Other Means

by Alexander Keyssar

Cambridge, Mass., 2/13

THE 2012 general election campaign is likely to be a fight for every last vote, which means that it will also be a fight over who gets to cast one.

Partisan skirmishing over election procedures has been going on in state legislatures across the country for several years. Republicans have called for cutbacks in early voting, an end to same-day registration, higher hurdles for ex-felons, the presentation of proof-of-citizenship documents and regulations discouraging registration drives. The centerpiece of this effort has been a national campaign to require voters to present particular photo ID documents at the polls. Characterized as innocuous reforms to preserve election integrity, beefed-up ID requirements have passed in more than a dozen states since 2005 and are still being considered in more than 20 others.

Opponents of the laws, mostly Democrats, claim that they are intended to reduce the participation of the young, of the poor and of minorities, who are most likely to lack government-issued IDs — and also most likely to vote Democratic.

Conflict over exercising the right to vote has been a longstanding theme in our history. The overarching trend, which we celebrate, has been greater inclusion: property requirements were dropped; racial barriers were formally eliminated; women were enfranchised.

Yet there have always been counter trends. While the franchise expanded during some moments and in some places, it contracted in others, depriving Americans of a right they had once held. Between 1790 and 1850 — the period when property requirements were being dropped — four Northern states disenfranchised African-American voters, and New Jersey halted a 17-year experiment permitting women to vote. During this same period, nine states passed laws excluding “paupers” from political rights.

After Reconstruction, both major political parties attempted to constrict the electorate, albeit in different locales. In the South — as is well known — Democratic state legislatures employed a variety of devices, including literacy tests, poll taxes, “understanding” clauses and, eventually, Democratic primaries restricted to whites. As a result, African-Americans were largely excluded from electoral participation from the 1890s until the 1960s.

In the North, similar, if less draconian, legal changes, generally sponsored by Republicans, targeted (among others) the millions of immigrant workers pouring into the country. In 1921, for example, New York State adopted an English-language literacy requirement for voters that remained in force (and was enforced) for decades. Almost invariably, these new limits on the franchise were fueled by partisan interests and ethnic or racial tensions; they were embraced by respectable Americans, like the eminent historian Francis Parkman, who had come to view universal suffrage as a “questionable blessing.”

Many of the late 19th- and early 20th-century laws operated not by excluding specific classes of citizens but by erecting procedural obstacles that were justified as measures to prevent fraud or corruption. It was to “preserve the purity of the ballot box” that legislatures passed laws requiring voters to bring their sealed naturalization papers to the polls or to present written evidence that they had canceled their registration at any previous address or to register annually, in person, on one of only two Tuesdays.

The new procedures were widely recognized, by both their advocates and their targets, as having a far greater impact on some groups of voters — immigrants, blue-collar workers, the poor — than on others, and they often succeeded. In Pittsburgh in 1906, a personal registration law, sponsored by Republicans to check the influence of a crusading reformer, cut the number of registered voters in half.

In the 1930s, “pauper exclusion” laws were invoked to disenfranchise jobless men and women who were receiving relief. In 2000, Massachusetts disenfranchised prisoners after they formed an organization to promote inmate rights.

The targets of exclusionary laws have tended to be similar for more than two centuries: the poor, immigrants, African-Americans, people perceived to be something other than “mainstream” Americans. No state has ever attempted to disenfranchise upper-middle-class or wealthy white male citizens.

The current wave of procedural restrictions on voting, including strict photo ID requirements, ought to be understood as the latest chapter in a not always uplifting story: Americans of both parties have sometimes rejected democratic values or preferred partisan advantage to fair democratic processes. Acknowledging the realities of our history should lead all of us to be profoundly skeptical of laws that burden, or impede, the exercise of what Lyndon B. Johnson called “the basic right, without which all others are meaningless.” More is at stake here than the outcome of the 2012 election. Even a cursory survey of world events over the last 20 — or 100 — years makes plain that democracies are fragile, that democratic institutions can be undermined from within. Ours are no exception.

