I have talked about Barack Obama's record on public financing of elections, media reform, ethics reform and transparency so far. Today is the last day before the Iowa Caucus and it will be my last diary on his plans to change the system. In this diary I will talk about another very important subject. Election reform and voting rights. One of the worst things Bush's Justice Department has done is repressing the vote. Obama has fought back and proposed new ways to make it easier to vote. This is a very important subject to Obama because the first thing he did after leaving Harvard was lead a voting drive that registered 150,000 minorities to vote.
Voter ID:
Many states use voter ID laws to suppress the minority vote. When the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform recommended it he worked with civil rights legend and voting rights hero John Lewis to introduce a resolution opposing the recommendation that would require all Americans to show photo identification before voting. Here was his statement:
"Yesterday, the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform released its recommendations for improving the electoral process, While many of these are good ideas worthy of consideration, its report also recommends the implementation of a national voter identification requirement - a requirement so incredibly restrictive that you couldn't even prove your identity with a U.S. military photo ID card. This is a mistake, and you only have to look to the state of Georgia to see why."
"Georgia's new photo ID requirement is a poll tax for the 21st century. It's a law that requires some of the poorest among us - those who probably don't have access to transportation - to possibly travel great distances and pay up to $35 just to exercise their right to be heard."
Basically a number of states, including Georgia, have passed laws mandating government-issued photo identification for voters at the polls. Georgia law no longer allows affidavits affirming one's identify to meet identification requirements for voting, a change that the National Commission on Election Reform just four years ago found would "impose an additional expense on the exercise of the franchise, a burden would fall disproportionately on people who are poorer and urban."
Obama's office also provided this:
Currently, there are 150,000 Georgians over 70 who do not have government-issued photo identification, and 1 in 8 Americans do not have a driver's license. This group is disproportionately poor and often do not have easy access to all the documents necessary to get a government-issued ID. Georgia has only 56 locations in 159 counties where people can get this photo identification, and Atlanta, one of America's largest cities, is not one of them.
"In the last election, many Americans stood for hours and hours just to exercise their Constitutional right to vote," said Obama. "We should be making this easier, not more difficult. And we should be figuring it out how to make it easier for all Americans - not just those with a car, or the extra cash to pay for voter ID card."
That was back in 2005. Now the Supreme Court will be considering the legality of Photo ID laws. Hopefully with the opposition of those leading voices the Supreme Court will ban the Photo ID law for good and put this modern day poll tax to death.
Restoring Voting Rights to Ex-Felons
One of the stupidest things in our voting system that if you go to prison in many states then you won't be able to vote for the rest of you're life. Not only does Obama strongly oppose these stupid laws he also blocked the nomination of racist Hans van Spakovsky for these reasons.
In 2000, while sitting on the Fulton County Registration Board in Georgia, von Spakovsky endorsed the idea of "purging" election rolls of felons and joined a Republican group called the "Voting Integrity Project." This group helped remove voters from election rolls in Florida – denying countless legitimate Democratic voters in Florida their right to vote.
Opposition to Hans von Spakovsky:
Speaking of Hans, Barack Obama has blocked his nomination and he wrote a great op-ed on why.
More than 40 years ago, John Lewis and Hosea Williams, along with hundreds of everyday Americans, left their homes and churches to brave the blows of Billy clubs and join a march for freedom across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Thousands of anonymous foot soldiers – Blacks and Whites, the young and the elderly – summoned the courage to march for justice and demand freedom. A few months later, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law.
It's because of the sacrifice of these American heroes that we've come so far today. But there's more work to be done. Recent elections have shown unprecedented intimidation of African-American, Native American, low income and elderly voters at the polls. We've seen political operatives purge voters from registration rolls for no legitimate reason, distribute polling equipment unevenly, and deceive voters about the time, location and rules of elections.
So today more than ever we need to have confidence that those in government responsible for overseeing our voting system will uphold the right to vote for every single American.
