Action Project: Protecting The Vote

Focus: Protect/Advance Voting Rights at all Government Levels

Lead: Lou Cerrone  , Joe Foote joefoote [at] capecod [dot] net

Description

Background:There is nothing more sacred to the proper functioning of a democracy than the exercise by its citizens of their right to vote. Many people undoubtedly remember some of the more egregious government actions to suppress or eliminate the right to vote of African-Americans. These included onerous poll taxes that they had no means to pay; requiring literacy tests that Ph.Ds. would be hard pressed to meet; and requiring Blacks to recite the Declaration of Independence from memory. Sometimes, people who attempted to register Blacks to vote ended up dead. Have we become complacent about protecting the Vote given the successful effort to obliterate such outrageous acts of voter suppression?

Yet our right to vote remains threatened today, albeit in more subtle forms. Imagine if you will how the presidential election of 2012 would have turned out in Ohio if instead of the 18 electoral votes the President received for winning the state’s popular vote, he had received 6 votes and Romney had received 12? Yet that is exactly what would have happened if Republicans in the state had been successful in their attempt to require Ohio’s electoral votes to be allocated by congressional district – districts that Republicans gerrymandered after the 2010 Census.

Imagine if similar laws had been passed in other states, like Florida, Texas, or Pennsylvania. Florida made voter registration by civic organizations so difficult before the 2012 election that the League of Women Voters declared:

“Despite the fact that [we are] one of the nation’s most respected civic organizations, with a 91-year history of registering and educating voters, we will be unable to comply with the egregious provisions contained in [this bill].”

Such recent attempts at voter suppression are every bit as dangerous to the free exercise of the right to vote as were their predecessors. We simply cannot afford to sit back and watch this happen in state after state. Rest assured that the Republicans who are pursuing a voter-suppression agenda will not relent in their efforts. What we must do is become ever more watchful and vigilant. We cannot allow our right to vote as set out in Articles 1 and 2 of the United States Constitution to be diluted or rendered meaningless by those who know they cannot win if elections are conducted fairly and all votes are counted.

Action: Our efforts in this project will focus on working with existing organizations (e.g. Mass Vote, Common Cause, Public Citizen, and People for the American Way among others) and legislators to promote legislation at the federal, state, and local levels to advance our dual goals of protection and promotion.  We will write letters, make phone calls, contact legislators, demonstrate, and use any other tools at our disposal to support enacting national legislation to make uniform the conduct of federal elections across the country.

We will do the same at the state level, where bills are pending to address: on-line voter registration; Election Day voter registration; and allowing 16 and 17 year olds to pre-register to vote. State Senate President Therese Murray has filed a bill to amend the Massachusetts Constitution to permit absentee voting without having to provide some sort of an excuse for not voting in person. At the local level we will meet with town clerks to discuss voting rules and procedures that are currently in place to see if any changes need to be made to advance and enhance voter participation.

The SDTC will keep interested parties informed and up-to-date on issues, legislation, and lobbying efforts related to this project via updates to this page and through relevant blog posts. Stay tuned; be vigilant.

 
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