Alexander Keyssar, a professor of history and social policy at Harvard, is the author of “The Right to Vote: the Contested History of Democracy in the United States.”

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See all stories on this topic » El Paso Mayor Fighting Ouster on Gay Rights Vote Counts Rising Legal Bill Bloomberg “The highest civil right that all of us possess is the right to vote, and our City Council took away our right to do that.” Costly Vote An April 14 recall election may cost as much as $1.3 million, City Clerk Richarda Momsen said. See all stories on this topic » Bloomberg   Mark Zuckerberg Used To Buy Early Investors' Voting Rights For $100 By Dylan Love I'm pretty sure that any Investor who signed away their voting right for $100 still holds a heck of a lot of investor Rights under California law. And, if they wanted to unwind this provision, a law suit or two would likely crumble this provision to ... SAI The Congressional Black Caucus Fights for the Right of the People's ... By Intern It condemns the passage of state legislation that strips away the rights of the American people to vote. Chairman Cleaver encouraged every Member of the House to stand with the Congressional Black Caucus against any law that threatens ... The Congressional Black Caucus Feingold right, says Stein: Obama wrong to engage in "corrupt ... By davidswanson Dr. Stein supports public financing of elections, the constitutional amendment championed by Move to Amend, and a series of voting rights reforms called the Voter Bill of Rights. She is the clear leader in the Green Party presidential primaries, ... War Is A Crime .org Web 1 new result for voting rights   Kentucky weighs restoring voting rights to felons - The Courier-Journal Restaurant manager Jason Marvin Smith of Elizabethtown said he accepts full responsibility for a felony that landed him on probation as an 18-year-old for ... www.courier-journal.com/.../Kentucky-felon-voting-rights Voting rights group moves to suspend candidate filing in county races Greensboro News & Record The Southern Coalition for Social Justice, which is suing the state and the county over a redistricting law that leaves nearly 43000 county voters without representation on the board, filed the motions late Tuesday night. They have also moved for a ... See all stories on this topic » Voting Rights Act for minorities The Seattle Times The only sure beneficiaries of “Washington Votings Rights Act” are lawyers [“Ensuring voting rights,” Opinion, Feb. 2]. The Seattle Times got it wrong in the editorial supporting the Act moving through the Legislature. The “Election Chaos Act,” as it ... See all stories on this topic » “The Right to Vote is Fragile and Must Be Defended.” IREHR News (blog) Excerpts from presentation by Leonard Zeskind to the "Annual Civil Rights Town Hall Meeting" held by the Kansas City, Missouri branch of the NAACP on January 28, 2012. First I need to provide a bit of history on voting rights. See all stories on this topic » South Carolina Voter ID Law Defended By State In Challenge To Justice Department Huffington Post But Democrats and minority rights groups have said the laws are part of a concerted effort by Republicans to chip away at the voting rights of minorities -- who are key constituencies for the Democrats -- ahead of the 2012 presidential election. See all stories on this topic » Faith community opposes amendment that would restrict voter rights Workday Minnesota Effectively this gives more influence to a smaller number of wealthy, privileged and primarily Whitevoters. Furthermore, passage of the referendum would effectively eliminate voting as a right, making it a privilege instead. People of faith recognize ... See all stories on this topic » Wells Fargo, US Bank Execs Funding Pols Behind Minnesota Voter ID Push ColorLines magazine Civil rights advocates say such amendments will keep thousands of voters of color from the polls. If the ballot measure succeeds it would bypass the state's Democratic governor, who vetoed a similar bill last year. “Over the past week, we've learned a ... See all stories on this topic » Overseas Pakistanis' right to vote DAWN.com THIS is with reference to your editorial 'Voting rights for ex-pats' (Jan 27). The main hurdle to giving overseas Pakistanis the right to vote is procedural and logistical. The issue of amending certain laws is understandable. See all stories on this topic » SC bill would add requirements to register voters The Tand D.com Alan Clemmons, contends it's about holding third-party groups accountable for properly handling a person's right to vote, and applies to all groups spanning the political spectrum. The House measure requires any group that conducts voter registration ... See all stories on this topic » A Conversation With Journalist D. Parvaz, And A StoryCorps Take On Love KUOW NPR Voting Rights In Washington State: State lawmakers are considering a bill that would give voters in Washington state the ability to challenge voting systems they feel are unfair and poorly represent their communities. The Washington Voting Rights Act ... See all stories on this topic » KUOW NPR Metro International : Notification of