This is what's at stake in the United States Senate today. President Bush has recently nominated Hans von Spakovsky to serve on the Federal Election Commission (FEC). It's the job of the FEC to regulate elections and disclose campaign finance contributions. So it goes without saying that the FEC needs strong, impartial leadership that will promote integrity in our election system.
Hans von Spakovsky is not the right person for this job, and I strongly oppose his nomination. From 2001 to 2005, von Spakovsky served as an official at the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division where he amassed a record of undermining voting rights, creating restrictions that would make it harder for poor and minority communities to vote, and putting partisan politics above upholding our civil rights.
Take what happened in Georgia. In 2005, Georgia was trying to require photo identification to be presented by all voters. Even though Georgia's voter ID law was being reviewed by von Spakovsky's office at the DOJ for violating the Voting Rights Act, he anonymously published an article supporting the restriction, arguing it did not affect minority voters disproportionately. Von Spakovsky undoubtedly drove the DOJ's decision to approve the law – a law later overturned by a federal judge.
In 2000, while sitting on the Fulton County Registration Board in Georgia, von Spakovsky endorsed the idea of "purging" election rolls of felons and joined a Republican group called the "Voting Integrity Project." This group helped remove voters from election rolls in Florida – denying countless legitimate Democratic voters in Florida their right to vote.
This year, a group that worked with von Spakovsky at the Justice Department wrote a letter to the Senate Rules Committee expressing their concern about his nomination. In it they called him the "point person for undermining the Civil Rights Division's mandate to protect voting rights." History proves them right. In 2003, von Spakovsky overruled the career professionals on his staff and upheld Tom DeLay's 2003 Texas redistricting plan – a plan the U.S. Supreme court determined violated the rights of Latino voters.
Hans von Spakovsky's record speaks for itself. He should not serve on the panel responsible for protecting the integrity of federal elections. The United States Senate must stand firm in our commitment to fighting the disenfranchisement of minority voters and reject this nominee.
And we should go further. We need to undo the work of the partisan operatives like von Spakovsky and protect our citizens from deception and voter intimidation. I have introduced a bill that would prohibit and criminalize practices that seek to intimidate or mislead voters to keep them away from the polls on Election Day. This bill also requires the Attorney General to take corrective action by providing the public with accurate information about the time and place of elections and the rules of voter eligibility.
We must ensure that all eligible voters can vote – and that their votes will be counted. Our brave civil rights leaders gave too much for partisan nominees to chip away at this right.
D.C. Representation
The United States is the only country in the world to deny citizens of the federal district representation. Isn't that outrageous?
Obama co-sponsored legislation to give full voting rights to DC last year and voted for the compromise DC-Utah seat thing this year. When it was filibustered by the Republicans he had this to say.
"Our brave civil rights leaders sacrificed too much to ensure that every American has the right to vote for us to tolerate the disenfranchisement of the nearly 600,000 residents of the District of Columbia," Senator Obama said. "Those who live in our nation’s capital pay taxes like other Americans and serve bravely in the armed forces like other Americans. Yet they are not afforded a vote in Congress. The right to vote belongs to every American, regardless of race, creed, gender, or geography. I’ll continue to work with Mayor Fenty, Congresswoman Norton, and the sponsors of this bill until the residents of the District of Columbia achieve full representation in Congress."
Require a paper trail
From the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Many states are hastily implementing flawed electronic voting machines and related election procedures. EFF is protecting your right to vote in the courts while working with legislators and election officials across the country to ensure fair, transparent elections.
Twenty-three states still do not require a paper record of all votes, despite the demonstrated technical failures of e-voting machines in the 2004 presidential election -- including the complete loss of thousands of votes. In turn, voters cannot verify that the e-voting machines are recording their votes as intended, and election officials cannot conduct recounts. Most of these machines use "black box" software that hasn't been publicly reviewed for security. Indeed, when security researchers have inspected the devices, they've found serious vulnerabilities all too often.
But poorly-designed machines are not the only problem. Most election workers remain woefully under-trained regarding potential e-voting problems. Vendor technicians frequently have unsupervised access to voting equipment. Local election officials routinely deny attempts to examine e-voting audit data.
