VOTER PROTECTION VICTORIES
Ohio Secretary of State Acts Quickly on Election Initiatives
Advancement Project Tapped to Serve on Ohio Voting Rights Institute Advisory Council
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is establishing the Ohio Voting Rights Institute, which will work with communities and partner with local and national organizations to enhance voting opportunities for Ohio citizens. Shortly after Secretary Brunner took office, Advancement Project Staff Attorney Donita Judge met with Secretary Brunner and her staff to discuss obstacles confronting Ohio voters. It was decided during this meeting an Advisory Council would be established to support the Voting Rights Institute. Advancement Project has been tapped to serve on the Advisory Council. Secretary Brunner and Director Kellye Pinkleton will host the first meeting of the council on March 10, 2007, in Columbus, Ohio. This is one of several initiatives that support Brunner’s stated goal of “restoring trust to Ohio elections.”
Brunner is also examining remedies for the current shortage of poll workers in Ohio. Nationally and throughout Ohio, election officials are experiencing significant poll worker shortages on Election Day. According to news reports, she may propose a form of mandatory poll worker service to cover the polls on Election Day similar to the jury service model that is used to cover trials. The prospect of compulsory poll worker service to meet Election Day needs has attracted both support and opposition from around the nation.
ON THE GROUND
Advancement Project Testifies before Florida Senate Committee
At the request of Sen. Tony Hill (D-FL), the Florida Senate Ethics and Elections’ Committee held a public meeting to hear concerns and comments from Florida citizens. Sen. Hill remarked that the hearing “provided the first major opportunity since hearings following the November 2000 presidential election for citizens to come forward to vent their frustrations about the Florida election system to their elected representatives.” Advancement Project Staff Attorney Jennifer Maranzano presented testimony at the hearing, which was held on January 23, 2007. She highlighted for the committee our concerns about restrictive registration requirements, onerous database matching prerequisites for registration, inadequate poll worker training and recruitment, burdensome identification requirements, the regressive impact of the new challenge procedure, and the potential for illegal purges in the upcoming year. The Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition also presented its concerns on the current Florida voting systems and representatives from the League of Women Voters of Florida testified about their top priority election reform issues.
Clergy Conference Moves Beyond the Pulpit to Voter Empowerment
More than 1,000 faith leaders, including several prominent clergy who partnered with Advancement Project in carrying out the Voter Revival Program last fall, gathered in New Orleans, La., for the 4th Annual Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference held the week of February 5–8, 2007. Conference General Secretary Dr. Iva Carruthers opened with a quote from W.E.B. Du Bois that called the 1952 Presidential Elections “a farce” because the leaders of the day ignored the concerns of African-American voters, offering “no clear policy on war or preparation for war” or “on water and flood control.” The quote rang with irony and set the backdrop for four days of learning and working to develop synergies among churches, or between churches and grassroots organizations, that would be a positive force for social justice in Louisiana, the nation, and the world.
Advancement Project helped to facilitate two Faith & Politics workshops led by Rev. Romal Tune, director of the Clergy Strategic Alliance, and Cecile Counts, AFL-CIO policy director, which challenged participants to translate compassion into political empowerment. For churches and organizations conducting voter registration, the workshops honed in on the importance of developing timelines for work, starting early in advance of elections, knowing the deadlines and rules for registration, building a database of volunteers, learning your community, working with election officials to ensure problem free access to the ballot, and conducting issue education.
Advancement Project presented a full range of 2007–08 voter protection priorities and voter empowerment activities that social justice ministries can begin to implement, including conducting voter registration verification programs to make sure that voters are successfully added to the rolls, conducting public education efforts to emphasize the convenience of absentee voting, meeting with election officials, and volunteering to participate as poll workers on Election Day. The workshop placed special emphasis on keeping the lines of communication open and holding elected officials accountable year-round. “Send a letter to three people—your two state senators and your representative,” explained Counts. “And in that letter ask a single question: ‘what is your position on X issue of importance to me?’”