Change in Shareholding Reuters Please be notified that Försäkringsbolaget Avanza Pension on 6 February 2012, has changed its shareholding in Metro International SA to a level exceeding the threshold of 5 percent of total numbers of voting rights. See all stories on this topic » News Coverage of South Dakota Indians' Voting Rights Suit | Turtle ... By Matthew L.M. Fletcher Native Americans have never had an easy time getting to vote in South Dakota. In 1977, the state attorney general dismissed the Voting Rights Act as an “absurdity” and advised state officials to ignore the federal law. The state didn't allow ... Turtle Talk Voting Rights Threats Bring Marchers Back to Selma - 21st Century ... National Action Network President Rev. Al Sharpton (center) is joined with allies from the labor, womens' and immigrant rights community to announce a five-day march that will trace the route of the 1965 Selma to M... iMail RSS | GOIAM “News Coverage of South Dakota Indians' Voting Rights Suit ... By Rick Hasen Holder's Voting Rights Gamble: The Supreme Court's Voter ID Showdown, Slate, Dec. 30, 2011. Will Foreigners Decide the 2012 Election? The Extreme Unintended Consequences of Citizens United, The New Republic (online), Dec. 6, 2011 ... Election Law Blog   States Consider Bills to Restrict Voting Rights By ALISON THOET Next fall, out-of-state college students may face problems as they attempt to register to vote, according to a New York Times article. umwbullet.com/.../states-ponder-bills-to-restrict-voting-rights/ TOUAX : Share Capital and Voting Rights at 31 January 2012 Reuters REGULATED INFORMATION Paris, February 7, 2012 TOUAX YOUR OPERATIONAL LEASING SOLUTION Disclosure of Share Capital and Voting Rights (pursuant to Article L.233-8 II of the French Commercial Code and Article 223-16 of the General Regulations of the ... See all stories on this topic » Reconsidering Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act National Review Online By Hans A. von Spakovsky Readers will recall that the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division entered an outrageous objection (under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act) to a referendum that changed the town's city council elections from partisan to ... See all stories on this topic » New state voting laws focus of Selma, Ala. march Huffington Post SUZANNE GAMBOA | February 7, 2012 01:21 PM EST | AP WASHINGTON — Civil rights, labor and immigration activists say they are returning to Selma, Ala. next month to protest state laws they say will largely prevent black and Latino voters, the poor, ... See all stories on this topic » APNewsBreak: South Carolina attorney general sues federal government for ... Washington Post “The changes have neither the purpose nor will they have the effect of denying or abridging the rightto vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority.” The Justice Department in December rejected South Carolina's law requiring ... See all stories on this topic » NAACP: Abbott's Proposal "Does Not Address Letter or Spirit of Voting Rights Act" Burnt Orange Report Here's their statement, emphases mine: The Texas State Conference of NAACP Branches opposes the proposal presented by the Texas Attorney General's Office because it does not address the letter or spirit of the Voting Rights Act. The Voting Rights Act ... See all stories on this topic » Voting rights are human rights Nashua Telegraph If you passed to their satisfaction, you were allowed to vote. That was normal procedure. It was intended to disenfranchise the undesirables, the uneducated, the poor and minority groups. The CivilRights Movement began to promote and to ensure every ... See all stories on this topic » STANDARD CHARTERED PLC : - Total Voting Rights 4-traders (press release) 2384064880 ordinary shares of US$0.50 each with voting rights of one vote for every US$2 nominal value. Therefore, ordinary shareholders have one vote for every four ordinary shares they hold, and Indian Depository Receipt (IDRs) holders have one vote ... See all stories on this topic » The GOP's nightmare voting scenario Salon These right-wingers are truly worried that a plan reforming the way the president-electing Electoral College works is gaining legal ground and could bring the biggest change in the political landscape in decades. The National Popular Vote plan would ... See all stories on this topic » Why Did Liberal African-Americans in Rhode Island Help Pass a Voter ID Law? New Republic At a Senate hearing on voting rights last fall, Democrat Dick Durbin pointed out that voter ID laws were nothing more than a coordinated Republican effort to block poor and minority voters from the ballot. It's a familiar charge, ... See all stories on this topic » Senate Dems challenge voter laws Cedartown Standard At the same time, younger voters want and need access to online registration options. These bills would make it easier, not harder, to exercise every citizens' right to vote," Fort said. Many states have same day and online registration - two methods ... See all stories on this topic »   Resources and Reports: Private Prisons, Anti-Immigrant Laws, Voting By Avril