New Report: Voting Rights Act Protections Still Needed in Alaska
Feature Story by Tyler Lewis - 4/17/2006
Native peoples still encounter barriers to voting in Alaska because the state has not fully complied with provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA).For more than 30 years, according to a new report by RenewtheVRAorg, Alaska has continued to conduct English-only elections despite the fact that 19 percent of its population is Native and 80.5 percent of new Native voters has difficulty comprehending English-only ballots.
"It is essential that there are laws in place that protect native-born Americans, that allow them to cast their ballot," said Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. "Language assistance for Alaska Natives ensures their right to cast a proper and informed ballot, even if they need help navigating complicated rules and ballot language."
In addition, while the state provides oral language assistance to Alaska Natives in 20 areas of Alaska, it does not provide written materials at all. In interviews conducted in October 2005, many Alaska Natives say that the oral assistance is provided infrequently and rarely advertised.
The requirement to submit all voting changes to the Department of Justice (DOJ) remains critical for ensuring voting rights in Alaska as well. In some cases, voting and election procedures permitted under Alaska state law would not be permitted under the VRA.
For instance, Alaska's Redistricting Board, knowing that DOJ would intervene if its plans violated the VRA, hired a national voting rights expert in 2000 to evaluate whether the proposed plan would dilute Native voting power.
The VRA, largely considered the most successful civil rights legislation ever enacted, prohibits discrimination based on race.
Three key provisions of the VRA will expire in August 2007 if Congress does not act now to renew them: Section 5, which requires preclearance of voting changes in states and localities with a history of voting discrimination, Section 203, which require counties where more than 5 percent of citizens are not native English speakers to provide language assistance, and Sections 6-9, which authorize DOJ to send federal examiners and observers to monitor elections.
RenewtheVRA.org is a collaboration of national organizations with strong experience protecting minority voting rights, which includes such groups as the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the NAACP and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, ACLU, and Asian American Justice Center.
