Arizona: Challenging Arbitrary Procedures For Investigating the Citizenship of Registered Voters
This case challenges provisions in two 2022 Arizona laws targeting naturalized citizens and making voter registration needlessly more difficult. Provisions in the laws directed election officials to investigate the citizenship status of registered voters based simply on any “reason to believe” they were not U.S. citizens.
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.
SCOTUS: Moore v. Harper
In October, 2022 Fair Elections Center joined the League of Women Voters of the United States, League chapters from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers and filed an amicus brief in the Moore v. Harper case before the U.S. Supreme Court. The case concerns the so-called “independent state legislature theory” (ISLT) which, if adopted, would have far-reaching implications for the future of American democracy.