Tag Archives: voting rights

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Walking Backwards In Indian Wells

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In 2006, the Schwarzenegger campaign uncorked an ad almost immediately after the primaries showing Phil Angelides walking backwards, the assumption being that he would take the state backwards as well.  One of the ads liberally quoted Angelides’ rival for the Democratic nomination, Steve Westly, using the bruising primary against the winner.  “What if Steve Westly was right?” the announcer says, after citing Westly’s rhetoric in claiming that Angelides favored $10 billion in new taxes.  Steve Westly wrote most of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s early strategy and even his campaign spots, as Angelides was defined by his opponent swiftly.

Steve Poizner basically bestowed the same gift on eMeg Whitman over the weekend.  The ads about Whitman’s failure to register to vote for 28 years write themselves, but Poizner took the liberty of making the ad.  If Republicans know how to do one thing well, it’s go hard negative, and this ad will probably be very effective to the GOP primary audience.  It will also be effective as a “here’s what Republicans say about Meg Whitman” ad next year, should see prevail in the primary.  Poizner actually reiterated his call for Whitman to drop out of the race “for the good of the party” over the weekend at the Republican convention in Indian Wells.  The issue received major pickup throughout the media.  

And Whitman did herself no favors at all with some of the worst damage control you’ll see in politics, as she repeated like a mantra this line about how “there is no excuse for my voting record,” completely avoiding any specifics about why.  If she manages to win the primary, expect to hear this audio right through to next November.  It’s cringe-worthy.

I’m guessing the Republican Governor’s Association just tried to pull back their invitation to Meg Whitman to come to any of their gala events.

This is terrible crisis management, of course.  And it suggests that the general election would be no kinder on eMeg.  But it’s not like the split in the US Senate race, with serial non-voter Carlyfornia going up against wingnut conservative Chuck DeVore (The LA Times gets this wrong by trying to impose a blanket comparison).  The Yacht Party grassroots has figured out that they have no candidate in the Republican primary, and regardless of who wins they probably won’t be all that excited to work for the top of the ticket.

For activists such as Mike Spence, past president of the conservative California Republican Assembly, such centrist talk inspires unease following what they said was Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s betrayal of the Republican base.

Spence called the Republican governor a failure and blasted him for breaking his promises to conservatives by, among other things, approving the biggest tax increase in state history earlier this year. Schwarzenegger has also championed traditionally liberal causes such as Assembly Bill 32, which requires the state to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by about 25 percent by 2020.

“After the governor, people are cautious about who they support,” Spence said.

Of course, this could be true of the Democratic grassroots as well, depending on circumstances.  I think the only certainty in next year’s elections will be the low turnout, as a slice of both sides stay home for their own reasons.  But the Yacht Party’s cast of characters look particularly uninspiring.

California

States Move to Create Culture of Voter Engagement through Preregistration

By Erin Ferns

The rising levels of voter participation among the nation’s youth continue to be challenged by the current voter registration system, perpetuating the difficulty of fostering lifelong voters. Some states are proposing to take this challenge into their own hands by making voter registration accessible to citizens as young as 16. Already widely accessible at schools and departments of motor vehicles, the move would allow future voters in some states to automatically be enrolled on the voter rolls on their 18th birthdays, a change that advocates say could “close the registry gap between young voters and the rest of the population.”  

California and Rhode Island are among the states that have introduced legislation permitting 16- and 17-year-old citizens to register to vote in advance of their 18th birthdays. Rhode Island bills, SB 85 and HB 5005 show promise to pass the legislature – a prospect that is nothing new to the state, which has passed such bills three years in a row only to have them vetoed by the governor, according to research and advocacy group, Fair Vote.

“It’s good public policy to get young people involved as early as possible in the democratic process,” said Fair Vote Rhode Island Director Matt Sledge in Brown University’s Daily Herald last week. The preregistration bill, he said, would “close the registry gap between young voters and the rest of the population.”

Today, multiple states allow certain citizens under age 18 to preregister to vote, including Rhode Island and California. However, Hawaii and Florida are the only states to have enacted dedicated preregistration laws that permit all citizens as young as 16 to register to vote, which advocates argue is the best way to incorporate youth into the democratic process.

Institutionalizing preregistration not only makes it easier to conduct and participate in voter registration activities on high school campuses and DMVs since it captures more young people before they graduate, but it also helps “boost the effectiveness of civics education by tying it directly to civic participation through the opportunity to preregister,” according to a Fair Vote report. The report further notes that “uniform” preregistration laws, like those in Hawaii and Florida, help alleviate general voter registration ills by acting as a “cost-effective step toward greater standardization, which means a cleaner, more accurate data set. Pre-registration could also save money and minimize human error by allowing students to register year round at points of civic engagement and education…”

Advocates say California is a prime place to engage and enfranchise its diverse population, which is “especially apparent in high schools today.” According to a 2007 proposal for preregistration in California by the public policy group, New America Foundation, “if young people are not hooked into democratic institutions and practices while they’re in high school, it becomes more difficult to do so after they leave high school.”

