FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 20, 2013

CONTACT: Cynthia Gordy, Advancement Project, 202-341-0555 or cgordy@advancementproject.org

VICTORY FOR VOTING RIGHTS IN MISSOURI AS STATE LEGISLATORS SHELVE RESTRICTIVE PHOTO ID BILL

After Broad Voter Protection Advocacy by Advancement Project and Partners, Lawmakers End Session without Passing Harmful Voting Legislation

(Jefferson City, MO) – On Friday, the Missouri General Assembly adjourned its 2013 legislative session without passing a voter ID bill. State lawmakers had been widely expected to pass two proposed measures – a resolution that sought to amend the Missouri Constitution to allow restrictive voter identification requirements, and legislation that would have required voters to present photo ID – yet the legislature decided to shelve both.

This session, Missouri lawmakers identified a restrictive photo ID bill among their top legislative priorities. Legislators pre-filed both measures back in December, which quickly passed out of the House of Representatives and Senate Committees, and they were on the calendar for a Senate Floor vote as recently as last week. The General Assembly’s remarkable change of heart came after Advancement Project coordinated a broad-based Missouri voter protection coalition, mobilizing nearly two dozen nonpartisan organizations to fight the proposed bills.

Advocates engaged in legislative advocacy for months, urging legislators to oppose the bills and encouraging Governor Jay Nixon to veto the legislation should it pass. Following their public outreach and education efforts, voters from across the state bombarded lawmakers with emails, phone calls and tweets against the measures. Advancement Project Senior Attorney Denise Lieberman testified before the Missouri legislative committees multiple times about the harmful impact of a restrictive photo ID law.

“We are pleased that Missouri lawmakers decided against restricting the fundamental right to vote, ensuring that elections remain free, fair and accessible for all citizens,” said Advancement Project Co-Director Judith Browne Dianis. “If the photo ID bill, one of the most restrictive in the country, had been enacted, then hundreds of thousands of registered voters who lack the required forms of ID would have been suddenly ineligible to cast ballot. These voters are disproportionately senior citizens, veterans, the working poor, African Americans, people with disabilities and students.”

In spite of Missouri’s voting rights victory, the national war on voting is far from over, as other state legislatures continue to pursue restrictive photo ID bills. Since the beginning of 2013, photo ID bills have been introduced in 23 states, and they have already passed in Virginia and Arkansas. It is also expected that the Missouri General Assembly will introduce photo ID proposals again in the next legislative session.

“The photo ID proposals have been defeated for now, but Missouri lawmakers will likely double down later on their efforts to restrict voters from participating,” said Advancement Project Co-Director Penda D. Hair. “One would think that the voting problems we saw in Missouri on Election Day, such as the many registered voters whose names were missing from the rolls, would lead to positive reforms. But just as the war on voting continues, so does the fight to protect democracy everywhere. ”

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 1, 2013

Contact:

Elbert Garcia, Florida New Majority, 305-754-0118 ext. 1005, elbert@flnewmajority.org

Cynthia Gordy, Advancement Project, 718-755-4340, cgordy@advancementproject.org

COALITION OF CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS SAYS FLORIDA ELECTIONS BILL WILL NOT FIX VOTING PROBLEMS, HAS HARMFUL IMPACT ON COMMUNITIES OF COLOR

Proposed Bill’s Failure to Fully Restore Much-Needed 14 Days of Early Voting, or Increase Polling Place Resources, Will Lead to Long Lines Again

(Tallahassee, FL) – In advance of the final vote on Florida’s omnibus elections bill this week, a coalition of groups from the civil rights, legal and labor communities are calling on the Florida House to amend the legislation, saying that “half measures are not enough.” In a letter delivered to House Speaker Will Weatherford, the organizations also argue that the bill’s shortfalls have a disproportionately harmful impact on communities of color and offer several recommendations for strengthening the measure.

Currently the bill, HB 7013, gives Supervisors of Elections discretion to decide if their county should have early voting between eight and 14 days. Florida voters previously enjoyed a mandatory 14 days of early voting in the state until the legislature enacted cuts in 2011, a change which contributed to unacceptably long lines in the 2012 election. In their letter to Speaker Weatherford, the groups –

Florida New Majority, Advancement Project, American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, Common Cause, Fair Elections Legal Network, Florida State Conference NAACP, Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Mi Familia Vota, PICO, United Florida, and SEIU Florida – called on lawmakers to amend the bill so that it mandates 14 days of early voting for a minimum of 12 hours each day.

"When lawmakers returned to the State Capitol after the disastrous 2012 election, many of them claimed that reforming Florida's voting system was a top priority," said Florida New Majority Executive Director Gihan Perera. "They vowed to fix the problems created in 2011 under House Bill 1355. What they came up with simply does not go far enough. More than 200,000 Florida citizens walked away from the marathon voting lines of 2012 because they were unable to wait for hours, and they were ultimately denied their fundamental right to vote. This is a crisis that calls for more than just tinkering around the edges. It requires bold action. The current elections bill doesn't come close to meeting this standard."

Florida’s voters of color are more likely to take advantage of early voting, particularly on the last Sunday before Election Day, when African-American churches have historically organized statewide “Souls to the Polls” voter turnout campaigns. After the cuts to early voting in 2011, the letter details, the number of African Americans and Latinos who voted early dropped significantly.

“This Florida omnibus elections bill risks future disenfranchisement because it leaves the needed fixes to discretion,” said Advancement Project Co-Director Judith Browne Dianis. “When it comes to the fundamental right to vote, it is not enough to propose half measures. The legislature’s disappointing approach thus far to addressing this severe problem only underscores the need for an explicit, fundamental right to vote in Florida law. We hope the House will move forward with this type of bold, comprehensive action in the future. For now, it is critical that they amend the omnibus bill to ensure free, fair and accessible elections for all Florida voters.”

Among other changes, the organizations recommend these amendments for the House elections bill:

• Increase the mandatory number of early voting hours to 168 – requiring early voting for 14 days, with 12 hours per day, including two full weekends.
• Require small counties to offer the same number of early voting hours as large counties. This does not impose an undue burden on smaller counties, which can simply offer early voting in their Supervisor of Elections office.
• Increase polling place resources by implementing a statutory formula. A formula based on anticipated turnout should be applied to ensure an adequate number of poll workers, machines, privacy booths, scanners, printers and translators per polling place.

The sign-on letter can be seen here: http://www.advancementproject.org/resources/entry/letter-to-speak-weatherford-of-florida

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                        

April 29, 2013      

Contacts: Jennifer Farmer, Advancement Project                                        

Phone: (614) 596-0432

Email: jfarmer@advancementproject.org

People Ranging from 76 to 18 yrs Old Will Be Jailed Today to Protect Voting Rights in North Carolina;

Civil Disobedience Will Start Today and Last Over Several Weeks

NC NAACP to Host National Media Conference Call at 3:00 pm Today to Discuss Nonviolent, Civil Disobedience 

(Durham, North Carolina) – In the face of unprecedented and far reaching attacks on North Carolinians ability to vote, go to school and properly care for their families, the North Carolina NAACP State Conference will hold a national media conference call at 3:00 pm to discuss a nonviolent civil disobedience “pray-in” at the North Carolina General Assembly later today. Leaders say the “pray-in” is the first of many nonviolent direct actions in the state where leaders will be arrested and jailed over voting rights.

“The decision to engage in civil disobedience is not one we take lightly,” stated Rev. Dr. William Barber of the North Carolina NAACP State Conference. “But right-wing extremists in the state legislature and Governor’s office are acting like the George Wallaces of the 21^st century. They are pursuing a cruel, unusual and unconstitutional agenda reminiscent of the Old South. This is a state issue with national implications, since many of these same regressive forces are at play in other states. North Carolina is ground zero in a national struggle to defend democracy for all.”

In the first 50 days of the North Carolina legislative session, the Republican-controlled legislature enacted polices that will adversely impact hundreds of thousands North Carolinians. A recent PPP poll found that North Carolinians oppose this extreme and aggressive agenda. Click here to view the poll. Sadly, the legislature appears steadfastly committed to acting outside the best interest of the people of North Carolina.  This session, the North Carolina legislature has:

·         Rejected funding to expand Medicaid to cover 500,000 North Carolinians without health insurance;

·         Rejected more than $700 million in federal funds for unemployment benefits, affecting 170,000 laid off workers;

·         Cut the payroll tax credit for over 900,000 poor and working people, while giving a tax break to 23 of the wealthiest people in our State;

·         Planned to reduce access to pre-school and kindergarten; and

·         Attacked the right to vote with a series of voter suppression laws, including a voter ID bill that will disenfranchise nearly 500,000 voters.

“This much is clear: the Republican-led legislature is standing in the way of progress and passing laws that violate fundamental constitutional rights. As leaders of moral conscious, we must draw the line somewhere. This is what this direct action is all about.”

WHO: North Carolina NAACP State Conference President Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II; clergy, students, advocates and other community members

WHAT: National media conference call regarding peaceful direct action to pushback on state leaders’ broader regressive campaign against the poor, workers, minorities, seniors and students.

WHERE AND WHEN:

Phone Briefing at 3:00 pm EST – RSVP to Jennifer Farmer at jfarmer@advancementproject.org.

