John Bonifaz: Reauthorize the Voting Rights Act of 1965

[paineinthearse]

http://www.johnbonifaz.com/blog/20060625

Last Wednesday, the Republican caucus of the US House of Representatives stopped the House Republican leadership from bringing to a vote a reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a reauthorization that would have surely passed with broad Democratic support. As Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post wrote (Bigotry Beneath the Fog, by Eugene Robinson, Friday, June 23, 2006; Page A25:

"In one breathtaking moment of clarity, we see that a significant portion of the House Republican caucus is determined to deep-six, or at least fatally weaken, a landmark law designed to make it possible for the nation's largest minority groups to exercise their franchise at the polls -- and designed to make it difficult for anyone with nefarious intent to keep these minority citizens from voting."

Southern Republicans objected to the Act's requirement that certain jurisdictions in the country - namely in the South - with a long history of racial discrimination in voting be subjected to pre-clearance by the US Justice Department of any changes made in those jurisdictions to their election laws. But, as Robinson points out, those objections alone would probably not have prevented the reauthorization vote from coming to the House floor. Rather, other members of the House Republican caucus raised a separate objection: "the act's requirement that bilingual ballots be made available in localities where significant numbers of voters speak a language other than English."

It is an outrage that this landmark voting rights law is facing this kind of opposition. If Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004 taught us anything, it is that there are still people today who will dare to trample on the right to vote and to deny the franchise. I agree with Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. (It’s Time to Make the Right to Vote Real, by Jesse Jackson Jr. and Jeff Milchen, Friday, November 12, 2004) that, in addition to renewal of the Voting Rights Act, we also need to place affirmative language in the US Constitution guaranteeing the right to vote.

As we carry on that struggle for a constitutional amendment, we must renew the Voting Rights Act, a critically important safeguard against the continued discrimination in voting that takes place in our country.

The Voting Rights Act's requirement - via Section 203 of the law - that jurisdictions provide the necessary assistance to language minorities has particular relevance today to Massachusetts. The US Justice Department is currently investigating four of our cities - Boston, Lawrence, Springfield, and Lowell - for potential violations of this section of the Act, and Boston has already settled a Justice Department lawsuit brought last fall. In accordance with a consent decree filed with the federal district court, the City of Boston is now under election monitoring by US government officials through the 2008 elections. All of this has occurred under my opponent's watch while serving as the state's chief elections officer. While community leaders have, for years, brought the current Secretary of State evidence of this ongoing discrimination and have sought his intervention, he did nothing, remaining missing in action -- and his silence ultimately led to the Justice Department taking the lead to enforce the Voting Rights Act here in our state.

As a Democratic candidate for Massachusetts Secretary of State, I will continue to speak out in support of renewing Voting Rights Act (see #9). Beyond that, as Massachusetts Secretary of State, I will not rely on the Bush Justice Department to enforce the Voting Rights Act in Massachusetts. I will enforce it throughout our Commonwealth.

Where is my opponent in this fight? Massachusetts deserves better. We ought to be leading the nation in how we conduct elections. And that starts with new leadership in the Secretary of State's office.

Sign the PFAW's emergency petition to pass the Voting Rights Act

[enid602]

1. shameful

There's just no way you can put lipstick on that pig. It is what it is.

[Dystopian]

2. K&R great post, thanks

[Peace Patriot]

3. Oh, come on, John! It's patently obvious that this is the Diebold Congress

--arranged by the biggest crooks in the Anthrax Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney, by means of the $4 billion electronic voting boondoggle called the "Help America Vote For Bush Act," from which we got TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY vote tabulation, owned and controlled by Bushite corporations!

In one breath, they vote down the Voting Rights Act, and bring forth a flag-burning amendment! I mean, come on.

You've got Boston Harbor right there in your back yard! Use it! DUMP these election theft machines INTO it--for all our sakes! Don't just "continue to speak out." DO it! Do it NOW! And take a bunch of people in "the Emperor-has-no-clothes" costumes with you (or whatever...). Make a splash! This "tea" is killing us! It's killing the democracy that so many died for! It's killing individual people--in Iraq, by the tens of thousands, and, at home, if they are black and poor, by leaving them to rot and die in a national disaster, or stealing the votes of these most vulnerable of our people. It's killing our soul as a nation! This "tea" is more lethal than anything the British ever put a tax on. It is lethal "tea" of Bushite-controlled SECRET VOTE COUNTING. Dump these crapass, insider-hackable voting machines into Boston Harbor! It will be the SECOND "shot heard round the world"! It will be the beginning of American Revolution II! NON-TRANSPARENT elections are NOT elections. They are tyranny!

You're a great guy, John Bonifaz! Very courageous, very smart, and absolutely right on, on the big issues! I love you for it! Be bold! Dump them into Boston Harbor now, and demand paper ballots hand-counted at the precinct level, in Massachusetts, the home of Liberty, and nationwide, in 2006!

[garybeck]

4. to clarify, the Voting Rights Act is not going to expire. Only some

provisions in it, not the entire Act, are up for renewal.

[mom cat]

5. Right now, we can't afford to lose a single comma.

Do you happen to know which provisions are up for renewal?

[garybeck]

6. yes, I agree, to answer your question

this is from
http://www.senate.gov/reference/common/faq/Voting_Rights_Act.shtml


Question:
Is it true that . . . The Voting Rights Act of 1965 will expire in 2007 and African Americans and other ethnic minorities will lose the right to vote?



The answer is no. Congress passed the Voting Rights Act in 1965 in response to widespread evidence of disfranchisement of black citizens in several southern states. The Act protects citizens' right to vote primarily by forbidding covered states from using tests of any kind (like literacy tests) to determine eligibility to vote, by requiring these states to obtain federal approval before enacting any election laws, and by assigning federal officials to monitor the registration process in certain localities. Congress has amended the Act several times since 1965 to include other ethnic groups under its coverage.

The facts: The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a permanent law, but there are certain provisions in it that are temporary and scheduled to expire in 2007 (mostly those provisions requiring federal examiners and federal election observers). These expiring provisions will not result in the loss of the right to vote--that right is guaranteed by the 15th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

[mom cat]

8. Thanks for the clarification. It would seem like now would not be

the time to get rid of examiners.

[autorank]

7. John Bonifaz comes through again...The Voting Rights Act....the essential

civil rights and political legislation of the last 50 years. The enabling of voting is the quickest way to give people power. The creative disenfranchisement schemes are a testimony to the power of voting rights.

Of course, Bonifaz has been a VRA supporter all along and even started the National Voting Rights Institute (NVRI) to fight for a variety of voting issues.

Thank you John Bonifaz!