Cross-Posted at Project Vote's Voting Matter's Blog Weekly Voting Rights News Update
by Erin Ferns
Last week we wrote about how partisan-fueled voter fraud rumors are leading election reform debates, potentially changing the way many Americans vote in future elections. With at least one state swiftly moving a bill to require all voter applicants to present proof of citizenship before registering to vote, and another strongly supporting the passage of voter ID, the threat of voter disenfranchisement looms ahead.
Cross-Posted at Project Vote's Voting Matter's Blog Weekly Voting Rights News Update
by Erin Ferns
As we predicted last December, legislation designed to prevent so-called voter fraud has dominated election law debates in several states this year. Last week alone, Georgia's controversial voter ID law was upheld by a federal appeals panel, the Texas Senate "sparked deep partisan tensions" by eliminating the majority rule in order to aid the passage of a voter ID law, and nine more states introduced numerous voter ID bills.
The 2008 presidential election was an inspiration for many citizens to take part in the American democratic process, including first-time voter and convicted felon Eric Stephen Willems of Minnesota. Unfortunately, that vote cost Willems, who was on probation, a trip back to jail, according to the Associated Press last week.
After the U.S. Supreme Court upheld one of the country's strictest voter ID laws in April, several states rushed to pass similar bills before the year's end. By December, more than 25 states introduced legislation to require voter ID at the polls. Though none of these bills were successful this year, lawmakers in several states are hoping to revive such restrictive requirements in 2009.
Since July of this year, at least seven states have pre-filed or carried over voter ID legislation for the 2009-2010 sessions, including Nevada, Maryland, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.
Over 1.3 million new low-income, minority, and young Americans registered nationwide!
Yesterday, as voter registration deadlines passed in most states, Project Vote, the nation's leading nonpartisan voter participation organization, and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the country's largest community organization, held a news conference to announce the completion of a joint nonpartisan voter registration drive, which has succeeded in helping over 1.3 million Americans register to vote. To listen to the conference in its entirety, please click here
We spend a lot of time in these news updates showing how charges of voter fraud are used to discredit voter participation efforts and prime the pump for voter suppression efforts, such as the passage of voter ID bills, pushing for proof of citizenship, engaging in draconian voter purge efforts, and imposing sever restrictions on voter registration drives. We have also spent a lot of time carefully delineating the politics behind these efforts, starting with our March 2007 report The Politics Of Voter Fraud and continuing on in these diaries to name but two venues.
(Impressive news for those who have worked with or used Project Vote. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
Those who read our diaries know Project Vote as the organization that fights voter suppression and helps election protection efforts. What you may not know is that in addition to being on the frontlines in the fight for voter rights, Project Vote is also the largest voter registration organization in the United States.
Since 2003 over one-third of all registration applications submitted through voter registration drives in the U.S. have come through Project Vote. In 2003-04 we submitted 1.13 million applications, in 2006 just over 547,000, and by Friday we will collect our 1,000,000th registration for 2007-08. Half of our registrants are under 30, and almost all of them are African-Americans or Latinos. One-third of them have never registered before in their lives.
With one month left in the drive we have 270,000 more registrations to collect and you can help!
This diary is cross-posted from Project Vote's Daily Kos entry and our own blog, Voting Matters.
Weekly Voting Rights News Update
By Erin Ferns
As we count down to the new year - a time when the Supreme Court will weigh-in on the voter ID debate and we will cast ballots for the next president of the United States - Texas lawmakers continue to aggressively present the alleged issue of non-citizens voting. This week, voter ID was added to the list of topics to be studied by the House State Affairs Committee for the 2009 legislative session, an action deemed a partisan ploy to reintroduce the "discriminatory and divisive" legislation of 2007. Stirring the so-called voter fraud plot in Texas to greater heights, a coalition of legislators requested Secretary of State Phil Wilson "implement more stringent proof of citizenship requirements before casting a ballot in Texas" in November 2008.
Today is the first day of early voting across the state. It is the first day that few Texans will venture outside to vote on another constitutional amendment or have a voice in how their cities are run.
If we are lucky, by the end of early voting, 5% of Texans will use the powers of democracy, and yet today, Republicans will try to restrict the power to vote even more.
Project Vote has been working on this issue nationally, and the newly founded True Courage Action Network (TCAN) has been a rallying point here in Texas. Project Vote has put together a must read on the Politics of Voter Fraud. The key findings of the report make it clear how unnecessary this bill is.
During the study, 2002 - 2005, nationally only 24 people were convicted or pled guilty to voter fraud. As we pointed out when they first began this debate last Monday:
HB 626 would literally end voter registration drives and registration by mail as we know them today by requiring every person who registers to provide a certified copy (not a photocopy) of a birth certificate ($23), citizenship papers ($200) or a passport, mailed in a business reply envelope if not presented in person. By requiring a "certified" copy instead of a photocopy, the days of voter registration tables, door-to-door voter registration and registration by mail would be over.
Best case scenario, this is legislation for the sake of legislation. Worst case scenario, Republicans don't want people to vote.
HB626's "proof of citizenship" requirements would end Voter Registration as we know it today by ending postcard registration, including federal postcard registration, which may violate the National Voter Registration Act. Thousands register to vote at businesses and community centers and in door to door registration drives every election year. Most do not carry around "proof of citizenship" documents, and requiring registrations to be submitted via business reply envelope holding "proof of citizenship" documents means an end to voter registration drives.
The mainstream media has been paying attention to this coup on democracy too.
"House Bill 626 by Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, may be worse still. It would require every applicant for a voter registration card to prove his and her citizenship. That is, you would have to show a certified birth certificate - not a copy - or passport to register to vote. The bills pushed by Brown and King further that effort to shrink the number of voters in Texas to better gain advantage for Republicans, particularly incumbents."
Editorial, Austin American Statesman, April 26, 2007
"A second bill, sponsored by Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, would require applicants for voter registration cards to provide a certified copy of a document providing proof of citizenship. Many qualified voters do not have ready access to such documents… It would also undercut bipartisan voter registration drives because of the difficulty in assembling such documentation."
Editorial, Houston Chronicle, April, 26, 2007
It's not too late to do something. Kuff has a targeted list of swing votes provided by TCAN. You can also contact your representative, and tell them to vote against HB 626.
Today is your day to defend democracy from itself.
