ACLU of Northern California Files Amicus Brief Supporting State's Challenge to Shasta County's Illegal Measure B That Would Make it Harder for Eligible Voters to Cast Ballots

The ACLU of Northern California and the law firm Cooley LLP have filed an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit by the State of California to invalidate Shasta County's Measure B — a measure on the November ballot that would gut vote-by-mail, eliminate early voting, require photo ID at the polls, and mandate hand-counting of ballots.

More than 85% of Shasta County residents cast mail ballots. Measure B would take that option away from nearly all of them. If it were to become law, only the "infirm," military members, and U.S. citizens living overseas could still vote absentee.

Seniors, people with disabilities, rural residents who live far from polling places, and working people who can't take time off on a single Election Day to vote in person would lose their primary means of exercising their right to vote.

"Measure B would strip away the way more than 85 percent of Shasta County residents already vote, replacing it with a single Election Day that would disenfranchise countless eligible voters,” said Grayce Zelphin, a senior attorney at the ACLU of Northern California. "Local governments don’t get to write their own voter ID laws. The courts and the legislature have already settled this question.”

Voting is a fundamental right. Measure B doesn't strengthen election integrity as its supporters claim — it erects barriers to vote and disenfranchises eligible voters.

With the November midterm election approaching, we urge the court to act swiftly to strike down Measure B and protect every eligible voter's access to the ballot.

The ACLU has mounted a full-court press to protect the vote amid an onslaught of voter suppression tactics in California and across the country. We have filed lawsuits to block the Trump administration from illegally seizing our California voter records. And we’ve organized with our coalition partners to defeat Prop 39 – a statewide November ballot measure proposed by Trump allies that would institute a new voter ID law. If passed, it would disenfranchise millions of voters across the state.

Measure B is straight out of the same anti-democratic playbook.

Attorney General Rob Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber originally filed California’s lawsuit in the Third District Court of Appeal.

It is now proceeding in Shasta County Superior Court after the appellate court determined it should first be heard at the trial level.

Read our amicus brief here.