The group emphasized that young people become more difficult to “contact or engage” directly after high school, resulting in a “‘disengagement cycle’ that becomes increasingly difficult to break. High school, in many cases, is the final opportunity to fully engage young people about participating in our democracy. Having common sense practices for engaging young people in high school is crucial. One of the most effective efforts is to lower the age for voter registration to sixteen.”

Although California has yet to pass a bill to lower the voter registration age to 16, there is still an effort underway. Last week, preregistration bill AB 30 was reported favorably out of committee last week. It is now pending in the Assembly committee on Appropriations.

California and Rhode Island also show that they are on the right track toward engaging young people by mandating schools to serve as voter registration agencies or to facilitate drives on campus, both effective ways to facilitate civic engagement through education. The next step is to combine those good laws with legislation to lower the “effective engagement age” in order to capture more future voters while helping standardize the voter registration system in general.

Rhode Island senator and sponsor of SB 85, Rhoda Perry agrees that preregistration would “get more people involved in the civic process,” the Brown Daily Herald reported. The only problem with the bill, she said, is that “the governor vetoes it.” There is hope for future voters in Rhode Island, however, as preregistration is increasing gaining support in the legislature, a change that Perry said may be just enough to override the governor’s veto.

To monitor youth voting bills in these states, visit www.electionlegislation.orgor subscribe to the weekly Election Legislation digest, featuring election bills in all 50 states, by emailing Erin Ferns at eferns [at] projectvote.org.  

California, Orange County

Voters Eager to Have A Stake in Historical Election: Early Voting Predicts Strong Turnout Tuesday

Cross-posted at Project Vote’s blog, Voting Matters

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

In the last two weeks voter registration and early voting has shown that voters are geared up and ready to take part in what has been called a “historical event” on November 4.

Last week, voters scrambled to register at drive-thru election office windows in Southern California, busy street corners in Wichita, Kansas, and post-naturalization ceremonies in Los Angeles County. These efforts to meet the Oct. 20 registration deadlines in some states are seen as evidence of a surge in voter registration among historically underrepresented communities, including newly naturalized Latino and Asian citizens, and Black voters as well as formerly disenfranchised ex-felons.

This week, early vote turnout gave a sneak peek at what voters and election officials can expect at the polls on Tuesday, and it’s “going to be busy as heck” said one official in Orange County, Calif., where registration rates went up 15 percent since 2004. To accommodate the high turnout, which is expected to exceed “the recent high-water mark in voter participation set in 2004,” some states are taking precautionary measures, adding new machines and even extending early voting.

Experts predict “huge turnout” of as much as 132 million people, or 60.4 to 62.9 percent of eligible voters this year, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The last presidential election brought 60.7 percent of eligible voters to the polls, “the highest since 1968, when 61.9 percent cast ballots.” Election officials in many states, including Ohio, Arizona, New Mexico, and Minnesota, have predicted turnout as high as 80 percent.

“We are going to have long lines,” with some states expecting voting machine shortages, according to Curtis Gans, director of the Center for the Study of the American Electorate. “But long lines in this election, as in 2004, are not going to deter people from voting, because of the emotional context of this election. They didn’t deter people in 1992 or in 2004, and they’re not going to deter people now.”

Managing long lines has already been a point of contention in key states. In Georgia, voters waited four to five hours to cast early ballots on Wednesday, in spite of last minute changes Tuesday to reduce the eight hour waits voters encountered on Monday, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. A combination of “high turnout, staff and equipment shortages and state computer problems slowed the process.”

Like Gans predicted, however, these issues are not stopping voters from showing up at the polls bright and early.

“It’s a historical event and I want to be part of it,” said Hampton, Ga. voter, Dara Christian, who arrived at her precinct to be second in line shortly after 5 a.m. on Wednesday. According to a Tuesday AJC report, a million ballots had already been cast during more limited voting in the last few weeks. And about 125,095 of those were cast as of Tuesday night.

While officials in various counties addressed some of the problems by supplying extra equipment and staff, according Tuesday’s AJC report, the Democratic Party and election officials are still pleading with Secretary of State Karen Handel to extend early voting in order to support high turnout, including state Democratic Party chairwoman Jane Kidd and DelKalb County Commissioner Lee May.

“It is not my intention to lay blame on any particular, person or body of government,” May wrote in a letter to Handel and Ga. Governor Sonny Perdue. “It is my desire that we don’t inadvertently squelch the desire of so many Georgians to participate in the political process.”

