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The Latest on Right to Vote

Americans’ right to vote is being threatened on multiple fronts, primarily to the detriment of minorities and the poor. Congressional districts are gerrymandered for partisan purposes and to protect incumbents, limiting voters’ choices. The poor and minorities can be under-counted in the decennial census if the Census Bureau is not adequately funded in a timely manner, applying scientific principles. The voting rights of minorities and the poor are under assault from arbitrary registration requirements, tactics like deceptive “robocalling,” dissemination of deliberately misleading information, insufficient election equipment in minority precincts, Voter ID laws, and felon disenfranchisement. The Department of Justice, not least the Civil Rights Division, was politicized by the Bush administration, such that the Voting Rights Act has not been enforced. And of critical importance, the entire population of the District of Columbia has been denied voting representation in Congress. Therefore:

• Enact legislation to prevent the use of voter identification and other unnecessary, discriminatory tactics to suppress the vote of certain groups. Voter impersonation is in fact extremely rare. Reasonably reliable identity requirements should be permitted only for initial registration.
• Restore the statutory purpose of the Voting Rights section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, the vigorous enforcement of voting rights, investigating intimidation and other vote-suppression tactics.
• Explore executive and legislative means to promote the enfranchisement of felons who have paid their debt to society.
• Strengthen the Help America Vote Act to ensure that all eligible voters can exercise their right to vote and so every vote is accurately counted. That requires a verifiable paper trail available for a recount, as needed. Funding should be provided for states to acquire optical scan equipment, rather than insecure electronic voting units. It also requires monitoring the improper purging of voting rolls and the use of deceptive ballots.
• Make Election Day a national holiday, so work requirements do not prevent voters from exercising the franchise. It would additionally make available a larger pool of non-partisan and bi-partisan voting officials.
• Enact legislation forthwith to fully enfranchise residents of the District of Columbia. Congress should at least pass the legislation currently before Congress providing a voting Member of Congress to the District along with an extra representative for Utah.
 

Press Releases and Published Op-eds:

Take Action and Support D.C. Voting Rights, ADAction Alert Feb 25, 2009

ADA Research:

National Clearinghouse on Vote Suppression, Richard Means & Darryl Fagin

Justice Denied:  How Felony Disenfranchisement Laws Undermine American Democracy, former John Kenneth Galbraith Fellow Elizabeth Simson

Voting Reform No. 273A