He doesn't prominently display it on his site but he supports a paper trail requirement. He has responded that way in a DC for Democracy questionare and during a townhall in Iowa.
Fire John Tanner:
Hans isn't the only racist supresser of the vote in the Bush Administration. Why did Obama want him fired?
On October 5, 2007, Tanner argued that photo identification requirements for voting cause problems for the elderly. However, he argued that such requirements do not disenfranchise minority voters because "Our society is such that minorities don't become elderly the way white people do; they die first." Video of Tanner's comments are here.
So he wrote to the acting AG:
The Honorable Peter D. Keisler
Acting Attorney General
Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001Dear Mr. Keisler:
On October 5, 2007, at the National Latino Congreso in Los Angeles, John Tanner, the chief of the voting rights section of the Civil Rights Division, spoke on a panel regarding minority voters. During the course of that discussion, which focused on recent state laws requiring photo identification for voting, Mr. Tanner said that such photo ID requirements disadvantage the elderly "[a]nd that's a shame." He explained: "You know, creating problems for elderly persons just is not good under any circumstance."
However, according to Mr. Tanner, such requirements do not disenfranchise minorities, and in fact, they actually benefit minorities. He said: "Our society is such that minorities don't become elderly the way white people do; they die first. There are inequities in health care. There are a variety of inequities in this country. And so anything that disproportionately impacts the elderly has the opposite impact on minorities; just the math is such as that."
Such comments are patently erroneous, offensive, and dangerous, and they are especially troubling coming from the federal official charged with protecting voting rights in this country. Mr. Tanner has already demonstrated questionable judgment in overruling the decision of Justice Department lawyers that the Georgia photo ID requirement would disproportionately discriminate against African Americans. For Mr. Tanner to now suggest, in an effort to defend his erroneous decision, that photo identification are not necessary for minority voters because "they die first" shows just how far the Justice Department has fallen. This is a disgrace and yet another reason why the next Attorney General must demonstrate a strong commitment to civil rights.
But, until the next Attorney General is confirmed, you are in charge of the Department, and you are in charge of ensuring that our laws are enforced and that the civil rights of all Americans are protected. Through his inexcusable comments, Mr. Tanner has clearly demonstrated that he possesses neither the character nor the judgment to be heading the Voting Rights Section. For that reason, I respectfully request that you remove him from his position.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
United States Senator
He later resigned. The pressure that Obama and others put on him is probably the reason. Here is a great video from MSNBC about him:
Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2007
Barack Obama introduced S. 453 the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2007. What is the problem?
Calculated efforts to disenfranchise voters persist each election year. During the 2006 election, thousands of Latino voters in Orange County, California received letters telling them that immigrants who voted would be jailed - implying that this even applied to naturalized citizens. In Maryland, voters received fabricated sample Democratic ballots that featured Republican candidates for governor and senator. And in Virginia, voters were phoned by a fraudulent "Virginia Elections Commission" claiming they were ineligible to vote. These tactics most often target vulnerable communities, such as minorities, the elderly, and the disabled.
So what would the bill do?
The Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act will make voter intimidation and election misinformation punishable by law, and contains strong penalties for those who commit these crimes. Furthermore, it would establish a process for providing misinformed voters with accurate information so they can cast their votes in time. The legislation would also:
* Elevate deceptive practices in elections to a felony and increase the penalty to up to $250,000 or five years imprisonment
* Require the Department of Justice to provide voters with accurate election information when allegations of voting fraud are confirmed
* Authorize the Attorney General to initiate action on complaints
* Require the Attorney General to develop ways to provide corrective election information to voters
* Require the Attorney General to refer cases to the Civil Rights Division for prosecution as well as the appropriate federal and state authorities
* Require the Attorney General to evaluate how to provide corrective information through various forms of public broadcast like public service announcements and emergency alert systems.
Thanks to the Senate office for that information. The Republicans have for too long used intimidation to suppress the vote and steal elections. This bill has passed the House and is headed to the Senate floor. Hopefully it will pass before the election and we will have fair elections. Here was his testimony on the bill in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee:
"It’s hard to imagine that we even need a bill like this. But, unfortunately, there are people who will stop at nothing to try to deceive voters and keep them away from the polls. What’s worse, these practices often target and exploit vulnerable populations, such as minorities, the disabled, the elderly, or the poor."
