Call it Democracy

Voting Rights Hijacked By Anti Immigrant Lobby

Matt Kohn

Matt Kohn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqSieGAcldo

When I interviewed Rep. King in May 2003, he seemed very concerned about voting rights, and running elections smoothly. He was in favor of paper ballots, which is generally a good idea. It was obvious that his bill was a "Republican version" of Rush Holt's (D-NJ). King's bill left it up to states to police their elections administrators and veryify the efficacy of voting machines.

But he didn't seem like a bad guy.

Two days ago, renewal of the Voting Rights Act was brought to a halt because King wrote a letter, which seeks to eliminate mulitlingual balloting from the guarantees the Act provides. 79 Republicans signed the letter, mostly from the South.

Following is an excerpt of the letter, published proudly on King's own site:

"Multilingual ballots divide our country, increase the risk of voter error and fraud, and burden local taxpayers. The multilingual ballot mandate encourages the linguistic division of our nation and contradicts the "Melting Pot" ideal that has made us the most successful multi-ethnic nation on earth. This increasingly burdensome mandate on state and local governments to provide multilingual voting materials also serves to undermine the election process. It contradicts the requirement that immigrants need to demonstrate the ability to read and understand English in order to become naturalized citizens. The existence of multilingual ballots increases the risk of election errors and fraud. Furthermore, not only are multilingual ballots an unfunded mandate, but they are a waste of taxpayer funds because they are mandated by the VRA without regard to whether they are actually used."

It's despicable that King, who claims to be a moderate concerned about counting every vote and making sure that every American who has the right to vote can get that vote counted, would author this letter, and lead this new movemen

Matt Kohn

Matt Kohn

AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project Launch
February 08, 2006
On Wednesday, February 8, 2006, Senator Barack Obama delivered a keynote address to inaugurate the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project. Norman Ornstein, Resident Scholar at AEI, and Thomas Mann, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, then moderated a discussion of the past and future of election reform among experts in election law, technology, and administration. Below is the conference agenda. A video and transcript of the event will be posted shortly.

Event Agenda:

Introduction:
Strobe Talbott, President, The Brookings Institution

Keynote Address:
The Honorable Barack Obama, United States Senator, Illinois

Panel One: HAVA – How Is It Working?

Moderator:
Norman Ornstein, Resident Scholar, AEI

Panelists:
Paul DeGregorio, Chair, Election Assistance Commission
Doug Chapin, Director, electionline.org
Honorable Deborah Markowitz, Vermont Secretary of State

Panel Two: Election Reform – Looking Ahead

Moderator:
Thomas Mann, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution

Panelists:
Michael Alvarez, Professor and Director of the Cal Tech-MIT Voting Technology Project
Richard Hasen, the William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles
Robert Pastor, Executive Director, Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform
Paul Vinovich, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on House Administration