Action Alert from NAACP Re: Voter ID Cards

[AspenRose]

WASHINGTON BUREAU · NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE
1156 15th Street, NW Suite 915 · Washington, DC 20005 · P [phone] · F [phone]
E-MAIL:mailto:[e-mail] · WEB ADDRESS http://www.naacp.org/

ACTION ALERT

DATE: September 15, 2006

TO: Concerned Parties

FROM: Bruce Gordon, NAACP President & CEO
Hilary O. Shelton, Director, Washington Bureau

NAACP CALLS ON CONGRESS TO OPPOSE DISCRIMINATORY BILL REQUIRING ALL VOTERS TO SHOW A GOVERNMENT-APPROVED PHOTO ID BEFORE VOTING
GOVERNMENT-APPROVED PHOTO ID REQUIREMENT WOULD CAUSE RACIAL AND ETHNIC MINORITIES, THE ELDERLY AND OTHER GROUPS OF CITIZENS TO LOSE THEIR RIGHT TO VOTE


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE ISSUE:
In the next few weeks, the House of Representatives may consider legislation, H.R. 4844, which would require all voters to show some form of federally-approved photo identification before being able to cast their vote by the year 2008. It would also require states to ask for documented proof of citizenship by the year 2010.

This legislation flies in the face of our right, guaranteed by the Constitution, to cast a free and unfettered ballot, as well as the recently reauthorized 1965 Voting Rights Act, which mandates that no state or municipality shall in any way infringe on our right to vote.

H.R. 4844 re-creates new obstacles in voting akin to a modern day "poll-tax" by forcing U.S citizens to pay for government approved ID that many of our most vulnerable citizens do not have or cannot easily obtain to prove their citizenship such as passports or birth certificates. The requirement that all voters present a photo ID before being able to cast a regular ballot will disproportionately disenfranchise African Americans and other racial and ethnic minority Americans, as well as, the elderly, individuals with disabilities, Americans living in rural areas, Native American voters, the homeless, and low-income people who are less likely to have or carry a photo ID. The criterion for establishing proof of citizenship may be impossible for some of our citizens to establish. Until recently, it was common in certain parts of the country for people to be born at home, without obtaining an official birth certificate. If H.R. 4844 were to become law, many of these American citizens would be completely disenfranchised.

To add insult to injury, the bill would do little or nothing to prevent actual instances of voter fraud. Nothing in the legislation addresses actual documented problems of election and voter fraud which continue to plague our electoral process and our democracy. These include the improper purges of voters, distributing false information about when and where to vote, stuffing ballot boxes, and tampering with registration forms, most of which are perpetrated by corrupt election officials, not voters. Rather, H.R. 4844 would only exacerbate the already existing problem of voter non-participation by erroneously removing or discouraging countless eligible voters, American citizens, from the process.

[EFerrari]

1. If you want to start a "call in" thread on Monday, I will help you kick.

It's time to STOP the manipulation and outright THEFT of our elections.

:nuke:

[AspenRose]

5. I will do what I can

(....but I'm ignorant about what a 'call in' thread is :blush:)

Do you mean like reminding everyone to call their senators and reps at 202-224-3121 or 1-800-839-5276

[EFerrari]

6. Yes! DUers are very generous with their time.

If you post a "call them" thread, DUers will respond.

:toast:

[liberaldemocrat7]

69. I will tell you what disappoints me about the NAACP.

I love the NAACP. It has helped people for over 90 years. It conducted a boycott of a state because the state wanted to display a confederate flag. Bravo for them for doing that.

Where's the boycott of GOP contributors to force the GOP congress into instituting vote by mail with paper ballots counted by civil servants and registration of voters by civil servants and maintaining voter rolls by civil servants and banning the secretary of state from engaging in politcs in every one of the 50 states?

Where's the boycott for this?

[goclark]

71. Some issues they have different remedies for

They can't boycott every single issue.

If so, they would be boycotting at least 25 major issues every single day.

The NAACP is still vital, still strong, still pushing.


http://www.naacp.org/events/

[liberaldemocrat7]

72. Yes however voting appears an important issue and GOP

contributors need to get pressured to get us vote by mail with paper ballots, etc.

[proud2BlibKansan]

74. Why is this the responsibility of the NAACP?

We should ALL be working on this.

