| Voting Rights Issues | | Print | |
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From the first draft of the Constitution, the history of America has featured a contest for the right to vote and to have that vote count. A big impetus of the Voting Rights Act was to protect the rights of minority voters in the redistricting process and bar discriminatory At-Large Voting schemes. Packing and CrackingIn redistricting the problem is “packing” and “cracking”. Packing puts voters of one group into one district to reduce a group’s overall voting strength. Cracking spreads like voters across several districts to dilute their voting power. Packing and cracking represents a problem for many minority groups. Before the passage of the Voting Rights Act, black voters were frequently packed or cracked into different districts. The VRA provided standards for redistricting and gave black voters their day in court. Packing and cracking are tactics still in use today.At-Large VotingAt-Large Voting is another well-known vote dilution method still found in some city councils and local bodies today. In At-Large voting, voters elect all council members at once using a winner-take-all voting method. This allows one voting bloc to control all the seats. This is a particular problem in ethnically divided communities, where a 51% white majority could potentially control all of a city’s council seats, effectively denying representation to the city’s 49% minority population. At-Large Voting can be designed to provide fair representation if a modified voting method is used. For more… Understanding Redistricting – From a Voting Rights Perspective At-Large Voting – A Primer from MassVOTE – pdf Howard A. Scarrow, The Impact of At-Large Elections: Vote Dilution or Choice Dilution? - pdf Voting Rights Act and Language IssuesIn 1975, Congress extended the Voting Rights Act to help those voters – especially older immigrants and new citizens - without sufficient English language skills to cast a meaningful ballot. Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act covers citizens of Hispanic, Asian, or Native American descent. Bi-lingual poll workers and voting materials have helped large populations vote and make informed choices on ballot questions and to navigate voting procedures. For more… GAO_Bilingual Election Assistance 2008 Report – pdf Government Effectiveness and the Minority Language Protections of the Voting Rights Act – pdf Voter SuppressionVoter suppression encompasses activities, rules, policies and even laws that prevent or discourage otherwise eligible voters from registering and voting. In the past voter suppression tactics have included property tests, poll taxes, literacy exams and minority vote dilution schemes. Today voter suppression impacts well over a million voters each year. One of its newest tactics is a host of new state laws advanced in the name of combating individual so-called "voter fraud." The occurance of such fraud, experts note, is rare to non-existent, and begs the question: What voter would risk mandatory prison, a large fine and a ban on voting for life to cast one extra vote in an election? The real issue remains voter suppression carried out on an organized partisan basis. Schemes to do so take many forms, such as campaigns to make it harder to register to vote or to vote early or on Election Day, or planned efforts to intimidate or confuse voters voting by mail. These and other methods result in voter suppression that ranges from unnecessary lines or confusion at the polls, to uncounted, valid provisional ballots from eligible voters. Voter suppression can be stopped or even made illegal (Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation). In the long run, voter suppression can be avoided by encouraging voting - a principle gaining broad support from not only the Secretaries of State and clerks who run elections, but also from a new generation of voters who would like to vote. For more… Quick Facts on Voter Suppression, Spencer Overton, Professor of Law, George Washington University, former member of the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform Voting Rights for the District of ColumbiaMore than half a million Americans in the nation's capital remain without the right to representation in Congress. For more than 200 years, DC residents, a majority of whom are black or Hispanic, have not been allowed to elect a representative to Congress. They have only a non-voting delegate to the House. Historic progress came in 2007. For the first time, the U.S. House passed a bipartisan bill that would grant DC residents one voting member in the House. A majority of Senators favored the bill. In the final hours, the measure was defeated by a Senate filibuster; however, it will be reintroduced again. For more… DC Vote |