Weekly Voting Rights News Update
This an entry in a series of blogs to keep people informed on current election reform and voting rights issues in the news.
Featured Story of the Week:
Justice Dept. Reshapes Its Civil Rights Mission – New York Times
“The shift at the Justice Department has significantly altered the government’s civil rights mission,” in favor of religion rather than race, the New York Times reported Thursday.
The Civil Right Division had dramatically reduced “the complex lawsuits that challenge voting plans that might dilute the strength of black voters.” Early this year, only one such case had been initiated “compared with eight in a comparable period in the Clinton administration.”
One former civil rights division employee said bringing “worthy civil rights cases” was “like a black hole” in that political appointees frequently vetoed or questioned investigations. She said she noticed a change in “the quality of people who were chosen” after she was hired in 2000 by the Justice Department: “It was obvious what they had: conservative and religious bona fides.”
The changing mission has resulted in fewer voting rights cases. While spokesperson for the Justice Department Cynthia Magnuson claimed that more voting rights lawsuits have been brought under President Bush compared to the Clinton administration, the NY Times reported that closer examination reveals that most of these cases involved “a different part of the law,” requiring voting materials to be available in different languages. But, former Voting Section Chief Joseph Rich said these cases may easily be brought by private groups. Voting dilution cases, however, may only be brought by the federal government, which has the resources to do so. These cases are sparingly handled by the Justice Department today. One such case was actually the division’s first case ever on behalf of white voters who were allegedly intimidated at the polls by a black political leader in Mississippi.
The story proposes that a religious slant is discernible from the cases the criminal division is bringing. Once focusing on hate crimes or police brutality, the criminal section “began taking on human trafficking cases that had previously been handled elsewhere.” Several cases were brought against people charged with “bringing women into the country to work in brothels.” Such cases were seen “akin to combating slavery” by new employees with religious backgrounds.
“‘They are engaging in freewheeling social engineering, said Ayesha Khan, counsel for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and “using the power of the federal government to put in place an ideological, not constitutional agenda.”
The NY Times identified Gonzales, who “survived a climactic no-confidence vote in the Senate Monday,” as “accelerating” the change in the Justice Department, which began with his predecessor John Ashcroft. Gonzales has cited cases against religious discrimination as the most important causes of his agency. “Aside from any political benefit of satisfying conservative groups, the Justice department’s shift has brought a more subtle dividend: a defense to the criticism leveled at past Republican administrations that they were half-hearted about civil rights enforcement.”
In Other News:
Following a unanimous decision by the Georgia Supreme Court Monday that threw out a challenge to the state’s voter ID law, the Georgia’s election board said the state should “move forward” in requiring photo ID at the polls, according to the Associated Press. The law is expected to be in effect for local elections in September. A voter ID requirement for primary elections was approved in Mississippi, according to the Associated Press. U.S. District Judge W. Allen Pepper ruled that party registration and voter ID would prevent non-party members from voting political parties’ primary election, according to the Commercial Appeal. He is giving the Legislature until April 1, 2008 “to pass laws adopting a statewide system of party registration that would require voters to carry a voter registration card and a photo ID to the polls in primary elections, not general elections.” Republican candidate for secretary of state, Delbert Hoseman, called the decision “one of the most important rulings in Mississippi on voting rights since the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” and said he would also support voter ID in general elections. Read more on voter ID.
The Associated Press reported that Florida’s recent moves to restore voting rights of certain types of former felons has restored voting rights to more than 15,000 in two months, but the review process is still slowing down the restoration. “Since early April, the Department of Corrections has sent the Florida Parole Commission the names of 105,000 people it believes meets the criteria.” A review is required because felons convicted of murder or sex crimes are exempt from the rule.
This Sacramento Bee story reports on voter registration rates of teens. According to the Washington D.C. organization Young Voter Strategies, the number of voters between 18 and 29 – a potential voting bloc of 44 million – grew from 15. 8 million in 2000 to 20.1 million in 2004. In Sacramento County, the number of registered 18-19 year olds rose with 67% voting in the midterm election last fall. Iraq is the leading issue that drives political interest in young people, according to Young Voter Strategies.
Erin Ferns is a Research and Policy Analyst with Project Vote’s Strategic Writing and Research Department (SWORD).
When I posted a diary this morning “Are you a Good American?” I hadn’t read your great contribution. They are linked. The minority lawyers who were transfered in DOJ would have been key in identifying such problems. But according to the Bush administration, they were replaced with “good Americans”–a code word for white, Christian males.
The complaints of three minority whistleblowers languished for over two years because of a court decision and a lack of action by Congress. If we don’t push the issue, we will have lost 08 before we ever open the polls.
Reduction of civil law suits concerning attempts to dilute the Black vote would seem to be a throw back to good old Reagan pandering to the Jim Crow southern base, the one that left the Democratic party after 1964. Good riddens to them, but to see efforts to keep the Black and white communities divided in the south, to notice minimal or insufficient change especially among young people, and to see a strong corresponding Democratic-Republican split based on race still present, after all these years, is disheartening.
The Democrats will have to do without the southern block of states for a few generations more, it seems, which only reminds us that civil rights should remain a strong issue on the Democratic platform in 2008.
Somewhere else today I read a sociological study. It said that “white Christians” were more likely to vote solidly republican when they were living in areas where their numerical predominance was threatened–areas with diversity. It “clicked” and connected to a lot of other things I’ve read and written in the past year.
For decades, this group has held power by sheer numbers. Even when it wasn’t actually the majority, it managed to vote in majority by using very powerful threats and “get out the vote” tactics. I believe that’s even what’s behind new moves to discourage birth control, and the founding of communities that were specifically restricted to that group.
I’m not sure I agree with that. I’m seeing more and more diversity, even among the young adult children of ultra-conservative families. But the structures that Gonzales and co. have embedded into Justice are deep and wide–like a cancer. These people aren’t going anywhere fast.
That’s why I believe the only solution is impeachment. That’s the only legal structure that can cut through the evasion and legal maneuvering.
Just one point: when a stellar politician like Harold Ford can’t beat a good old boy mayor of a small city in a borderline southern state, and the mayor got two thirds of the vote, life has changed but only a little in the southern states. We have more generations to go.
stellar politician?
While there were many things I admired about Ford, he certainly didn’t excite progressives. So the progressive 10th of the electorate stays home, the conservative 20th of the population thinks he’s the devil incarnate…and the vote skews to Republican.
It’s important to realize that it’s not about who believes in you, but who shows up to the polls. Ford simply didn’t inspire true progressives.
In these borderline states, read moderate = progressive. That’s about as good as it gets on the left lest you be labeled a radical.
You would think if these theobats (feel free to steal) had a corner on improving society by Christian values that there would be indications of its efficacy. At least, on would hope that before making over the secular Justice Department into an arm of the Christian National Law Enforcement Bureau (or some similarly named gross perversion of justice), the believers could point to evidence of it working locally or regionally.
But no. That’s because the evidence is contraventory. Let’s look at some statistics from Sam Harris’ latest book-length essay, Letter To a Christian Nation.
Of the 25 cities with the lowest rates of violent crime, 62% are in “blue” states, while 38% are in “red” states.
Of the 25 most dangerous cities, 76% are in “red” states, while 24% are in “blue” ones.
3 of the 5 most dangerous cities are in Texas.
The 12 states with the highest rates of burglary are “red.”
24 of the 29 states with the highest rates of murder are “red.”
The moral of this theobat attempt to take over American justice is that belief in God does not assure a healthy society.