Maybe Louisiana Citizens Should Have Evacuated to Argentina Bill Would Give Displaced Louisiana Residents an Equal Voice in Government
Voter Protections Newsletter Volume 2 Issue 3
June 8, 2007
VOTING VIEWPOINTS
By Alaina Beverly
Argentina has an election scheduled this fall and, you guessed it, Argentineans living in the United States will be able to vote in the election. Citizens of Argentina temporarily living in the United States will be able to register online in June. It is impressive what a modern democracy can and will do to prioritize the right to vote and ensure that every citizen has a voice in their representative government.
If Argentina can do it, then what is Louisiana’s excuse? Roughly one million southern Louisiana citizens were forcibly evacuated from their homes as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. While thousands are working to return home, political bureaucracy is crippling the recovery process, and the road home has been longer than anyone could have anticipated. It is in this context that displaced voters are required to navigate a complex absentee voting process, one that requires voters to apply in writing, receive the ballot, return the ballot signed and witnessed or notarized, or drive for hours from every election to have a voice in the political process.
Not surprisingly, Louisiana’s voter participation has declined dramatically since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, particularly in communities of color that were hardest hit by the hurricanes. Louisiana reported the lowest voter turnout of any state in the country for last fall’s midterm elections. Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne admitted before the Committee on House and Governmental Affairs that the voter turnout has been “trending in the wrong direction.”
You would expect that Louisiana’s elected representatives would do everything in their power to reach out to displaced voters, encourage displaced voter participation, and reinforce the symbolic connection to home that voting offers for the thousands of Louisiana citizens who are languishing in the Diaspora. You might think that the secretary of state and the Louisiana legislators would support measures like House Bill 619 (H.B. 619)and Senate Bill 320 (S.B. 320), but they don’t.
Introduced by Rep. Jalila Jefferson-Bullock (D-New Orleans), H.B. 619 extends the absentee deadlines to displaced voters that are currently offered to our overseas military and protects displaced voters from being erroneously removed from the statewide voter registration list. The bill establishes in-state satellite polling places during the early voting period for displaced voters based upon a model that has been used before and approved by the Department of Justice.
Sen. Charles Jones (D-Baton Rouge) recently sponsored a companion bill, S.B. 320, which would provide the same in-state satellite voting measures and extended absentee provisions for displaced voters. S.B. 320, however, would establish a timetable for theses measures, allowing the early voting at satellite sites through July 13, 2008, and allowing a displaced voter’s application to vote absentee to be valid through June 15, 2008. Both H.B. 619 and S.B. 320 offer displaced voters a meaningful opportunity to participate in the political process, which will be essential if displaced persons are to have a say in the upcoming gubernatorial race this fall.
Surprisingly, Secretary of State Dardenne opposes these measures, claiming that in-state satellite sites are an unworkable option. He argues that election officials throughout the state do not have the finances to conduct satellite sites for statewide elections (even though Louisiana is in the middle of a fiscal surplus). According to Dardenne, satellite sites would be a drain on the election process and would cause “chaos.”
It seems unlikely that all out chaos would ensue if voters who are temporarily living in northern Louisiana parishes, for example, were allowed to go to the local Registrar of Voters office on one of the ten days that make up the early voting period and cast a ballot that is recorded electronically by one Louisiana’s newfangled voting machines. More importantly, it seems logical that it would be the responsibility of the secretary of state and Louisiana’s elected officers to figure out a way to make it work. Democracy demands that they try. For more information, visit http://www.katrinaaction.org
This opinion piece is from the Advancement Project’s Just Democracy Blog, which is designed to give progressive voices an up-to-the-moment way to share news, exchange views about voting rights, educational opportunity, urban peace, immigrants’ rights, and other issues to advance the national dialogue on racial justice. We invite you to visit the Just Democracy Blog website to join the dialogue and fuel the conversation about racial justice in America.