Advancement Project has agreed to partner with a number of conference participants on voter protection workshops at churches in counties with high concentrations of citizens of color who are eligible to register or are registered to vote.
Civic Engagement Focus of Summit in Nation’s Capital
On January 31, 2007, more than 200 grassroots, immigrant community leaders connected at the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) Summit in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Center for Community Change. FIRM comprises a coalition of member groups who advocate for comprehensive immigration reform and work to advance the civil rights of immigrants in America.
Member organizations in FIRM are working together to expand grassroots power and, as such, the summit featured a workshop series on civic engagement. Attendees shared success stories about their own voter registration and civic engagement strategies. For example, several groups registered thousands of individuals through registration drives at naturalization ceremonies. The workshops included specific instructions for designing civic engagement plans and provided time for groups to draft their own plans. Advancement Project looks forward to assisting FIRM organizations with incorporating voter protection into their civic engagement work.
Ohio Secretary of State Urged to Amend Provisional Ballot Procedures
Advancement Project and Ohio Voter Protection Coalition members are petitioning the Ohio Secretary of State to issue a directive to adopt uniform, full disclosure rules for Ohio provisional votes. Observing the lack of uniformity in Ohio election law, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has pledged to adopt uniform procedures in the state to prevent the 88 different county interpretations of Ohio’s election laws. In a letter to the secretary of state’s office, groups urged Brunner to issue a directive to all 88 county Boards of Elections recommending uniform categories and/or terms for recording information about rejected provisional ballots.
The Ins and Outs of Key Maryland Election Reform Bills
The Maryland General Assembly is considering a slew of election reform bills. Several pending bills that may affect voter participation in communities of color are highlighted below:
Early Voting
Once again, early voting is the primary election reform bill in Maryland. In 2005, the Maryland General Assembly passed early voting, but it was later vetoed by former Governor Ehrlich (R). Overriding the governor’s veto, election officials started to implement the law, but days before the September primary elections the Maryland Court of Appeals declared the early voting law unconstitutional.
The majority leadership of both legislative houses filed bills (Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 201) to amend the Maryland Constitution to allow early voting. On February 13, 2007, the House Assembly passed House Bill 201. It is likely that Governor Martin O’Malley (D) will sign the bill into law. The proposed amendments would be brought to the voters during the 2008 election for their approval. The odds are that early voting in Maryland could begin in 2010. Until early voting laws are passed, voting by absentee ballot is the only way to vote before Election Day in Maryland.
Absentee Ballots and Voter Registration
Maryland voters can vote by absentee ballot for any reason. Yet, in the 2006 general election, increased demands for absentee ballots overwhelmed the system and some jurisdictions could not process absentee ballot applications by the deadline. Maryland ACLU, with other civil and voting rights organizations, filed a lawsuit to extend the absentee ballot processing deadline. Maryland courts denied the requested relief (Fritzsche v. State Board of Elections).
The Maryland General Assembly is now considering legislation (House Bill 16) that would change the absentee voter deadline from the Tuesday prior to an election to 15 days prior to the election and change the voter registration deadline from 21 to 26 days before the election. Studies show that potential voters, who decide to participate in elections, do so in the weeks, days, and even hours before the election. House Bill 16 limits opportunities for absentee ballot voters and further restricts opportunities for eligible persons to register to vote.
In contrast, Senator Jamie Raskin is sponsoring a bill (Senate Bill 31) that would allow persons who are 16 and older to register to vote, so when they become eligible to vote at the age of 18, they can vote in the next election.
Paper Trails
Nationally, many advocates are calling for a paper trail audit of Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines. Maryland is no exception. One of the first states to implement the use of DRE machines statewide, Maryland incorporated electronic poll books as part of the voting system in 2006. Newspaper reports and Election Day complaints highlighted the need for auditable evidence to ensure voters’ confidence that despite administrative errors and inadequate election judge training, votes were accurately recorded. It is unclear whether other voting systems are available to ensure that communities of color, including voters who need language assistance and people with disabilities, feel secure that that their votes will be accurately and privately cast and tabulated.
