK YOUR STATE TO REINSTATE THE VOTING RIGHTS OF EX-FELONS(Just like Maryland and Virginia just did)
- MAKE NOISE IF YOU SEE SOMETHING WRONG
- VIDEO THE VOTE
- JOIN ELECTION PROTECTION
- BE A POLL WORKER
- REPEAL H.A.V.A. (Help America Vote Act 2002)
- HOLD BIG MEDIA ACCOUNTABLE TO COVER WHAT IS HAPPENING
- PETITION FOR REDRESS – AFTER VOTING FIASCOS in Arizona, NY and beyond many citizens have pursued lawsuits and petitions to demand re-votes, full audits, asking for an investigation by the Department of Justice and firing incompetent elections officials.
- MAKE YOUR VOICE AND CONCERNS HEARD, HOWEVER YOU CAN!
BILLS BEFORE CONGRESS
- The SAFE Act HR 1562
- Constitutional Amendment regarding the right to vote HJ Res 74
- Weekend Voting Act HR 1094
- FAST Voting Act of 2017 HR 1398
- Universal Right to Vote by Mail Act HR 946
- 21st Century Voting Act HR 893
- Election Infrastructure and Security Promotion Act of 2017 HR 1907
- Streamlined and Improved Methods ACT HR 787
- Every Vote Counts Amendment HJ Res 65
- Amendment to the Constitution to protect the voting rights of the citizens of the US. HJ Res 28
- Voting rights for residents of all United States territories and commonwealths HJ Res 91
- National Voting Rights Act Mobilization Day H Con Res 9
READ ABOUT THE RECOUNT EFFORTS
READ ABOUT THE PROBLEMS IN THE PRIMARIES 2016
DO WE KNOW THAT THE 2016 ELECTIONS WERE NOT HACKED?
DHS Never Ran Audit to See if Votes Were Hacked
BUT ELECTION EQUIPMENT ISN'T HOOKED UP TO THE INTERNET...
Testimony that there were modems found in 2016 election equipment in Wisconsin
IN 2017 DEFCON HOSTED VOTING VILLAGE TO HACK INTO THE MACHINES
- Hackers descend on Las Vegas to expose voting machine flaw
- Hackers Demonstrate Voting Machine Vulnerabilities at DefCon
- Hackers Crack Voting Machines Within Minutes At DEF CON In Vegas
- Hackers break into voting machines in 90 minute
- Watch: Hackers Demonstrate How to Crack Into Electronic Voting Machines in Minute
- Hackers Crack Voting Machines Within Minutes At DEF CON In Vegas
- These Hackers Reveal How Easy It Is To Hack US Voting Machine
- Hackers scour voting machines for election bug
- At DEF CON, I Watched Hackers Take Voting Machines Apart
- Hacking conference challenge: Break into 2016 voting machines
- Hackers at DefCon conference exploit vulnerabilities in voting machines
- How to Hack an Election in 7 Minutes
HOW MUCH WOULD IT COST TO SECURE OUR ELECTIONS?
Making U.S. Elections More Secure Wouldn't Cost Much But No One Wants To Pay
LIST OF GROUPS WORKING ON ELECTION INTEGRITY AND VOTING RIGHTS
- 866OurVote
- American Civil Liberties Union
- Black Box Voting
- BradBlog
- Brennan Center
- Broken Vote
- Can I Vote
- CEIMN
- Center for Secure and Modern Elections
- Election Fraud 2016
- Election Justice USA
- Election Nightmares
- Election Verification Network
- Fair Vote
- Free Press
- Greg Palast
- Justice Served
- League of Women Voters
- MI Reform Alliance
- MovementVote
- National Association of Secretaries of States
- National Council of State Legislatures
- National Election Defense Coalition
- Project Vote
- Reclaim the American Dream
- Rock The Vote
- State Voices
- TrustVote
- U.S. Election Assistance Commission
- Verified Voting
- VotePA.US
- Voter Participation Center
- Vote Riders
- Vote.org
- Voters Rights Action
- Voting Rights Alliance
- Watch The Vote
VOTER SUPPRESSION IS RAMPANT!
Voter IDs, long lines, insufficient polling places, lost voter registration, switched polling locations, misinformation, etc.
