Report: Hispanic and Native American Voters Still Face Barriers to Voting in Arizona
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 5/18/2006
Minority voters still encounter barriers to voting in Arizona, a state where voters have approved English-only laws and ballot initiatives three times since the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) was last reauthorized in 1982.Eighteen discriminatory voting procedure changes and redistricting plans proposed in Arizona have been overturned by the U.S. Department of Justice since 1982, according to a report by RenewtheVRA.org. Without the VRA, considered the most successful civil rights legislation in history, these discriminatory plans would have been enacted.
"Hispanic and Native American voters have made significant steps forward in recent elections, but Arizona still has a long way to go in ensuring that discrimination does not continue to occur," said Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. "It is important that the VRA continues to be enforced so that minorities can elect candidates of their choice."
Protecting the voting rights of every resident in a state as diverse as Arizona has proven difficult.
Hispanics make up 21.3 percent of the voting age population and Native Americans make up 3.8 percent. The Hispanic and Native American populations in Arizona have large numbers of non-fluent speakers - over 20 percent for both according to the 2000 Census - who need assistance in order to vote. The language assistance provision of the VRA currently covers only six counties for Spanish and nine counties for Native American languages.
The report documents instances of discrimination that have made it difficult or many non-fluent voters to cast a ballot. For instance, more than 12,000 applications to vote were denied in Pima and Maricopa counties alone between January and November 2005 because the individuals lacked proof of U.S. citizenship.
Of those 12,000 applicants, only ten were non-citizens.
Despite discrimination and language barriers, Native Americans in Arizona had record voter turnout in the last two presidential elections, mostly due to the VRA.
However, Native Americans in Arizona still trail the statewide average voter turnout by 23 percent. In addition, Arizona Hispanics trailed non-Hispanics in voter turnout by 12 percent in 2002.
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 requires counties where more than 5 percent of citizens are not native English speakers to provide language assistance, and Sections 6-9, which authorize the Department of Justice to send federal examiners and observers to monitor elections.
A bicameral bill, HR 9/S 2703, introduced on May 2, would reauthorize these provisions for another 25 years.
The RenewtheVRA.org collaborative 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, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, ACLU, and Asian American Justice Center.