"We see these problems year after year and election and after election, and my hope is that this bill will finally stop these practices in time for the next election."
"The Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act makes voter intimidation and deception punishable by law, and it contains strong penalties so that people who commit these crimes suffer more than just a slap on the wrist. The bill also seeks to address the real harm of these crimes— people who are prevented from voting by misinformation — by establishing a process for reaching out to these misinformed voters with accurate information so they can cast their votes in time."
"There are some issues in this country that are inherently difficult and political. Making sure that every American can cast a ballot shouldn’t be one of them. There is no place for politics in this debate – no room for those who feel that they can gain a partisan advantage by keeping people away from the polls. As the members of this Committee know all too well, politics have colored some of the recent actions of the Department of Justice, so our bill includes a private right of action to ensure that individuals who are victims of deceptive information have legal recourse if an Attorney General turns a blind eye to these types of practices."
"As the New York Times stated in its January 31st editorial on this issue, "the bill ... is an important step toward making elections more honest and fair. There is no reason it should not be passed by Congress unanimously." I ask that this editorial be placed into the record."
"It’s time to get this done in a bipartisan fashion, and I believe this bill can make it happen. I look forward to working with you, Chairman Cardin, Senator Schumer, Chairman Leahy and Ranking Member Specter, and the other members of the Committee, as well as the many co-sponsors of this bill, to pass this legislation this Congres
He also provided testimony for the House Judiciary Committee:
I was pleased to introduce the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act in the Senate, along with my colleague Senator Charles Schumer, and others such as Senator Kennedy and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy, and I am honored that my colleagues in the House, including Chairman Conyers, Congressman Emanuel, Congressmen Becerra, Honda, and Ellison, introduced companion legislation last week.
It’s hard to imagine that we even need a bill like this. But, unfortunately, there are people who will stop at nothing to try to deceive voters and keep them away from the polls. What’s worse, these practices often target and exploit vulnerable populations, such as minorities, the disabled, or the poor.
We saw countless examples in this past election. Some of us remember the thousands of Latino voters in Orange County, California, who received letters warning them in Spanish that, "if you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that can result in incarceration."
Or the voters in Maryland who received a "democratic sample ballot" featuring a Republican candidate for Governor and a Republican candidate for U.S. Senator.
Or the voters in Virginia who received calls from a so-called "Virginia Elections Commission" informing them – falsely – that they were ineligible to vote.
Or the voters who were told that they couldn’t vote if they had family members who had been convicted of a crime.
Of course, these so-called warnings have no basis in fact, and are made with only one goal in mind – to keep Americans away from the polls. We see these problems year after year and election and after election, and my hope is that this bill will finally stop these practices in time for the next election.
The Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act makes voter intimidation and deception punishable by law, and it contains strong penalties so that people who commit these crimes suffer more than just a slap on the wrist. The bill also seeks to address the real harm of these crimes— people who are prevented from voting by misinformation — by establishing a process for reaching out to these misinformed voters with accurate information so they can cast their votes in time.
There are some issues in this country that are inherently difficult and political. Making sure that every American can cast a ballot shouldn’t be one of them. There is no place for politics in this debate – no room for those who feel that they can gain a partisan advantage by keeping people away from the polls.
As the New York Times stated in its January 31st editorial on this issue, "the bill ... is an important step toward making elections more honest and fair. There is no reason it should not be passed by Congress unanimously." I ask that this editorial be placed into the record.
It’s time to get this done in a bipartisan fashion, and I believe this bill can make it happen. I look forward to working with you, Chairman Conyers, and the other members of the Committee
Another reason to care about this? Adam B has written about it. Adam knows when something is important. Oh and PFAW and the NYTimes like it too.
