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The Indiana Advisory
Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has released a comprehensive advisory memorandum addressing voting rights
and access to the polls in the state. The memorandum, informed by a series of public panel discussions in February and March
of this year, offers an in-depth examination of a significant number of voting concerns brought before the Committee. The
memorandum also offers recommendations for inclusion in the Commission’s forthcoming national report on the state of
voting across the U.S. Primary concerns addressed in the memorandum include: strict voter identification
requirements resulting in disenfranchisement of otherwise eligible voters, particularly in communities of color; inconsistencies
and a lack of voter education regarding the counting of provisional and absentee ballots; false identification and cancellation
of allegedly dually registered voters through the interstate “Crosscheck” program; limitations on polling hours,
early voting locations, and voting center locations; inaccurate or insufficient training of poll workers; political gerrymandering;
a lack of paper records and audits of election results; and a lack of civics education in schools to inform and encourage
engaged citizen voters.
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REDISTRICTING RESOURCES
Earlier this month the Supreme Court ruled that the plaintiffs in Gill v. Whitford failed to demonstrate standing and sent the
case back to the district court to give the plaintiffs a chance to demonstrate that they have suffered “concrete
and particularized injuries”. In Benisek v. Lamone, the court also sent the case back to the
lower courts without ruling on the merits. Check out A Conversation on Redistricting with Ruth Greenwood and Nick Stephanopoulos, originally broadcast
live at our National Convention on June 28. Greenwood served on the legal team for the plaintiffs in Gill
v. Whitford and Stephanopoulos created the Efficiency Gap Theory, which is the standard the court considered
in the Gill v. Whitford case. Both are co-council for the League of Women Voters of North Carolina
in the partisan gerrymandering case, LWV v. Rucho.
League of Women Voters of the United States July 1, 2018 |
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