“We have to fix that,” President Obama said on Election Night 2012, following widespread reports of long lines at polling stations. In the beginning of 2014, a report from the bipartisan Presidential Commission on Election Administration (PCEA) recommended a number of common sense reforms to improve voting, including increasing opportunities for early voting.
There is a growing, bipartisan consensus that reform is needed. However, pro-voting reforms like early voting continue to meet strong partisan resistance, and many states continue to pass voter ID laws and other restrictions that place hurdles between eligible Americans and the ballot box. Meanwhile, millions of citizens—disproportionately Americans of color—are prevented from voting at all due to strict felony disenfranchisement laws.
Project Vote believes our democracy works best when everyone participates, and we work to implement common-sense reforms that make it easier, not harder, for every eligible American to cast a ballot that counts.
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Indianapolis Star: Court to Hear Appeal on Voter ID Law
Yesterday, the Indiana Supreme Court announced it would hear an appeal in a case challenging Indiana’s photo voter ID law,... Read more
Dangerous Election Bills Introduced in Virginia
The Virginia General Assembly is busily grinding out bills that will make it considerably more difficult for Virginians to cast ballots that count. In recent years, voter ID laws have cropped up in states across the country, aimed to stymie a source of fraud that simply does not exist, and Virginia is no different. Under current law, if a voter does not or cannot produce appropriate identification at the polls, the voter can simply sign a sworn document attesting his or her identity, then cast a regular ballot. Proposed legislation in both the House of Delegates and the Senate aims to take this option away from Virginia voters and place still more stringent restrictions on the kinds of ID that are accepted. Read more
New Memos Assess Election Laws in 11 States
In preparation for the 2010 legislative season, Project Vote’s Election Administration (EA) Program is releasing a series of election administration... Read more
Model Bill: Provisional Voting
This document provides a template for lawmakers and other interested parties to draft bills in support of provisional voting legislation. Read more
Legislative Brief: Ensuring that Provisional Ballots are Counted
This legislative brief outlines the reasons why thousands of provisional ballots have not been counted since the passage of Help America Vote Act, and why the use of provisional ballots should be limited. It also provides policy recommendations which, if implemented by all states, would increase the likelihood that a voter’s provisional ballot would count. Read more
RNC Voter Suppression Efforts Foiled When Federal Judge Upholds Minority Voter Protections
Tuesday was a good day for voting rights when a New Jersey federal judge ruled to extend restrictions against partisan... Read more
What “Liberal” Media? Study Shows How Press is Often Manipulated to Serve Right-Wing Agenda
Media manipulation by the right-wing to influence public perception has been a decade-long tactic to undermine voter registration in America.... Read more
Arizona City Tries New “Voting Center” Model for City Elections
Here's an interesting way one Arizona city is dealing with early voting and provisional ballot problems, at least in their city elections. The city council of Phoenix has approved an election plan that would essentially eliminate the need to designate polling places during local elections. The plan is currently being reviewed by the Department of Justice and is expected to go into effect with the next mayoral election in 2011. Read more
All Voters are Unequal: Voter ID Law Exposed as Unfair, States Still Follow Suit
When an appellate court shut down Indiana’s unequal mandate for polling-place voter ID, it sent a clear signal that—partisan politics aside—election laws should be assessed on whether or not all voters are given equal access to the democratic process. Yet, despite violations of law and the fact that absentee voting is more susceptible to voter fraud activity than in-person voting, other states continue to emulate what was one of the country’s toughest voter ID laws. Read more
Indiana Voter ID Law Found Unconstitutional and Disenfranchising
One of the country’s most contentious voting rights issues came back into the spotlight last Thursday when an Indiana court struck down the state’s strict photo voter ID law as unconstitutional. The law, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008, was found be in violation of the Indiana Constitution because it treated voters unequally. Read more