Other Reforms:
As I have noted before he has been very strong of public financing of elections. He also seems to be the most supportive of another radical system change that I have been working for. Instant Runoff Voting. The leading organization advocating for IRV says he supports it and he introduced a bill to implement it in Illinois. If you don't know what IRV is then check it out, they have it in Australia and it works great and helps progressives be more progressive.
This isn't everything he has done on this issue but I tried to give you a good overview. Hopefully you've enjoyed the series!
This is another issue of political reform that Barack Obama has a strong record on. How can you beat fighting for the fundamental right to vote? And vote Iowa will tomorrow even if it is a totally weird process.
Tomorrow the world changes.
I will leave you with his remarks at John Lewis's 65th birthday party.
Thank you. It's an honor to be here tonight to celebrate one of the most courageous and compassionate Americans of our time. Happy Birthday John.
When I was first asked to speak here, I thought to myself, never in a million years would I have guessed that I'd be serving in Congress with John Lewis.
And then I thought, you know, there was once a time when John Lewis might never have guessed that he'd be serving in Congress. And there was a time not long before that when people might never have guessed that someday, African-Americans would be able to go to the polls, pick up a ballot, make their voice heard, and elect that Congress.
But we can, and I'm here, because people like John Lewis believed. Because people like John Lewis feared nothing and risked everything for those beliefs. Because they were willing to spend sleepless nights in lonely jail cells, endure the searing pain of billy clubs cracked against their bones, and face down death simply so that all of us could share equally in the joys of life.
How far we've come because of your courage, John.
How far we've come from the days when the son of sharecroppers would huddle by the radio as the crackle of Dr. King's dreams filled his heart with hope. He was often forced to leave school to work in the fields and the public library was off-limits to his kind, and yet young John Lewis sought knowledge. His parents were never the type to complain or try to stir up any trouble, and yet their son sought justice.
And so he organized, even when so many tried to stop his efforts. He spoke truths, even when they tried to silence his words. And he marched, even when they tried to knock him down again and again and again.
The road John chose for himself was not easy. But the road to change never is.
I think it's simple for us to look back forty years and think that it was all so clear then. That while there may be room for moral ambiguity in the issues we debate today, civil rights was different. That people generally knew what was right and what was wrong, who the good guys and the bad guys were. But the moral certainties we now take for granted - that separate can never be equal, that the blessings of liberty enshrined in our Constitution belong to all of us, that our children should be able to go to school together and play together and grow up together - were anything but certain when John Lewis was a boy.
And so there was struggle and sacrifice, discipline and tremendous courage. And there was the culmination of it all one Sunday afternoon on a bridge in Alabama.
I've often thought about the people on the Edmund Pettus Bridge that day. Not only John and Hosea Williams leading the march, but the hundreds of everyday Americans who left their homes and their churches to join it. Blacks and whites, teenagers and children, teachers and bankers and shopkeepers - a beloved community of God's children ready to stand for freedom.
And I wonder, where did they find that kind of courage? When you're facing row after row of state troopers on horseback armed with billy clubs and tear gas...when they're coming toward you spewing hatred and violence, how do you simply stop, kneel down, and pray to the Lord for salvation? Truly, this is the audacity of hope.
But the most amazing thing of all is that after that day - after John Lewis was beaten within an inch of his life, after people's heads were gashed open and their eyes were burned and they watched their children's innocence literally beaten out of them...after all that, they went back to march again.
They marched again. They crossed the bridge. They awakened a nation's conscience, and not five months later, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law.
And so it was, in a story as old as our beginnings and as timeless as our hopes, that change came about because the good people of a great nation willed it so.
Thank you, John, for going back. Thank you for marching again.
Thank you for reminding us that in America, ordinary citizens can somehow find in their hearts the courage to do extraordinary things. That in the face of the fiercest resistance and the most crushing oppression, one voice can be willing to stand up and say that's wrong and this is right and here's why. And say it again. And say it louder. And keep saying it until other voices join the chorus to sing the songs that set us free.
Today, I'm sure you'll all agree that we have songs left to sing and bridges left to cross. And if there's anything we can learn from this living saint sitting beside me, it is that change is never easy, but always possible. That it comes not from violence or militancy or the kind of politics that pits us against each other and plays on our worst fears; but from great discipline and organization, from a strong message of hope, and from the courage to turn against the tide so that the tide eventually may be turned.