Pray-In begins shortly after 5:00 pm (Exact time TBA)

NC General Assembly

16 West Jones Street

Raleigh, NC 27601

For more information, please contact Jennifer Farmer, Advancement Project, at 614.596.0432.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 16, 2013

Contact:

Elbert Garcia, Florida New Majority, 305-754-0118 ext. 1005, elbert@flnewmajority.org

Cynthia Gordy, Advancement Project, 202-728-9557, cgordy@advancementproject.org

COALITION OF CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS, LEGAL GROUPS, IMMIGRANT JUSTICE ADVOCATES AND OTHERS SIGN LETTER TO OPPOSE FLORIDA AMENDMENT TARGETING VOTERS WHO NEED ASSISTANCE AT THE POLLS

Senator Latvala’s Elections Bill Amendment Would Create Barriers for Voters who are Elderly, Disabled, Unable to Read or Write, or Do Not Speak English

(Tallahassee, FL) – A broad coalition of groups from the civil rights, legal, labor and immigrant communities have joined forces to oppose an amendment to the Florida Senate omnibus elections bill that would change the rules for voters who require assistance at the polls. Currently, these citizens – including many Florida voters who are elderly, voters with disabilities, voters with are visually impaired, voters who do not speak English as their primary language, and voters who are unable to read and fully understand complex ballot language – may bring an assistor of their choice with them into the voting booth.

Under a new amendment to Senate Bill 600, introduced last week by Florida Senate Ethics and Elections Committee Chairman, Sen. Jack Latvala, voters will be required to know their assistor before the day they vote. The amendment also limits the number of people whom an assistor may help to 10 voters during any given election. On Monday Sen. Latvala filed a similar amendment for the House omnibus bill, while Senate Bill 600 goes to a vote today.

In a letter delivered to Sen. Latvala, the groups – Florida New Majority, Advancement Project, American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, Florida State Conference of the NAACP, Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition, Latino Justice PRLDEF, Progress Florida, the Jacksonville Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and SEIU Florida – called on him to withdraw his amendment, detailing how it would restrict ballot access for some of Florida’s most vulnerable citizens.

The amendment would also impair the work of organizations whose volunteers routinely assist Florida voters in need during elections. During the 2012 elections, these voter protection advocates addressed last-minute problems and generally helped far more than 10 voters, whether or not they knew them before that day.

“If a voter needs assistance deciphering a complex ballot initiative, or does not know how to read and write in English, they should never feel that they cannot ask for help,” said Florida New Majority Executive Director Gihan Perera. “Yet this amendment essentially tells citizens that if they don’t have an assistor whom they personally know available, then they’re on their own. This violates the essence of our democracy.”

The coalition further argued that Sen. Latvala’s amendment contravenes Section 208 of the Voting Rights act, which expressly gives voters the right to make their own choice of who to bring into the voting booth. The provision was added in 1982 to protect voters who need assistance to cast their ballot.

“Many Florida voters used assistors at the polls last year, and most of those assistors helped more than 10 people,” said Advancement Project Co-Director Judith Browne Dianis. “At the State of the Union address, President Obama highlighted the inspiring story of Desiline Victor, a 102-year-old North Miami woman who stood in line for three hours to cast her ballot. But Ms. Victor also relied on translation help from an assistor in the community who could speak her native Creole language. Without that vital assistance, Ms. Victor’s fundamental right to vote would have been denied.”

In 2012, SEIU Florida alone helped approximately 4,000 voters with translation and literacy assistance during early voting in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. “Despite the number of voters we were able to help, the demand for language and literacy assistance still exceeded what community-provided translators and election staff could provide,” said SEIU Florida President Monica Russo. “An arbitrary limitation of 10 voters per translator would have resulted in thousands more voters being disenfranchised, higher burdens for election staff, and longer lines for all voters.”

“We are deeply disappointed by Senator Jack Latvala's amendment to place undue burdens on minority voters, particularly when this action is not compliant with Section 208 of the federal Voting Rights Act,” said Jean Robert LaFortune, President of the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition. “This action will definitely place unnecessary voting obstacles for Haitian-Americans, and it may push Florida back to an era when politicians decided who should, or should not, exercise their right to vote.”

“Community-based poll workers and voter protection advocates are often a citizen’s last line of defense against intimidation, trickery and deceptive practices designed to keep them from voting,” said Cynthia Slater, Chair of Civic Engagement for the Florida State Conference of the NAACP. “There is no reason to keep these important volunteers from assisting any number of voters who need help.”

"This is just another in a long line of attempts to make it harder for Latino and other voters to participate in the election  process, "said Juan Cartagena, President and General Counsel of LatinoJustice PRLDEF. "The last election in Florida taught us that people want to vote, and officials should be doing everything possible to make the voting process accessible."

“The amendment represents yet another method of suppressing the vote in the state of Florida,” said Reginald Gundy, President of the Jacksonville Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. “It’s unnecessary, discriminatory and has no merit – but it does have the dire consequence of keeping people who need assistance from being able to cast a ballot. Putting arbitrary limits on who can provide voting help will only create confusion at the polls, especially for minorities, seniors and people with disabilities.”

The sign-on letter can be seen here.

A memo outlining the impact of Sen. Latvala’s amendment can be seen here. 

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                             

Contact: Cynthia Gordy, cgordy@advancementproject.org, 202-728-9557

NATIONAL AD LAUNCHES RIGHT TO VOTE CAMPAIGN FEATURING 102-YEAR-OLD VOTER

Efforts Mount to Roll Back Voting Rights

Advancement Project, a next-generation civil rights organization, is launching a national television ad to call attention to the need for enshrining an explicit, affirmative right to vote in federal law. This step would finally ensure that all Americans have access to elections that are free, fair and accessible.

“Voting is the one time we are all equal,” said Penda Hair, Advancement Project co-director. “No matter what gender, race, age or income status, we all are supposed to have an equal voice at the ballot box. That right has been under a sustained and unprecedented attack for partisan gain, and it is critical that we protect the cherished foundation of our democracy by ensuring that the right to vote is explicitly enshrined under law.”

“We have 13,000 different voting jurisdictions and elections are run 13,000 different ways,” said Judith Browne Dianis, co-director of Advancement Project. “We vitally need national standards to ensure that every American who wants to cast a ballot is never denied that right.”

This year alone, 30 states have introduced restrictive voting bills that make it harder for veterans, seniors, young people, people of color and people with disabilities to vote. Virginia and Arkansas both passed restrictive photo ID laws this session, while Virginia also passed legislation placing new requirements and penalties on voter registration drives. In North Carolina, a state with some of the most successful voting laws in the nation, right-wing lawmakers are poised to cut early voting, pass restrictive photo ID requirements, and place severe restrictions on voting rights for people with past felony convictions, among other barriers. In Florida, which has one of the country’s most egregious voting rights records, mobilized citizens are already pushing back with a Right to Vote campaign.

Most Americans are surprised to learn that there is no provision in the Constitution or federal law that affirmatively guarantees all citizens the right to vote. In fact, the United States is one of only 11 of the 119 democratic countries in the world that do not explicitly provide the right to vote in their constitutions.

The national ad features Desiline Victor, the 102 year old woman who stood in line for hours to vote and received a standing ovation at the State of the Union Address this year. The ad is running on national television.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE      

Contact: Jennifer Farmer, 202.728.9557, ext.341

Email: jfarmer@advancementproject.org

April 2, 2013                                      

NRA School Safety Proposal Advances a Pro-Gun Agenda

Washington, D.C. – In response to the National Rifle Association release of their school safety plan, Judith Browne Dianis, Co-director of the national civil rights organization Advancement Project, released the following statement:

“Protecting our children is the highest priority and we all want safe, secure schools. It is imperative we keep our young people safe and secure without impeding learning. More guns and arming school personnel will not improve safety and violence prevention in the learning environment.”

“The NRA School Shield Program stealthily advances its gun-toting agenda while ignoring the needs of students, the voices of the community, and the perspectives of those most impacted by gun violence. If we’re serious about creating safe environments for our students, we need to look at evidenced-based solutions that won’t erode school climate. This can only be done by investing in counselors and mental health providers, increasing the presence of caring adults, adopting non-invasive security upgrades and implementing proven violence-reduction programs.  The NRA pays lip service to the need to invest in mental health professionals yet all the money in their plan goes to armed guards.

“Unlike the NRA proposal, the Advancement Project school safety plan provides a balanced and multi-faceted approach to school safety by securing the building while ensuring the emotional well-being of the youth inside the building.

“The NRA has simply repackaged its outrageous pro-gun agenda, calling for more guns in the hands of school personnel and others. We should not let the gun lobby take over our schools.  We need prevention, planning and relationships not more guns.

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Contact: Erika M. Maye, emaye@advancementproject.org, 202-728-9557

PRESS CALL: FLORIDA YOUTH LAUNCH CAMPAIGN AGAINST SCHOOL GUN PROPOSALS BY STATE LEGISLATORS

Concerns Mount that More Police, Armed Educator Will Undermine – Not Improve – Safety

For immediate release

MIAMI, FL – In response to bills moving through the legislature that would arm teachers and increase police presence at schools across the state, students of color, who data show are most impacted by these policies, are calling on policymakers to keep guns out of schools. A coalition of youth from Power U Center for Social Change and Dream Defenders, civil rights and education groups in Florida will hold media teleconference on Monday, April 1 at 11:00 am calling on state and local policymakers to say “NO” to more guns in school. 

With support from the Florida State Conference of the NAACP, Advancement Project, public defenders, law enforcement and juvenile court judges, the youth reject the premise that additional armed guards will help them, asserting such personnel often escalate school disciplinary issues into police matters.  In fact, studies have consistently shown that youth of color are disproportionately suspended, expelled and even arrested when guards or police enforce school discipline.

Florida has the highest documented number of school-related arrests of young people in the nation – 13,870 in 2011-12 alone. Two-thirds of those arrests were for minor disciplinary infractions. Florida schools are becoming an entry point into the criminal justice system for this generation of students as 51% of students arrested in school in 2011-12 were entering the juvenile justice system for the very first time.

The campaign will launch on Monday with a week of actions across the state urging policymakers to oppose measures that would place more guns in schools.

