Fearful voters?
By Jennifer C. Braceras Washington Times 17 October 2004
Recently, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held its fourth hearing this year into voting in the 2004 presidential election. To date, much of the testimony has focused on claims — by liberal activists — that Republicans plan to "steal" the November presidential election by stripping African-Americans of their constitutional right to vote.
Such claims were previously regarded as the stuff of urban legend. But they have been given new life by Democratic politicians, including Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois, who has brazenly referred to Republicans as "voter terrorists," and former President Jimmy Carter, who has claimed Florida election officials are setting up a "suspicious" process that will inevitably disenfranchise minority voters. Even presidential candidate John F. Kerry has dignified such assertions by claiming more than 1 million black votes were "stolen" in 2000 and that Republican operatives plan a repeat this year.
What are the merits of these claims? A close reading of testimony before the commission, as well as an analysis of press coverage, reveals allegations of minority disenfranchisement boil down to two distinct claims:
(1) Republicans seek to prevent blacks from casting ballots.
(2) Republicans intend to disqualify ballots cast.
Though the commission to date has reached no conclusions, it is my personal view, after hearing the witnesses and doing substantial research, both charges are utterly without merit.
Evidence of a systemic plan to prevent blacks from voting is virtually nonexistent. Most allegations concern so-called efforts to "intimidate" minorities with a visible police presence at polling places. At the commission's September hearing, a representative of the American Civil Liberties Union testified she recently witnessed three black men abruptly exit a Florida polling place after they saw a uniformed officer stationed there.
She assumes minorities are rightfully frightened by the mere sight of a police officer. Really? To me, this sounds more like a case of clinical paranoia than of voter disfranchisement.
Witnesses have also testified policies aimed at preventing voter fraud are actually cleverly disguised attempts to prevent blacks from casting ballots. Requiring identification or proof of residency is said to discriminate against minorities who are somehow traumatized by such requests or cannot manage to bring to the polls a driver's license, passport, Social Security card or even a utility bill.
These objections are an insult to minorities and ignore the very real threat of election fraud that the identification requirements are designed to prevent. Unlike the vague and nebulous charges that the GOP seeks to keep blacks from voting, concerns about potential voter fraud are supported by hard data. According to the Miami Herald, thousands of illegal ballots (from dead people, nonresidents, ineligible voters, and those who had already voted) were cast in Florida in 2000. Most of these errors occurred because poll workers failed to check identification. The New York Daily News reported recently almost 46,000 people are registered in both New York and Florida, and that as many as 1,000 of these have voted twice in at least one election. Indeed, John Fund writes in his new book "Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy" that voter rolls in many cities contain names of more registered voters than there are residents.
Some of my colleagues on the Civil Rights Commission are fond of arguing anti-fraud measures are enforced only ively — that white voters are rarely forced to show identification or proof of residency. If this is true (and the jury is still out), the obvious solution would be more antifraud efforts in white communities, not fewer enforcement efforts in communities of color. Yet opponents of antifraud initiatives fail to understand voter fraud — and the vote dilution it can cause — poses just as significant a threat to civil rights as vote suppression.
The second contention — that Republicans seek to disqualify votes actually cast — is even more preposterous. Mr. Kerry's claim of 1 million disqualified black votes is itself very suspect. But the number of disqualified ballots is meaningless unless we know why they were not counted. The most obvious reasons are technological and human error. But even conspiracy theorists must understand inanimate objects such as voting machines cannot harbor discriminatory animus.
To be sure, in some states, precincts that are poor (and "majority-minority" precincts are often poor) may have a greater risk of using antiquated voting machines. In a majority of these precincts, election officials in charge of the voting system are Democrats, who hardly have an interest in diluting the votes of these largely Democratic constituencies. It takes a delusional person indeed to see a Republican plot in this.
This brings us to plain ol' human error. If a voter incorrectly fills out his ballot or misuses the voting apparatus so his choice is unclear, the vote is properly discarded. Voters have a duty to educate themselves on how properly to mark their ballots, and to ask for assistance if it is needed. Those who fail to do so cannot then reasonably blame the "vast right-wing conspiracy" for their own mistake or ineptitude.
Claims that Republicans seek to disenfranchise blacks have no basis in reality. Unfortunately, use of rumor and innuendo to scare minority voters and try to create a basis for future litigation threatens to divide this nation further along racial lines, to allow rampant real election fraud and to undermine confidence in our system of government. As such, it threatens lasting damage to the American polity.
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights should not dignify such charges and should expose them for what they are: shameless and cynical political tactics.
Jennifer C. Braceras is a member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.
