Congress stalls as elections approach

With the 2008 presidential election on the horizon and massive Black voter disenfranchisement in the 2000 and 2004 elections still echoing, the House of Representatives on June 21 tabled a vote to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act (VRA), considered one of the most successful pieces of civil rights legislation.

The VRA was adopted in 1965, following a string of violent and institutionally sanctioned attacks on Black people struggling for their right to vote and their supporters, including the 1964 murder of Freedom Riders James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in Philadelphia, Miss. (See Workers World, Jan. 20, 2005.)

On March 7, 1965, a group marching from Selma, Ala., to the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery for the right to vote was brutally attacked by local and state police. The massive struggle of activists on the ground coupled with public outrage over these attacks forced Congress to pass the act.

The VRA eliminated what were then commonplace barriers to voting in many states, including literacy tests and poll taxes. It requires nine states with a history of discrimination to receive “pre-clearance” by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) before making substantial changes to voting regulations, to ensure that they are not discriminatory. Further, it authorizes federal election observers to monitor elections. Later additions to the act require states that have a certain percentage of citizens with limited English proficiency to provide language assistance and ballots in languages other than English.

Unless they are renewed, the provisions on pre-clearance, language assistance, and federal monitors and poll watchers will expire next summer. (BlackAmericaWeb.com)

The New York Times called the stalling of the bill a “rebellion,” after House and Senate leaders of both parties had gathered earlier last month “in a rare bipartisan moment to celebrate its imminent approval.” Southern Republicans, led by Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia, are complaining that the pre-clearance provision is discriminatory to the nine states it affects—Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Geor gia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.

Yet a look at recent elections shows the need for more enforcement, not less.

In 2004, the DOJ found the need to monitor primary elections in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas (www.usdoj.gov). In Mississippi, more than 100 voting changes have been objected to by the DOJ since the last time the law was extended. (BlackAmericaWeb.com).

In Georgia, a bill was initially approved in 2005 by the DOJ before being overturned by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It would have required those without state-issued photo identification to purchase a special five-year identification card, for $20, to vote. (washingtonpost.com)

Several organizations have also recently completed studies showing that discrimination—not just in the South, but throughout the U.S.—does indeed still exist. The Asian American Legal Defense and Edu cation Fund (AALDEF) testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee and submitted their report, entitled “Asian Americans and the Voting Rights Act: The Case for Reauthorization” on June 13.

The report, “a comprehensive analysis of data from multilingual voter surveys and poll monitoring results that date back to 1988,” describes how, as recently as 2004, poll workers at one site in Boston formed two separate lines—one for whites and one for people of color.

Almost 71 percent of the poll sites AALDEF monitored in New York did not have the required number of assigned Chinese and/or Korean interpreters; and large numbers of voters in New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts reported that they were improperly told by poll workers that they needed identification to vote. (aaldef.org)

A press release on the report states, “In every election AALDEF has observed since 1988, Asian American voters have reported incidents of racist behavior.”

It also notes, “The lingering effects of disparate access to education, jobs, health care, and other social services further marginalize Asian American communities from the political process.”

In a move to further marginalize immigrant communities, a smaller group 0f representatives is grumbling that providing ballots in languages other than English is unnecessary. Clay Robinson of the Hous ton Chronicle remarks, “If only they were so concerned about improving the public education opportunities for the U.S.-born descendants of immigrants.” The Waco Tribune-Herald calls English-only ballots “a literacy test of a different stripe.” It should also be noted that disenfranchisement of undocumented immigrants—who work, participate and contribute to U.S. society —is still completely legal.

As disenfranchisement of people of color seems to increase with each election, the stalling of a vote on the Voting Rights Act is yet another slap to the face of people of color. A movement like the one that forced its passage in 1965 is needed to ensure the civil rights of all.

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