WHAT: Media Conference Call

WHEN: Monday, April 1, 2013 at 11:00 am

WHO:  The Florida State Conference of the NAACP, Advancement Project, and students from Power U Center for Social Change and Dream Defenders who will share their experiences with police in schools.

RSVP:  For conference code, rsvp to  Erika M. Maye, emaye@advancementproject.org, (202) 728-9557 ext. 317.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 28, 2013  

Contact:  Jennifer Farmer, 202.728.9557, ext. 341
Email: jfarmer@advancementproject.org
    
Leila McDowell, 202 728 9557 ext. 303
Email: lmcdowell@advancementproject.org

BROAD-BASED COALITION OF YOUTH GROUPS, CIVIL RIGHTS ADVOCATES, SCHOOL COUNSELORS, SOCIAL WORKERS AND OTHERS LAUNCH CAMPAIGN TO OPPOSE DEPLOYMENT OF ARMED GUARDS IN SCHOOLS

Civil Rights Group Advancement Project Releases “A Real Fix: The Gun-Free Way to School Safety” Report as Alternative to NRA Proposal

(WASHINGTON) – A broad-based coalition of young people, parents, civil rights groups, social workers, school counselors, mental health advocates, along with a family court judge and a leading voice in the hip hop movement today held a media conference call to loudly oppose efforts to put armed guards or armed personnel in schools. The call marked the launch of a week-long series of youth-led actions in cities across the country to oppose the deployment of police in schools. It also marked the official release of a new Advancement Project report, A Real Fix: The Gun-Free Way to School Safety. The report calls for greater investments in school counselors, mental health professionals and non-invasive security measures which will keep kids safe while ensuring children are placed on pathways to colleges and careers, not prison.

“This campaign is really about protecting children from the unintended consequences typically associated with police in schools,” said Advancement Project Co-Director Judith Browne Dianis. “We cannot make our schools safer with more guns. Instead of stopping crime – which rarely happens on school grounds – the real impact of armed guards in schools is a dramatic increase in students arrested for minor misbehaviors. Children are being arrested, handcuffed and treated as criminals for things like violating a dress code, talking back to a teacher, bringing a cell phone to school and other minor misbehaviors that would be better solved by a counselor or a trip to the principal’s office.”

“While school police were intended to address threats to school safety, their role has typically devolved into addressing school discipline -- with law enforcement tactics,” said Matthew Cregor of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

A number of organizations have expressed reservations about armed guards in schools. In a statement to Vice President Joe Biden, re-released for the March 28 media call, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) said “Research shows that a first-time arrest doubles the odds that a student will drop out of high school, and a first-time court appearance quadruples the odds.” The American Psychological Association, the Council of State Governments, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention all found that “Extreme discipline, including arrests; predict grade retention, school dropout, and future involvement in the juvenile and criminal justice systems. As a result, students face lasting consequences, not only in the justice system, but also when applying for college, the military, or a job.”

Youth organizations also reject the premise that additional armed guards will help, asserting that this kind of personnel often escalate school disciplinary issues into police matters. 

“The Youth Justice Coalition, along with groups like Dignity in Schools, the Alliance for Educational Justice and other youth groups across the country believe you cannot get ‘peace with a piece’ and that’s why we’ve helped to organize rallies and protests in more than 8 cities starting on Monday, April 1,” said Leslie Mendoza, a leader with the Youth Justice Coalition.

The actions are being held in multiple states, illustrating the nationwide impact of the issue. For example, more than 12,500 students were arrested during the 2011-2012 school year in Florida. In October 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the State of Mississippi, two state agencies and a judge for operating a school-to-prison-pipeline. The Justice Department found that Mississippi systematically arrested and incarcerated children, often for minor school infractions, without providing due process for the children and their families.

Retired police officer James Mathis knows this firsthand. His grandson was arrested in Mississippi following a shoving match with another student. “My grandson was arrested and held for hours without our family’s knowledge,” Mathis said.

The launch of the campaign comes as the National Rifle Association prepares to release its prescription for “safe schools” on April 1, built on the premise of adding more armed personnel to the nation’s schools.  Legislation now before the U.S. Senate would authorize funding for additional armed guards, an initiative also backed by the Obama administration through a proposed increase in funding for the COPS program.

“We urge Congress to oppose any proposal that would increase funding to place law enforcement in schools,” said Deborah J. Vagins, ACLU senior legislative counsel. “Most school police spend a significant portion of their time responding to minor, nonviolent infractions, rather than behaviors that seriously threaten school safety.”

“We support the efforts of groups who are encouraging elected officials and education leaders to work aggressively towards dealing with minor student misbehavior in a manner that does not lead to school disruption and potentially, a generation of uneducated adults,” said Delaware Family Chief Judge Chandlee Johnson Kuhn.

Schools remain among the safest places for young people, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Based on the U.S. Center for Disease Control’s School-Associated Violent Death Study for the 2009-2010 school year, the odds of a young person ages 5-to-18 years being the victim of a homicide at school, on their way to school or at a school-sponsored event was 1 in 2.5 million.

The full report can been seen here: http://bit.ly/14jJ37s

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 20, 2013

Contact:          Cynthia Gordy, 202-728-9557 or cgordy@advancementproject.org

THOMAS PEREZ IS A STANDOUT LABOR SECRETARY NOMINEE, WILL BE A CHAMPION FOR WORKING PEOPLE

A Statement from Advancement Project

In response to President Barack Obama’s nomination of Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez for Secretary of Labor, Advancement Project Co-Director Penda D. Hair issued the following statement:

Thomas Perez is an outstanding nominee for U.S. Secretary of Labor, and we urge a swift Senate confirmation. Not only is he exceedingly qualified, having previously served as the head of Maryland’s state labor department, but he is also a tireless leader in protecting civil rights. At the Department of Justice, he returned the civil rights division to its historic commitment to voting, working to ensure that our elections are free, fair and accessible for all. We have been pleased to see Perez challenge barriers to the ballot box, such as discriminatory voter ID laws and voter purges. Particularly at a time when the Obama Administration is pushing for immigration reform and a minimum wage increase, we are certain that, as Labor Secretary, Perez would bring that same fighting spirit to the needs of working people.

Perez has had a distinguished career that makes him highly prepared to take on the role of advancing the interests of wage earners, job seekers and retirees, and we encourage the Senate to confirm Perez without delay.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 27, 2013

Contact: Rich Robinson, Advancement Project, 202-728-9557 or rrobinson@advancementproject.org

SUPREME COURT MUST UPHOLD THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT, A CRITICALLY NEEDED PROTECTION OF OUR MOST FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT

A Statement from Advancement Project

“It is unconscionable that the Supreme Court is even weighing the necessity of the keystone of the Voting Rights Act,” said Advancement Project Co-Director Judith Browne Dianis. “Section 5 guarantees the Constitution’s promise that we are all created equal, that every citizen has the right to cast a ballot and have it counted – without barriers. These are founding American values that our courts should not have to revisit.

“We disagree with Justice Antonin Scalia, who today referred to the renewal of the Voting Rights Act as the “perpetuation of a racial entitlement,” as if racial discrimination has ended. In the past two years alone, six of the nine states fully covered by Section 5 passed restrictions that would have made it harder for people of color to vote, and many of these were blocked thanks to Section 5. The Voting Rights Act is not an ‘entitlement.’ It is a critically needed protection for our most fundamental right.”

“As Justice Ruth Bader Gisburg pointed out today, this past election cycle was replete with ‘second generation’ discriminatory devices passed by state legislatures,” said Advancement Project Co-Director Penda D. Hair. “This ‘second generation’ discrimination took the form of small changes, such as limiting the type of ID that people can use for voting, moving polling places without informing citizens and cutting early voting periods. These more subtle changes that unfairly shift the goal line are precisely why Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is not only still relevant today – but it’s needed more than ever.”

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 14, 2013

Contact: Rich Robinson, Advancement Project, 202-728-9557 or rrobinson@advancementproject.org

VOTING RIGHTS ADVOCATES DECRY PHOTO ID BILLS

Measures Approved After Heated Late Night Hearing Will Harm Missouri Voters

(Jefferson City, Mo) -- Voting rights advocates are condemning last night’s action by the Missouri House of Representatives giving conditional approval to restrictive photo ID requirements. After more than five hours of contentious floor debate, Missouri lawmakers late Wednesday night approved legislation to require voters to show photo ID to vote.

“The photo ID proposals relegate thousands of Missouri voters to second class citizens,” said Denise Lieberman, senior attorney and Missouri Voter Protection Advocate for Advancement Project, a voter protection group that has helped organize the dozens of groups and thousands of voters who have joined the fight against the legislation. “Elections should be free, fair and accessible to all who are eligible. As the leading democracy in the world, lawmakers should be making it more convenient to vote, not less. The photo ID bills make it harder for many valid, eligible voters to cast a ballot.”

A study by the Secretary of State’s office estimates that 250,000 eligible, registered voters in Missouri lack a state ID. The measures fall hardest on senior citizens, veterans, the working poor, African Americans, people with disabilities, students and rural Missourians who have difficulty accessing the underlying documents necessary to get the state ID.

“We are hearing story after story of people who have been voting just fine for a number of years and will no longer be able to vote,” said Rep. Stacey Newman, ranking minority member on the House Elections Committee. “In my book, that's voter suppression.”

Lawmakers raised vigorous opposition to the bills, which have been dubbed Missouri’s “most divisive legislation.”

“This is the single most immoral act that I’ve ever seen happen in my time in the General Assembly,” Rep. Chris Kelly said during last night’s debate.

Lawmakers gave conditional approval of a proposed constitutional amendment to allow photo ID and legislation to severely limit the forms of ID voters can show at the polls to only current Missouri or federal photo ID, typically a non-expired Missouri driver’s or non-driver’s license.

