New Report Finds Continuing Voting Discrimination
Feature Story by Aisha Forte - 2/6/2008
In January 2008, the Southern Regional Council (SRC) released a new report describing state and regional trends in voting policy and civic participation in 2006 and 2007.
The report's most alarming findings were about bills passed by state legislatures that potentially limit civic participation, decrease voter turnout and the lack of representation across all six states among African Americans and Latinos in state legislatures.
"People of color still face significant barriers to exercising their right to vote and this Southern Regional Council Review is a vital tool for bringing justice into the voting systems across the South," said Hiewet Senghor, SRC executive director.
The SRC report provides evidence that Southern states continue to infringe on minority voting rights, including bills in Kentucky and Virginia that disenfranchised ex-felons and Georgia's pursuit of increased ballot security measures, specifically the requirement of a government-issued photo ID to vote.
Laughlin McDonald, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights Project, said that the new ID requirement would "have an undeniable adverse impact upon minorities, the elderly, the disabled and the poor."
Furthermore, voter participation in all six states studied, was noticeably lower than average. The two lowest states for voter turnout were Mississippi and Louisiana, at 30 percent and 28 percent respectively. The remaining states were not much better, with voter turnout ranging from 33 percent to 41 percent.
Virginia was the only state studied that was in the top 25 for voter turnout.
Additionally, minority representation in the South was not reflective of the general population. Latinos make up 4.3 percent of the population studied, but Latinos consist of only .29 percent of state legislators across the six states.
This report reinforces the significance of voting legislation like the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was reauthorized for another 25 years in 2006 despite opposition from some Southern senators.
"Voting is the language of democracy and the right to vote is an American birthright, not a partisan issue", says Wade Henderson, President and CEO of Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. "The findings of the Southern Regional Conference are further proof that voting discrimination remains a problem in some areas of the nation and the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act was the right move for Congress to make."
