Just over a week before 46th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act—a cornerstone to civil rights and democratic access to all Americans—The Nation’s editor Katrina vandal Heuvel examines the partisan-driven effort to backpedal into a democracy run on fear and exclusivity.
Regressive election bills have sparked controversy across the nation, no doubt the result of the looming 2012 elections. These bills gained traction in Republican-dominated states in an alleged effort to combat “voter fraud.” But, the more these laws branch out into every element of voter access, the more the public questions the integrity behind these measures.
“There are only two explanations for such action,” writes vanden Heuvel in a Washington Post opinion piece today. “Either Republican governors and state legislators are genuinely trying to protect the public from rampant voter fraud, or they are trying to disenfranchise the Americans most likely to vote against them. The latter would run so egregiously counter to democratic values — to American values — that one hopes the former was the motivation.”
However, there is mounting evidence of the contrary, says vanden Heuvel and Nation writer, John Nichols.
For example, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) “is a corporate-funded organization that works with state legislators to draft model legislation,” with a primary goal to enact “burdensome photo ID or proof of citizenship requirements.”
ALEC’s Wisconsin chair is also one of the supporters of the state’s new restrictive photo ID law that goes into effect in January. Also to go into effect in January is the closing of several Wisconsin DMVs in an alleged effort to slash the state budget. But progressive blogger, Karoli writes that this is a thinly veiled attempt to disenfranchise a large portion of Wisconsin’s Latino and African-American residents, who would be required to take their own time and money to obtain a photo ID at the DMV. This may be even more difficult to do now that the state plans to close at least seven DMV offices that are “conveniently located in Democratic districts.”
Partisan politics are also brewing in North Carolina, where House leaders are trying to override Gov. Beverly Perdue’s veto of photo ID legislation this week, “ready to risk defeat on one of the most politically divisive issues raised by the General Assembly’s new GOP majority,” reports the Associated Press.
If the override vote fails to get three-fifths majority, the bill will die until after the 2012 elections.
Photo ID is not the only method of restricting access to the ballot. States like Florida have also passed laws to hinder third-party voter registration drives and even cut early voting hours. Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson is leading a series of rallies in Florida challenging this new law.
“Critics of the new law, including the League of Women Voters, say it is designed to make registering to vote and casting ballots more difficult for minorities and low-income voters, who typically vote Democratic,” writes Dara Kam at the Palm Beach Post blog, Post Politics.
“The law imposes strict regulation of third-party registration groups, including requiring that they turn in registration forms within 48 hours after they are signed. Minority and low-income voters are more likely to register through the third-party groups, said Washington-based Project Vote lawyer Estelle Rogers.”
Project Vote and the ACLU of Florida are among several civil and voting rights groups to challenge the Florida law.
“It’s bad enough that Florida’s legislature passed this bill and the Governor signed it. Now they want to enforce it even before it can legally go into effect,” said Rogers in a recent press release. “Project Vote believes that the preclearance process must be allowed to work as the law requires, and we are suing to make sure this happens.”