Civil Rights Advocates to RNC: Don't Intimidate and Manipulate
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 11/1/2004
Civil rights and voting rights advocates gathered last week to call on the Republican National Committee (RNC) to end its use of voter suppression, intimidation, and manipulation tactics. The group came together in front of the RNC's headquarters."In recent days we have heard more and more about efforts by Republican party officials to target minority voters and voters with disabilities with suppression and intimidation," said Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR). "We are here today to remind our fellow Americans -- and the Republican National Committee --that democracy demands equality of ballot access for all Americans. Democracy equals one person one vote."
Reports of intimidation tactics specifically aimed at minority and disabled voters include requiring identification at polling stations; supplying wrong polling information to potential voters; and initiating background checks on newly-registered voters. According to voters across the country, all of the tactics have been used heavily in the past, and some already are in the works this year. The crowd in front of the RNC held signs that read "Not This Time" and "My Right, My Vote," in reference to the 2000 election, when many minority and disabled voters reported the use of intimidation tactics against them.
"In light of the widespread disenfranchisement of minority voters in 2000, it is more important than ever that this November's election proceed smoothly and equitably," Henderson said.
Also at the rally was Cecila Muñoz, vice president for the National Council of La Raza, who voiced her concerns about the blatant discrimination against Latino voters nationwide. Muñoz said that many Latino voters have unfairly been questioned at the polls and told to provide proof that they are United States citizens, solely because they are Latinos.
"As far as I know, you can not tell if someone is an American just by looking at them," she said.
Other organizations urging the RNC to put an end to its plans to challenge voters on Election Day were the NAACP, USAction, and the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD).
Jim Dickson, vice president for Government Affairs at AAPD, addressed blatant discrimination in Ohio against individuals with mental disabilities.
"Ed Gillespie and the National Republican Committee have a moral obligation to condemn Cuyahoga County's Republican Party Chairman, who said that the Ohio Republican Party is organizing to prevent people with mental disabilities from voting," Dickson said. "Ohio law is clear: a person with a mental disability loses his or her right to vote only after having been declared incompetent, for the purposes of voting, by a judge."
"We call on the RNC to work with us to empower minority communities, not deny them their fundamental rights." said Hilary Shelton, director of the Washington Bureau for the NAACP.
In October, LCCR sent letters to the chairs of the Republican and Democratic National Committee, asking both to ensure that partisan "poll challengers," who in some states can dispute the eligibility of individual voters at polling places, are not used to intimidate or disenfranchise eligible minority voters.
LCCR's letter highlights an article featured in U.S. News and World Report in which John Papageorge, a Michigan state representative and Bush campaign official, explains the need to suppress the "Detroit vote." Detroit has a predominantly black population.