Help stop it!
Check if you are registered: http://canivote.org
Report anything wrong: http://866ourvote.org/
VOTING RIGHTS ARE UNDER ATTACK
A total of 21 states have passed voting restrictions since 2010. (AL, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, MS, NC, ND, NE, NH, OH, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV) And in 2013, the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, which had been in place for 50 years. Brennan Center for Justice is doing great work to help. We encourage you join their efforts and get their newsletters.
BILLS IN CONGRESS
Voter Empowerment Act (H.R. 12)
Amends the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) to require each state to make available official public websites for online voter registration, same day registration and voter registration of individuals under 18 years of age. Amends the federal criminal code to prohibit hindering, interfering with, or preventing voter registration. Key Sponsor: Rep. Lewis
Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015 (H.R. 2867/S. 1659)
A bill to amend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to revise the criteria for determining which States and political subdivisions are subject to section 4 of the Act, and for other purposes. Key Sponsor: Rep. Sewell/Sen. Leahy
Automatic Voter Registration (H.R. 2694)
To amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require each State to ensure that each individual who provides identifying information to the State motor vehicle authority is automatically registered to vote in elections for Federal office held in the State unless the individual does not meet the eligibility requirements for registering to vote in such elections or declines to be registered to vote in such elections, and for other purposes. Key Sponsor: Rep. Cicilline
PEOPLE POWER PROGRESS UPDATES
In April 2016, Virginia restored voting rights to 200,000+ ex-felons!
In February 2016, Maryland restored voting rights to 40,000 ex-felons!
In October 2015, California passed automatic voter registration, now dozens of other states are considering similar laws.
In March 2015, Oregon showed a new way forward on voting rights with a new law that ensures Oregonians are automatically registered to vote.
In January 2015 President Obama mentions mandatory voting as a solution.
31 states have online voter registration.
ACTION STEP 1: REGISTER TO VOTE (REGISTER ONLINE HERE)
ACTION STEP 2: ENCOURAGE YOUR FRIENDS TO VOTE
Share why you care about voting. Positive peer pressure actually has an influence. Remind them to vote prior to election day and follow up on the day of any local or federal elections via phone calls, text and social media.
ACTION STEP 3: DEMAND UNIVERSAL VOTER REGISTRATION (which just passed in OR & CA)
Sign this Common Good petition
Sign this USPIRG petition
ACTION STEP 4: START A CONVERSATION ABOUT MANDATORY VOTING
After the dismal turnout of the last few elections (36.4%) CNN ran a series of opinions after asking the question: Should Americans be forced to vote?, The Washington Post ran an opinion piece called A case for compulsory voting, and The Atlantic published A Feasible Roadmap to Compulsory Voting. It seems that Americans may just be ready for what some think is a radical idea. In the 1920s Australia took a bold step and required every voting-age citizen to vote (compulsory voting) - just like jury duty in the U.S. Within four years voting participation jumped from 59% to 91%! Today ten countries have compulsory voting; voters pay a small fine if they don’t vote. Another 14 countries have non-enforced compulsory voting. Even though this could take many years to put in place in the US, we can start talking about it and understand what it means.
10 countries have enforced compulsory voting (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Congo, Ecuador, Luxembourg, Nauru, Peru, Singapore, Uruguay)
14 countries have non-enforced compulsory voting
Jury duty is mandatory; why not voting?
Mandating voting has a clear effect: It raises participation rates. Before Australia adopted compulsory voting in 1924, for example, it had turnout rates similar to those of the U.S. After voting became mandatory, participation immediately jumped from 59 percent in the election of 1922 to 91 percent in the election of 1925.“ Peter Orszag - Bloomberg News
“I'm not here to tell you to vote, I'm here to remind you that other people can't. Compulsory voting is the guarantee of voter freedom, not its opposite.” - Van Badham – The Guardian
LEARN ABOUT SAME DAY VOTER REGISTRATION (not in all states)
Demos put together a great info package about same day voter registration
LEARN MORE WAYS TO INCREASE VOTING RIGHTS & TURNOUT
Learn more. Brennan Center lays out several great solutions:
Restore Voting Rights to Citizens with Past Criminal Convictions
Replace Outdated Voting Machines