“Handel said Tuesday that Georgia law doesn’t include a mechanism to allow her or Perdue to extend early voting,” according to AJC. Handel said that even if she could allow the extension, it would be a “logistical disaster,” dismissing Kidd’s plea an “orchestrated effort of that political party across the country.”

In Florida, on the other hand, after record turnout Monday,Governor Charlie Crist listened to similar concerns and signed an order to extend early voting hours  to 12 hours a day, over the objections of Secretary of State Kurt Browning, according to the Miami Herald.

“It’s not a political decision,” said Crist, a Republican. “It’s a people decision.”

In Broward and Miami-Dade counties alone, more than 43,000 people cast their votes Monday, “roughly 5,000 more than on any other previous day.”

Other efforts to help ensure Election Day runs smoothly for voters are underway, including the National Campaign for Fair Elections’ hotline, 1-866-OURVote. The line has already received up to 4,000 calls a day, according to New York Times blog, The Caucus. The group plans to have 20 call centers set up around the country by Tuesday with a capacity of handling 100,000 calls on Election Day.

“The notion behind the non-partisan National Campaign phone line is that if problems erupt at polling places on Election Day, the group will have lawyers at the ready to respond to the complaints,” the Times reports.

“So far, most calls have been from voters experiencing problems with their registration along with those trying to locate their polling place, according to Ken Smukler, president of InfoVoter Technologies, the Bala Cynwyd, Pa.company that which manages the call system.”

Among those who will benefit from the voter protection hotline and other precautions learned are the large numbers of new voters around the country. Since 2004, voter registration rose 15 percent in Orange County, Calif. where citizens were allowed to register at a drive-thru elections office window last week, according to the Associated Press. Alabama has 76,000 new voters since 2004, two thirds of whom are African-American, according to the Mobile Register-Press. Last week, two thousand voters registered on a street corner in Kansas, about a quarter of whom were ex-felons who until then thought they were ineligible to vote, according to MSNBC. Newly naturalized Latino and Asian citizens in Los Angeles County doubled last year’s registration rate with 64,000 new voters this year, according to the Los Angeles Times. Up until last week, community groups were “walking precincts, conducting phone banks, holding forums, and distributing multilingual voter guides” to help new citizens become a part of the democratic process.

Historically, Latino, Asian, and African-American citizens have registered and voted at alarmingly lower rates than their White counterparts. In 2006, just 41 percent of African-Americans and 32 percent of Asians and Latinos, respectively, voted in the midterm election compared to 52 percent of Whites, according to Project Vote report, Representational Bias of the 2006 Electorate.  But that may just be changing this year.

“We want people to know we’re here and our next generation is going to be very important in the process,” said recently naturalized citizen, Carlos Romero in the Los Angeles Times.

In Other News:

In Ohio, Wary Eyes On Election Process: Fears of Fraud and Blocked Votes – Washington Post

CLEVELAND — With Ohio still up for grabs in next week’s presidential election, the conversation here has expanded from who will carry the state to how — the nitty-gritty of registration lists, voting machines, court challenges and whether it all will play out fairly.

Provisional Ballots Get Uneven Treatment – Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON — Provisional ballots, one of the fixes the government implemented following the disputed 2000 election, are often proving to be a poor substitute for the real thing.

Erin Ferns is a Research and Policy Analyst with Project Vote.

California

Veterans Advocates Skeptical Of New V.A. Registration Policies

Cross-posted at Project Vote’s blog, Voting Matters

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

We recently wrote about the Department of Veterans Affairs decision to open its facilities to voter registration drives after months of urging by voting rights groups and elected officials. This week, however, “VA voter suppression continues,” as AlterNet’s Steven Rosenfeld wrote Tuesday, with voter registration efforts being blocked in California and the VA general counsel criticizing the pending Veterans Voting Support Act (S. 3308), which would bolster federal protection of voter registration opportunities for all wounded veterans. With just three weeks left to register voters in most states, advocates say now is the time to support voter registration efforts in VA facilities and, most importantly, it needs to be explicitly protected from now on through federal law.

“Credibility of VA on this issue is very low right now,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. during a hearing on the Veterans Voting Support Act on Monday, according to Rick Maze of the Army Times. VA general counsel Paul Hutter says that the VA is being “proactive” in working with election officials and nonprofit groups to facilitate voter registration, but that “VA still believes that some limits are needed.”

These limits were enforced this week at a San Francisco VA facility when the nonprofit group Veterans for Peace was blocked from helping register voters in time for the 2008 presidential election. According to Rosenfeld, the group filed a legal motion in California federal court Monday, claiming that VA was trying to require Veterans for Peace members to go through the same screening process that VA volunteers must go through – a process that would delay registration efforts. “In contrast, the VA does not require screening for most other visitors,” Rosenfeld says.

