[EL] Madison (WI) new law this week requiring landlords to distribute voter reg forms

Thu Jul 19 10:39:30 PDT 2012

Lori: I could ask you, "What is the constitutional basis for requiring
voters to be domiciled in the state they vote?"

States are allowed to regulate elections. That can, I believe, include
requiring voters to be domiciled in the state in which they vote. Thus, I
can't vote for someone in California because I don't reside in California.
Similarly, I believe, states can require that only citizens may vote, and
that one must prove he/she is a citizen by obtaining a photo ID. And I
believe minority race people deserve to be treated with the same respect as
White people, and it should not be assumed that they are too stupid or
incapable to obtain a photo ID.
But for those who actually cannot obtain an ID, because the state has no
record of their birth, help may be needed. Is their a constitutional basis
for requiring them to obtain help? I suggest, yes, there is. Art. I sec. 4
allows the states to regulate the "time, place, and manner" for holding
federal elections, and the Tenth Amendment reserves all powers not
expressly delegated to the federal government to the states, or to the
people. Since how a state must hold its state elections is not expressly
delegated to the federal government, each state gets to decide how they
will do it. And that, I believe, includes making a decision to require a
photo ID to vote.

Joe
___________________
*Joseph E. La Rue*
cell: 480.272.2715
email: joseph.e.larue at gmail.com

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On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 10:24 AM, Lorraine Minnite <lminnite at gmail.com>wrote:

> I'm curious: what is the constitutional basis for essentially requiring
> citizens to obtain legal assistance in order to cast ballots?
>
> Lori Minnite
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 1:01 PM, Joe La Rue <joseph.e.larue at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Adam,
>>
>> I have great sympathy for people like Mrs. Lee, and I acknowledge there
>> are some like her. However, I think progressives have turned the few
>> examples like Mrs. Lee into a parade-of-horribles, in an effort to
>> frustrate a very common sense solution to the possibility that non-citizens
>> may be voting. Let's admit that, just as there are few documented cases of
>> fraudulent voting, there are also few Mrs. Lees. However, there is a great
>> potential for much fraudulent voting so long as we do not have photo ID
>> requirements, but not a great potential for many Mrs. Lees.
>>
>> That said, that doesn't help the few Mrs. Lees who are out there. What's
>> the answer for them? May I suggest that those progressive attorneys who
>> spend so much time arguing against voter ID laws instead give some of it
>> pro bono to Mrs. Lee and contact the state of Georgia on her behalf, as
>> well as her Senator and Representative, and get her situation taken care
>> of. It seems to me that would be a better use of time.
>>
>> Joe
>> ___________________
>> *Joseph E. La Rue*
>> cell: 480.272.2715
>> email: joseph.e.larue at gmail.com
>>
>>
>> CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:  This e-mail message, including any attachments,
>> is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain
>> confidential and privileged information or otherwise be protected by law.
>> Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If
>> you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply
>> e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 9:55 AM, Adam Bonin <adam at boninlaw.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Joe,****
>>>
>>> Wilola Lee, 59, was born in rural Wilkerson County, Georgia. She was
>>> raised by her grandmother, who moved her to Philadelphia in 1957, where she
>>> has lived ever since. Ms. Lee finished the eleventh grade, married, and
>>> raised two children, one of whom is a former school principal and now works
>>> for the Pennsylvania state government. Ms. Lee worked for the Philadelphia
>>> Public Schools for many years, including work with special needs children.
>>> Her husband passed away six years ago. Ms. Lee has been voting for decades
>>> and worked as a poll worker in the city of Philadelphia. She has been
>>> trying for nearly ten years to get a birth certificate that she will need
>>> to get a photo ID to vote, but the state of Georgia has told her they have
>>> no record of her birth. She’s been voting in nearly every election for the
>>> past 30+ years, but cannot get photo ID to vote in PA this year.****
>>>
>>> She’s not a stupid woman, Joe, and I’ll assume you’re a pretty smart
>>> guy.  Tell us how she’s supposed to obtain a photo ID sufficient to comply
>>> with Pennsylvania law.****
>>>
>>> (Similar examples here:
>>> http://www.aclupa.org/legal/legaldocket/applewhiteetalvcommonwealt/voteridclients.htm
>>> )****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Adam C. Bonin
>>> The Law Office of Adam C. Bonin
>>> 1900 Market Street, 4th Floor
>>> Philadelphia, PA 19103
>>> (215) 864-8002 (w)
>>> (215) 701-2321 (f)
>>> (267) 242-5014 (c)****
>>>
>>> adam at boninlaw.com****
>>>
>>> http://www.boninlaw.com****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> ** **
>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> *From:* Joe La Rue <joseph.e.larue at gmail.com>
>>> *To:* Dan Johnson <dan at kchrlaw.com>
>>> *Cc:* Election Law <law-election at uci.edu>
>>> *Sent:* Thursday, July 19, 2012 6:40 AM
>>> *Subject:* Re: [EL] Madison (WI) new law this week requiring landlords
>>> to distribute voter reg forms****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> I laugh aloud at the silly progressives, like those who issued this
>>> press release, who assert that Republicans push for voter ID is un-American
>>> and a war on voting. What rhetoric! And what complete nonsense. ****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> This supposes that placing sensible restrictions on who can vote is
>>> contrary to our American values. Yet we've always had such restrictions. The
>>> Founders created a system in which many states allowed only property owners
>>> to vote. Were the Founders un-American? Today, in every state and federal
>>> election, only those 18 and older may vote, and only those who live in the
>>> jurisdiction in question may vote. Are we all un-American for those
>>> requirements?****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> In this age in which we have some 12 million people in our country
>>> illegally and therefore ineligible to vote, Republicans are trying to
>>> institute a common sense safeguard. Requiring voter ID helps assure only
>>> citizens cast ballots. Efforts to block voter ID only frustrate that goal.
>>> Perhaps that's the true progressive end game: perhaps they want
>>> non-citizens to be able to vote. Regardless, their fight against common
>>> sense voter ID laws makes it more likely that some will.****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> Contrary to progressive claims, Republicans aren't trying to keep
>>> minorities from voting. Unlike progressives, we believe minority citizens
>>> are smart and capable and certainly not too stupid to figure out how to get
>>> an ID if they don't already have one. In short, we Republicans believe
>>> minority race citizens are just as capable as white people and so do not
>>> need to be coddled. Progressives, though, have such a low view of
>>> minorities that they cannot imagine them having the intelligence and
>>> capability to acquire IDs, and instead insist that ID laws will
>>> disenfranchise them. I, for one, abhor that type of prejudice.****
>>>
>>>
>>> On Jul 18, 2012, at 11:35 PM, Dan Johnson <dan at kchrlaw.com> wrote:****
>>>
>>> Innovative news on the voter registration front (the attack back in the
>>> War on Voting continues)...****
>>>
>>> *From:* Progressive Advocacy <dan at ProgressivePublicAffairs.com>
>>> *Date:* July 18, 2012 7:14:51 PM CDT
>>> *To:* dan at ProgressivePublicAffairs.com
>>> *Subject:* *Progressive Advocacy*****
>>>  Progressive Advocacy <http://djwinfo.blogspot.com/>
>>> <http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/ProgressiveAdvocacy>
>>> ****
>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> Madison WI and Washington State attack back on the war on voting<http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/blogspot/ProgressiveAdvocacy/%7E3/oLTdrytwJNE/madison-wi-and-washington-state-attack.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email>
>>> ****
>>>
>>> Posted: 17 Jul 2012 10:45 PM PDT****
>>>
>>> Fantastic news.
>>>
>>> Progressive state and local governments are attacking back on the
>>> Republican's anti-American war on voting by implementing forward-thinking
>>> laws and policies that reduce the barriers between citizens and their
>>> ballots.
>>>
>>> Yesterday, the Madison (WI) City Council passed an ordinance<http://madison.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=1144324&GUID=D002BEF2-80C7-4F85-97BD-5AB5E0FAE4F8>adding the voter
>>> registration form<http://www.cityofmadison.com/election/voter/documents/VoterRegistrationApplication-English-WithArrows-Fillable.pdf>to the pile of paper documents that landlords must distribute to tenants
>>> when they move in. This is now law, just in time for the August move-in for
>>> UW-Madison students. Half the housing units in Madison are rental units and
>>> a large percentage of those units turn over every year<http://host.madison.com/article_e1b34b38-c8b8-11e1-a53d-0019bb2963f4.html>
>>> .
>>>
>>> As Alder Bridget Maniaci<http://madison.legistar.com/PersonDetail.aspx?ID=79730&GUID=41E80667-D780-4522-8E21-903D7DA04DEE>,
>>> the lead sponsor of the proposal explains, providing voter registration
>>> information to citizens when they move into a new place makes sense, since
>>> that's when people are changing their address (and they are probably
>>> unaware that they must proactively tell some obscure unit of local
>>> government they have moved in order to vote months later). From the
>>> Isthmus <http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=37268>:
>>>
>>> ****
>>>
>>> The way citizens in the United States vote is based on where they live,
>>> Maniaci adds, which means it is sensible to provide them with voting
>>> information when they change addresses.
>>> "To provide to tenants voter registration forms at the time they move
>>> in, when most individuals are in the process of changing all of their other
>>> household information, everything from Netflix to their post-office address
>>> to the DMV, that's a very natural time to do this," she says.****
>>>
>>> As a bonus, getting citizens to register to vote early is cheaper for
>>> the city clerk to process than registering people in the crunch leading up
>>> to the election, so distributing these voter registration forms will save
>>> taxpayers some money.
>>>
>>> On the West Coast, Washington State's Secretary of State is unveiling an
>>> app that will allow users to register to vote through Facebook. Since
>>> Washington State already uses online voter registration, pulling the
>>> data from a user's Facebook account and importing it into the voter
>>> registration program will make it easier for people to register<http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2018708721_apusvoterregistrationfacebook1stldwritethru.html>-- and people can tell their friends about how they registered to vote,
>>> creating more of a social norm of democratic self-governance through
>>> participation.
>>>
>>> Congratulations to Washington and Madison (named after two Founding
>>> Fathers, coincidentally) for further implementing the great democratic
>>> spirit of our American Republic.****
>>>
>>> ****
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>> ****
>>>
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>>> ****
>>>
>>> ** **
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dan Johnson****
>>>
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