The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights under Law recently released report, “Pulling Back the Curtain,” analyzes the vote on Initiative 27, Mississippi's voter identification amendment, and “shows that Mississippi's ugly history of voter ... Unfinished Business - A Civil... AFL-CIO Joins Re-enactment of 1965 Selma to Montgomery March ... By Mike Hall The AFL-CIO is joining with civil rights, community and labor partners in the re-enactment of the historic 1965 Selma to Montgomery, Ala., civil rights march that will focus attention on new attacks on voting rights, immigrants, workers' rights and ... AFL-CIO NOW BLOG Kansas voting rights advocates oppose accelerating proof of citizenship ... Lawrence Journal World By Scott Rothschild A parade of voting rights advocates on Monday urged legislators to reject a proposal by Secretary of State Kris Kobach to require new voters show proof of US citizenship to register to vote starting June 15. See all stories on this topic » Komen VP who opposed Planned Parenthood a longtime foe of voting rightsadvocates Facing South She became a leading figure in the push for a restrictive voter ID bill, which was enmeshed in litigation for more than three years over charges that it disenfranchised African-Americans, Latinos, students and the elderly. Even more controversially ... See all stories on this topic » Facing South Justice Department delays approval of Suffolk voting plan The Virginian-Pilot By Jeff Sheler The US Department of Justice says the city's request for approval of its new voting districts is “insufficient” to determine whether the plan satisfies provisions of the Voting Rights Act. The department requested additional information ... See all stories on this topic » Fight for your voting rights Minnesota Daily By Mitch Menigo, MPIRG The high number of citizens voting and participating in Minnesota elections is truly something to be proud of. It can be argued that the excellent turnout in our elections is due to voting mechanisms that encourage people to get ... See all stories on this topic » Gillard aims to time it right as voters back race equality Sydney Morning Herald Photo: Karleen Minney ALMOST two-thirds of voters support changing the constitution to recognise indigenous people as the first inhabitants of the land but the Prime Minister has warned the proposed referendum on the issue should be delayed until there ... See all stories on this topic » Sydney Morning Herald Bolling's decisive vote completes Senate passage of bill requiring voters to ... Washington Post And others warned of expensive litigation and challenges to it under the federal Voting Rights Act. Supporters denied it would suppress voting, noting an array of acceptable ID as wide as drivers' licenses to utility bills. See all stories on this topic » Centrica PLC UK Regulatory Announcement: Total Voting Rights - Replacement Business Wire (press release) All of these shares carry voting rights of one vote per share. The Company does not currently hold any shares in treasury. The above figure of 5173379799 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine ... See all stories on this topic » South Africa's cautious UN vote for Syrian action Christian Science Monitor In the post-Rwandan genocide era, human rights activists began to talk of a “responsibility to protect,” enshrined in the United Nations charter. The UN invoked this responsibility to protect invoting to intervene in the Libyan civil war last year, ... See all stories on this topic » Move over robo-calls, states sell email addresses for campaigns to reach voters Fox News "Politicians love the fact that their perceived freedom of speech is more important than voters' privacy," said Shaun Dakin, president and CEO of The National Political Do Not Contact Registry, a non-profit voters' rights advocacy group based in Falls ... See all stories on this topic » Fox News Texas Reaches Accord With Latino Redistricting Task Force on Interim Maps Bloomberg Distorted Districts Latinos and lawmakers whose jobs were threatened by the Legislature's new maps sued over claims Republicans distorted districts to prevent the election of minorities, in violation of the Voting Rights Act. Republicans claimed they... See all stories on this topic » Bloomberg   Tulane University - Attorney general: voting rights a 'moral imperative' By Alicia Duplessis We are dedicated to aggressively enforcing the Voting Rights Act,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder tells a capacity crowd at Tulane Law School. Tulane New Wave   Voting rights battles revived in states | The Institute for Southern ... Now, with the November elections looming, the battles over voting rights have erupted again. VIRGINIA JOINS THE FRAY. In the battleground state of Virginia, ... southernstudies.org/.../voting-rights-battles-revived-in-states.ht... Wen bats for 'voting rights' in villages Hindustan Times The Premier spoke of farmers' voting rights, direct election of village-level leadership and self governance, a rare vocabulary in the tightly controlled one party system. The comments assume significance as they come close on the heels of an incident ... See all stories on this topic »