Today, we need that courage. We need the courage to say that it's wrong that one out of every five children is born into poverty in the richest country on Earth. And it's right to do whatever necessary to provide our children the care and the education they need to live up to their God-given potential.
It's wrong to tell hardworking families who are earning less and paying more in taxes that we can't do anything to help them buy their own home or send their kids to college or care for them when they're sick. And it's right to expect that if you're willing to work hard in this country of American Dreamers, the sky is the limit on what you can achieve.
It's wrong to tell those brave men and women who are willing to fight and die for this country that when they come home, we may not have room for them at the VA hospitals or the benefits we promised them. And it's right to always provide the very best care for the very best of America.
My friends, we have not come this far as a people and a nation because we believe that we're better off simply fending for ourselves. We are here because we believe that all men are created equal, and that we are all connected to each other as one people. And we need to say that more. And say it again. And keep saying it.
And where will our courage come from to speak these truths? When we stand on our own Edmund Pettus Bridge, what hope will sustain us?
I believe it is the hope of knowing that people like John Lewis have stood on that same bridge and lived to cross it.
For me, this kind of hope often comes from a memory of a trip I took during the campaign. About a week after the primary, Dick Durbin and I embarked on a nineteen city tour of Southern Illinois. And one of the towns we went to was a place called Cairo, which, as many of you might know, achieved a certain notoriety during the late 60s and early 70s as having one of the worst racial climates in the country. You had an active white citizen's council there, you had cross burnings, Jewish families were being harassed, you had segregated schools, race riots, you name it - it was going on in Cairo.
And we're riding down to Cairo and Dick Durbin turns to me and says, "Let me tell you about the first time I went to Cairo. It was about 30 years ago. I was 23 years old and Paul Simon, who was Lieutenant Governor at the time, sent me down there to investigate what could be done to improve the racial climate in Cairo."
And Dick tells me how he diligently goes down there and gets picked up by a local resident who takes him to his motel. And as Dick's getting out of the car, the driver says "excuse me, let me just give you a piece of advice. Don't use the phone in your motel room because the switchboard operator is a member of the white citizen's council, and they'll report on anything you do."
Well, this obviously makes Dick Durbin upset, but he's a brave young man, so he checks in to his room, unpacks his bags and a few minutes later he hears a knock on the door. He opens up the door and there's a guy standing there who just stares at Dick for a second, and then says, "What the hell are you doing here?" and walks away.
Well, now Dick is really feeling concerned and so am I because as he's telling me this story, we're pulling in to Cairo. So I'm wondering what kind of reception we're going to get. And we wind our way through the town and we go past the old courthouse, take a turn and suddenly we're in a big parking lot and about 300 people are standing there. About a fourth of them are black and three fourths are white and they all are about the age where they would have been active participants in the epic struggle that had taken place thirty years earlier.
And as we pull closer, I see something. All of these people are wearing these little buttons that say "Obama for U.S. Senate." And they start smiling. And they start waving. And Dick and I looked at each other and didn't have to say a thing. Because if you told Dick thirty years ago that he - the son of Lithuania immigrants born into very modest means in east St. Louis - would be returning to Cairo as a sitting United States Senator, and that he would have in tow a black guy born in Hawaii with a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas named Barack Obama, no one would have believed it.
But it happened. And it happened because John Lewis and scores of brave Americans stood on that bridge and lived to cross it.
You know, two weeks after Bloody Sunday, when the march finally reached Montgomery, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to the crowd of thousands and said "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." He's right, but you know what? It doesn't bend on its own. It bends because we help it bend that way. Because people like John Lewis and Hosea Williams and Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King and Rosa Parks and thousands of ordinary Americans with extraordinary courage have helped bend it that way. And as their examples call out to us from across the generations, we continue to progress as a people because they inspire us to take our own two hands and bend that arc. Thank you John. May God Bless you, and may God Bless these United States of America.
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