Resist Vote Suppression by Right-Wing
- From The Dispatch
- Core Analysis
- Fact Sheets
- Legal Analysis
- In the News
- Legislation
- Policy Studies
- Resource Organizations
Overview
Nov 06 2008
The right wing has lost the trust and confidence of the vast majority of the American people. The nation is seeing a surge in new voters who moving the country in a new direction. To maintain their electoral viability conservatives have redoubled longstanding efforts to suppress the votes of those they think are least likely to support their failed policies.
Progressives must fight back and protect the fundamental right to vote for every American in order to secure the equitable and prosperous future we all hope to see. This fight requires two strategies – holding the line against attacks on the right to vote such as voter ID laws and proof of citizenship requirements (and rolling them back where applicable), and putting forth strong voter protection and anti-“caging” policies that strongly sanction attempts to prevent people from voting, such as voter deception.Progressives need to take pro-active action to expand the vote, both through protecting community-based registration drives and supporting the re-enfranchisement of ex-prisoners seeking to return to the mainstream of civic life.
From The Dispatch
Core Analysis
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The New Face of Jim Crow: Voter Suppression in America - People for the American Way
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The Long Shadow of Jim Crow: Voter Suppression in America - People for the American Way
Fact Sheets
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Voter Suppression Incidents 2008 - The Brennan Center has compiled a comprehensive synopsis of current voter suppression incidents around the country. The stories are categorized by theme, and this document will be continually updated in the days prior to the election.
Legal Analysis
In the News
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VA: McDonnell Restores Rights to 506 Eligible Felons - Richmond, Va. --Gov.
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CA: Voter ID initiative backers get green light - Press Telegram - Backers of an initiative that would require voters to produce identification at the polls were given approval to begin gathering signatures Tuesday by Secretary of State Debra Bowen.
Backers of what supporters have dubbed the Vote Safe Now Initiative must collect valid signatures from 433,971 registered voters by May 6 to qualify for the November 2010 ballot.
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ME: First In The Nation Prison Voter Drive Held - WCSH - In most states, someone convicted of a crime - rape, murder, theft or drunk driving among them - forfeits their right to vote. But Maine and Vermont allow even convicted felons to cast ballots.
Yesterday the NAACP sponsored a voter registration drive throughout Maine's correctional system. It's the first of it's kind in the nation and organizers are hoping it helps prompt change in other state laws.
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MS: Analysis - Lack of voter ID law on ballot no surprise -
Memphis Commercial Appeal - That a voter identification initiative won't make it on the 2010 ballot is likely of no surprise to its Republican Party sponsors or Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, who delivered the message to legislative leaders this past week.
In the 17 years since Mississippi's initiative law was enacted, only two citizen-sponsored constitutional amendments have made it to the ballot. Both dealt with term limits, and both were soundly defeated. Of the 30 initiatives sponsored since 1993, only six remain active, including the GOP-backed plan to make voters show ID at the polls.
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WI: Let felons vote? Dems and GOP (surprise!) disagree (in Wisconsin anyway) - LA Times - Should convicted felons be given back the right to vote?
It’s a question that’s being raised in Wisconsin: Legislators there are reviewing a bill that would change the law and allow convicts to vote as long as they’ve been released or are on probation, parole or have received a pardon. Essentially, it would mean that you’re cool to cast a ballot in the Badger State as long as you’re not behind bars.
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Court says Mass. can deny jailed felons right to vote - Boston Herald - A federal court has ruled that Massachusetts has the right to prevent incarcerated felons from voting.
The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed after Massachusetts voters in 2000 approved a measure to disqualify currently jailed felons from voting in certain elections. Lawmakers later extended that to all elections.
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Mississippi GOP launches voter ID campaign - Sun Herald - The head of the Mississippi Republican Party said the group will handle an initiative to get voter identification on the ballot just as it would any other election campaign, by traveling the state to urge voters to support the issue.
State GOP Chairman Brad White said he hopes to get the voter ID initiative on the ballot for November 2010. To do so would require some 100,000 signatures from certified voters in the state's congressional districts by Oct. 1.
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MS: GOP to stage push for voter ID laws - Sun Herald - Mississippi Republicans hope to use a ballot initiative to enact voter identification laws, the source of bitter political fighting with Democrats for years.
The state GOP hopes to raise $200,000 for mail outs, radio ads and manpower to promote the petition for voting law changes.
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PA: ACORN challenges law against voter registration quotas - Pittsburg Post Gazette - The national community organizing group ACORN today filed a federal lawsuit against the state attorney general and Allegheny County district attorney, claiming that a Pennsylvania statute that prohibits paying workers to collect a certain number of new voter registrations is unconstitutional.
Filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the lawsuit claims that the state statute has been used by District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. to charge five former employees of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
Legislation
Resource Organizations
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Advancement Project - Voter Protection - Advancement Project, a policy, communications and legal action group committed to racial justice, was founded by a team of veteran civil rights lawyers in 1998. Our mission is: To develop, encourage, and widely disseminate innovative ideas, and pioneer models that inspire and mobilize a broad national racial justice movement to achieve universal opportunity and a just democracy! Advancement Project partners with community organizations bringing them the tools of legal advocacy and strategic communications to dismantle structural exclusion.
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Demos - Demos works to create a vibrant and inclusive democracy that encourages participation in voting, with a fair election system that works in the voters' interests, and greater civic engagement in solving the social and political needs of our communities, states, nation and the world around us. Demos envisions a political system where the voices of all Americans--candidates and voters, poor as well as rich, people of color, the elderly, and the disabled--are heard loud and clear.
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Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law - Voting Rights Project - For four decades, the Lawyers' Committee has been at the forefront of the legal struggle to secure racial justice and equal access to the electoral process for all voters. Today, that tradition continues. With the indispensable assistance of private law firms, the Voting Rights Project is an integrated program of Litigation, Advocacy and Education.
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People for the American Way - Right to Vote - People For the American Way is dedicated to making the promise of America real for every American: Equality. Freedom of speech. Freedom of religion. The right to seek justice in a court of law. The right to cast a vote that counts. The American Way.
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Project Vote - Project Vote is the leading technical assistance and direct service provider to the civic participation community. Since its founding in 1982, Project Vote has provided professional training, management, evaluation and technical services on a broad continuum of key issues related to voter engagement and participation in low-income and minority communities.
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