Similar legislation was approved in 2011, which was vetoed by Gov. Jay Nixon, as well as a similar constitutional amendment, which was struck from the ballot following a lawsuit by Advancement Project, the Fair Elections Legal Network and the American Civil Liberties Union

The current measures are expected to go to the Senate after a final vote in the House today.

Advancement Project’s testimony can be found at: http://www.advancementproject.org/resources/entry/testimony-of-denise-lieberman-against-photo-id-proposals-in-missouri

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 14, 2013

Contact: Rich Robinson, Advancement Project, 202-728-9557 or rrobinson@advancementproject.org

VIRGINIA PHOTO ID BILL A WASTE OF LAWMAKER’S TIME AND TAXPAYERS’ MONEY; NO EVIDENCE OF VOTER FRAUD EXISTS IN THE OLD DOMINION

A Statement from Advancement Project

A Virginia House of Delegates subcommittee yesterday endorsed a restrictive photo ID bill. The measure would require citizens to present a photo ID to vote – eliminating common forms of ID that are currently accepted for voting, including utility bills and government paychecks. Virginia passed a new voter ID requirement just last year, for which the state spent $2 million mailing voter identification cards to registered citizens. Should this bill pass, they would be rendered useless. The latest proposal contains a provision that would allow voter registration cards with a picture to be an accepted form of ID, so the state would have to purchase photographic equipment for each of the 134 local registrars’ offices.

“Once again, Virginia politicians are trying to manipulate voting laws for their own partisan interests,” said Advancement Project Co-Director Judith Browne Dianis. “Requiring voters to present new documentation that they’ve never had to show before – documentation that hundreds of thousands of Virginia voters do not have – is a deliberate ploy to make it harder for them to participate in our democracy. With zero evidence of any voter fraud in Virginia, this legislation serves no purpose but chipping away at the voting rights of eligible citizens.”

“Constantly changing the voting rules in Virginia is confusing and a shameful waste of taxpayers’ money,” said Advancement Project Co-Director Penda D. Hair, who noted that voters were informed of the 2012 changes to ID requirements only six months ago. “Meanwhile, the real problems with Virginia’s election system, such as the unacceptably long lines and insufficient resources that we saw in 2012, continue to go ignored. Lawmakers should focus on ensuring that citizens who take the responsibility to vote can do so in free, fair and accessible elections. By endorsing this latest voter suppression bill, they are doing the exact opposite.”

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January 31, 2013

Contact: Rich Robinson, Advancement Project, 202-728-9557 or rrobinson@advancementproject.org

STORIES OF SERIOUS ELECTION DAY PROBLEMS EXPERIENCED BY PENNSYLVANIA VOTERS HIGHLIGHT HEARING

Demands for photo ID, Voter Intimidation Impede Voter Access to Ballot Box

PHILADELPHIA – Poll workers wrongly demanding to see photo ID from Pennsylvania voters – especially voters of color – were the most common problem reported during last November’s federal election. In testimony presented at a Democratic Policy Committee Hearing on Voter ID Law & Early Voting today, Advancement Project Attorney Marian Schneider shared stories of voter intimidation, long lines and widespread confusion of the nascent photo ID law.

Pennsylvania voters placed 9,171 complaint calls to the Election Protection hotline on Election Day, second only to California. The number one issue: poll workers wrongly demanding voters show a photo ID.

“The Commonwealth’s photo ID law as an election ‘reform’ was not only ineffective, it made matters worse,” said Advancement Project Co-Director Penda D. Hair. “Everyone, including the legislature, acknowledges in-person voter fraud does not exist. The only thing the law accomplished was confusion at the polls and voters being turned away. Instead of wasting taxpayer’s money on restricting access to the ballot box, Pennsylvania needs to take positive steps to fix its broken election system”

Some of the problems Schneider shared with the committee include:

• Mickia Moore, an African-American woman spent entire day trying to vote in Delaware County. She was wrongly asked to show her driver’s license, but did so any way. But because a poll worker said the signature on her ID did not match the poll book, she was not allowed to vote. Moore finally got to vote, but only after calling TV news team, who filmed her story and contacted voter officials.

• Ryan Wininger in Leigh County was denied the right to vote until he show a photo ID. After protesting, he retrieved an ID from home. When he returned to the precinct, Wininger was taunted by an onlooker who called him a Communist, “because Communists don’t want to show ID to vote!” Only after showing his ID was he allowed to vote.

• In Manchester Township, York County, only African Americans were being asked for photo ID.

• Many voters across the Commonwealth reported they were registered, but their names were not on the rolls.

Schneider also offered recommendation on fixing Pennsylvania’s flawed voting system: repeal photo ID law; allow early voting; improve registration process; stop limited-English voter discrimination.

To see her entire testimony, visit: http://www.advancementproject.org/resources/entry/pa-house-democratic-policy-committee-testimony-for-hearing-1-31-2013

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January 31, 2013

Contact: Rich Robinson, Advancement Project, 202-728-9557 or rrobinson@advancementproject.org

TRAVESTY: 7-year old boy arrested, handcuffed to a pipe and interrogated for 10 hours after being falsely accused of stealing $5

WASHINGTON – Following Columbine, our country witnessed a national embrace of harsh zero-tolerance policies and a rush to place armed officers in schools across the country. In far too many schools, officers become heavily involved in the school discipline process, leading to the rise of extreme school disciplinary measures, including arresting and locking up students. Just recently we learned of the harrowing story of a 7-year-old New York boy who was arrested, handcuffed to a metal pipe and interrogated for 10 horrifying hours for allegedly stealing $5.

“There is no moral, logical or rational explanation for such a drastic approach,” said Advancement Project Co-Director Judith Browne Dianis. “An exaggerated response such as this one wreaks havoc on a child’s mental and emotional well-being, and leads to children being pushed into the criminal justice system and out of school.”

Unfortunately, the situation in New York is not an isolated occurrence. The State of Florida leads the nation with the highest documented number of school-related arrests. Roughly 13,870 Florida students were arrested and referred to law enforcement during the 2011-2012 school-year alone. 

“If we do not think carefully about placing more police in schools, we’ll needlessly lose a generation of children; not to drugs or crime but to a school discipline system that is set up to guarantee their demise,” Browne Dianis concluded.

For more information on Advancement Project’s work to address the over-criminalization of our children, please contact us at 202-728-9557.

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January 16, 2013

Contact:          Jennifer Farmer, jfarmer@advancementproject.org or 202.728.9557 ext. 341

PRESS STATEMENT ON PRESIDENT OBAMA’S PROPOSALS ON REDUCING GUN VIOLENCE

WASHINGTON – Today President Barack Obama presented a series of policy proposals and initiatives designed to reduce gun violence. The administration unveiled 23 executive actions, as well as legislative proposals including a more thorough system of background checks for people purchasing weapons, and bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.

The White House also recommended $150 million in the 2014 budget to help schools further ensure the safety of our youth. The funding may be used toward school counselors, psychologists, security guards – both unarmed and armed – and school resource officers. In response to the White House announcement, Advancement Project Co-Director Judith Browne Dianis issued the following statement:

“We commend the White House for working to implement common sense gun control, and for engaging community stakeholders in the development of its proposals. We are pleased that the Obama Administration has expanded federal funding in a way that allows schools to put money toward appropriate safety solutions, such as counselors and psychologists.

“It is encouraging that the White House has acknowledged that police in schools often lead to harmful outcomes, in which officers criminalize minor student misbehavior with arrests and referrals to the criminal justice system. We hope the administration will take concrete steps to prevent these negative outcomes.

“With the increased police presence in schools that has already occurred over the past decade, there has been a dramatic increase in school-based arrests, even for minor offenses like talking back in class or violating the dress code. The long-term impact can be severe for young people, with police records following them when they apply for college, the military or a job.

“Twenty years of research and experience shows that placing more police in schools is not the answer to keeping our children safe. Schools will be better off with counselors instead of armed guards.”

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Souls to the Polls Slated for Only Weekend of Voting

Florida clergy and voting advocates will greet the Oct. 27th opening of the state’s early voting window with Souls to the Polls, dozens of events throughout expected to lead to thousands of voters casting their ballots prior to Election Day on Nov. 6th.

“The powers that be in Tallahassee have taken away a week of early voting, but we are determined to work twice as hard to ensure Floridians get to the polls,” said Senator Tony Hill, who will be part of an early voting event in Jacksonville.  “Our voices are too strong to be limited, too important not to be heard and too committed to let anything deter us from voting.”

“Good Christians must also be Good Citizens. Too many people suffered injustices for much too long for the right to vote.  Not voting is not an option! Do the right thing –  let your vote be heard,” said Pastor Alphonso Jackson, Sr. of Second Baptist Church in Miami.

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Other Souls to the Polls and Early Voting Events are listed below by city:

Miami

October 27

7:00 AM

Blessing the Polls

Stephen P. Clark Center, Supervisor of Elections Office, 111 NW 1st Street

10:00 AM

Early Vote Rally and Canvass

Lemon City Library, 430 NE 61st Street

1:30 PM

Souls to Polls / Post Church Voting event site

Model City Library @ Caleb Center 2211 NW 54th Street.