[goclark]

75. Thank you, this is OUR responsibility not the NAACP's nt

[goclark]

70. With you all the way!

[lonestarnot]

2. I will kick to, but will be gone for big chunks of the day.

[EFerrari]

3. Aren't you great? Thank you!

lol

:kick:

[lonestarnot]

8. Guess Deserted Rose didn't want my help. LOL

You laugh'n at me sfexpat2k?

[EFerrari]

11. Now, why in the world would I do such a thing?

This is one of those threads we need to kick until it sinks in.

To you, my friend. :toast:

[lonestarnot]

14. Agree!

:toast: friend.

[AspenRose]

12. Cut me some slack, I'm nursing my son in my lap, here.

Of course, any and all help is appreciated! :D :hug:

[EFerrari]

13. Is he okay? Oh, geeze. Thank you for putting this up

in spite of having a lapful.

:hug:

:grouphug:

[AspenRose]

16. Oh he's fine...nodding off

:D :hug: back atcha.

[lonestarnot]

17. Damn! Don't accidentally pull up any pictures of bushitler, you'll

make him cry. :evilgrin:

[jody]

4. ID cards can not cause anyone "TO LOSE THEIR RIGHT TO VOTE". It

may be a burden for some to obtain an ID card but that problem can be resolved over time.

As many others have said on previous DU threads, I do not believe it is wrong to require each voter to present a photo ID before being allowed to vote.

[EFerrari]

7. No, it's a poll tax meant to supress the vote of the poor and the colorful

I understand your concern about identifying eligible voters. But in reality, this kind of stuff blocks eligible voters from voting, most of them Democrats.

[Truthiness Inspector]

15. How about a middleground

where there is a fee-waiver for voting ID cards for those unable to afford one?

[EFerrari]

Sure! But the people who own our elections will never do that.

Make no mistake, voter ids are all about preventing Democrats from voting. It's mostly a race crime, even though we hate to think that still happens here.

That's how Junior got appointed in the first place. :(

[Solo_in_MD]

26. Some of the places that are requiring ID are trying no fee and portable

locations to issue them. I think they are the right idea, and that overall there is convergence on a solution that is not unduly burdensome.

The claims that it is racist is kneejerk hyperbole that should be ignored. It is appropriate for the government at all levels to insure that only those with franchise vote. No cost ID cards are scarecly an impediment to legitimate voters, regards of class or color.

I am also waiting for those who complain to find an alternate solution which they would approve of.

[EFerrari]

27. So, you think that the suppression of poor and colorful votes

is HYPERBOLE?

It isn't. It's HISTORY.

Are you afraid that undocumented workers are going to vote for REPUBLICANS?

:rofl:

[Solo_in_MD]

30. How about some proof that it is happening now

Clearly it happened in the past. I don't see that as the intent today, and not everyone pushing for it is a repuke.

Come up with a way to help insure that only those with franchise vote that meets your concers...

[EFerrari]

31. There were 8 black votes "spoiled" in Florida for every white vote

in 2000 per Greg Palast.

That is reality.

You seriously need to rethink this.

They are trying to suppress votes for Democrats by raising this false flag.

Our problem isn't that unqualified people vote, it's that more people DON'T VOTE.

:shrug:

[AllegroRondo]

56. Missouri tried it, and was ruled unconstitutional

because the underlying documents needed, such as a certified birth certificate, still require a fee.

[AspenRose]

78. It was just recently ruled unconstitutional in Georgia, too.

eom

[lonestarnot]

9. ack

cat yack!

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

18. Show us your papers comrade

[EFerrari]

21. Boy, is that right! Welcome to DU, When Crabs Roar.

lol

[Solo_in_MD]

20. Blastphemy, and a damn good one...

I support your position. Most of the states have worked hard to minimize costs for this.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

35. Is impersonating voters at the polls a big problem anywhere? Can you

cite even one case? Remember, we're talking about REGISTERED voters being forced to show IDs suburban car-owners carry every day but the up to 20 percent of voting age people with no cars do not. In Missouri and likely other states, a Voter ID card is on the list of UNACCEPTABLE documents to be presented for getting a Republican Abusive Vote-Suppression Photo ID Card. See galloglas's excellent ERD post at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x449427 .
How many legitimate voters would you "temporarily" disfranchise to prevent one instance of voter impersonation? 10? 100? 10,000? For the proposed House bill, the answer could be MILLIONS!

