Voting rights activists, including attorneys from the U.S. Dept of Justice, won major victories against Republican efforts to stop voters in North Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Ohio and Kansas.
Richard L. Hasan has a piece in the New York Times today. Concludes Hasan:
The struggle is not over, but this wave of court decisions means that more eligible voters should get a chance to register to vote and cast a ballot in November. These votes will help elect a president whose choices for judges and justices will very likely seal the fate of voting rights (and much more) for a generation.
Not over, indeed.
The Republican Wisconsin Dept. of Justice filed an Emergency Stay motion yesterday with the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Frank v. Walker, (Wisconsin Dept of Justice).
This is a last-ditch effort to stop as many blacks, Latinos, college students, elderly folks, and other undesirables as possible from voting.
The state DoJ uses its new partisan, appellate unit in federal litigation, (Mal Contends).
What's the big emergency?
The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit calendar has no scheduled August or October oral argument days, so if Republicans are going to stop voters in time for Election Day, (voting will begin in late September), there is a rush.
On September 22, 47 days from Election Day on November 8, the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), will begin mailing absentee ballots to local election clerks who in turn mail ballots to several classes of voters, per Wisconsin Statute, including permanent absentee voters, (Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC)).
Wisconsin voters should receive absentee ballots around September 29.
It is a judicial doctrine, the Purcell Principle, that federal courts will not change election laws after the voting process has begun.
Fortunately, the battle for voting rights is turning in favor of voters against Republican governments working to stop our most fundamental of rights.
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