October 28, 2012

Souls to the Polls

1:30 PM

Joseph Caleb Center

5400 NW Avenue * Miami, Florida

Rev. Carl Johnson

93rd   Street Baptist Church

2330 NW 93rd Street Miami, Florida 33147

Rev. Smith

Friendship Missionary Baptist Church

740 Northwest 58th Street, 33127 Miami, FLhttp://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbing.com%2Fmaps%2Fdefault.aspx%3Fv%3D2%26pc%3DFACEBK%26mid%3D8100%26where1%3D740%2BNorthwest%2B58th%2BStreet%252C%2BMiami%252C%2BFlorida%26FORM%3DFBKPL0%26name%3DFriendship%2BMissionary%2BBaptist%2BChurch%26mkt%3Den-US&h=aAQF83FCm

Rev. Eddie Lake

Greater Bethel AME

245 Northwest 8th Street,  Miami, FL 33136

1 PM

Black Civic Engagement Working Group of Florida

Meet at African Heritage Culture Center  6161 NW 22nd Ave.

Proceed to Joseph Caleb Center (5400 NW 22nd Ave) for 1:30 pm

Palm Beach

October 27

7 AM

Bless the Polls

Delray Public Library 100 West Atlantic Avenue, Delray Beach

1:00 pm - 4:00 PM

Early Vote Rally and Canvass

Delray Beach Public Library, 100 West Atlantic Avenue, Delray Beach

Orlando

October 28

8:00AM

Blessing the Polls

Southeast Branch Library 5575 S. Semoran Blvd.

Contact: Reverend Gray

11:00 – 1:00PM

Early Vote Rally

Southeast Branch Library, 5575 S. Semoran Blvd. (Corner of SR. 436 and Hoffner)

8:00 AM

March to the Polls

New Covenant Baptist Church 2210 South Rio Grande Avenue Orlando, FL 32805

8: 00 AM

Souls to the Polls

Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church 412 E. Kennedy Boulevard Eatonville, FL

Rev. Willie Barnes

Tampa Bay

October 27

7:00 AM

Blessing of the Polls

C. Bythe Andrews, Jr. Public Library, 2607 E. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

11:00 AM

Early Vote March

Voice of Freedom Park, 2101 W. Main Street, Tampa to West Tampa Branch Library, 2313 W. Union  St.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

2:00 – 7:-00PM

Souls to Polls / Post Church Voting @ C. Bythe Andrews, Jr. Public Library, 2607 E. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Jacksonville

October 26 & 27

9 PM

October 26th and 7 a.m. October 27th (Bless the Polls)

Occupy The Vote

Duval County Supervisor of Elections Gateway Shopping Center Branch Office

5200-2 Norwood Avenue Jacksonville FL 32208

9 AM

Early Vote Rally/March

Norwood Flea Market/Gateway Mall Supervisor of Elections Office

Seminole County

October 28

10 AM to 6 PM

Souls To The Polls

Fort Mellon Park as their Polling Station- Pavilion  #7.

There will be transportation to take people to the Polls.

St. Petersburg

October 27

1 PM - 7 PM

Williams Park- 1st and 4th Street North

October 28

Souls to the Polls

Williams Park- 1st and 4th Street North

Ft. Lauderdale

October 28

7 AM - 7 PM

Broward County Delta Sigma Theta Alumnae Chapter and New Mt. Olive Baptist Church

Vote All Day at the African America Research Library-

1 PM

Souls to the Polls

March Begins at 1 pm from

New Hope Baptist Church to A-A Research Library

1321 NW 6th Street FLL

Tallahassee

October 28

Souls to the Polls

March and Rally

3:00 PM

First Presbyterian Church

110 N Adams St Tallahassee, FL 32301

March from church to Leon County Courthouse

Cocoa

October 28

1:30 PM

Souls to the Polls

Mt. Moriah A. M. E. Church/St. Paul

234 Stone Street , Cocoa, FL 32922

2 PM

Souls to the Polls

Zion Orthodox P. B. Church Parking Lot

715 S. Fiske Boulevard, Cocoa, FL 32922.

He served 14 months in prison and was released in 2008. He returned home hoping to put his legal issues behind him and move on with his life.

But like many of the nearly 1 million people who are released from correctional facilities each year, Bates said he has had difficulty finding steady work and making ends meet. His rather pedestrian criminal record has also come with one other lingering consequence: Bates has found himself among the approximately 5.8 million whose voting rights have been taken away because of a felony conviction.

"I owned up to my crime. I served my time and I just want my rights back," Bates, 53, an unemployed electrical engineer, told The Huffington Post. "I want to participate. But it's just as well as if I murdered somebody. It's a life sentence."

Four states permanently disenfranchise ex-felons. In Florida, Iowa, Kentucky and Virginia, it takes a decree by the governor or a clemency board to restore a person's voting rights, and only after a predetermined waiting period and all fines and fees are paid can an individual submit an application.

In Virginia, that waiting period is two years. In Florida, non-violent felons must wait five years before applying for reinstatement; violent felons must wait seven years.

Seven other states -- Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Mississippi, Nevada, Tennessee and Wyoming -- allow some with felony convictions to vote after they are released from supervision. In Arizona, for example, one is not permanently disenfranchised until that person has committed two or more felonies, after which voting rights can only be regained through a pardon or restoration by a judge.

The personal and political impact of such disenfranchisement can be enormous, voting rights advocates say, as whole masses are swept off the voting rolls or prevented from participating in the political process, particularly in battleground states or in states where control of the legislature is tenuous.

Many of those disenfranchised because of a felony conviction are poor, African American or Latino.

With the November elections looming, voter disenfranchisement and voter suppression have become hot-button political issues. Recent Republican-led efforts in as many as 11 states across the country have resulted in new voting laws that require state-issued photo identification to cast a ballot. Other states have made it tougher to vote, purged the voter rolls or enacted tough restrictions on third-party voter registration groups.

Voting rights advocates say that laws that disenfranchise felons go hand-in-hand with such voter ID laws, which Democrats and opponents say are specifically designed to target likely Democratic voters, including the poor, minorities, college students and the elderly.

"This is a concerted effort," said Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Florida Democrat.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) recently reversed course on a policy enacted by his predecessor that expanded voting rights for felons, while the state simultaneously introduced some of the most restrictive voting policies in the country, including massive voter purges of suspected non-citizens, the elimination of early voting and limitations on third-party voter registration groups.

"In at least 34 states there are serious efforts to suppress voter turnout," said Hastings, who particularly noted battleground states like Florida and North Carolina.

Hastings said many of the new laws are akin to a "backdoor poll tax," referring to Jim Crow-era voting laws that required blacks to pay a special fee to vote.

"That impacts African Americans doubly," he said.

RACIAL DISPARITY

One in every 40 American adults is disenfranchised because of a felony conviction, according to The Sentencing Project, a group that advocates for voting rights. The number of Americans who have lost their vote due to a conviction has spiked dramatically over the decades, from about 1.2 million in 1976 to 3.3 million in 1996, to more than 5.85 million in 2010, according to a report from the group.

The impact is acute among the African-American voting-age population, where one in 13 is disenfranchised because of a prior conviction.

In three Southern states the numbers are more stark: In Florida, 23 percent of the voting-age black population can't vote because of a felony record; in Kentucky it's 22 percent; and in Virginia it's 20 percent. Taken together, one in five blacks living in those three states is disenfranchised.

Florida, with 1.5 million disenfranchised ex-felons, leads the nation.

Laughlin McDonald, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, said felon disenfranchisement has long been used as a tool to suppress the black vote.

McDonald said that during Reconstruction, legislators (primarily Democrats) passed laws specifically designed to depress the political power of recently emancipated blacks, selecting crimes that they thought blacks committed more often than whites as a basis for disenfranchisement.

"I think there's clearly a racial bias, and we know that there is a disproportionate racial impact," McDonald said. "When you marginalize all of these people, you make it much more difficult to rehabilitate them. It doesn't serve anybody's interest."

"But we're not talking about doing a favor for people that commit crimes," he added, "we're talking about trying to ensure that people can be taken back into the system, that they can become descent citizens again."

Sarah Massey, a spokeswoman with Project Vote, said that a clear message is being sent by the engineering of voting laws that specifically target certain demographic groups.

"One out of four black men go to jail in this country, and we [America] have the worst incarceration rate in the Western world. Then taking away people's rights to vote, it all paints a picture to me that one population doesn't deserve to have the same rights as the others," Massey said. "It's all in the numbers of people in jail, and let's be real, it's also about the races of the people in jail."

Benjamin Todd Jealous, president of the NAACP, contends that legislative records from across the country show that many states have banned formerly incarcerated people from voting "for the expressed purpose of shrinking the black voting base."

In response, the NAACP launched a campaign against felony disenfranchisement with a rally in Tallahassee, Fla., on Tuesday, Oct. 2. A second stop in Virginia took place on Friday. The campaign will include billboards and ads on public transportation and will last through 2013, according to an NAACP spokeswoman.

"While voter ID and registration ID are like Jim Crow, ex-felon voting bans literally are Jim Crow," Jealous said.

HIGH HURDLES

Eric Bates, who lives in Richmond, Va., with his wife, has not committed a crime since his release in 2008. Upon his release, he went back to school to build on the two-year degree in computer engineering he'd earned some 20 years earlier.

"I figured that I was a non-violent offender with a lot of work experience, and that the degree would balance things out," Bates said.

Each week Bates said he submits about 50 job applications online to employers. He does occasional repair work for friends of friends and neighbors.

But his criminal record continues to stymie his comeback.

One major obstacle to reinstating his voting rights: $3,000 in fines. Bates says he doesn't have the money to pay the fines because his conviction keeps him from getting a job.

Yet even if the fines were paid, Bates still has to lobby the governor.

"Not being able to vote on top of everything else, it makes me kind of feel like a second-class citizen," Bates said. "I'm not the only one either. There are thousands and thousands of people just like me."

Experts and advocates say that across the country ex-felons are caught in a legal and political limbo trying to regain the franchise, beyond facing the relatively straightforward financial burdens.