[jody]

38. Suggest you browse the site of the Commission that recommended Voter ID.

The Commission on Federal Election Reform, co-chaired by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker, III issued its final report Building Confidence in U.S. Elections

The Commission recommended:
QUOTE
Second, to make sure that a person arriving at a polling site is the same one who is named on the list, we propose a uniform system of voter identification based on the "REAL ID card" or an equivalent for people without a drivers license. To prevent the ID from being a barrier to voting, we recommend that states use the registration and ID process to enfranchise more voters than ever. States should play an affirmative role in reaching out to non-drivers by providing more offices, including mobile ones, to register voters and provide photo IDs free of charge. There is likely to be less discrimination against minorities if there is a single, uniform ID, than if poll workers can apply multiple standards. In addition, we suggest procedural and institutional safeguards to make sure that the rights of citizens are not abused and that voters will not be disenfranchised because of an ID requirement. We also propose that voters who do not have a photo ID during a transitional period receive a provisional ballot that would be counted if their signature is verified.
UNQUOTE

Please tell me what specific parts of the Carter/Baker report you oppose or what parts you don't understand.

[EFerrari]

41. That commission was an effort to reframe the issue

from election fraud to voter fraud. They were poisoned at the root.

[jody]

43. My post was to ProgressiveEconomist, not you. Have you read the report? na

[ProgressiveEconomist]

46. Excellent post! People for the American Way have some great webpages

on Voter ID--I just found them yesterday. There are some great links at http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=22223 .

This ingenious "Voter ID" gambit for wholesale suppression of disproportionately Democratic votes was apparently dreamt up by Prince of Darkness Jim Baker. He sure pulled the wool over Jimmy Carter's eyes!

Even people who consider themselves well-informed and progressive are drinking every drop of the Kool-Aid handed to them. "What? You don't want voters to have to show ID at the polls?"

But clearly, that's not what HR4844 is about.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

49. Sure didn't take long to exhaust her list of talking points

[ProgressiveEconomist]

44. Suggest you read the dissent to the majority report by Carter-Baker

Commissioner Spencer Overton. See my post with links to that dissent at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/13/145049/554 , and my cross-post of an earlier draft to the DU thread at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x449098 .

I could announce to passengers in my car, "We're on our way to California!" as I drove eastward from Indianapolis. But that would not make it true.

What alleged problem is the "Special Republican Abusive Vote-Suppression Photo ID Card for Already Registered Voters supposed to solve"? What are the numeric indicators by which state vote administration is to be judged? What cost-benefit has analysis has been done to determine how many voters would be disfranchised by HR4844, and how many impersonations of registered voters would be prevented?

I suspect that MILLIONS of voting-age people could be disfranchised, that NO impersonations of registered voters would be prevented, and therefore that the cost-benefit ratio for HR4844 would be INFINITY--division by zero.

I fully support Commissioner Overton's dissent. Please tell me which specific parts of that dissent you do not support, and which parts you do not understand.

[jody]

47. I read all the dissenting statements when the report was released Sept 05.

Overton's unsupported assertions and conjectures are typical for a major study like the Commission on Federal Election Reform.

I see you and I disagree so there's no need to discuss the topic any more.

Eventually the recommendations of the Carter-Baker Commission will be implemented and that's what matters.

Goodbye, :hi:

[ProgressiveEconomist]

48. Don't let the swinging door hit you where Karl Rove's dog bit you

[ScreamingMeemie]

51. I found out in 2004 that I am currently on the voter rolls in every single

district I have ever lived in. There you have it.

[AllegroRondo]

57. A Kansas City paper did a study a couple years ago, and found only 3 cases

in the entire state, in the previous 10 years.

That was my biggest question about the Missouri bill - do people really spend all day driving to different polling places to wait in line for hours just to vote 2-3 times? Voting once is hard enough around here, it takes hours on a busy election day. Some of the districts in St Louis city had waits of up to 8 hours. Who would go through that more than once?

[Nobody]

67. Requiring ID isn't going to make that big a difference

Especially if you move a lot and re-register after every move. And update your IDs. In my state your name gets dropped if you don't vote in 4 elections. If you're a serious gypsy, you'll be on a lot of rolls. Which is why you have to sign the book. On top of the page is an oath affirming that you live in the precinct and you are who you say you are.

