Voting rights reform

Voting Rights

People For the American Way seeks support for election reform, with a clergy letter to Congress [8-26-02]

Equal protection of voting rights makes progress, but still needs support

[4-25-02]

The Presbyterian Washington Office celebrates the passage of the "Equal Protection of Voting Rights" by the U.S. Senate, and suggests continued support of this legislation as it goes to the Conference Committee. Below is an Action Alert from the NAACP.

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The Issue:

ELECTION REFORM LEGISLATION HAS PASSED THE US SENATE!

On Thursday, April 11, 2002, the United States Senate, by an overwhelming vote of 99 to 1, passed S. 565, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Equal Protection of Voting Rights Act. The NAACP, along with several of our friends in the civil and voting rights, labor, religious, disability and consumer advocacy communities was pleased and proud to see this comprehensive legislation pass by such a strong margin.

The bill must now go before a "conference committee", in which a few selected members of the House and Senate work to hammer out the differences between the election reform bills that passed the House (H.R. 3259) and the Senate (S. 565). They will come up with one final version of election reform, which must then be approved again by the US House and Senate before going to President Bush for his signature.

During the conference committee process, the NAACP will be urging conferees and House and Senate leadership to do three things:

(1) Ensure that the majority of the Senate bill is retained. Unlike the House version, the Senate bill is much more comprehensive and addresses more of the problems that were raised in the November 2000 election, as well as other outstanding problems that have plagued our nation's electoral system for too long;

(2) Amend S. 565 to allow states to use a signature or attestation in a uniform and non-discriminatory to verify voter eligibility (the bill currently requires states to ask for a photo ID for first time voters who register by mail). Many low-income Americans do not have a photo ID, and in some ways this places an additional burden to first time voters akin to the poll taxes that were eliminated in the 1965 Voting Rights Act; and

(3) Do everything possible to see that conference committee comes to a speedy resolution on the two bills, so that a final version can be passed and signed into law in time to have some effect on the upcoming 2002 federal elections.

THE ACTION We Need You To Take:

Contact your Representative and both your Senators and urge them to do all they can to see that the most comprehensive, non-discriminatory election reform bill is brought out of conference as soon as possible.

To contact your Senators and Representative, you may:

Make a Phone Call:
Call your Senators and your Representative in Washington by dialing the Capitol Switchboard and asking to be transferred to your Senators'/Congressman's office. The switchboard phone number is (202) 224-3121 (see message section, below).

Write a Letter
To write letters to your Senators, send them to:
The Honorable (name of Senator)
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
To write a letter to your Representative, send it to:
The Honorable (name of Representative)
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

Send a Fax
If you would like to send a fax, call your Senators' or Representative's office (through the Capitol switchboard) and ask for their fax numbers (you can use either the attached sample letter or the message box, below).

Send an E-Mail
To send an e-mail to your Senators, simply go to www.senate.gov, click on Senators, then click on Contacting Senators (by name or by state). This selection will also help you to identify your two Senators.
To send an e-mail to your Representative, go to www.house.gov, and click on "write your representative." This will help you identify who your congressman is and how to contact him/her.
Unfortunately, not all Members of Congress have e-mail addresses.

REMEMBER TO CONTACT BOTH OF YOUR SENATORS !!!!!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS IMPORTANT MATTER!!!

If you have any questions, call Hilary Shelton at the Washington Bureau at (202) 638-2269

A sample letter:

(date)

The Honorable ____________________________________
United States Senate / House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20510 / 20515

Dear Senator / Representative ___________________________;

I am writing today to ask that you do all you can to assist in the swift enactment of election reform legislation. Specifically, please use your position to urge your colleagues on the House / Senate Conference Committee to come up with a final version of election reform that is both comprehensive and non-discriminatory.

Specifically, I hope that you will encourage the Conferees to support most of the provisions in S. 565, the Senate version of the bill, over those in H.R. 3295, the House version. While I appreciate and applaud the members of the House of Representatives who worked so hard to see that legislation did pass that chamber, the final version of the bill falls short of fixing our electoral problems and, in some instances, represents a step backwards for civil rights laws.

In contrast the Senate version of the bill, S. 565, would result in comprehensive electoral reform. It includes minimum standards for provisional balloting, voting systems that allow people with disabilities, language minorities, and others to cast a secret ballot, and voting systems that notify voters of overvotes and allow them to correct their ballots before they are cast. Finally, it ensures access for language minority voters and those with disabilities to polling places.

The one potential problem in S. 565 can be fixed by an amendment to allow states to use a signature or attestation in a uniform, non-discriminatory way to verify voter eligibility (the bill currently requires states to ask for a photo ID for first time voters who register by mail). Many low-income Americans do not have a photo ID, and in some ways this adds an additional burden to first time voters akin to the poll taxes that were eliminated in the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

In short, I hope that you agree with me that this legislation is sorely needed if we as a nation are to continue to be able to say that we support the right of all eligible Americans to vote and to have that vote counted. Please contact me in the very near future to let me know what you are doing to ensure that comprehensive, non-discriminatory election reform legislation is enacted sooner rather than later, and what I can do to help.

Sincerely,

(print and sign your name)

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