State clemency boards claim a backlog of applicants has slowed the review process. Newer voting laws like those in Iowa and Florida have made the application process arduous and complicated. And many formerly incarcerated people are confused about their legal standing and their eligibility to vote.

Richard Walker, founder of Bridging The Gap, a Richmond, Va.-based nonprofit that works with formerly incarcerated people, said that he has talked with many men and women who applied to have their rights restored but were never given an answer by Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's office within the required 60 days.

A spokesman for the governor's office in September told WTVR that the office is inundated with restoration requests, but that it works diligently to make notifications in a timely manner.

"The key to remember here is that there are many parts to an application that must be done by our office, by the courts," Jeff Caldwell, a spokesman for the governor, told WTVR. "Once the application is turned in completed, we strive to make sure that they are notified and will know in enough time for the upcoming election."

Walker said there are some 350,000 convicted felons in Virginia who have not had their rights restored.

"You're losing a population of voters," said Walker, a former felon who recently regained his voting rights.

Caldwell told The Huffington Post that McDonnell, a former prosecutor who campaigned as "tough on crime," has created the "fastest and fairest" restoration of rights process in the state's history.

"The governor is on par to exceed all prior governors with the restoration of rights," Caldwell told HuffPost. To date Caldwell said the governor has restored the rights of about 3,800 former felons, for an approval rate of 80 percent to 85 percent.

"When Gov. McDonnell was running for office, he agreed that the process for the restoration of rights was taking too long," Caldwell said. So McDonnell pledged that his office would process every application in 90 days. After he took office, Caldwell said the governor made an executive decision to cut that time to 60 days.

"He has lived up to that commitment," said Caldwell, who added the applications that are denied generally haven't been filled out properly, or the applicants haven't provided enough information or simply aren't eligible based on their specific conviction.

"[Gov. McDonnell] is a big believer that anybody that has served their time and has been restored to society should have the opportunity to vote and serve on a jury, if they can continue to play by the rules," Caldwell said.

C.C. Holloman, coordinator of the 2012 Community Campaign and Beyond, described the state of affairs in Florida as "outrageous."

Gov. Scott recently reversed laws passed by the previous governor, fellow Republican Charlie Crist, that automatically restored voting rights to felons once they were no longer under state supervision. Today, according to recent news reports, more than 13,000 people who had their rights restored under the Crist administration may not know that they are eligible to vote.

According to the ACLU of Florida, state officials have been unable to locate about 17,604 ex-felons who automatically had their rights restored under Crist. The ACLU scoured state records and found that 75 percent, or 13,517, of that number were not currently registered to vote.

According to people in Florida who work to help ex-felons with the reinstatement process, Scott's administration has also stopped mailing out status notification letters to those who have not committed a crime for the legally required period and who may now be eligible to vote.

Scott's office did not return calls for comment.

Some of Florida's ex-felons say that they were previously granted their voting rights, but that more recently, since Scott took office, they have received letters from the state that say it is "suspected" that they are now ineligible to vote.

"They gave me my voting rights back, but I got a letter a couple of months ago telling me they are taking them away," said Stephen Paulk, 42, of West Palm Beach, who was convicted of drug charges in 1999 and served five years in prison.

A few years after his release in 2003, his voting rights were restored. In 2008 he voted for President Barack Obama.

"I haven't been in trouble in 10 years," said Paulk, an entrepreneur who sells women's clothing and accessories. "I said, 'Damn, I'm still getting prosecuted for something I did time for already.' But we don't have no rights no more. If they don't want you to vote, they won't let you vote."

The Miami Herald recently reported that election supervisors had removed nearly 7,000 people with recent felony convictions from the rolls, which included 2,956 African Americans.

An analysis of state data by the Herald found that Democrats were three times more likely than Republicans to be removed, and that blacks were disproportionately purged. While blacks make up 16 percent of Florida's population, 43 percent of those removed from the rolls were black.

Holloman, the coordinator of the 2012 Community Campaign and Beyond, called the practice voter intimidation.

"The purging and this oppression of eligible people who are ex-offenders is going to have the biggest impact of all the suppression," Holloman said. Through her organization, she said she has helped nearly 1,500 men and women apply to have their rights restored. Only a few have actually been granted those rights, she said.

Among those still waiting to have their voting rights restored, she said, are some people with convictions from as far back as 15 years who have committed no crime since their release.

"They don't know where to turn for help," Holloman said.

Iowa, like Florida, had passed measures in 2005 that automatically restored ex-felons' voting rights, but Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican who took office in 2011, has repealed those measures.

Ex-felons in Iowa now must appeal directly to the governor to have their franchise restored, in addition to submitting a credit report. According to the Associated Press, of the 8,000 Iowans who have completed their terms during Branstad's term, only 11 have succeeded in regaining their voting rights.

'I JUST WANT TO PARTICIPATE'

Family conversations around Moranda Lambert's dinner table often begin or end with talk of politics. And neither she nor her husband is usually the one who does the talking. Lambert's 12-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son are full-blown fanatics of President Obama and the first family.

Lambert's daughter, a member of her school's safety patrol, even got the chance to meet Michelle Obama.

"She wants to do the right thing and be a leader and not a follower," said Lambert, 33, a Florida State University graduate who lives with her husband and children in Riviera Beach, Fla.

"But she has to sit back and watch me with no voice and no rights," said Lambert, who was incarcerated for six months in 2004 after she was convicted of felony assault with a deadly weapon after a fight with a former friend got out of hand.

Lambert said her attempts to regain her voting rights have failed. Six months ago she went through a clemency program and applied for her voting rights, she said, but was denied.

She said she has done all she can to show that her crime was an aberration, a blip in an otherwise positive and purpose-driven life. She's active in her church and does volunteer work in her community.

Still, she struggles.

Because of her felony conviction, the nursing and cosmetology licenses she'd earned have been taken. And she has yet to find steady employment. Lambert described her situation as "a rock between two hard places."

She can't find a job, she can't vote, and she feels as if she's been relegated to a social and civic abyss. "I'm here with no voice," Lambert said.

"I just want to participate and make the world better," she said. "It's like sitting in a corner: You're stuck and there's nothing to say."

Lambert believes her prospects for restoration are dim. Given the current political climate, she said, it "looks like it'll be 15 or 20 years before I can be recognized for all the positive changes that I've made and the positive influence that I've had on the community."

Back in Richmond, Va., Darryl Williams said he has been waiting on word from the state clemency board about his application to have his voting rights restored.

Back in 1997, when Williams was barely 19, he said the police caught him with a sawed-off shotgun. He was convicted on felony weapons charges and spent two years in a state prison.

Today Williams is 35 and describes himself as a model citizen who hasn't been in any legal trouble in 12 or so years.

"My life changed a whole lot, because back then I was running around, young and dumb, being stupid," Williams said.

Williams laments the difficulty of trying to better himself while the state is "so hard on felons."

"Even after so many years it's hard, but I turned my life around. And if the government decided to give me my rights back, I can keep trying to better myself," Williams said.

He's applied twice to have his voting rights restored. The first time, he said, he was denied because the paperwork wasn't filled out properly. The second time he took his time and went over each page of the application meticulously.

"Now I'm just waiting on everything, being patient. It's nerve-wracking but worth the wait," he said. "I just want to be back in society. Voting lets you do that."

But Fitzgerald knew it would not be as easy as showing up at a polling station. He admits - and court records show - that he has a felony conviction in his past.

He applied to register to vote months ago at the Department of Motor Vehicles, he said, when he renewed his license. A letter from the local registrar in January informed him that his efforts to regain his right to vote had been denied because of his criminal past. The letter, later filed with the court, referred him to a number of other agencies, including the Virginia State Police, the circuit court and the governor's office.

Fitzgerald, a recovering addict who has been sober for more than a decade and steadily employed, has struggled to negotiate the bureaucracy.

"It's a vague process," Fitzgerald said recently. "Like, purposely vague."

That process has lasted through Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws, women's suffrage and the lowering of the federal voting age from 21 to 18. The long-standing Virginia law grants one office - the governor's - the right to restore voting privileges to men and women convicted of felonies.

Virginia is one of a handful of states that handles restoration this way, advocates say. In most states, felons who have served their time and met other court obligations can automatically regain their voting privileges.

Gov. Bob McDonnell touts that his administration has restored voting rights to ex-felons faster than any previous one. In his more than 2-1/2 years in office, the former Virginia Beach lawmaker has granted about 3,800 applications for clemency. By comparison, former Gov. Timothy Kaine approved about 4,400 applications during four years in office. That was more than any other Virginia governor in at least 70 years.

The state has streamlined the process and imposed a deadline to turn around completed applications in 60 days, Secretary of the Commonwealth Janet Kelly said. The governor's office has been working with diverse allies, such as the NAACP, she said.

"This isn't political to the governor," Kelly said. "It's the right thing to do."

Advocates estimate that some 350,000 Virginians could be eligible for restoration. The Advancement Project estimates 1 in 5 African Americans are banned from voting in the state.

To regain their rights, a felon must pay court costs and restitution, as well as keep a clean record. Non-violent offenders must wait two years to apply for restoration; those considered violent offenders must wait five years.

All must compile their certified court records, letters from parole and probation offices, written recommendations from community members and a personal statement. The packet is then submitted to Richmond.

Kelly said her office has guaranteed that completed applications filed by Aug. 15 will have a decision before Oct. 15 - the last day to register to vote for the November presidential election.

Edgardo Cortes, director of the Virginia Voting Rights Restoration Campaign for the Advancement Project, said McDonnell's work has improved the process, but it's still not automatic. The group has been advocating for a change in Virginia for several years, he said.

State lawmakers occasionally have tried, without success, to change the constitutional requirement.

