Voter suppression.html
 
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 The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.

Voter suppression is a form of electoral fraud and refers to the use of governmental power, political campaign strategy, and private resources aimed at suppressing (i.e. reducing) the total vote of opposition candidacies instead of attempting to change likely voting behavior by changing the opinions of potential voters. This method is particularly effective if a significant amount of voters are intimidated individually because the voter might not consider his or her single vote important.

Contents

Methods of voter suppression

Photo ID laws

The Republican Party has passed photo id laws in many states. This disproportionally affects minority and elder voters who do not have driver's licenses and lean towards voting democrat. For example, about 12 retired nuns in South Bend, Indiana, were barred from voting in Indiana's 2008 Democratic primary election because they lacked photo IDs required under a state law which the Indiana supreme court upheld in April 2008. John Borkowski, a South Bend lawyer volunteering as an election watchdog for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said, "This law was passed supposedly to prevent and deter voter fraud, even though there was no real record of serious voter fraud in Indiana."12

Purging voter rolls

In 2008, more than 50,000 registered Georgia voters were purged from voter rolls because of a computer mismatch in their personal identification information. At least 4,500 of those people must prove their citizenship to regain their right to vote. The state may make the burden impossible to meet. For example, the state of Georgia gave college senior Kyla Berry one week to prove her citizenship in a letter dated October 2, 2008. Unfortunately, the letter was postmarked October 9, 2008. However, Berry is a U.S. citizen, born in Boston, Massachusetts with a passport and a birth certificate to prove it. Wendy Weiser, an elections expert with New York University's Brennan Center for Justice said, "What most people don't know is that every year, elections officials strike millions of names from the voter rolls using processes that are secret, prone to error and vulnerable to manipulation."3

Jim Crow laws

Main article: Jim Crow laws

In the United States, voter suppression was used extensively in most Southern states until the Voting Rights Act (1965) made most disenfranchisement and voting qualifications illegal. Traditional voter suppression tactics included the institution of poll taxes and literacy tests, aimed at suppressing the votes of African Americans and working class white voters.45

Ex-Felon disenfranchisement

In 2004, 5.3 million Americans were denied the right to vote because of previous felony convictions. Thirteen states permanently disenfranchise convicted felons; eighteen states restore voting rights after completion of prison, parole, and probation; four states re-enfranchise felons after they have been released from prison and have completed parole; thirteen allow felons who have been released from prison to vote, and two states do not disenfranchise felons at all.6 However, for states that do offer a path for restoration of voting rights, the process can often be very difficult.

The United States is the only democracy in the world that bans its felons from voting. Other countries including Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Norway, Peru, Sweden, and Zimbabwe all allow their prisoners to vote.7 Some countries, notably the U.K., do not permit convicted prisoners in jail to vote but restore full civil rights on release even if that release is on parole.

In Florida during the 2000 presidential election, some non-felons were banned due to record-keeping errors and not warned of their disqualification before they no longer had the right to contest it.

This form of vote suppression disproportionately affects minorities including African-Americans and Latinos.7

Partisan election administration

Across the United States, 33 state election directors are elected partisans. The majority of the world's democracies use independent agents to manage elections. Because of their partisan ties, election officials are often presented with a conflict of interest while directing elections. Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris served as state co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign during the 2000 presidential election, and Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell served as his state's Bush-Cheney co-chair during the 2004 presidential election.8

Inequality in Election Day resources

Elections in the United States are funded at the local level, often unequally. In the 2004 elections, Wyoming spent $2.15 per voter while California spent $3.99 per voter. In contrast, Canada spends $9.51 per voter. This can result in long lines at the polls, waits of many hours, with those unable to wait giving up thier right to vote. It is widely regarded as being a greater problem in urban areas.89

Caging lists

Main article: caging list

Caging lists have been used by political parties to eliminate potential voters from the other party's voting roll. A political party sends registered mail to addresses of registered voters. If the mail is returned as undeliverable the party uses that fact to challenge the registration, arguing that because the voter could not be reached at the address, the registration is fraudulent.10

Examples of voter suppression in the United States

2002 New Hampshire Senate election phone jamming scandal

In the 2002 New Hampshire Senate election phone jamming scandal, Republican officials attempted to reduce the number of Democratic voters by paying professional telemarketers in Idaho to make repeated hang-up calls to block Democrats' ride-to-the-polls phone lines on election day.1112

2004 presidential election

In the U.S. presidential election of 2004, some voters got phone calls with false information intended to keep them from voting--saying that their voting place had been changed or that voting would take place on Wednesday as well as on Tuesday.1314

Other allegations surfaced in several states that the group called Voters Outreach of America had collected and submitted Republican voter registration forms while inappropriately disposing of Democratic registration forms.15161718.

Michigan Republican state legislator John Pappageorge was quoted as saying, "If we do not suppress the Detroit vote, we're going to have a tough time in this election."19.

In 2006, four employees of the John Kerry campaign were convicted of slashing the tires of 25 vans rented by the state Republican Party which were to be used for driving Republican monitors to the polls. At the campaign workers' sentencing, Judge Michael B. Brennan told the defendants, "Voter suppression has no place in our country. Your crime took away that right to vote for some citizens."2021

2006 Virginia Senate election

During the United States Senate election in Virginia, 2006, Secretary of the Virginia State Board of Elections Jean Jensen concluded that the incidents of voter suppression appeared widespread and deliberate. Documented incidents of voter suppression include:22

  • Democratic voters receiving calls incorrectly informing them voting will lead to arrest.
  • Widespread calls fraudulently claiming to be "Webb Volunteers," falsely telling voters their voting location had changed.
  • Fliers paid for by the Republican Party , stating "SKIP THIS ELECTION" was allegedly an attempt to suppress African-American turnout.

