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    Posted on Jul 16, 2014

    10 Voting Rights Changes Of Concern Since Last Year's Devastating Supreme Court Ruling

    Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Shelby County v. Holder on June 25, 2013, 10 voting changes in seven states have raised concerns about voting discrimination. Here's where those changes occurred.

    1. Decatur, Alabama

    In 2011, Decatur requested Section 5 preclearance for a change in the method of election from five single-member districts to three single-member districts and two at-large seats for the city council. The city withdrew the submission after a request for more information. But after the Shelby decision, the city implemented the change.

    2. Toyukak et al. v. Treadwell et al., case no. 3:13-cv-00137 (D. Alaska filed June 2013)

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    Private plaintiffs have brought a lawsuit alleging that three adjoining census areas in Alaska have deliberately withheld language assistance from these areas. The trial began in June 2014.

    3. State of Arizona

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    Arizona’s H.B. 2261 was initially submitted for Section 5 preclearance pre-Shelby, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) requested additional information. The law requires the addition of two at-large seats to the Governing Board of Maricopa Community College District. Since Arizona no longer has to submit voting changes for preclearance, the state is now proceeding to fill the two new seats in the November 2014 election. A state court lawsuit challenging the law is now on appeal.

    4. Manatee County, Florida

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    Supervisor of Elections Mike Bennett proposed reducing the number of precincts, citing decreased Election Day turnout, as more voters switch to in-person early voting and vote-by-mail options. In Manatee County, almost one-third of voting sites would be eliminated and half of the polling places in the heavily minority District 2 would be eliminated. Representatives of the local NAACP and Southern Christian Leadership Conference are concerned that the elimination will decrease voter turnout because voters would have to travel further to a polling place, especially among the elderly and people without cars, and note that the cuts disproportionately affected minority-heavy precincts.

    5. State of Florida

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    Prior to the 2012 federal election, Florida used a highly inaccurate matching program to conduct a systematic purge of alleged noncitizen voters from the voter registration database. The purged voters were disproportionately from minority communities. The process was halted prior to the 2012 election after three federal lawsuits were filed, but restarted at the end of last year post-Shelby.

    6. State of Georgia

    Via flic.kr

    In the wake of the Shelby decision, the Georgia Secretary of State announced that the 2014 election for Augusta-Richmond County will be held at the time of the primary rather than during the November general election, reinstating a plan that DOJ had objected to prior to Shelby on the grounds that it would disproportionately negatively impact the turnout of African-American voters.

    7. State of North Carolina

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    North Carolina passed H.B. 589 in 2013, which includes a multitude of voting restrictions. Lawsuits have been filed challenging provisions of the bill under Section 2 of the VRA, under the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution, and under state law. The provisions challenged include elimination of early voting, increases in the number and scope of challengers and observes, a strict photo identification requirement, a repeal of out-of-precinct voting, the elimination of flexibility in opening early voting sites at different hours within a county, a provision making it more difficult to add satellite polling sites for the elderly or voters with disabilities, new limits on who can assist a voter adjudicated to be incompetent by court, plus numerous other provisions. The law was enacted just one month after the Shelby County decision and is currently being challenged in one state court lawsuit and in three federal lawsuits.

    8. State of Texas

    Via flic.kr

    Within hours of the Shelby decision, Texas’ attorney general announced that the state would begin to implement its photo ID law immediately. This law was previously denied Section 5 preclearance by DOJ and a 3-judge panel of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia on the grounds it would have a racially discriminatory effect. A Section 2 case by the United States and two lawsuits brought by private plaintiffs have been consolidated and are scheduled to go to trial in September 2014.

    9. Galveston County, Texas

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    A few days after the Shelby decision, Galveston County decided to implement the reduction in the number of justice of the peace and constable districts to which DOJ had objected in 2012.

    10. Pasadena, Texas

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    During a special election in November 2013, Pasadena voters voted in favor of Proposition 1, a measure that changed the city’s current eight single-member district system of electing members of the city council to a 6-2 system featuring six single-member districts and two at-large seats. The change would reduce Latino voting strength in city council elections by making it more difficult for Latino voters to reach majority status in the districts.

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