McDonnell became interested in the issue as a private lawyer and state delegate, Kelly said. A client hired McDonnell to help him regain his rights. The process took 18 months and ended unsuccessfully. McDonnell "did not feel it was fair or just," she said.

As a result, McDonnell co-sponsored a bill about 10 years ago to try to change the way the system works, she said.

This year, state Del. Greg Habeeb of Salem has submitted a constitutional amendment removing the governor from the process. It would still require felons to complete their sentences and meet all court-ordered obligations.

Habeeb, a conservative Republican, said it has been a racial and partisan issue - typically supported by Democrats and opposed by his party - for too long. He wants to move the debate to philosophical lines, he said.

"Access to democracy is so fundamental it shouldn't be left up to the whim of the governor's office," he said.

Kelly said the governor has not taken a stance on the proposal.

Locally, lawyers from across the political spectrum are volunteering to guide applicants. The Norfolk public defender's office sponsored a clinic to help interested residents navigate the process. Only a handful turned out, organizers said.

Lawyers say they have counseled other Virginians in need of help.

"It's important that those people have a voice in our democratic government," said Katherine Currin, an assistant public defender in Norfolk who helped organize the project.

Fitzgerald said voting again is personally significant. Depression led him to drug addiction for a brief period, he said.

"It was one year of my life when things got out of hand," he said.

For the past 11 years, he's been clean and sober, he said, and steadily employed as a skilled contractor. He acknowledged his conviction on his application to vote, court records state.

Fitzgerald now plans to consult a lawyer, but it's unlikely he will have his rights granted for this year's presidential election.

"I'm willing to do whatever I need to do," he said.

Christine Wiggs said she was convicted of a felony in Virginia almost 20 years ago. She moved to Georgia, where she got a job and started down a new path. Her new state allowed her to vote, she said.

Eventually, she also took steps to clear her name in Virginia. On June 1, 2005, Gov. Mark Warner restored her voting privileges.

She returned to Norfolk three years ago to care for her ailing parents. Early this year, she registered to vote through the DMV, she said. Wiggs, like Fitzgerald, acknowledged her record on the application, court records show.

The voter registrar rejected her application, citing the conviction. The letter, filed with the court, suggested Wiggs file a petition with the governor or seek assistance from other agencies.

Wiggs thought she had done something wrong. She appealed, records show, even though it meant returning to circuit court.

Brent Johnson, the chief deputy commonwealth's attorney in Norfolk, said the office prosecutes a couple of voter registration appeals a month. They do not take an adversarial stance, and he does not recall anyone appearing with a lawyer, he said.

"We educate," he said.

Wiggs went straight to Richmond to fix the problem. She phoned the secretary of the commonwealth's office and got written confirmation of her 2005 restoration. A database that the local registrar checked showed her criminal record but not her restoration, she learned.

After another visit to the registrar's office, Wiggs presented her restoration letter to a circuit court judge last week. The judge granted her appeal. Wiggs is once again a registered voter in Virginia.

Mr. McDonnell does not need to wait for the General Assembly to change this archaic system. The Virginia constitution vests the governor with the power to remove “political disabilities” for people with felony convictions but leaves him discretion in determining how to administer this authority. The governor has chosen to grant clemency through an individualized application process rather than issuing an executive order establishing an automatic process to restore the voting rights of all Virginia citizens who have paid their debts to society.

Mr. McDonnell’s approval of approximately 90 percent of applications received from people who have completed sentences for nonviolent offenses demonstrates overwhelmingly that the individual application process is unnecessary. Rather than requiring each disenfranchised Virginian to appeal individually for restoration of voting rights, Mr. McDonnell should continue to lead on this issue by setting aside the onerous application process and exercising his full authority to make sure all Virginians who want to take part in the democratic process can do so.

Judith Browne Dianis and Edgardo Cortés, Washington

Judith Browne Dianis is co-director of the Advancement Project. Edgardo Cortés is director of its Virginia Voting Rights Restoration Campaign.

10 MILLION LATINO VOTERS COULD BE DISENFRANCHISED THIS FALL CONCLUDES NEW REPORT ON FULL IMPACT OF PURGES, NEW LAWS, INTIMIDATION

EXAMINES POTENTIAL IMPACT ON ELECTORAL OUTCOMES IN STATE BY STATE ANALYSIS OF A SUPPRESSED LATINO VOTE

Washington, DC – The Latino community will play a crucial role in this year’s election – it comprises more than 10 percent of the nation’s eligible voters and approximately 8 percent of its registered voters. However, 23 states currently have legal barriers that disproportionately impact voter registration and participation by Latino citizens.

For the first time, a state-by-state analysis of voter disenfranchisement of Latino citizens finds that these obstacles could deter or prevent more than 10 million Latino citizens from registering and voting in the 2012 election. In many states, the number of eligible Latino citizens that could be affected exceeds the margin of victory in the 2008 presidential election.

When: Monday, September 24, 2012 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm ET

Who: Advancement Project directors, authors of the report and citizens affected by barriers being put in place to prevent them from their Constitutional right to vote.

Where: Dial-in: 1-877-941-1706

Conference code: 265170

Hashtag: #LatinoVote

RSVP: Rich Robinson at rrobinson@advancementproject.org

Secretary Janet Kelly said complete applications received by Aug. 15 will receive priority and a decision within 60 days — in time to register to vote for the Nov. 6 election.

Complete applications that come in after that date will still be processed as well, but the office does not guarantee a decision by Oct. 15. Gov. Bob McDonnell set a goal of delivering an answer to a petitioner within 60 days.

In Virginia, people convicted of felonies are ineligible to vote, hold public office and serve on juries, and must have those rights restored by the governor.

Kelly said a full-time staff member has been assigned to help with the applications and that two part-time staffers will help handle phone calls.

She said she added the staff "in anticipation of an increase in applications because it's an election year."

The Advancement Project scheduled a Monday news conference to ask McDonnell to take action on all pending applications in advance of the Oct. 15 voter registration deadline, but on Friday canceled the event after speaking with Kelly.

An organization called the Advancement Project is leading an effort to restore voting rights to over 451,000 Virginians that it believes are disenfranchised. Spokesman Edgardo Cortes notes if you are convicted of a felony in Virginia, you lose your right to vote. His group wants to change that. Cortez says many people are being denied their basic rights of citizenship in Virginia. He says if a person has paid his or her debt to society, they should be able to get their voting rights back. For more details go to takebackmyvote.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 15, 2012

(Harrisburg, PA) – In a blow to voters, Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson rejected a legal challenge to Pennsylvania’s voter ID law today, obstructing the right to vote for as many as 1.3 million citizens in the state. Despite evidence that the Commonwealth knows the law’s strict photo ID requirements will disenfranchise many voters, and that it lacks justification for the law or the means to provide ID to voters, Simpson upheld the law.

“Today’s ruling is an affront to a core American value and takes us back to a dark time in our nation’s history,” said Judith Browne Dianis, co-director of Advancement Project, one of the organizations litigating the challenge to the law. “This requires hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania voters who lack the specific government-issued photo ID to jump through burdensome hoops to exercise their most basic legal right. Many will not be able to vote at all. This ruling is a backwards move for voters and we will appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.”

Attorneys from Advancement Project, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, and the Washington, D.C. law firm of Arnold & Porter plan to file the appeal tomorrow and request expedited review from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Pennsylvania’s Photo ID law, enacted in March, is among the strictest in the nation, severely limiting the forms of ID voters must present at the polls in order to be able to cast a ballot. During the seven-day trial seeking a preliminary injunction barring the law from going into effect, the legal team argued that the Commonwealth’s law unconstitutionally deprived Pennsylvania voters of their fundamental right to vote without justification and that the state lacked the ability to effectively or fairly implement the law. Our attorneys presented the following claims:

• The Commonwealth, by its own admission, has no voter fraud problem; the Commonwealth even stipulated that it could not point to a single documented case of in-person voter fraud, the only kind addressed by the law, and do not believe that it’s likely to occur in November.

• Many eligible voters stand to be impacted by the law. Professor Matt Barreto, a political scientist from the University of Washington, conducted a scientific survey and found that up to 1.3 million eligible Pennsylvania voters lack government-issued photo ID. Attorneys presented testimony from numerous individuals who would face difficulty getting ID or stand to be disenfranchised by the law.

• The Commonwealth has not adequately informed the public. Carol Aichele, Pennsylvania Secretary of State, conceded that “there is no document” detailing the Department of State’s plan to educate voters about the new ID requirement, while independent survey research showed that 34 percent of registered voters in Pennsylvania were unaware of the voter ID law. Another 12 percent of registered voters believe they have a valid photo ID, but they don’t.

• The Commonwealth is ill-equipped to issue enough voter ID cards. Kurt Myers, a deputy secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) admitted that PennDOT did not have a process in place to issue anywhere close to 760,000 photo ID cards to cover voters who need one -- or close to even 10,000 cards.

•  The law is extremely burdensome to navigate and is being arbitrarily applied. Attorney David Gersch of Arnold & Porter showed that 32 counties in the Commonwealth – approximately half – have no PennDOT center, or have a center that is only open one or two days per week. Plaintiffs gave testimony on poorly trained PennDOT employees who offered incorrect, incomplete and inconsistent information about the photo ID requirement.

• The law is irrational and unfair, with different voter held to different standards. Voters who obtained photo ID before the Commonwealth’s tightened restrictions would be permitted to vote without ever having had to present a birth certificate or Social Security card, and absentee voters can vote using only the last four digits of their Social Security number. These distinctions violate the Pennsylvania Constitution’s clause that elections are to be “free and equal.”

Advancement Project Co-Director Penda Hair emphasized the broader implications of the ruling: “If other legislators across the country take this decision as a green light, still more citizens nationwide could have their votes obstructed this November. Today’s ruling not only hinders Pennsylvania citizens from participating in the electoral process; it undermines the most basic fabric of our democracy.”