Citing testimony from the Senate Rules and Administration hearing on S. 3308, the motion notes that of the 5.5 million patients in VA facilities, volunteers registered only 350 patients and 64 outpatients. “Those statistics show the VA’s internal process of screening volunteers who are then approved to register voters has had the effect of suppressing the vote of injured veterans in 2008,” writes  Rosenfeld.

As VA voter registration is administered solely at the whim of the VA itself, advocates warn that, without a federal mandate to provide voter registration and information to the nation’s wounded veterans, their right to vote could easily be lost. “VA can easily reverse course, again, and issue another policy banning voting assistance,” or could “easily fail to implement their new policy,” says Veterans for Common Sense executive director and S. 3308 supporter, Paul Sullivan.

Hutter claims a broad interpretation of the proposed law would open VA facilities as a voter registration agency to the public, potentially disrupting VA facilities and invading privacy of patients. Feinstein says that the intent of the bill is not to serve the public and that she is willing to make amendments.

“However, she did not see disruption as a major problem,” Maze writes, “because setting up a voter registration drive could be as simple as putting a table in the lobby of a hospital or clinic.”

In a recent New York Times report announcing the new VA policy, writer Ian Urbina quotes Sen. Feinstein: “Given the sacrifices that the men and women who have fought in our armed services have made, providing easy access to voter registration services is the very least we can do.”

The companion bill to S. 3308, H.R. 6625 passed the House by voice vote on Wednesday.

Quick Links:

S 3308: Veterans Voting Support Act

Senate Committee on Rules and Administration

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

H.R. 6625: Veterans Voting Support Act

Rep. Robert A. Brady, D-Penn.

Veterans for Peace

Veterans for Common Sense

In Other News:

Voter Database Glitches Could Disenfranchise Thousands – Wired

Electronic voting machines have been the focus of much controversy the last few years. But another election technology has received little scrutiny yet could create numerous problems and disenfranchise thousands of voters in November, election experts say.

Ohio Republicans Use Lawsuit To Fight for State’s Crucial Votes – Wall Street Journal

The Ohio Republican Party spearheaded a lawsuit Friday over a directive from the office of Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner that would allow some early voters to register and vote on the same day.

Democrats accuse state GOP of hypocrisy – Wisconsin State Journal

Democratic Party Chairman Joe Wineke said Monday it was hypocritical for Republicans to defend mistakes in their mailing databases while pursuing a lawsuit over the state’s flawed voter registration system.

ACLU: Mississippi felons denied voting rights – Associated Press

JACKSON – Convicted felons in Mississippi are denied their constitutional right to vote in presidential elections, the American Civil Liberties Union alleges in a federal lawsuit filed Friday.

Erin Ferns is a Research and Policy Analyst with Project Vote’s Strategic Writing and Research Department (SWORD).

Uncategorized

Stopping Voter Suppression: The Press Gets It Right in Virginia

Cross-posted at Project Vote’s blog, Voting Matters

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns and Nathan Henderson-James

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.  

What is striking about how the process of disenfranchisement and voter suppression works is how much it relies upon the media to repeat and amplify the breathless and hyperbolic accusations of so-called voter fraud against voter registration drives. If journalists were to spend any time at all investigating the sensational claims – often made by people with a direct partisan interest in the outcome of an election –  they would find that the accusations are mostly taken out of context, are limited to a few instances, and have never, ever, been proven to have resulted in any fraudulent vote being cast.

Sadly, the history of this issue shows that it has been bereft of this kind of basic journalism, even through the 2006 mid-term elections. This is important because haphazard reporting of partisan claims of voter fraud without checking the facts is how the media helps these voter suppression efforts. These stories not only deter potential voters from getting on the rolls, but, as noted above, inspire bad election reforms aimed at disenfranchising voters, particularly those that are currently underrepresented in the electorate.

A prime example of this kind of lazy journalism in recent weeks comes from Las Vegas where local reporters simply repeated accusations of fraud made by the Clark County clerk against ACORN without even bothering to contact ACORN to see how their drive was being managed.  

The group’s registration drive has reached one million voters nationwide [Full disclosure – it is run under a Joint Effort Agreement with Project Vote. ed.] and, according to one article, election officials see “rampant fraud” in the 2,000 3,000 cards submitted by the group each week in Las Vegas. This week, the Associated Press reported that the state set up a “voter fraud task force” to look for “election irregularities and instances of questionable voter registration and intimidation,” directly citing issues with voter registration drives.  Neither of these Nevada reports provided the facts of voter fraud, what it is and how it relates to the voter registration process. Most importantly, neither reports cite real examples of the intentional casting of an illegal ballot – the real definition of voter fraud – in the state.

However, it may be that the hard work Project Vote and others – including the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, DEMOS, and the Advancement Project – have engaged in over the past few years debunking the voter fraud myth is beginning to change the way journalists approach these stories.

