voting rights

A federal judge has ruled that the city legislative districts in Cranston, Rhode Island, are unconstitutional because 3,433 inmates housed in the state's only prison are counted as city residents and allocated to a city ward, The Huffington Post's Cristian Farias reports.

Each of the city's wards are divided into 13,500 residents each, but one ward includes the 3,433 inmates. U.S. District Judge Ronald Lagueux concluded that this situation violates the one person, one vote principle of the U.S. constitution because including prisoners--who cannot vote--in one ward dilutes the voting power of all city residents, Farias reports.

The Washington Post's Sari Horwitz has an in-depth profile of the impact of Kansas' voting identification law, which is disenfranchising citizens who don't have documents to prove they are citizens. One veteran was purged from voter rolls even though he served in the U.S. military, pays taxes and owns a home.

"There is a battle unfolding in Kansas over who can register to vote in the first place. Election-law experts say what happens here could have ramifications for voting throughout the country during a pivotal presidential election year," Horwitz writes.

Kris W. Kobach, Kansas' secretary of state, spearheaded the law in order to address alleged voter fraud, including, he told The Post, from "'aliens getting on our voting rolls. With so many close elections in Kansas, having a handful of votes that are cast by aliens can swing an election.”'

Even though a a federal judge has ruled the judicial election system in Marion County, Indiana, unconstitutional, the system won't be fixed anytime soon, the Indiana Lawyer reports: "Indianapolis voters will go to the polls Nov. 4 and elect 16 Marion Superior judges, but in truth there’s no contest because who will win already is decided. Eight Democrats and eight Republicans selected in their respective parties’ May primary elections appear on the ballot unopposed."

U.S. Chief District Judge Richard Young of the Southern District of Indiana ruled that the law governing the selection of judges in Marion County imposes a severe burden on the right to vote, the Indiana Lawyer reports. The judicial selection system in Marion County also "enabled slating, whereby judicial candidates who made five-figure donations to their county party organizations received ballot preference and the party’s stamp of approval during the primaries," the Indiana Lawyer also reports.

Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law Professor Joel Schumm said it's likely that Marion County would adopt a merit selection system like other Indiana counties in which judges are appointed by a commission.

President Barack Obama's administration is considering a plan that would require voting districts on tribal land have at least one polling site in a location chosen by the tribal governments, Reuters said.