Witnesses Say Election Observers and Examiners Still Needed
Feature Story by Tyler Lewis - 12/21/2005
This story is the sixth in a series on Congress' hearings on the Voting Rights Act of 1965.Federal observers and examiners play a critical role in ensuring that minority voters can exercise their right to vote free from intimidation, witnesses said at a November 15 hearing on the reauthorization of temporary provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
"Voting rights observers serve as neutral monitors, who do not intervene if there are violations. They only watch, listen, and record events that occur at particular polling sites on election days," said Nancy Randa of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the government agency that assigns observers and examiners to jurisdictions.
Sections 6 and 8 of the Act authorize the Department of Justice to send federal employees to observe polling place and vote counting activities and document inappropriate conduct.
The federal examiner's primary role is to prepare and maintain lists of eligible voters in federal, state and local elections. Federal observers serve as witnesses for what occurs in the polling place and during the counting of the vote.
Examiners and observers can be appointed in two ways: By a court, if the court deems it necessary to enforce voting guarantees; or by the Attorney General, there is evidence of a serious risk of minority voters being denied their rights at the polls.
While the examiner/observer provisions are permanent, the primary way they are utilized is through the Section 5 preclearance coverage formula, which is set to expire in August of 2007.
Under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination must obtain approval--or preclearance--from the federal government before changing electoral procedures.
Since 1966, OPM has dispatched more than 26,000 observers to jurisdictions across the country, according to Randa.
Penny L. Pew, elections director of Apache County, Arizona, testified about the county's federal observer program, the Navajo Language Election Information Program, which was established by a 1989 consent decree to protect the rights of the county's limited English proficient indigenous population.
Pew emphasized how important the observer provisions remain in ensuring that the indigenous people of her county can freely and fairly participate in elections.
"As election director, I have spent untold hours developing a program that is indigenous to Apache County. I have spent time in the polls and in the communities listening to the voters, learning what we as election directors can do to ensure that the most fundamental right as citizens of this great nation enjoy...the right to an informed vote," Pew said.
Barry H. Weinberg, a former deputy chief in the Voting Section of the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, argued for the ability to deploy federal observers without first appointing a federal examiner. "[T]he federal examiner provisions are outdated," said Weinberg. "[E]specially the requirement that an examiner be appointed as a prerequisite for the assignment of federal observers to a county."
House Begins Hearings on Voting Discrimination and Reauthorization of the VRA
Witnesses Describe Effectiveness of Voting Rights Act
Focus of Voting Rights Act Hearings Switches to Threats Kept at Bay
Witnesses Say Redistricting Case Limits the Effectiveness of the VRA
Witnesses Say Language Assistance Provision of VRA Still Needed
