Thousands of Ballots Wrongly Flagged for Signature Mismatches at Risk

Maricopa County Superior Court hearing scheduled for today at 2pm MT / 4pm ET

PHOENIX, AZ – Today, an Arizona judge will hear a lawsuit filed Wednesday night by several Arizona County Republican Parties, joined by the state Republican Party, challenging the disparate standard statewide for whether voters are provided notice and an opportunity to cure issues identified with signatures on mail-in ballots after Election Day. Following letters sent by CLC, ACLU, ACLU of Arizona, and Scharff PLC in late October, Maricopa County committed to permitting voters to remedy “mismatched” signature issues – up until the deadline to cure conditional provisional ballots – Wednesday, November 14th.

Campaign Legal Center (CLC), ACLU, the ACLU of Arizona, and Scharff PLC filed a brief late Thursday night on behalf of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the League of Women Voters, and Arizona Advocacy Network Foundation to defend the due process rights of all Arizona voters, calling on the court to order that all Arizona counties give voters the opportunity to confirm their signatures through Wednesday, November 14 – the deadline to fix conditional provisional ballots. The Maricopa County Superior Court is holding a hearing today at 2pm MT / 4pm ET.

“The court can fix the patchwork system across the state of Arizona by making clear that all Arizona counties cannot deny voters due process,” said Danielle Lang, senior legal counsel, voting rights and redistricting, at CLC. “Pollworkers are not handwriting experts, and whether someone’s ballot counts should not be determined on the whim of an official who mistakenly concludes that a voter’s signature is not genuine. Voters must be informed when such a conclusion is reached, and must be provided a chance to prove they genuinely signed the ballot. The Constitution requires this.”

“People should not be denied their fundamental right to vote because of penmanship,” said Julie Ebenstein, senior staff attorney with the ACLU's Voting Right Project.  “Constitutional due process requires Arizona to notify a voter of any signature match issue, and provide them with a meaningful opportunity to resolve it, before making the decision to deprive them of their right to vote.”

The Associated Press estimated yesterday that 75 percent of votes in Arizona are cast by mail.

Given the popularity of vote by mail in Arizona, proper procedures for processing mail-in ballots are critical. In 2016, over 2,500 of mail-in ballots were rejected because election officials were not satisfied that the signature on the ballot matched the voter’s registration signature. Many of those voters did not find out that their votes did not count until after the fact, if at all.

CLC President Trevor Potter, a former Republican Commissioner of the Federal Election Commission, released the following statement:

“President Trump has fired Attorney General Sessions because of the President’s frustration that Sessions had recused himself from the Russia investigation, and therefore could not take charge, limit or end the work of Special Counsel Mueller. The President has expressed his views on Sessions, his recusal, and the ongoing investigation publicly and frequently.

This is a dangerous and authoritarian step, and threatens the rule of law. The President is seeking to control or influence an investigation into activities of his presidential campaign and some of its top officials – a number of whom have already been charged and convicted of criminal activities. The Special Counsel was appointed because of the President’s repeated attempts to interfere with the FBI and DOJ-led investigation. It is important that the DOJ’s law enforcement process remain independent of the political process. It is just as important as ever that Special Counsel Mueller be able to do his job and complete a thorough, independent investigation free from interference from the new pick for Attorney General or anyone else that reports to the President.”

Sweeping Victory for Democracy Ballot Initiatives in 11 States and 7 Localities

WASHINGTON – As the final tallies of votes for the 2018 midterm election came in last night, Americans overwhelmingly voted to support measures to end extreme partisan gerrymandering, improve the way we fund elections to give every day voters a voice in the political process, expand voting access and move toward a more ethical and accountable government.

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) helped draft and advise on many of these measures, working with on-the-ground partners to increase the chance of passage of the ballot initiatives and strengthening them in order to anticipate and defend them against future legal challenges. 

See full chart of results by visiting our democracy scorecard.
 

Redistricting: A Perfect 5 for 5 States Voted to Rein in Partisan Gerrymandering With Constitutional Amendments to Take Redistricting Power Away From Legislators

“The U.S. Supreme Court should hear this loud and clear,” said Ruth Greenwood, senior legal counsel, voting rights and redistricting at CLC. “Republicans and Democrats are tired of politicians drawing the lines of their own electoral maps and distorting the process for their party’s gain. Citizens around the country are ready to move toward a system of fair maps where they can have a say in the process of redistricting. Other states can turn to Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, Utah and Missouri and follow their lead after their success in taking redistricting power away from self-interested legislators last night. But since some states do not allow ballot initiatives to fix gerrymandering, litigation and action by the U.S. Supreme Court is still necessary.”

