Notes from the Voting Rights Rally in Richmond
By Mike Signer | February 1, 2012 | One Comment
I drove down to Richmond yesterday for a tremendous rally — about 300 people on the Capitol grounds — sponsored by the Democratic Party of Virginia and the Legislative Black Caucus (the Chair, Sen. Mamie Locke, is pictured to the right) on the anti-democratic bills being rammed through the legislature, such as House Bill 9, which would require voters who lack government ID to cast a provisional ballot. HB 9 passed the House of Delegates yesterday on a 66-28 vote.
As a veteran of seven Virginia Democratic election protection programs and founder of the New Electoral Reform Alliance of Virginia, I’m familiar with the provisional ballot system we have. I fear the intentional chaos that will be unleashed under this new system. I’ve counseled many frustrated voters through the process of casting provisional ballots and have advised them on how to ensure they get counted — usually, by taking a day off work to show up to the registrar’s office the next day. (Virginia’s system is already unusual in that the “canvass” of votes starts the day after voting — in some states, the canvass starts a few days later, giving more time to a voter to arrange to travel).
In Virginia currently, if you don’t have an ID, you simply have to sign an affidavit, swearing — under legally-binding oath — that you are who you say you are and are registered to vote. We allow affidavits almost everywhere else, and they have legal effect. And supporters of the bill cannot point to any examples of voter fraud — or indeed any problems at all — in the current system in Virginia.
The proposed new system would change all of this. If you are forced to use a provisional ballot, there is no guarantee that your vote will be counted. To the contrary — the Electoral Board and Registrar meet the very next day to count these ballots, and unless you are present to argue your case, it’s quite possible that they would reject the ballots of voters they suspect to be Democrats (as happened in Florida, when local boards’ decisions on whether to count ballots usually broke along party lines). For an ordinary voter to be required to show up at the Registrar’s office the very next morning is burdensome, unrealistic, and, in many cases, discriminatory.
Imagine a retired, 65 year old voter from a rural community who wants to vote, has registered to vote with the help of a neighbor, but does not have a car or a driver’s license. Further imagine she is only able to get to the poll (which is several miles away) after a neighbor gets off his shift and gives her a ride at 6:30 p.m. Because she doesn’t have a government ID, she is now forced to use a provisional ballot – and if she wants to make absolutely sure it’s counted, she’s told she’ll have to come to the Registrar’s office the very next morning, usually by 10 a.m.
For her, this just proves impossibly burdensome. She can’t find a ride. There are no taxis in her community. She can’t walk to the poll.
These bills would restrict the ability of this voter, and thousands of voters like her, to vote, with a special impact on members of underserved communities–folks less likely to undertake the expense and difficulty of traveling to a government office to get a government-issued ID.
It seems clear that, in a presidential year, with Virginia as a critical swing state, that there’s a political goal behind these attempts.
This is regrettable and must be stopped — particularly in Virginia, where we are slowly but surely moving beyond the legacy of Jim Crow and massive resistance. We are the birthplace of American democracy, and so it’s fitting that we have also been a laboratory for all the steps — forward and backward — for American democracy. Just as James Madison advanced the freedom of religion here in the 18th century, we suffered Reconstruction in the 19th, and the Byrd machine cracked down on African-Americans’ civil rights in the 20th. Yet we are also the Commonwealth that elected an African-American governor, and that provided the decisive electoral votes for an African-American president.
Today, we are at a turning point. Supporters of these bills are clearly following marching orders — ideological and political. Yesterday’s rally showed the forces of progress in the Commonwealth. Let’s hope that the Senate will turn back this bill — and that, if they make their way to the Governor’s desk, he will do the right thing and veto them.
Thanks Richard- you are absolutely occrert. Edwards should have been able to take his home state. And his Senate seat will now go to a Republican. Other than Coors losing in CO, this is an amazing night for the GOP when it comes to Senate pickups. Stunning the incumbent President could see his party do so well. As for lawsuits, you knew there was no way Kerry would concede this thing no matter how badly he might have been behind.