Database management or voter suppression?

WASHINGTON—If you don’t exercise your right to vote, should you keep it indefinitely?

That’s one question the U.S. Supreme Court will consider during its next term. The high court plans to review Husted v. Ohio A. Philip Randolph Institute to determine whether Ohio can purge voter rolls of those who fail to cast a ballot during a six-year period and do not respond to mailed requests to confirm their voter registration.

A few dynamics are at play here. Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican who’s also running for governor, claims when he was first elected in 2011 some Ohio counties had more registered voters than adult residents—fostering potential voter fraud. If someone moves to a different state and Ohio never updates it database, that person—registered in two places—could theoretically cast more than one ballot. Since 2011, Ohio county election officials have removed 1.7 million duplicate registrations and more than 580,000 deceased voters from the state’s voter rolls, Husted claims.

If someone doesn’t respond to a mailer after two years and doesn’t vote for six years, automatically erasing him or her from the state’s voting rolls is an efficient and practical solution to maintaining an up-to-date database, said Husted, who has support from conservative legal groups.

“In total, that’s four to six years without anything happening, and if at any time during that period you contact the state or you show up to vote, it all starts over,” Robert Popper, a Judicial Watch senior attorney who filed an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court in support of Husted, told me. “It’s just not a real hardship.”

Not everyone agrees. The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio challenged the practice in 2016. President Barack Obama’s Justice Department filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to strike down the policy. The court sided with the ACLU and ordered Ohio not to purge its voter rolls ahead of the 2016 election.

“Ohio’s purge of eligible voters has served as a powerful mechanism of voter suppression,” said Freda Levenson, the ACLU of Ohio’s legal director. “We are confident that the Supreme Court will uphold the correct decision from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and will ultimately ensure that eligible Ohio voters may not be stricken from the rolls.”

Last week, the Trump administration rescinded the brief and filed a new one, joining Husted as he challenges the ruling before the Supreme Court.

President Donald Trump has a clear stake in this. In January, he claimed 3 million to 5 million people voted illegally in 2016, and then he established a federal voter fraud commission in May to prove it.

For Popper, the case isn’t really about voter fraud; it’s about a state being denied its right to ensure its voter rolls contain only eligible voters—as laid out in the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.

Popper claims voter fraud occurs every year in myriad ways, although nobody really knows to what extent and whether it has changed election outcomes.

“We don’t know. And just for the record, that is the correct answer to how much fraud occurs,” Popper told me.

The Supreme Court must figure out how to strike the right balance between Ohio’s right to keep its voter rolls up-to-date and ensure it doesn’t create undue hardship for citizens to exercise their right to vote.

A look at international religious freedom

The U.S. State Department this week released a long-awaited annual report detailing the state of international religious freedom in 2016.

By law, the State Department documents religious freedom conditions in nearly 200 countries around the world, providing useful data for the executive branch and Congress. The report is supposed to come out by May 1 each year, but officials didn’t unveil this year’s publication until Aug. 15.

I asked Ambassador Michael G. Kozak, a senior adviser in the State Department’s bureau of democracy, human rights, and labor, about the delay.

“When you’re trying to get high-level people involved in the rollout and so on, trying to get all the stars to align sometimes takes a little bit of time,” he said.

It’s notable that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson personally unveiled the report with an accompanying statement. To the delight of religious freedom advocates, Tillerson clearly labeled Islamic State as a perpetrator of genocide against religious minorities in Iraq and Syria—something the Obama administration refused to do until March 2016.

But President Donald Trump’s State Department remains significantly understaffed. Nearly 100 out of 141 key positions within the department don’t have a nominee yet. And 21 Trump nominees still need Senate confirmation before they can start their jobs, according to a list The Washington Post compiled in collaboration with the Partnership for Public Service.

One of those waiting is Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, whom Trump nominated as the ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom on July 27. The ambassador plays a key role in helping the White House address human rights violations around the world. The position has been vacant since Trump took office in January.

Daniel Mark, chairman for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), said he hopes the Senate will confirm Brownback quickly when it reconvenes in September. In April, USCIRF released its own annual report on international religious freedom. The 16 countries it listed as particularly egregious religious freedom offenders included China, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Syria.

Now that the State Department’s report is out, it has 90 days to designate nations as “countries of particular concern”—which could alter diplomatic relations and induce sanctions from Congress. For the first time, USCIRF recommended Russia as a country of particular concern for its treatment of Russian citizens and the abuse of its neighbors, Ukraine and Crimea. Mark hopes Tillerson will agree Russia should be on the list at the end of the 90-day period. —E.W.

Turning the tide in Alabama

Alabama winnowed its large pool of Senate candidates Tuesday, teeing up a contentious runoff election on Sept. 26.

Two Republicans are still standing: Roy Moore, a fiery 70-year-old former Alabama state Supreme Court justice, and Sen. Luther Strange, the former state attorney general who was named temporarily to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by former GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions after he became U.S. attorney general in February.

The runoff winner will face Democrat Doug Jones on Dec. 12. Sen. Richard Shelby was the last Democratic senator elected in the state, but he switched to the Republican Party in 1994.

President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders have a lot at stake in this race. Moore is unpredictable and wants to oust Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Strange is a McConnell ally and a reliable vote for Trump’s agenda.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee dropped $200,000 on pro-Strange media ads ahead of Tuesday’s primary. And a McConnell-friendly super PAC stands ready to spend $4 million to help Strange defeat Moore on Sept. 26.

In the days leading up to the primary, Trump repeatedly tweeted endorsements and recorded a robo call for Strange. Trump won Alabama easily in November and remains popular there. But despite Trump’s best efforts, 68 percent of Alabama GOP primary voters ignored his endorsement and voted for a candidate other than Strange. —E.W.

Bannon’s blunder

White House chief strategist Steve Bannon pulled a page out of fired communications director Anthony Scaramucci’s playbook Wednesday: calling a liberal reporter for an unsolicited rant.

On Wednesday night, the American Prospect published an interview with Bannon that surprised everyone—Bannon included.

The White House strategist called Robert Kuttner, an editor for the magazine, to talk about a story on China he enjoyed reading. Bannon then proceeded to rant openly about China, North Korea, and his enemies within the administration. And according to Axios, Bannon had no idea he was speaking on the record.

Bannon directly contradicted President Donald Trump’s “fire and fury” comments, telling Kuttner the United States has no military solution for North Korea: “Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that 10 million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s no military solution here, they got us.”

He also described his efforts to take down his rivals in the departments of Defense, State, and Treasury. Bannon said his enemies within the Trump administration are “wetting themselves.”

Rumors are already swirling that Bannon’s stint in the White House is expiring. This gaffe isn’t likely to help his standing with Trump. —E.W.

Transgender military ban on hold?

Three weeks ago, President Donald Trump declared in an unexpected tweet that transgender Americans could no longer serve in the military in any capacity. Trump’s announcement pleased many social conservatives who disagreed with the Obama administration’s openness to transgender military personnel, but the president created confusion for the Pentagon. He tweeted the policy change without coordinating the logistics with U.S. military leaders. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters on Monday he has received no direction from Trump on how to carry out the order. This leaves transgender service members untouched until further notice. “The policy is going to address whether or not transgenders can serve, under what conditions, what medical support they require, how much time would they be perhaps non-deployable, leaving others to pick up their share of everything,” Mattis said. “There’s a host of issues, and I’m learning more about this than I ever thought I would.” —E.W.