FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 1, 2002 Lisa Navarrete
Angela Arboleda
(202) 785-1670

NCLR CALLS ELECTION REFORM ACTION 
"AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE"

Washington DC - [The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Latino civil rights organization, called today's Senate action on the Election Reform Substitute Bill (S. 565), which in effect requires onerous new barriers to voter registration and voting, "an absolute disgrace." Full text of NCLR's statement follows.] 

The irregularities observed during the 2000 presidential election provided a tremendous opportunity to remove barriers that inhibit and deter Americans from participating in the electoral process. A series of independent studies have documented that millions of Americans were deterred from voting, or did not have their votes counted, in the last election. Election reform legislation was supposed to fix these problems. 

One Senator, Christopher Bond (R-MO), is insisting on federal requirements that new voters present a photo ID or other documents showing a current address in the specific jurisdiction in which the individual seeks to vote before being permitted to register and vote. Senator Bond claims these provisions are necessary to prevent voter fraud, but cannot point to even a single independent study or any credible research documenting a widespread problem with voter fraud. The bill already currently contains strong anti-fraud provisions. The bill's provisions for computerized statewide voter registration lists will make it much easier for election officials to detect and punish voter fraud. 

Moreover, in a near party-line vote, Senator Bond and his GOP colleagues rejected an alternative proposed by Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Ron Wyden (D-OR). The Schumer-Wyden amendment would allow prospective voters without a photo ID additional alternatives to demonstrate their eligibility to vote, while requiring them to attest to their identity or to provide a signature that could be matched electronically with the one in existing records. Although the majority of the Senate supported the Schumer-Wyden alternative, Senator Bond launched a filibuster, a tactic designed to kill the bill unless his photo ID provisions were included.

While it will not deter fraud, the photo ID provisions will unquestionably make it more difficult for Hispanic and African American citizens to exercise their right to vote. According to the 2000 Census there are 13 million voting-age Latino citizens in the United States. Estimates based on recent research suggest that 5-10% of potential Hispanic and African American voters do not have a photo ID or any of the other documents listed in the bill. Thus, as many as 1.3 million Latino citizens face potential disenfranchisement as a result of Senator Bond's photo ID provision. 

This is not just speculation. On November 5, 2001, a federal court outlawed the use of a similar identification requirement in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Both the Department of Justice and private plaintiffs argued, and the court correctly found, that "the burden imposed by this requirement will fall disproportionately on the Latin American community, thereby violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1973."

Voter suppression tactics targeted at racial and ethnic minorities have a long, sordid history in this country. The photo ID provision - like its predecessors the poll tax, literacy tests, "grandfather clauses," etc. - has a clear, undeniable, disparate impact on Hispanics, African Americans, and other underrepresented groups. When Congress reauthorized the Voting Rights Act in 1975 it expanded protections to include Latinos precisely because these tactics were demonstrated to have prevented Latinos from exercising their right to vote. Bond's provision restores voter suppression tactics. It is an absolute disgrace that such a provision would be included in a bill that purports to reduce barriers to electoral participation.

NCLR has frequently praised the Republican Party's recent Latino outreach efforts, and has vigorously supported GOP policy initiatives that would improve opportunities for Hispanics in the U.S. We are thus equally obligated to point out that no political party can credibly seek the Latino vote while simultaneously working to suppress it. 

We urge the Senate to fashion an election reform bill that increases rather than inhibits opportunities for all Americans to exercise their right to vote. 

####