Kentucky: Protecting Voters from Unlawful Purges
In June 2024, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky challenging a provision in Kentucky election law that mandates the removal of voters from voter registration rolls without following procedures required by federal law. The plaintiff, represented by Fair Elections Center and Kentucky Equal Justice Center, argues that amendments to state law in 2021 regarding voter removals under Kentucky House Bill 574 clearly violate the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).
Arizona: Voter Registration Restrictions
A complaint on behalf of civic engagement organization Poder Latinx in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, seeking to block a new state law’s arbitrary and vague procedures for investigating the citizenship status of Arizona voters. Poder Latinx works to register and engage Latinx voters in Arizona, and its efforts will be frustrated by a voter registration system that is ever-changing and complicated, and that will baselessly harass naturalized voters.
In February 2024, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona struck down portions of two state laws requiring election officials to investigate the citizenship of Arizona voters and voter registration applicants. Most notably, this ruling prevents election officials from relying on biases and suspicions that a voter is not a U.S. citizen when making voter registration decisions. Citing the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act, the court found that county election officials could not initiate an extra citizenship check based on any “reason to believe” a voter was not a U.S. citizen.
The decision finding the “reason to believe” provision unlawful under the Civil Rights Act is a win for a legal claim uniquely brought by civic engagement organizations Poder Latinx, Chicanos Por La Causa and Chicanos Por La Causa Action Fund.
Wisconsin: Absentee Voters’ Rights
Fair Elections Center along with Wisconsin-based Law Forward, filed a complaint on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin in Dane County Circuit Court, seeking both clarity and protection for absentee voters whose ballots have technical defects.
In February 2024, Wisconsin courts have rejected the Wisconsin State legislature’s bid to block relief for absentee voters won by the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin’s lawsuit. On January 30, the League, represented by Law Forward, Fair Elections Center, and Stafford Rosenbaum LLP, secured an order from the Dane County Circuit Court that protects four categories of absentee ballots with purported defects in the address recorded by the voter’s witness. That ruling relied on the 1964 Civil Rights Act which prohibits denying the right to vote for technical errors or omissions that are not material to determining a voter’s eligibility.
Virginia: Arbitrary Voting Rights Restoration
In April of 2023, Fair Elections Center filed a lawsuit against Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and Secretary of the Commonwealth Kay Coles James, challenging Youngkin’s resurrection of an unconstitutionally arbitrary system for restoring voting rights to people with felony convictions.
