DOJ gives the go-ahead for New Orleans Elections

[Anita Garcia]

Major disappointment. Gonzales gives pre-clearance.
Two press releases (so far) on this new development regarding the New Orleans election set for April 22nd.

NAACP - <http://www.naacp.org/news/2006/2006-03-16.html>Gordon said out-of-state satellite voting locations would allow New Orleans voters to participate in a democratic election in the same way satellite voting locations in the United States were made available for Iraqi voters to vote in the recent Iraq national elections. "Certainly we can do no less for Americans temporarily displaced by Hurricane Katrina," said Gordon.
Gordon pledged the NAACP will continue to fight on behalf of New Orleans’ voters living in and out of Louisiana. "One way or another we will do everything in our power to protect their right to vote."

People for the American Way - <http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=20753>“The Voting Rights Act was designed to prevent disenfranchisement and protect minority voters from election procedures that unfairly dilute their votes,” said People For the American Way Foundation President Ralph G. Neas. “If the election in New Orleans takes place as planned on April 22, thousands of voters, predominantly African Americans, are likely to be prevented from casting a vote and having it counted.”

[EFerrari]

1. Why does DoJ have jurisdictioin?

This is outrageous, preictable and we have to talk back.

[Anita Garcia]

2. Louisiana has a history of discriminating

Under Section 5 of Voting Rights Act (the section that is set to expire next year) the federal government has to clear any change in polling place, dilution of voters' rights, etc. In this instance it the voters' rights are clearly disenfranchised. The DOJ could have stopped the election and forced the state to change its current voting policy. It did not.

[EFerrari]

3. No, because the fox has rented the henhouse. Thanks for

the context.

When there is a next move, I want to know so I can post it to our DU Katrina Survivors Forum, and to their site, katrinaunderground.com

:nuke:

[tn-guy]

4. Small correction, I think

If I recall correctly, the provisions of the Voting Rights Act require DOJ approval to make a change in voting procedures. In other words, if a historical polling place is now destroyed, the DOJ must approve moving that precinct's polling station to a new location. Similarly, satellite voting is a change that would require DOJ approval. Were New Orleans to continue to use all the prior polling places, no matter how unsuitable, no approval would be necessary. Clearly the law didn't anticipate a situation such as exists, but the law is what it is and everyone has to work within its constraints. As a superb jurist once put it, "Nowhere does the Constitution say, 'Congress shall make no dumb law.'"