voter suppression – Sandy Rosenberg

If we’ve already done it

February 4, 2021 | by delsandy | Uncategorized | No Comments

There was only one early voting location in St. Mary’s County last fall. It was 14 miles away from the community with the highest concentration of low-income voters and voters of color in the county. Objections were raised, but the State Board of Elections was powerless to act.

My Voters Rights Protection Act (House Bill 57) would authorize the State Board of Elections to establish an additional polling place in a specific area if the Board determines that the absence of a polling place is discriminatory on the basis of race, color, religion, or disability.

Today I was asked to draft language that would identify who could make such a claim to the Board.

I’ve asked people who know Maryland’s election law far better than I do: “Is there relevant language in the Election Law article or elsewhere in the Code?”

If we’ve done it before, we’re more likely to do it again.

—

A settlement with McKinsey & Company for unfair opioids marketing was announced today by Attorney General Brian Frosh.

Maryland will receive more than $12 million.

I introduced the law requiring that the funds received from an opioid settlement be spent to address the problems associated with the opioid epidemic.

I will now see if reassurances are needed to make sure this happens.

A Reminder At the Polls

October 9, 2020 | by delsandy | Uncategorized | No Comments

A person may not willfully and knowingly 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.

Election Article, 16-201 (a)(6)

I introduced the bill that added that provision to Maryland law.

Campaign literature implying that you couldn’t vote if you owed rent or hadn’t paid your parking tickets prompted me to act.

The Election Day telephone calls urging people to relax and stay away from the polls were illegal because of this law.

President Trump recently tweeted: We need every able-bodied man, woman to join army for Trump’s election security operation at defendyourballot.com.

https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/918317570/democrats-worry-gop-efforts-to-recruit-poll-watchers-may-lead-to-voter-intimidat

That prompted me to speak with PJ Hogan, a former colleague in the General Assembly and now the vice chair of the Maryland State Board of Elections (SBE).

We discussed the need to remind all involved – voting officials, the voting public, and those who might disrupt the election process, of Maryland’s law.

At yesterday’s SBE meeting, Vice Chair Hogan reminded everybody of our law by reading it out loud.

https://elections.maryland.gov/about/board.html44:20

I’ve decided to print our law and take it with me to the polls when I’m there for early voting and Election Day.

Hopefully not to show it to a police officer because someone may be violating the law.

But to remind me that this is how the system works.

From fraudulent flyers to technology

February 25, 2020 | by delsandy | Uncategorized | No Comments

My legislation criminalizing fraudulent campaign flyers designed to suppress voter turnout was enacted in 2005. The threat to our democracy now comes from sophisticated technology.

The Securing America’s Federal Elections Act (SAFE Act) passed the House of Representatives eight months ago, but it still sits on Senator Mitch McConnell’s desk. I had legislation drafted adopting the provisions in the SAFE Act that are needed in Maryland law.

House Bill 392 passed the House of Delegates today, 134-0. My legislation requires the disclosure of the foreign manufacture of any component of a voting system and of any material change to a component that occurred outside the United States. If such occurrences would compromise or influence the independence and integrity of an election, the contract may be terminated.

Congressman John P. Sarbanes chairs the Democracy Reform Task Force. In his letter of support for HB 392, he wrote, “All Americans deserve and expect their votes to count, unencumbered by foreign or domestic interference.”

The Real Voter Fraud

November 20, 2017 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2017 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Voters in Alabama got this robocall last week from “Bernie Bernstein”:

I’m a reporter for The Washington Post calling to find out if anyone at this address is a female between the ages of 54 to 57 years old, willing to make damaging remarks about candidate Roy Moore for a reward of between $5,000 and $7,000. We will not be fully investigating these claims however we will make a written report.

This anti-Semitic travesty would violate Maryland law.

It is a crime to “influence or attempt to influence a voter’s voting decision through the use of force, threat, menace, intimidation, bribery, reward, or offer of reward.”

Shortly before the 2002 general election in Maryland, a flyer was distributed in neighborhoods of color urging people to vote on the Thursday after Election Day and implying that you couldn’t vote if you owed rent, child support, or parking tickets.

I responded by sponsoring the bill that made it illegal 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.” (emphasis added)

This is the fraud that is degrading our election process. Not the fake fraud that is the basis for Republican efforts to limit access to the ballot.

A new justification

February 6, 2014 | by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2014 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I never heard this one before.

I had testified on my bill to extend early voting to the Sunday before Election Day.

“This is the next logical step in the expansion of the right to vote,” I said. “We no longer limit the franchise to white males who own property; we should no longer limit voting to 13 hours on a Tuesday.”

I was followed by Rabbi Ariel Sadwin, who said that observant Jews cannot vote on their Sabbath (Saturday), and Rev. Al Hathaway, pastor of Union Baptist Church, who spoke of the tradition of urging people from the pulpit to get out and vote.

“I’m concerned that too much pressure is being put on people to vote early,” complained a Republican delegate. “Sunday voting would worsen that.”

The GOP has gone to great lengths to suppress minority voting sometimes subtly, sometimes by force of law.

This justification was new to me. And equally unworthy.

Identifying Voter Suppression

June 27, 2012 | 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:

Tag: voter suppression