The FBI has since launched an investigation into the suppression attempts.23 Despite the allegations, democrat Jim Webb narrowly defeated incumbant George Allen.

2008 presidential election

A review of states' records by The New York Times found unlawful actions leading to widespread voter purges.24

A dispute between the Social Security Administration commissioner and the National Association of Secretaries of State about the use of the Social Security database to test the validity of voters led to the shutdown of the database over the Columbus Day holiday weekend.25

Georgia

Wait times of between 2 and 10 hours were reported during early voting at multiple Georgia locations26

Michigan

Prior to the 2008 United States Presidential Election, in September 16, 2008, Obama legal counsel announced that they would be seeking an injunction to stop an alleged caging scheme in Michigan wherein the state Republican party would use home foreclosure lists to challenge voters still using their foreclosed home as a primary address at the polls. 27 Michigan GOP officials called the suit "desperate."28 A Federal Appeals court ordered the reinstatement of 5,500 voters wrongly purged from the voter rolls by the State:29

Minnesota

The conservative nonprofit Minnesota Majority has been reported as making phone calls claiming that the Minnesota Secretary of State had concerns about the validity of the voters registration. Their actions have been referred to the Ramsey County attorney's office and the U.S. Attorney are looking into Johnson's complaint. 30

Montana

On October 5, 2008 the Republican Lt. Governor of Montana, John Bohlinger, accused the Montana Republican Party of vote caging to purge 6,000 voters from three counties which trend Democratic. These purges included decorated war veterans and active duty soldiers.31

Ohio

Wait times of six hours were reported for early voting in Franklin County leading to people leaving the line without voting.32

Wisconsin

The Republican Party attempted to have all 60,000 voters in the heavily Democratic city of Milwaukee who had registered since 1/1/2006 deleted from the voter roll. This was rejected by the Milwaukee Election Commission with Republican commissioner Bob Spindell voting in favor of deletion.."33

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/07/uselections2008.usa
  2. ^ http://theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/voting-rights-nun-for-you/
  3. ^ http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/26/voter.suppression/index.html
  4. ^ Techniques of Direct Disenfranchisement, 1880-1965, University of Michigan
  5. ^ Creating Jim Crow: In-Depth Essay, Ronald L. F. Davis, Ph. D - The History of Jim Crow
  6. ^ Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States Fact Sheet, Sentencing Project, July 2005
  7. ^ a b Restoration of Voting Rights Q&A, ReformElections.org
  8. ^ a b Overton, Spencer (2006). Stealing Democracy. W. W. Norton. p. 224. ISBN 0393061590. http://www.stealingdemocracy.com. 
  9. ^ In 2004, the Franklin County board of elections (Columbus, Ohio) determined they needed 5,000 machines, but decided to move machines from urban areas to suburban areas and go with only 2,866 machines. On Election Day 2004, Tanya Thivener waited four hours in line to vote in Columbus, Ohio. Tanya's mother waited just 15 minutes to vote in a Columbus suburb.
  10. ^ http://www.mtstandard.com/articles/2008/10/05/opinion/hjjbijjejjigfj.txt
  11. ^ US DOJ (2004-12-01). Former RNC New England Regional Director Indicted in New Hampshire Phone Jamming Case. Press release. http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2004/December/04_crm_768.htm. Retrieved on 2007-05-25. 
  12. ^ "Former GOP Official Gets Prison Term for Phone Plot", AP (2006-05-17). Retrieved on 25 May 2007. 
  13. ^ "Intimidation and Deceptive Practices". Election Protection coalition/PFAW. Retrieved on 2007-05-25.
  14. ^ "Incidents Of Voter Intimidation & Suppression". American Ctr for Voting Rights. Retrieved on 2007-05-25.
  15. ^ George Knapp (2004-10-13). "Investigation into Trashed Voter Registrations", KLAS-TV. 
  16. ^ "Nevada investigates voter registration, Probe also under way in Oregon on fraud allegations". CNN (2004-10-14).
  17. ^ David Paul Kuhn (2004-10-14). "Voter Fraud Charges Out West", CBS News. 
  18. ^ Dennis B. Roddy (2004-10-20). "Campaign 2004: Voter registration workers cry foul", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 
  19. ^ Chip Reid (2004-10-13). "Voter suppression charges on the rise", MSNBC. 
  20. ^ Ehlke, Gretchen (2005-01-24). "Congresswoman's son, four others charged with slashing Republican van tires on Election Day", AP. Retrieved on 25 May 2007. 
  21. ^ Ehlke, Gretchen (2006-04-26). "Men Get Jail Time In Milwaukee Tire-Slashing Case", AP. Retrieved on 25 May 2007. 
  22. ^ "Sec. of Virginia State Board of Elections Finds Widespread Incidents of Voter Suppression", American Chronicle (2006-11-06). Retrieved on 7 September 2008. 
  23. ^ "FBI launches probe of Virginia pre-election calls", CNN (2006-11-07). Retrieved on 7 September 2008. 
  24. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/us/politics/09voting.html
  25. ^ http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/10/10/voter-registrations-spark-testy-exchange/
  26. ^ http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/category/voter-problems/
  27. ^ http://time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/2008/09/obama_dnc_file_lawsuit.html
  28. ^ http://thepage.time.com/2008/09/16/michigan-gop-obama-camp-suit-desperate/
  29. ^ http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/category/voter-problems/
  30. ^ http://www.startribune.com/politics/33551514.html
  31. ^ http://www.mtstandard.com/articles/2008/10/05/opinion/hjjbijjejjigfj.txt
  32. ^ http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/category/voter-problems/
  33. ^ Associated Press reported in Green Bay Press Gazette 10/10/2008

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