This week, several publications broke this trend by debunking recent Virginia GOP allegations of widespread voter fraud as a result of massive voter registration drives that primarily target youth, low income and minority communities – constituencies that have a long history of being underrepresented on the voting rolls and in the voting booth.

Since the beginning of the year, an unprecedented 147,000 people – “almost half under the age of 25” – registered to vote in Virginia, according to Monday’s Washington Post lead editorial. Pointing to a recent incident where three members of the Community Voting Project were arrested for falsifying voter registration cards, Republican Party chairman, Del. Jeffrey Frederick of Prince William County claims widespread voter fraud is a hidden agenda in voter registration drives.

Remarkably, however, this time the press decided to investigate this inflammatory accusation. This charge is “utterly baseless” and is “unsupported by election officials, police or prosecutors,” the Post notes in the editorial. In fact, the Post described the accusation as an exercise in “fear mongering” by Frederick, amplified by his allegations that citizens who register with these drives are also vulnerable to identity theft, a claim that amounts to nothing more than “a classic attempt to suppress votes,” the Post editorialized.

Bob Bauer, at his Web site, www.MoreSoftMoneyHardLaw.com, takes the critique one step further, looking at both the accusations and the Post’s coverage. “And the Post omits mention of another feature of Fredericks’ suppression gambit,” wrote the election law attorney. “He also called for an ‘investigation,’ well understanding that his words would creep into the press on his remarks and filter out into the electorate.”

In a prime example of the kind of journalism that should happen as a matter of course when these kinds of serious allegations are made, a Virginia reporter for the Danville Register & Bee reached out to local registrars to get a real idea of the voter registration process and how unlikely it is to lead to voter fraud.

“‘It’s not easy to falsely register somebody,’ said Pittsylvania County Registrar Jenny Saunders, who explained that in addition to the registrar going over the application for obvious errors (like missed questions), there’s a statewide database all applications are checked against.”

Partisans out for political gain perpetuate fear about the integrity of the election system, something that the media often picks up unfiltered. “In fact,” the Post wrote, “it is groundless accusations and cynical fear-mongering such as Mr. Frederick’s that are injecting the real venom, and the true threat, into the elections.

Below are some important facts to consider when writing (or reading) reports on voter registration fraud:

Voter Registration Drives Rev up in Presidential Election Years

The fact that young people and minorities are expanding the voting rolls this year does not indicate that something is awry with voter registration drives. Indeed, most large-scale drives target those populations least represented in the electorate. Further, in high interest election years, especially presidential, more people are motivated to help register voters or get registered themselves. Stories about so-called voter fraud should be evaluated in terms of the number of cards thought to be fraudulent versus the total number of cards the registration drive is gathering. In Virginia, a handful of fake cards were found in a drive that could register more than 30,000 people.

Voter Registration Fraud Does Not Lead to Voter Fraud

“We have the checks and balances…to makes sure the wrong person doesn’t get registered and the right person does,” said Va. election official, Saunders in the Register & Bee.

Further, professionally-run drives expect almost a third of all applications to be duplicates or incomplete, no matter how well-trained the canvasser or volunteers are. This does not mean they are all illegal. However, the registrar is required to ensure all applications contain accurate information “including whether the applicant is a citizen, their Social Security number, date of birth, full name, valid residence, whether they’ve been convicted of a felony, or whether they have been determined mentally incapable…If any of that is left off…the application is denied,” according to the Register & Bee. Note: Not all states require Social Security number information to be filled out on  a voter registration card. For more information on your state’s requirements on registering to vote, visit ProjectVote.org.

Allegations of Voter Fraud are Often Motivated By Partisan Gain

“If you’re not winning at the ballot box, try your chances in the registrar’s office, or in court,” the Virginia Pilot editorialized.  “[That’s] [h]ardly democratic.”

Following the success of voter registration drives that have increased registration among low income, minority and young people, almost all claims of rampant voter fraud have come from Republican leaders, despite lack of substantiation of a real problem. The most vicious and corrupt efforts made were part of what has become the US AttorneyGate scandal that subsequently exposed the widespread politicization of the Department of Justice and led to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. All of that unraveled because former US Attorney David Iglesias refused to make false accusations of voter fraud against ACORN’s 2004 voter registration drive in New Mexico.

The fact is between 2002 and 2005 – when the Department of Justice carried out the most intensive investigation of voter fraud in US history –  only 24 people were convicted of illegal voting nationwide. However, partisans still made public allegations and the press, in many instances, ran these claims with out real evidence. Armed with these published anecdotes and buoyed by manufactured public outcry about the possibility of their votes being canceled out by illegal voters, legislators fought to pass laws that disenfranchise certain classes of voters. As a result, states like Indiana and Georgia have implemented some of the most draconian voter ID laws despite the lack of any evidence of actual voter fraud.

