More from @grace_panetta

Grace Panetta

@grace_panetta

13 Jul

Texas Democrats are in the national spotlight for fleeing their state to block the passage of proposed election reform laws. Here's a quick breakdown of what's actually in the two bills, House Bill 3 and Senate Bill 1, that Democrats walked out over: businessinsider.com/why-did-texas-…

Key points from both bills:
• New, defined hours for early voting (which also ban 24 hr voting)
• Bans drive-thru voting
• Expanded pollwatcher access
• ID # required on absentee ballots
• Allows voters to fix signature issues on absentee ballots businessinsider.com/why-did-texas-…

Democrats won some key concessions from the previous walkout over election bill SB 7: provisions limiting Sunday voting hrs & making it easier to overturn some elections are gone, and HB 3 includes absentee ballot curing and a provision addressing the prosecution of Crystal Mason

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Grace Panetta

@grace_panetta

2 Jul

New from me: SCOTUS' decision in Brnovich comes at the worst possible time for the White House, which is ramping up its voting rights push, and for the Department of Justice, which is doing the same and just brought a Section 2 case against Georgia businessinsider.com/scotus-voting-…

Section 2 lawsuits were never easy, but SCOTUS just made them trickier for plaintiffs by raising the bar to prove a violation, giving more leeway to states, and throwing in a new standard that the voting rules from 1982 (!) should also be factored in businessinsider.com/scotus-voting-…

The Court's ruling particularly throws a wrench in the DOJ's Georgia lawsuit by 1) upholding Arizona's out-of-precinct provisional policy 2) raising the bar to show intentional racial discrimination 3) ruling that "cat's paw" doesn't apply to legislatures businessinsider.com/scotus-voting-…

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Grace Panetta

@grace_panetta

1 Jul

DNC v. Brnovich is here!! Held: "Arizona’s out-of-precinct policy and HB 2023 do not violate §2 of the VRA, and HB 2023 was not enacted with a racially discriminatory purpose." supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…

From Alito's opinion: "Second, we think it prudent to make clear at the beginning that we decline in these cases to announce a test to govern all VRA §2 claims involving rules, like those at issue here, that specify the time, place, or manner for casting ballots..."

More from Alito: "But the mere fact there is some disparity in impact does not necessarily mean that a system is not equally open or that it does not give everyone an equal opportunity to vote. The size of any disparity matters." supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…

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Grace Panetta

@grace_panetta

14 Jun

@Nate_Cohn

New from me: Congress likely won't take action on the growing threats to election integrity, leaving election workers vulnerable to criminal prosecution and results open to partisan tampering (building on work/thoughts from @Nate_Cohn @rickhasen et al) businessinsider.com/congress-likel…

@statesunited

An updated report from @statesunited/@protctdemocracy/@lawfwd found that this year, 14 states have enacted laws with 24 provisions that add new criminal penalties election officials could face & politicize the election admin/vote-counting process
statesuniteddemocracy.org/wp-content/upl…

@statesunited

@statesunited @protctdemocracy @lawfwd Politicians have largely framed recent GOP activity in the language of voter suppression without the election subversion piece, letting potentially more dangerous provisions of these laws that target election officials in many states go under the radar businessinsider.com/congress-likel…

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