A bill requiring paper audit trails, supported by verified voting groups and Maryland ACLU, has been re-introduced in 2007 (House Bill 18). However, state and local election officials do not favor this bill. They claim that the present system surpassed national standards for accuracy, the costs of a new voting system would be prohibitive; and there is not enough time to design, build, and implement a new system before the 2007 and 2008 elections.
Voter Protection
In Maryland, the provisional ballot is intended to serve as a fail-safe voting mechanism. But Maryland law limits the issuance of provisional ballots to voters with registration problems so there is no fail-safe system in place for voting when machines break down or when poll sites open late or not at all on Election Day. The Voter's Rights Protection Act of 2007 was introduced to address those issues (House Bill 309 and Senate Bill 386). The bills expand the scope of provisional balloting, strengthen its power, and introduce procedures that will ensure that votes are counted in all circumstances.
Ex-Offender Enfranchisement
There are no clear categories of offenses in which Marylanders with felony convictions—who have served their sentence, been granted parole and/or probation, and paid restitution to the state—can regain their civil rights. A bill re-introduced this year (House Bill 273), sets standards under which people with felony convictions would regain their voting rights. The bill provides that an individual is not qualified to register to vote if she has been convicted of a felony and is awaiting or serving a sentence of imprisonment for the conviction. That person becomes eligible to vote once the criminal sentence is completed. If passed, this law would immediately enfranchise thousands of new voters. Justice Maryland, along with the Maryland Voting Rights Restoration Coalition, is working on this effort.
MATERIALS YOU CAN USE
New Report Examines 2006 Voter Turnout
The February 2007 report from the Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network, America Goes to the Polls: A Report on Voter Turnout in the 2006 Election, includes an analysis of voter turnout in midterm elections during the past 30 years. Using state data, survey information, exit poll data, and other sources, this report ranks states by total turnout in 2006, in addition to profiling election reform ideas and their impact on voter participation.
Florida County Finds Palm Cards Handy Tools for Poll Workers
As reported in our December newsletter, Advancement Project created and supplied Florida poll worker palm cards for use in the November 2006 election. Duval County embraced this idea and distributed the cards to its poll workers. We have recently learned that Duval County found these cards to be so useful that the County is reprinting more of them for use by poll workers in upcoming local elections in March and May. Advancement Project plans to urge other election officials in Florida and elsewhere to make use of this important resource for alerting poll workers and voters of the “Top Ten Things All Poll Workers Should Know.”
Newly Released Report Documents Maryland Voting Complaints
On February 5, 2007, Maryland Election Reform/Protection Coalition released “Maryland Elections 2006,” a report on the problems experienced by Maryland voters during the November 2006 election. The report is based on hundreds of complaints from Maryland voters received by Election Incident Reporting System (EIRS). A diverse group of national and local organizations are involved in The Coalition, including the Lawyers’ Committee, the NAACP, the ACLU of Maryland, the League of Women Voters of Maryland, People For The American Way Foundation, Project Vote, ACORN, Advancement Project, and the Maryland Disability Law Center. The report underscores the unfinished business that remains for Maryland voter protection advocates.
Maryland Governors’ Transition Report Addresses Election Reform Issues
On February 22, 2007, Governor Martin O'Malley formally accepted from Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown the O'Malley-Brown Transition Report, which is composed of 21 individual reports focused on various state agencies or policy areas, including elections. The report addresses and makes recommendations regarding governance, elections management, voter registration, voter participation, and polling place operation issues that are of concern to Advancement Project and Maryland Election Reform Coalition partners. Maryland’s former Secretary of State, Professor John T. Willis, School of Public Affairs of the University of Baltimore, authored the elections section of the report.
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