Use our guide,  Designing Independent Redistricting Commissions, to learn how to create Independent Redistricting Commissions in your own state and take the power of redistricting out of the hands of self-interested legislators.

Campaign Finance and Ethics: Passage of Ballot Initiatives Show Unprecedented Energy to Create a More Transparent and Accountable Government

“Citizens are frustrated by the failure of Congress to fix our broken campaign finance system,” said Catie Kelley, state and local program director at CLC. “Americans united to take democracy into their own hands in 2018 and they did so by voting to improve the way we fund elections. Voters made it clear they do not want their voices drowned out by wealthy special interests, and voted for greater transparency and accountability in our campaign finance system.”

Read our latest report, Buying Back Democracy – The Evolution of Public Financing, to learn how public financing programs can reorient our elections by increasing the power of small donors and leading to new and diverse candidates seeking public office.

Voting Rights: Americans Choose to Expand Voting Rights, Ease Voter Registration

“It’s clear from yesterday’s results that Americans agree that our democracy works best when every citizen participates,” said Danielle Lang, senior legal counsel, voting rights and redistricting at CLC. “A wide coalition of Americans sent the message that they are rejecting restrictive voting laws. In Florida, voters restored 1.4 million peoples’ right to vote – the greatest expansion of voting rights since the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Also voters took the chance to ease the voting process in Michigan by passing automatic voter registration, same-day voter registration and no-reason absentee, in Maryland by passing same-day voter registration and in Nevada by passing automatic voter registration.”

CLC is helping people with past convictions understand their rights and restore their right to vote in states across the country. Learn more by visiting RestoreYourVote.org.

View our Win/Loss Democracy Scorecard: Democracy Measures on the 2018 Ballot and Outcomes

COLUMBUS, OH – Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC), Dēmos and the MacArthur Justice Center filed a class action lawsuit challenging Ohio’s policy of disenfranchising eligible voters arrested just prior to the election and held in detention through Election Day.

Under the current system, eligible voters who are detained pretrial by the state are being unconstitutionally denied their fundamental right to vote. Ohio’s disenfranchisement of these qualified voters violates the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

In addition to the class action lawsuit, the three groups representing two individual plaintiffs and a proposed class of plaintiffs, filed a request for a temporary restraining order on Ohio’s practice, seeking to allow individuals who are held in pretrial detention in Ohio county jails to exercise their fundamental right to vote by casting an absentee ballot in today’s election.

This group of Ohio citizens includes registered eligible voters arrested and held in pretrial detention in Ohio on or after close of business on Friday, November 2 who are eligible to vote in Ohio.

“No qualified voter should be categorically denied the right to vote. Ohio’s practice of refusing to provide ballots to late-jailed voters is particularly egregious because it most severely affects those who cannot afford bail,” said Mark Gaber, senior legal counsel at CLC. “Our laws should promote voting, not restrict it. Ohio violates the Constitution by fencing off a group of eligible voters and physically precluding them from voting.”

"The criminal legal system in Ohio disproportionately jails poor people and people of color. Hundreds of eligible citizens are systematically prevented from exercising their fundamental rights," said Chiraag Bains, director of legal strategies at Dēmos. "The Secretary of State has the power to correct this injustice, and he must."

“The right to vote is not taken away at the jail door,” said Laura C. Bishop, voting rights project attorney at the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center. “Voting is key to making democracy work and keeping people engaged with their communities. Governments should encourage, not erect barriers, to voting. Voting is more than a civic duty. It’s a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.”

Ohio already has a procedure for use by voters who discover in the days leading up to an election that they are unable to reach the polls due to unforeseen hospitalization. Late-jailed voters could be easily accommodated by granting them access to the procedure available to late-hospitalized voters. The state recognizes that it has a compelling reason to facilitate the provision of ballots to late-hospitalized voters; so there is no reason to prevent late-jailed voters from using that procedure and casting their ballots as well.

In October, CLC sent a demand letter to Secretary Jon Husted informing him of Ohio’s lack of policy concerning late-jailed voters and outlined options the state could pursue to rectify the situation. CLC argued how Ohio was in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution by not affording late-jailed voters an option to cast a ballot.

The lawsuit today was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio Eastern Division. The case is called Mays v. Husted.