Shocking reports of massive voter purges and blatant forms of voter repression have, rightfully, been making headlines. But other, more mundane efforts are flying under the radar.
With so many devilish details of voter suppression going unnoticed, and the 2018 midterm elections looming, we thought it fitting to feature some lesser-known suppression tactics and related issues. This list is by no means comprehensive (in 2017, ninety-nine bills restricting voting were proposed in thirty-one states), but gives a fuller picture of how voter suppression is taking place, and how a dwindling number of state capitol reporters, not to mention the boring nature of much of state lawmaking, mean significant laws go vastly underreported.
STATE LEVEL
Tennessee: Cross-Checking Jury Duty Data With Voter Rolls
A leading conservative Tennessee state senator pushed legislation requiring local election commissions to cross-check jury service data with voter rolls. The senator said the law, which promised to add a burdensome step, is intended “to ferret out illegal aliens and people who are registered to vote in other states.”
Wyoming: State-Based Election “Integrity” Reform
As passed and signed by the governor, HB2 (2018), a new low in voter intimidation, empowers county clerks to initiate sheriff investigations into suspected voter “registration offenses” and “false voting.” It removes the requirement that registration offenses have to be on purpose with an “intent to deceive.” Now, accidentally voting or registering in the wrong precinct comes with a $200 fine. Knowingly registering in the wrong precinct is a high misdemeanor with a punishment of up to one year imprisonment and a $5,000 fine. A second offense comes with up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. “False voting” carries the same punishments, but relates to voting in the wrong precinct.
Wisconsin: More Expensive Vote Recounts
Act-120 (2017) limits which candidates can call for vote recounts to those who have lost an election by a specific margin of votes. It adds to the costs of calling a recount—now, petitioners will pay for all time and costs elections commissions incur. And it also tightens the deadline for filing for a vote recount after presidential elections.
New Hampshire: Election Checklists
SB320 (2018) allows New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner—once a member of President Donald Trump’s now-disbanded Advisory Commission on Election Integrity—to make guidelines on the content of voter checklists, the lists of voters maintained by local election officials. Previously, the secretary of state could only issue guidelines about the “composition” and “style” of the checklist, not the content.
In 2017, Gardner “crosschecked” the state’s checklists with other state lists as part of the controversial “crosscheck” voter suppression tactic. Crucially, this new law leaves open-ended what the voter checklist can include. Previously, it only included a person’s name, address, and party affiliation.
New Hampshire: Local Election Monitoring Under Attack
The powers of local town moderators, who oversee elections, have become the topic of controversy in New Hampshire. Under the state constitution it is up to moderators to receive, sort, and count votes. However, the advent of electronic voting machines has blurred these powers.
When one town moderator verified results of voting machines in 2016’s state primary election, New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner said the moderator’s actions were “not permitted by any provision of New Hampshire Law,” nor were they “sanctioned by the secretary of state.” The moderator told the New Hampshire Union Leader that, “what I did was audit one race on each ballot on one machine just to make sure the [electronic voting] machines were working properly.” In response, the secretary of state ordered state officials to ensure the moderator did not do the same during the 2016 general election.
New Hampshire: Suppressing the Student Vote?
Billed as a way to increase “voter integrity,” this law, pushed by the Republican Party of New Hampshire, forces voters to establish “residency” in order to vote, rather than the lower “domicile” standard. Critics say it’s an effort to suppress the student vote. For example, students in the state would have to abandon their driver’s license and vehicle registration from their home state and get a New Hampshire driver’s license in order to vote. On October 22, following months of court battles, a judge granted an injunction to stop the law’s implementation. The judge said, the law “itself does nothing to actually prevent voter fraud. . . . Anyone intent on casting an ineligible vote can readily do so. Therefore, instead of combating fraud, the law simply opposes additional burdens on legitimate voters.”
Georgia: Early in 2018 Georgia Secretary of State Gave Faulty Voter Registration Instructions
Georgia secretary of state and Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp has become infamous for his blatant efforts to suppress the vote. In February, the voter registration form on the Georgia secretary of state website asked people to send in copies of their photo identification. At the time, the ACLU said, “While state and federal laws explicitly provide that first-time mail registrants may provide a copy of proof of name and address with their voter registration form, neither law requires voters to provide documentary proof of name and residence until the time that they actually vote for the first time in Georgia.”
Mississippi: Suffrage Restored for Four Ex-Convicts, Millions Still Waiting
In 2018, Mississippi restored the right to vote to four people with felony convictions, Sandra Beard, John Henry Nabors, Stanley E. Stubbs and Valeska Summerville. Meanwhile, according to the Sentencing Project, nearly one in ten Mississippi adults are still prevented from voting because they have a felony conviction.
LOCAL LEVEL
Mesa, Arizona: Misleading Text Message Sent to Voters
Mesa, Arizona voters will consider a measure to review some of its core revenue streams, as required by state law, every four years. A “no” vote would result in a $200 million budget cut for the city. Now, a mysterious and totally misleading text message was sent to many local voters, urging them to vote “no.” It is being investigated, and treated as a local example of election-meddling fake news.
Palm Beach, Florida: Local Official Calls Online Voter Registration a Glitchy ‘Mess’
Palm Beach County’s elections supervisor asked Florida state for an extension on the voter registration deadline ahead of Hurricane Michael in September. She said the state’s online voter registration system was “a mess” and was glitching for unknown reasons. Palm Beach Post reported that some people showed up at the county office to register to vote in person, on the last possible day, because they were not able to register online. (Florida passed a law in 2015 mandating online registration.) It appears that the website was not allowing Palm Beach County residents to register over the weekend, before the deadline.
Commenting on the issue, the elections supervisor said: “This happened before the primary [election] as well. We need to get to the bottom of what the problem is with the online voter registration system. We need to address the problem and if they’re not going to acknowledge the problem then we can prove the problem.”
Starr County, Texas: Fight Over Local Electioneering Restrictions
Ahead of Texas’ March primary elections, Starr County, Texas passed an ordinance to require anyone wanting to campaign for political candidates or ballot questions on county-owned lands—including sidewalks, parks, picnic areas and lawns outside public buildings—to apply for a permit. Two groups, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Texas Civil Rights Project successfully sued to halt the law’s implementation, saying that it amounted to a ban on political speech on county land, and therefore violated the First Amendment.
FEDERAL LEVEL
The Feds Subpoena Information on Two Million Voters in North Carolina
In September, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina issued subpoenas, on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, for eight years’ worth of voter information—about two million voters—from the North Carolina State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement, five years’ worth of information for forty-four county election boards, and eight years’ worth of voter information from the DMV. Critics say the move amounts to a scare tactic against voters not born in the United States and could jeopardize the privacy of millions.
ON THE BALLOT
North Carolina: Board of Ethics and Elections Enforcement Up For Grabs
The Republican-controlled North Carolina legislature has placed a state constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would take the Board of Ethics and Elections away from the governor, who is currently a Democrat, and give it to the legislature. Opponents fear it would be a recipe for gridlock, and lead to less oversight of election laws and even fewer early voting sites around the state.
North Carolina: Republican-Controlled Legislature Tries to Reinstate Voter ID Law
In 2016, a federal court struck down North Carolina’s restrictive voter ID law as intentionally discriminatory against African-Americans. The Republican-controlled legislature has brought it back from the dead, doubling down by placing a question on the ballot attempting to enshrine the voter ID law in the state constitution.
This article was produced in partnership with Read the Dirt and its Ear to the Ground newsletter, an information service that mines stories from local newspapers and state legislatures across the country.