Reporters practicing ethical and rigorous journalism should recognize that merely using the “rhetorical hand grenade” of voter fraud – without an explanation of how voter registration and elections are administered or an investigation into the evidence of voter fraud – is the real threat to democracy.

Quick Links:

Minnite, Lorraine. “The Politics of Voter Fraud. “Project Vote. March 2007.

Voter Registration Guides and Surveys [By State]. Project Vote

In Other News:

A voting penalty after the penalty – Birmingham Press-RegisterAnnette McWashington Pruitt watched her 18-year-old son graduate from high school this May. She proudly tells people that he is going into the Navy, following in the footsteps of his older brother (who is serving in Iraq) and his grandfather (who was in the Air Force).

Voting Rules Create Land of Disenchantment: Advocacy groups are battling New Mexico’s strict voter registration laws as election looms – Miller-McCune

Jo Ann Gutierrez-Bejar remembers volunteering for the annual voter registration drive in Albuquerque, N.M. She remembers the camaraderie as the group of usually 30 to 40 volunteers headed out in the morning, clipboards in hand, to knock on doors and register new voters.

Denogean: 97-year-old voter can’t prove she’s a citizen: On deathbed, father told her to vote Democratic – The Tucson Press

Shirley Freeda Preiss of Surprise is one ticked-off little old lady. And who can blame her? The 97-year-old retired schoolteacher and onetime traveling showgirl has voted in every presidential election since 1932 when she cast a ballot for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But thanks to the state’s voter identification requirements, it’s looking unlikely that she’ll be able to vote in the upcoming presidential election.

Watch your (official) language – Stateline.org

Missouri, a key presidential swing state and home to one of the most hotly contested gubernatorial races, will test what some see as voters’ attitudes toward immigrants this November with a ballot measure to make English the only language of state government.

Uncategorized

AB 1819 – GOP Blocking the Youth Vote

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(It’s great to see Mike Connery posting here – and his point about AB 1819 is excellent. – promoted by Robert in Monterey)

Cross posted from Future Majority.

The level of douchebaggery exhibited by the California Republican Party is astounding.  The SacBee reports that a recent bill brought before the state assembly would seek to allow 16 and 17 year olds to “pre-register” to vote, making them automatically eligible to vote when they turn 18.  Not a single Republican voted in favor of the bill, and many seem to have over-exerted themselves in trying to explain why it’s such a bad idea:

The bill passed the Assembly and was sent to the Senate last month on a party-line vote, 45-31, with no GOP support.

Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia, criticized the bill as a Democratic power play.

“For all their sweet-tongue talk about doing what’s right for the country, that’s baloney,” Adams said.

“The truth is, when you’re young you tend to think like a liberal,” he said. “As you get older and wiser … you tend to become more conservative.”

Aside from the fact that the last statement is utter nonsense (pdf), how cynical, and how wrapped up in your own personal power do you need to be before you can make these statements without a little piece of your soul dying with them?  I know that Republicans like to suppress the vote, but I never expected them to be so blatant about their motives.  Usually they at least try to cloak it in their own “baloney” about “voter fraud” or some other fantasy menace.  

One of Assemblyman Adam’s GOP colleagues was more subtle:

Assemblyman Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, said his opposition to AB 1819 has nothing to do with partisan politics. The state should excite teenagers about voting, not play a useless numbers game by amassing forms from disinterested students who can’t cast ballots for two years, he said.

“(I want) to have a citizenry that is informed, engaged and interested,” Niello said. “If you have that, they’ll register to vote – and they’ll vote.”

So the state should “excite teenagers about voting” (whatever that means), but shouldn’t actually allow them to register to vote.  If the state GOP really believes that youth will naturally vote Democrat (not necessarily a given; see: Ronald Reagan), in what way is this not playing the numbers game?

The state should do whatever it can to increase registration rates among all voters, including youth who participate at lower rates precisely because many lack a valid registration.  Anything else is playing politics with the voting rights of the electorate.

Blog Roundup, San Diego

October 4, 2007 Blog Roundup

Today’s Blog Roundup is on the flip; only a link dump today, as I’m pressed for time. Let me know what I missed.

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Blog Roundup, Environment, Health Care, Prisons

July 13, 2007 Blog Roundup

The Blog Roundup is on the flip. LOTS of stuff about Health Care and the Environment. Also a couple less-noticed stories about voting machines, the sanitation workers in the East Bay, and unionization at the LA Times.