In my state for the 2004 presidential election, there were only seven potential problems and on further looking into, there were only two that truly were problems. Statewide. We don't require ID and we allow same day voter registration. We also boast the highest turnout in the nation.

[Sapphire Blue]

10. K & R #5 - Off to the greatest page! I'll help you kick a thread tomorrow.

Thanks so much for posting this! :hi:

[EFerrari]

19. This is why I love DU. We can aggregate our energies.

lol

:)

[AspenRose]

22. I'm just so tired of this nonsense

In my home state it's framed as an illegal immigrant issue (NM) when hardly ANY focus is being given to the stories we've heard too many times about the blasted machines and ballots stored away in a warehouse somewhere, undiscovered until AFTER the elections....usually from some pueblo or reservation or predominately hispanic area....I'm just fed up.

PS-Thanks :D

[Sapphire Blue]

23. They can frame/disguise it however they want; we KNOW what it is.

Voter supression... walking hand in hand w/election fraud.

[EFerrari]

24. You bet! And at bottom, mostly a race crime.

We don't sit still for this cR@P!

:kick:

[lonestarnot]

25. Truer words never spoken!

:hi: Blue! :hug:

[Solo_in_MD]

28. Actually its a crock...

There is nothing intrinsically evil about government at all levels insuring that only those with franchise vote. Repukes are not the exclusive purveyors of voter fraud. Having clear and accountable voting is in all of our interests.

For those claiming racial fouls and other such hyperbole, how about some suggestions that acomplish the same thing via a method you approve of?

[EFerrari]

29. Actually, you have no grasp of the history of elections in this country.

They are always manipulated in poor and minority precincts exactly in this way.

[Solo_in_MD]

32. Which is why ID and other reforms are critical

including an auditable process.

As for election fraud, its not limited to the repukes. We need a clean process, including ID nationwide and in all elections.

I reject that the current efforts are race based until shown otherwise and not everyone pushing them is a repuke

[EFerrari]

33. Ohio. n/.t

[lonestarnot]

37. You are so knowledgeable about racism. I can see that. Would

you like a star? :rofl:

[ProgressiveEconomist]

53. Have you read "The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy

in the United States"? An excerpt is on Amazon, at http://www.amazon.com/Right-Vote-Contested-History-Democracy/dp/046502968X .

Then-Harvard historian Alexander Keyssar really timed it well. Basic Books published it just weeks before the Florida 2000 election fiasco.

Keyssar's thesis is that, since the original electorate 230 years ago was propertied white males only, throughout American history there has been an ebb and flow in voting restrictions, away from and back toward that original set of entitled voters. Who does not carry recently-re-issued photo ID? Why, people who don't own homes in the suburbs or cars to drive back and forth from them daily, of course. Whose letters will be returned by the post-office, because they have moved recently? Why, people who suffer frequent evictions because they're too poor always to stay current with their rent. Keyssar offers many more such examples of voting restrictions and traces them throughout US history.

The way things are going, he'll have to revise his book to put the Bush II era with Reconstruction and early-20th century immigration waves as periods of historically unprecedented deep retrenchment in the franchise.

[lonestarnot]

36. Since I don't know what the fuck you're talking about and I'm to

tired to figure it out, I just take it as some slam re discrimination against the old and poor. Does that make the right to vote more acceptable to you? To discriminate. You obviously are a stranger to poverty, but if you live long enough, you will be old some day too. :hi:

[Solo_in_MD]

40. My point is that the efforts to have a clean vote, which means

insuring everyone who votes has franchise (the right to vote in that jurisdiction) and and accountable vote process is a laudable goal.

I also think that photo ID is not an opressive burden, provided the gov makes them available at neglible cost or free with easy access. That appears to be the target of some of the jurisdictions going that way. Its not just repukes that are behind this. I also see it as a great opportunity to get out the vote, as in take you elderly neighbor to get an ID and apply for a permanent absentee ballot.

I believe that throwing the race or class card on the table is uncalled for. What we should be doing if supporting the goal of a clean vote, and if there are less onerous ways to make that happen proposing them.

Not sure what that has to do with me becoming old or poor. I am getting old and will have kids in college soon, so financial hard times are right around the corner...

