California Congressmember John Campbell (R-Irvine, 48th district) has become a co-sponsor of HR 1503, the bill to require presidential candidates to submit a copy of their birth certificate when they file with the Federal Election Commission. Campbell is the first non-southern co-sponsor of HR 1503. He has been in Congress since a special election in 2005.
The Dothan Eagle, a daily newspaper in Alabama, has this story about incarcerated felons being able to vote in Alabama. The Alabama Constitution, for over 100 years, has prohibited people from voting if they have been convicted of “crimes of moral turpitude”.
After years of litigation, Alabama state officials a few years ago finally clarified which crimes involve “moral turpitude” and which don’t. Felonies such as attempted burglary, battery, aiding and abetting escape, some drug possession offenses, and felony driving while intoxicated, are not “crimes of moral turpitude”. Reverend Keith Glasgow, himself a former inmate, with assistance from the NAACP, then began informing incarcerated felons that some of them can register and vote, and he also began visiting prisons to register such felons to vote.
In 2008 he sued state prison officials in federal court to force them to let him visit such prisoners. He won that lawsuit on October 20, 2008 (Glasgow v Allen, 2:08-cv-801, middle district), too late to have much effect in 2008, but he is having an impact in local elections this year. He estimates that 70,000 individuals could be affected. Thanks to Ed Still’s VoteLaw blog for the link.
On June 25, the Rhode Island Senate passed SB 203. It had passed Senate Judiciary Committee earlier on the same day. As amended, it lowers the number of signatures for a new fully-qualified party from 5% of the last vote cast (currently 23,589 signatures), to exactly 10,000 signatures. The bill also permits this petition to be circulated as early as the group wishes. Thanks to Ken Block for this news.