Budgets are Moral
Documents

The Health Care Battle

Our Little Corner of the
Planet

The Dignity of Labor

Purty Much Everything Else

Los Angeles Area, Orange County

Threatening Letter Sent to Latinos in Orange County (SD-34)

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Somebody is sending letters to Latinos in SD-34, the matchup between Lou Correa and Lynn Daucher.  You’ll remember that Daucher was standing behind Arnold as he told all Mexicans that they need to assimilate better.  And those letters that are being sent?  Yeah, not exactly friendly and neighborly:

The mailer – sent on letterhead from the California Coalition for Immigration Reform – warns voters in Spanish that those who do vote could end up in jail. It also says federal officials are keeping a searchable database – available to anti-illegal immigration groups – that tracks people casting votes. (OC Register 10/17/06)

And some actual text from the letter from the LA Times:

“You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time …,” the letter says.(LAT 10/17/06) 

CCIR is a well-known anti-immigrant group that has frequently used racist tactics in the past.  You can view a video of one of their events over the flip. While it is not clear that CCIR actually sent this letter out, it would not be surprising.  But whomever sent the letter, it is clearly disgusting.  This letter is seeking to decrease turnout by threats.  It is clearly illegal, unethical and racist.  There is no place for this in our election system.

The best part: “Go Back to Mexico! You are the Racist! You want everything for the white race!” Umm…yeah, who’s the racist again?  CCIR actually put this video up on their website, as an example of what I don’t know.  I’m guess it’s to get them some street cred with the other racists.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

ARNOLD’S Pension Plans and HEARTLESS Vetoes

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(What is Grover Norquist so afraid of? Somebody besides corporatists with a little bit of power. It tears him up inside to see the power of collective action of CalPERS. It’s not something that should be messed with. It’s too important to the state and the global financial community. – promoted by SFBrianCL)

On Janurary 5 of 2005, Arnold proposed privatizing California’s public pension funds.  Referring to his proposal, Arnold said, “This is a national battle, like the recall was.”  He also said there will be “national money coming in to help us fight the battle”….

Pension Plans

National business groups have been upset with California’s public pension funds.  The presidents of both the US Chamber of Commerce, and the Business Rountable have criticized CalPERS.  One of the reasons they are upset is that CalPERS (under the leadership of Harrigan and Angelides) has been a leader in the corporate reform movement. It sued the NYSE and several specialist firms for engaging in trading manipulations.  It also sued WorldCom and Enron after their financial scandals, and it has withheld votes from directors for many businesses including Citigroup’s Sandy Weill (the banker who overturned the Glass-Steagall act).  It has divested from Sudan due to the government-backed genocide, and has lobbied the SEC to allow shareholders to nominate directors (which was vigorously opposed by the chamber).

Grover Norquist, who was an economist and chief speechwriter for the US Chamber of Commerce, said, “Just 115 people control $1 trillion in these funds. We want to take that power and destroy it.”

So on January 5 of 2005, Arnold proposed privatizing California’s public pension funds.  Referring to his proposal, Arnold said, “This is a national battle, like the recall was.”  He also said there will be “national money coming in to help us fight the battle.”

Arnold even withdrew four of his own nominees to the CalSTRS pension board after they voted against his plan.  They voted against it because the actuaries calculated that it would cost California taxpayers $5.9 billion over the next 10 years. One of the withdrawn nominees, Republican Jim Grey, said, “If you have to be in lock step, I guess I shouldn’t be one of his appointees.” 

Grover Norquist praised Arnold saying, “The governor of California has provided a useful example of things a governor can do to earn ideal ratings from Americans for Tax Reform.”  The San Francisco Chronicle reported,

“A group affiliated with Norquist sent out letters this week to Republican lawmakers across the country urging them to follow Schwarzenegger’s lead and call for pension reform in their states.”

Although Arnold backed off in 2005, Grover made it clear that they’re going after CalPERS again (similar to how Bush tried to privatize Social Security):

”Gov. Schwarzenegger has not backed away from the pressing need for a defined contribution system. He is merely responding to a small uncertainty concerning disability and survivor benefits within the current reform initiative. Gov. Schwarzenegger is slowing down, clarifying any misconceptions with his pension reform plan, and will resume his crucial push to save the retirement security of California state employees in 2006.”

Arnold has even started using Norquist’s rhetoric saying,

“Taking money out of the private sector is a no-no because we don’t want to feed the monster… We want to feed the private sector, and we want to starve the public sector.”

So Arnold cut state funding to colleges—causing tuition to rise. He also proposed to cut funding from programs for the disabled—an action that was protested by the disabled community— and for programs such as Medi-Cal.

Side note: To read more about Grover’s power go here, here, and here.  Thirty-five state legislators and 19 congressmen from California have signed Grover’s tax pledge. California signatories include Brian Bilbray, Richard Pombo, Jerry Lewis (chairman of the powerful U.S. House Appropriations Committee who’s under investigation), Duke Cunningham, Tom McClintock (running for Lt. Governor), Dick Ackerman (California Senate Minority Leader), Howard Kaloogian (Chairman of Recall Gray Davis Committee), and Jim Gilchrist (founder of the minuteman project).