# # #

(July 27, 2012) – Advancement Project, one of the nation’s preeminent voter protection organizations, today condemned the Mitt Romney presidential campaign’s attacks against the Voter Participation Center, a leading voter registration group helping register voters in Virginia. Advancement Project urges Virginia election officials to reject the Romney campaign’s request to reject valid registration applications. Instead, Virginia and the U.S. Department of Justice should investigate this interference by the Romney campaign with the right to register and vote.

The hearing begins on July 25, 2012. If the court rules in favor of the Commonwealth, Pennsylvania’s photo ID law may force many Latinos, and in particular Puerto Rican voters, to walk a longer path to the voting booth this election year. The Pennsylvania Secretary of State admitted in early July that more than 750,000 voters do not have a PennDOT-issued photo ID. More than 18% of voters in Philadelphia do not have the most common type of photo ID that may be needed to vote in November 2012.

In Philadelphia, Puerto Rican voters are part of the 12.3% of Latinos, including Dominicans, Mexicans, Cubans, Columbians, Guatemalans, Ecuadorians and others who disproportionately do not have a PennDOT-issued photo ID. Puerto Ricans make up more than half of the Latinos in Philadelphia and all Puerto Ricans are United States citizens.

Because PennDOT requires a birth certificate to obtain a photo ID, if the law stays in effect, many Puerto Ricans will have a double burden: first getting their birth certificate and then getting photo ID. In 2010, Puerto Rican birth certificates were held to be invalid, which means that any Puerto Rican born on the Island must renew their birth certificate to get the type of photo ID that may be required to vote in Pennsylvania.

With just a few months before the November 2012 election, this means that many Puerto Rican voters would have to overcome two significant barriers to the ballot.

Here’s what you need to knowAdvancement Project will keep the community informed of the results of our lawsuit.If the court rules in favor of the Commonwealth, to vote in person in Pennsylvania you will need a current photo ID with an expiration date. This may include one of the following:

• PennDOT-issued photo ID (may be expired by one year or less);
• ID issued by any agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania;
• U.S. Passport or U.S. government-issued photo ID;
• U.S. Military or Pennsylvania National Guard Photo ID;
• Employee ID issued by any municipality in Pennsylvania
• Accredited Pennsylvania college- or university-issued photo ID; or
• Pennsylvania nursing/personal-care facility photo ID.

-Medicare/Medicaid cards, Access cards, school district IDs, including high school IDs, will not be accepted.
-Your name on your photo ID must closely match your name in the voter registry.

If you need help accessing a Puerto Rican birth certificate or free Photo ID, help is available through various organizations in partnership with the Pennsylvania Photo ID coalition.

For more information contact: Juan Carlos Ibarra, Staff Attorney, at jibarra@advancementproject.org; Marian K. Schneider, Pennsylvania Consulting Attorney, at mschneider@advancementproject.org or Katherine Culliton-González, Director of Voter Protection, at 202-728-9557 or online at www.advancementproject.org. Advancement

• If the court rules in favor of the Commonwealth, to vote in person in Pennsylvania you will need a current photo ID with an expiration date.  This may include one of the following:
  • PennDOT-issued photo ID (may be expired by one year or less);
  • ID issued by any agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania;
  • U.S. Passport or U.S. government-issued photo ID;
  • U.S. Military or Pennsylvania National Guard Photo ID;
  • Employee ID issued by any municipality in Pennsylvania
  • Accredited Pennsylvania college- or university-issued photo ID; or
  • Pennsylvania nursing/personal-care facility photo ID.

• Medicare/Medicaid cards, Access cards, school district IDs, including high school IDs, will not be accepted.
• Your name on your photo ID must closely match your name in the voter registry.

If the GOP prevails in the Sunshine State on November 6, it won't be because of hanging chads—though there have been plenty of issues with Florida's paperless digital machines. Instead, it might owe something to Gov. Rick Scott's now infamous voter and the restrictive new voting laws Florida passed last year. Or the fact that about a million voting-age Floridians will be sitting on their hands this Election Day—permanently stricken from the voting rolls because they were once convicted of a felony.Among the GOP's myriad strategies to suppress the vote of people considered more likely to vote Democrat—many of them detailed by Kevin Drum and others in —felony disenfranchisement laws may be the biggest bonanza of all for Republican candidates. The United States incarcerates more of its citizens than another other nation. Some 2.3 million Americans are now in prison or jail, with millions more on parole or probation—together, according to a 2009 study, they account for , most of whom would otherwise be eligible to vote.

Florida leads the pack in the number of citizens excluded. But according to the Brennan Center for Justice, 48 states (exceptions: Maine and Vermont) prohibit current prisoners with felony convictions from voting and 29 of them also bar those on probation or parole. All told, felony disenfranchisement prevents more than from voting. And of the four states that permanently bar voting by former felons—Kentucky, Florida, Iowa, and Virginia—the latter three are battleground states.

The Supreme Court has ruled on the issue twice. In 1974, it determined that denying felons the right to vote was an "affirmative sanction" allowable under the 14th Amendment. A decade later, the justices struck down a provision of the 1901 Alabama constitution that prohibits from voting any individual convicted of "any crime involving moral turpitude"—not because it disenfranchised a large portion of the population, but because the provision reflected "purposeful racial discrimination."In other words, states can disenfranchise their citizens so long as the laws don't have a discriminatory intent. But the effect, as noted in a brief from the American Constitution Society, can be racially biased nonetheless. For instance, black men make up 36 percent of the nation's disenfranchised population, but just 6 percent of the nation's general population. "While today’s felony disenfranchisement laws are facially neutral," the brief states, "many are inherited from an underlying legacy of racist voting restrictions."

For a while, it looked like things were changing in Florida. In 2007, Gov. Charlie Crist signed an executive order giving ex-felons a chance to vote provided they went through a cumbersome, expensive, and bureaucratic restitution process. But last year, Gov. Rick Scott reversed the reforms, forcing any former felon who wanted to regain voting rights to appeal directly to the governor. Those with a nonviolent felony must wait five years before applying for a clemency board hearing; others must wait seven years. "Essentially," the Brennan Center points out, "the new rules give the governor, an elected official, the power to decide who will (or won't) be allowed to vote in the next election."

According to Desmond Meade of the nonprofit Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, "Over 1 million people in Florida right now are disenfranchised," he says. Nearly 1 in 3 of them are African American men. If these people were able to vote, Meade continues, "Florida would no longer be a swing state."Florida may have the numbers, but Virginia has perhaps the nation's harshest disenfranchisement laws. "Part of the problem is that we have inherited laws from around 1850, which simply haven’t been changed," says Richael Faithful of the Advancement Project, a Virginia group that aims to restore people's voting rights. She crisscrosses the state holding clinics for activists and lawyers. "It's in our constitution—a permanent ban on any person convicted of a felony." At least 378,000 people are affected.

As with Florida, a former felon in Virginia must go sit through a waiting period before applying for clemency to Gov. Robert McDonnell, a Republican. "You get your rights restored in the same way you get an executive pardon," Faithful says. For certain felonies, you must personally obtain certified copies of court records and pay all restitution fees in full, with interest—including such things as the cost of probation. The application requires specific, detailed information about your convictions and character, reference letters from three non-family-members, and a personal essay explaining to the governor why you deserve the right to vote.

McDonnell has been restoring voting rights at what's considered a fast pace—1,350 people last year. "Unfortunately, according to our calculations," says Faithful, "if you had the governor review one application an hour for 24 hours [a day], 365 days a year, it would take him 43 years" to restore everyone's voting rights. The Richmond Times Dispatch recently told the story of Randy Jefferson Philpott, a moonshiner who satisfied all his legal obligations in 1992 and had his voting rights restored in 2011—19 years later.

In Iowa, the third swing state in question, there was also an earlier effort at reform, but last year the new governor, Terry Branstad, rescinded an executive order that had returned voting rights to ex-felons. As Kevin Drum " reported last month, former felons in Iowa must fill out a 31-question application seeking information including the address of the judge who handled the conviction. Felons also must supply a criminal history report, which takes weeks to obtain, and the review itself can take up to six months. Drum writes:

Henry Straight, who wants to serve on the town council in the tiny western Iowa community of Arthur, is among those whose paperwork wasn't complete. Straight can't vote or hold office because as a teenager in Wisconsin in the 1980s, he was convicted of stealing a pop machine and fleeing while on bond. Straight spent a year on the effort and hired a lawyer for $500 to help. Yet he was notified by the governor's office [in May] that he hadn't submitted a full credit report, only a summary, or documentation showing he had paid off decades-old court costs. "They make the process just about impossible," said Straight, 40, a truck driver. "I hired a lawyer to navigate it for me and I still got rejected. Isn't that amazing?"

There's also the de facto disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of Americans who by law still have the right to vote: those in jail, rather than prison. There are 3,000 local jail jurisdictions in the United States, and jails hold some 700,000 people at any given time. Many are there on misdemeanor charges or are being held in pretrial detention because they can't make bail. Those lacking previous felony convictions have the right to vote, "but inmates don't have access to voter registration materials or absentee ballots," says Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project.

Charles Sullivan, who heads the nonprofit group Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants, has successfully brought together jail and voter-registration officials in DC to help inmates to register and cast their ballots. "At any given time in DC jails, out of 2,500 inmates, about 90 percent are eligible," Sullivan told the Washington Afro. But "we have never witnessed more than 400 inmates voting for an election cycle." DC's system is way out front on inmate voting rights, Sullivan added. "But there are many things that need to be done so that eligible voters inside jails have all the same opportunities to make informed choices."