Tag: right to vote

Our elections are not rigged.

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2016 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I sent this letter to the editors at the Baltimore Sun:

“I hope you people can sort of not just vote on the 8th — go around and look and watch other polling places and make sure that it’s 100 percent fine,” declared Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania last week.

His supporters nationwide can fill out a form on the campaign’s website to receive more information about becoming a volunteer Trump Election Observer.

In Maryland, it is a crime if a person willfully and knowingly votes or attempts to vote more than once in the same election.

It is also a crime if a person willfully and knowingly influences or attempts to influence a voter’s decision whether to cast a vote through the use of force, fraud, threat, menace, intimidation, reward, or offer of reward.

An individual whose right to vote is challenged at the polls may establish his or her identity by presenting any of the following forms of identification: the individual’s voter registration or Social Security card; the individual’s valid Maryland driver’s license; any identification card issued to the individual by the local, state, or federal government; any employee identification card that contains a photograph of the individual; or a copy of a current bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows the individual’s name and current address.

Our elections are not rigged.  They will stay that way if our right to vote is upheld.

 

 

January 20 – A right, not a reward

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2016 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I usually wait until the floor debate to write my speech.

I try to respond to something another delegate has said. Even then I write my remarks only in my head.

Veto overrides tomorrow will be the first of many opportunities this session for the two parties to offer their different public policy approaches.

I’ve been asked to be ready to speak on the bill that would allow a person to vote who was imprisoned for a felony but is now free on parole or probation.

Voting “is something that should be a reward,” a Republican delegate asserted in today’s Baltimore Sun.

That is dead wrong.

“Especially since the right to exercise the franchise in a free and unimpaired manner is preservative of other basic civil and political rights, any alleged infringement of the right of citizens to vote must be carefully and meticulously scrutinized.”

I didn’t come up with that language. The Supreme Court did.

Identifying and Protecting the Fundamental Right to Vote

| by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Florida has a lot of snowbirds.

They spend winters there and summers up north.

Wendy Rosen is one of them. The Democratic “candidate” in Maryland’s 1st Congressional District lives in Cockeysville and St. Petersburg, Florida.

She has voted in both places.

When this story broke, I knew that my Republican friends would use this incident to try to make the case for their voter ID laws.

But those statutes aren’t directed at snowbirds. They’re targeted at individuals who don’t have government-issued IDs.

They’re overwhelmingly elderly, students, or people of color. They can’t afford two residences.

“What steps can be taken, by statutory, administrative, or software change, to prevent an individual from voting in state or federal elections in Maryland and another state, as Ms. Rosen did?” I emailed the Maryland State Administrative Board of Election Laws, on the morning that the story broke about Ms. Rosen’s dual voting.

There is a database that matches information from voter registration files, motor vehicle administrations, and vital statistics from participating state, I was told. Maryland participates, but Florida does not.

If Florida did share its records, both states would have been alerted to Ms. Rosen’s dual registration. If Maryland deemed her active registration to be Florida, her registration in Maryland would have been cancelled.

This wasn’t my only encounter with voting rights this week.

Former Governor Robert Ehrlich supported voter-ID laws in his Baltimore Sun op-ed column on Sunday.

“For anyone interested in visiting Washington to discuss this highly controversial issue with the Attorney General Holder,” wrote Mr. Ehrlich, “be aware. You will need to produce proper photo identification in order to board the plane, secure your room at the hotel, rent a car, and enter the Justice Department.”

How have we addressed this issue in Maryland?

If your right to vote is challenged, you can use the following forms of identification:

* your voter’s card, Social Security card, or Maryland driver’s license;

* any identification card issued by the federal, state, or local government; and

* an employer-issued photo-ID; or a copy of a current bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows your name or current address.

Where did we come up with this list? It’s copied from the Help America Vote Act, passed with bipartisan support by the Congress in the wake of the Florida election debacle in 2000.

Our law strikes the proper balance between preventing voter fraud and denying people their fundamental right to vote.

Identifying Voter Suppression

| by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2012 Legislative Diary | No Comments

 “A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth – some obvious truth he isn’t supposed to say,” according to journalist Michael Kinsley.

 A recent example from Mike Turzai, the Republican majority leader in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives:

 “Voter ID…[will] allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania.”

 Preventing voter fraud has been the stated reason for requiring voters to display a government-issued ID if they want to cast a ballot on Election Day.

 The fraud is on you, if you’re one of the millions of Americans who don’t have IDs – predominantly the elderly, college students, and the poor.   

 Voter ID laws are a cousin to voter suppression efforts. 

 In Maryland, we have a long history of such attempts to deny the franchise:

 Voting machines didn’t work in African-American precincts in the 60’s and 70’s.

 More recently, flyers urged people to vote on the wrong date and implied that you couldn’t vote if you owed rent or child support. 

 That’s why the General Assembly adopted legislation introduced by Senator Lisa Gladden and me to make it a crime to “influence or attempt to influence a voter’s decision whether to go to the polls to cast a vote through the use of force, fraud, threat, menace, intimidation, bribery, reward, or offer of reward.” 

 This is the law that both Paul Schurick and Julius Henson violated with their Election Day 2010 robocalls that urged voters to “relax,” implying that Governor O’Malley had been successful and there was no need to vote.

 Some have said that this statute violates the First Amendment. 

 However, there are precedents for such a limit on political speech.  Statements known by the speaker to be false are afforded a lower level of First Amendment protection and securing the right to vote freely and effectively is a compelling governmental interest.

 Maryland has taken appropriate and constitutional steps to prevent the diminution of our powerful and fundamental right of American citizenship – the right to vote.

  • My Key Issues:

  • Pimlico and The Preakness
  • Our Neighborhoods
  • Pre-Kindergarten
  • Lead Paint Poisoning