VETOES

SB 698 – Media access to prisoners
1)  Current law allows the media to tour prisons and to conduct random interviews with inmates, but forbids interviews with specifically requested inmates (for more details see CDC regulations, Title 15, Section 3261.5 on page 88 of the document).

The bill Arnold vetoed would have allowed the media to conduct interviews with specifically requested inmates (with prior agreement of the inmate). The bill was authored because

“denying prisoners access to the media (and vice-versa) encourages increasing isolation of a prison system where human rights abuses can multiply freely free of public oversight.”

 

Arnold vetoed it saying, “it is important to avoid treating inmates as celebrities.”  In comparison, the Bush administration worries about PR moves while human rights abuses occur in their Guatanamo.

Did you know that California is the only state in the nation that allows segregation in its prisons? The prison system is so bad that in 2005, a judge put the California Department of Corrections under federal receivership.

AB 561-Prison Education Assessment
2) Arnold vetoed a law requiring educational assessments of prisoners and the implementation of programs to satisfy those needs.

SB 1050- Counting write in votes
3) In San Diego, a judge ruled that 5,500 ballots were invalid because voters had forgotten to fill in the oval after they had written in the name of Donna Frye (a write-in candidate).  Although Frye would have won, the judge gave the election to Republican Dick Murphy. 

The California Legislature passed a bill in response to “Bubblegate.”  It would’ve required that all write-in-votes be counted (even if the voter forgets to fill the oval). Arnold vetoed the bill explaining that it “will lead to an unnecessary delay in completing the canvass and certifying election results.”

Debra Bowen, who authored the bill, said,

“What ought to be apparent to everyone is that people who take the time to actually write in a candidate’s name deserve to have their votes counted…”

Sadly, in June 2006, San Diego passed a law barring write-in candidates from running in general elections. 

SB 469 (Bowen)- Petitioner Disclosure
4) Arnold vetoed another bill authored by Debra Bowen.  The bill would have required proposition signature gatherers to disclose the top five contributors to the effort and to disclose whether or not they are paid to collect signatures.

SB 455 –Enforcement of Pesticide Laws
5)  Current law gives county agricultural commissioners discretion to enforce pesticide laws. Arnold vetoed SB 455, which would have required “enforcement actions” to be taken for failure to protect people, animals, and property from pesticide drift contact, or for failure to provide workers with training and protective equipment.

According to coalitionforcleanair.org,

“In the year 2002, some 172 million pounds of pesticides – many highly toxic to humans – were used in the state, reports Californians for Pesticide Reform.  More than 90% of pesticides used in the state of California are prone to drift away from where they are applied and can become airborne toxins causing severe effects, including coughing, vomiting, and skin rashes, especially in children.  Long-term exposure to pesticides is linked with cancer, birth defects, spontaneous abortions, infertility, neurological illnesses and asthma.  Too often, when inspectors find violations of pesticide safety regulations they simply issue a warning and no fine… In over 40% of DPR’s 2002-03 inspections, washing supplies and protective gear were not provided for pesticide applicators and in 60% of inspections, fieldworker pesticide safety information was not provided. Also, many violations are found, but few penalties are assessed.  In fiscal year 2000-01, counties issued fines in fewer than 20% of cases where violations were confirmed.  In fiscal year 2003-04 counties found over 8,000 violations but only 582 fines for agricultural pesticide use violations and 370 fines for structural pesticide use violations were issued statewide. “

According to an article from Monteray County Weekly,

In fiscal year 2003-2004, the last year for which numbers are available, there were 112 documented pesticide-use violations in the county. Only one resulted in a civil penalty… Mendoza says it’s a simple change but one that can give a voice to fieldworkers who are afraid to come forward for fear of losing their jobs, despite the illegality of any such retaliation… She tells the story of a group of 30 workers, employed by Mesa Packing, who entered a broccoli field May 28 of last year and were exposed to a host of pesticides.“The workers shouldn’t have been in that field; they’d just sprayed it. But the employer sent them there anyway”… On another incident in August of 2004 involving a harvesting crew in Salinas working for Smith Packing, workers were exposed to pesticide drift. “Two violations were found: lack of fieldworker training and failure to provide prompt medical attention,” Mendoza says. No fines were issued. “Two months later, the same crew was exposed again. At that time, they still hadn’t received any training. Again, no fines were issued.” Ramos just wants something done to protect workers like herself. The 41-year-old single mother of four makes just over $8 an hour and has been working the fields in and around the Salinas Valley for 30 years. She’s concerned about what a lifetime of pesticide exposure will mean to her long-term health.“I am not the same since it happened,” she says of her exposure. “I have allergies now, with sneezing problems and itching. I’m different.”

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