Kentucky weighs restoring voting rights to felons Louisville Courier-Journal But what riles him is that after completing his probation, he still could not vote. ìI was in civil purgatory,î said Smith, now 32, who lost his voting rights for years before a governorís pardon restored them last year. Kentucky is one of only four ... See all stories on this topic »

Democracy under attack in voter suppression scheme Boston Herald They raise the imaginary specter of voter impersonation fraud, but their goal appears the same. A half-century ago, the right to vote was the major civil rights goal of the Kennedy administration. The Justice Department pursued cases throughout the ... See all stories on this topic »

Voter registration rolls get cleaned up with bill KSL-TV Critics had questioned whether the original version of HB253 complied with the NationalVoting Rights Act, or NVRA, which prohibits removing voters from rolls for not voting. But the bill's sponsor, Rep. Kraig Powell, R-Heber City, told legislators ... See all stories on this topic » KSL-TV

Bill requires NH voters to be full-time residents Boston.com CONCORD, NH—Out-of-state college students and other part-time residents would be unable to vote in New Hampshire if a bill in the New Hampshire House is enacted. Election law provides voting rights to anyone who claims New Hampshire as their domicile. See all stories on this topic »

Vote count in GOP caucus continuing in Nevada's largest county Las Vegas Sun And, still, party officials in Nevada's largest county continue to count the vote. “We are going to get this right,” Clark County Chairman David Gibbs told the Las Vegas Sun today. “If it takes us a little bit of time to get it rights, we are going to ... See all stories on this topic »

For Martin and Medgar and Viola Fort Worth Star Telegram 14 session was billed as an informational meeting to hear from experts about how the law would affect voters in the upcoming elections. At times, it had the flavor of an old-time voting rights rally from the 1960s in which people passionately expressed ... See all stories on this topic »

Kory, Saslaw, Marsden Report On Grim Prospects in Richmond Falls Church News Press Key developments include the plethora of GOP-backed bills expected to become law on restricting the reproductive rights of women, putting more guns on the streets, and suppressing voting rights. "There's a lot of disenfranchising going on," Kory ... See all stories on this topic »

Madison Matters: Groups hope to stop Wis. ID law Chicago Tribune To the league and the NAACP -- which filed lawsuits in Dane County Circuit Court last year -- it violates the state Constitution's explicit language on every person's right to vote. They said amendments in the US Constitution prohibit voting ... See all stories on this topic »

Newt Gingrich leaves Las Vegas with plan to woo NASCAR voters, sweep South Washington Post LAS VEGAS — Newt Gingrich is wooing NASCAR voters. As he charts a possible course to the Republican nomination, aides say Gingrich will paint frontrunner Mitt Romney as the candidate of the PGA golf tour while the former House speaker pursues the blue ... See all stories on this topic »

Comprehensive voting rights story a must read | League of Women ... Read this comprehensive article on voting rights in The Nation. This article references a North Carolina legal challenge in which the state League is a plaintiff ... lwv.org/blog/comprehensive-voting-rights-story-must-read

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