[EFerrari]

42. I don't mean to be imflammatory, but the fact is,

our elections are held on the backs of brown and poor people.

That's just how it is. Don't believe me. Go read up on the isisue.

I have no stake in lying to you.

Election fraud in this country is a race crime. And the sooner we figure that out, the sooner we can protect and defend those votes.

[lonestarnot]

45. Name one damn thing the government, especially in the last 6

years has done right on a massive scale in a short amount of time. I think your expectations of them are a little on the high side. I still say that you have not studied racism or classism enough and need to do some more reading. No amount of my telling you anything is going to have any effect whatsoever but to keep this thread kicked so for that I thank you.

[EFerrari]

34. Every DUer that doesn't get this as a race crime --

please read Mark Crispin Miller, read Greg Palast, read Mr. Conyers, read the GAO report.

This is racism in your face and horrible TODAY. There is a mountain of evidence. Educate yourself. Be part of the solution.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

50. Have you seen the PFAW "Voter ID" report, "The New Face of Jim Crow?"

It's summarized at http://www.pfaw.org/go/VoterSuppression with a download link for the full PDF text. Here's an excerpt from the summary page:

"The New Face of Jim Crow: Voter Suppression in America

Introduction

'I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of the people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.'

--Radical Right strategist Paul Weyrich, at a 1979 training session for 15,000 conservative preachers in Dallas.

There are two ways to win an election. One is to get a majority of voters to support you. The other is to prevent voters who oppose you from casting their votes. In the 27 years since Paul Weyrich's astonishingly candid admission, the radical right wing in America has developed an array of subtle and overt methods to suppress voter registration and turnout. The methods are targeted to constituencies most likely to oppose right-wing causes and candidates: low-income families, minorities, senior citizens and citizens for whom English is a second language. ... voter suppression today is overwhelmingly achieved through regulatory, legislative and administrative means, resulting in modern-day equivalents of poll taxes and literacy tests that kept Black voters from the ballot box in the Jim Crow era.

Couched in feel-good phrases such as 'voter security' and 'anti-voter fraud,' these measures limit voter registration, turn voters away from polling places, and cast doubt on the validity of ballots. For example, stringent voter ID rules that require photo ID at the polls sound reasonable, until the estimated up to 12 percent of eligible voters who do not have a driver�s license are figured in. ..."

[EFerrari]

52. I hadn't seen it. Thank you for being a witness. n/t

[kerry-is-my-prez]

39. We should ask for help from the U.N.

n/t

[AspenRose]

54. Good morning DU - here's a kick and friendly reminder to call

your House critters today.

Re: H.R. 4844

202-224-3121 or 1-800-839-5276

If you don't know who your House critter is, please go here:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/

[Sapphire Blue]

65. I called today...

I asked that my rep vote against this legislation if/when it moves forward. I expressed my very strong concerns about this legislation... that, if approved, it could cause undue hardship for so many of our most vulnerable citizens, the poor & elderly... that this hardship could be so great as to interfere w/a citizen's constitutional right to vote; it seems to be legislation to legalize voter suppression.

I also expressed my strong concern regarding the voting machines in use across the country, voting machines owned & operated by private corporations, corporations that are republican donors, voting machines that have been proven to be easily hacked, voting machines' working parts that, for some strange reason :sarcasm:, don't get delivered on time, and voting machines that, for some strange reason :sarcasm:, tend to flip votes to the opposition (repub) party. I also expressed my concern regarding the allocation of voting machines... an abundance of machines allocated to repub districts, while insufficient numbers of machines are allocated to Democratic districts.

[AspenRose]

55. Kick

:kick:

[lonestarnot]

58. kick!

[AspenRose]

59. Kick

:kick:

[EFerrari]

60. Kick

[Kurovski]

61. K&R(nt)

[warrens]

62. $20 a pop for state ID

To a lot of people, that's a big chunk of their weekly grocery bill. Voting should not be dependent upon disposable income.

[EFerrari]

63. Kick

[AspenRose]

64. Afternoon kick.

:kick:

[Sapphire Blue]

66. kick

:kick:

[Sapphire Blue]

68. kick!

:kick:

[EFerrari]

73. Today's the day, folks.

:kick:

[bdamomma]

76. kick

[AspenRose]

77. I just called my congressman's office.

They were very nice.

Kick

:kick: