Utah Civil Rights News

USCCR Briefing On Voting And Election Reform

Is America Ready To Vote? Voting Barriers, Provisional & Absentee Ballots, And Voter Enfranchisement

September 17, 2004 Briefing

In a continuing probe of potential barriers and challenges confronting voters in the November 2004 elections, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (Commission) is convening the third in a series of briefings on the status of election reform implementation and voting integrity:  The Commission will hear from Sheldon T. Bradshaw, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Justice. The Commission will conduct the voting rights briefing in Washington, D.C. on September 17, 2004.

The Commission will ask DOJ Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Sheldon T. Bradshaw to update it on DOJ's response to a written Commission request directed to Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights R. Alexander Acosta that DOJ investigate alleged federal law violations by the state of Florida in pursuing its felon purge efforts. These allegations were raised by witnesses at the Commission's July 2004 briefing on election reform issues. Specifically, the Commission will attempt to elicit a response from DOJ regarding possible violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and other civil rights laws by Florida officials.

As the second in command of DOJ's Civil Rights Division, Bradshaw is well qualified to apprise the Commission and the public of DOJ's civil rights enforcement activities in regards to voting rights. The briefing will explore barriers to the ballot box, specifically, widely reported problems with provisional and absentee balloting, implementation of voter identification requirements, voter intimidation and suppression, and poll worker preparedness. Additionally, the briefing will assess voter enfranchisement generally relating to the status of Help America Vote Act (HAVA) election reform implementation.

Recent allegations include events in Florida, where many elderly black voters have been reportedly intimidated by police officers investigating alleged absentee voting fraud; in Texas, where students at the predominately black Prairie View A&M University were threatened with arrest by the local district attorney, who erroneously suggested they were not eligible to vote in the county in which the school was located; South Dakota, where some Native American poll workers and voters asserted that voting fraud investigations were racially motivated and only served to intimidate and discourage Indian voters; and in Chicago, where problems with voter identification and provisional balloting implementation reportedly had racial implications.

The briefing panelists range from a high-ranking government official to community representatives and advocates. Joining the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, on the briefing panel are:

• Maria Valdez, Regional Counsel, Chicago, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund;
• Jacqueline Johnson, Executive Director, National Congress of American Indians; and
• Courtenay Strickland, Voting Rights Director, American Civil Liberties Union - Miami, Florida.

During the September briefing, the Commission will hear from DOJ on the status of Justice's voting rights enforcement's efforts, including its efforts at investigating and preventing instances of possible voter suppression and intimidation activities recently reported in the press. Among other things, the briefing will explore DOJ's duty to protect the civil rights of voters to legitimately cast ballots and have their votes counted, while at the same time attempting to preserve the integrity of elections nationwide.

The Commission will also hear from representatives of national organizations, including Valdez and Johnson, who will give presentations regarding voting issues and concerns facing their respective communities, and the nation as a whole. They will discuss problems in recent elections that negatively impacted voters in Latino and Native American communities across the country. Both Valdez and Johnson will primarily focus their presentations on issues of voter intimidation/suppression, identification requirements, and provisional/absentee balloting. Specifically, both panelists will assess the recent change instituted under HAVA that requires new voters to present identification at the polling sites, as well as charges that state identification requirements have been used to discourage voting in communities of color.

Strickland will discuss the impact of precinct based provisional balloting in Florida, as well as nationally. The purpose of the provisional ballot alternative, federally mandated by HAVA, is to avoid disenfranchising voters and allowing their votes to count as recorded votes if elections officials confirm eligibility. However, precinct based provisional balloting in Florida and other states with similar legislation, may have transformed the spirit of this progressive reform aimed at protecting the right to vote into a scheme to disenfranchise voters.

September's briefing is the third in a series of briefings held by the Commission examining America's readiness to vote. On April 9, 2004, the Commission convened technology experts and others to discuss issues regarding the security of high-technology voting systems; uniform voter identification requirements; and voter accessibility to polling places and machines. The panelists concluded that election reform should be implemented with the following provisions: equal access to the ballot for all voters; second chance voting and voter verification; compliance with national certification standards; and irrefutable electronic voting security that achieves the purpose for which the solution is being offered.

In conjunction with its April briefing, the Commission prepared an election readiness briefing paper titled Is America Ready to Vote? The briefing paper described the Commission's findings and recommendations on election vulnerabilities following the 2000 presidential election; the implementation of HAVA; the national election reform inadequacies and potential pitfalls still facing the country; and the status of electronic voting system reform. The Commission's briefing paper was updated in July to reflect election reform and voting integrity developments, and can be found on the web at www.usccr.gov.

The Commission's second briefing, which took place on July 15, 2004, explored HAVA implementation issues, including: electronic voting system standards, the accountability and reliability of electronic voting, voter list maintenance, poll worker training and voter education, and felony purge and felon disenfranchisement. The panelists discussed the widely reported problems facing Florida voters due to glaring inaccuracies in the state's purge list of suspected felons, which eventually caused the list to be invalidated by Florida's Secretary of State. During the July briefing, it came to light that the state of Florida was aware of the potential inaccuracies and over-inclusiveness of the list, which would have served to disenfranchise numerous legitimate voters if implemented.

COMMISSION'S WORK ON VOTING RIGHTS ISSUES

The Commission is a bipartisan, fact-finding agency established by Congress to investigate complaints alleging that citizens are being deprived of their right to vote by reason of their race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or by reason of fraudulent practices; to appraise the laws and policies of the United States; and to serve as a national clearinghouse for information pertaining to discrimination or denials of the equal protection of the laws based on race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, national origin, or in the administration of justice. The Commission is also required by law to submit reports to the President and Congress at such times as the Commission, the Congress, or the President shall deem desirable.

Consequently, addressing voting rights issues has been a core responsibility for the Commission since it was founded in 1957. The Commission has broad authority over voting rights, and general jurisdiction to examine allegations regarding the rights of U.S. citizens to vote and to have their vote counted. Since 1957, the fact-finding that the Commission has conducted in the fulfillment of this duty has resulted in more than a dozen national, and numerous more local and regional reports on voting rights and political participation.

In 2001, pursuant to its authority, and fulfilling its obligations, the Commission examined evidence from the controversial 2000 elections. Based on reports of widespread voter disenfranchisement in Florida, the Commission was asked to go to Florida, to conduct investigations based upon a unanimous vote. The fact-finding included three days of hearings and sworn testimony from witnesses - among them, state officials, local elections officials, county supervisors, poll workers, and registered voters. Nationwide, the Commission also probed accounts of problematic machinery, and subsequently issued two reports documenting its findings, (1) Voting Irregularities in Florida During the 2000 Presidential Election, and (2) Election Reform: An Analysis of Proposals and the Commission's Recommendations for Improving America's Election System. Both of these reports can be found on the web at www.usccr.gov.

The Commission found that the problems in Florida and elsewhere were serious and not isolated. In many cases, they were foreseeable and could have been prevented. The failure to resolve election system flaws resulted in an extraordinarily high level of disenfranchisement.

Disenfranchised voters are individuals who are entitled to vote, want to vote, or attempt to vote, but who are deprived from either voting or having their votes counted. Among many other problems, the Commission documented (1) failure of leadership and accountability from those with responsibility for ensuring elections are properly planned and executed; (2) inadequate resources for voter education, training of poll workers, and for Election Day trouble-shooting and problem solving; (3) inferior voting equipment and/or ballot design; (4) poorly designed and executed registration and purge procedures; (5) inconsistency among state laws for re-enfranchising former offenders who have paid their debts to society; and (6) lack of provisions for voters with disabilities or who need language assistance.

The Commission also gave testimony before the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. Through these actions and others, the Commission urged Congress to consider its recommendations and to legislatively articulate the duties of federal and state governments to promote the exercise of the right to vote. In 2002, HAVA was enacted to reduce the dire consequences that the Commission and others had documented. This national election reform law included many of the Commission's recommendations.

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	Did You Know?
	In EEOC guidelines, minority is used to mean four particular groups who share a race, color or national origin