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Governor Dean on Voting Rights

Posted by on May 17, 2006 at 05:43 PM

Governor Dean spoke to the NY Chapter of the National Democratic Lawyers Council last evening about the DNC's efforts to fight to protect the voting rights of all Americans:

Voting ensures every American an opportunity to participate in our democracy. We should never impose obstacles to voting without a fair and compelling reason for doing so that actually enhances our democracy.

Yet, across the nation, Republicans have launched a campaign to impose extremely restrictive voter identification requirements. While they say they are seeking to prevent voter fraud, nothing could be further from the truth.

In Indiana, they passed a law that is virtually identical to one struck down by a federal district court in Georgia. In fact, Democratic governors in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania vetoed similar legislation.

We are committed to fighting these and other Republican efforts to suppress voter turnout anywhere and everywhere Republicans propose them.

Republicans believe that it is better for them if fewer people vote. Democrats understand that America is better when as many people as possible can vote.

So the DNC is stepping up to help fight GOP efforts across the country.

We are expanding the work of the Voting Rights Institute to promote efforts aimed at protecting the right of every American to cast their ballot and have their ballot counted.

We formed the National Lawyers Council to fight systematic barriers to registration and voting across the country, and through the NLC we are providing legal assistance to the Indiana Democratic Party's appeal of a federal court ruling upholding that state's radical voter ID law.

The Voting Rights Institute established a toll free number to help displaced New Orleans residents vote in the April 22 primaries and to collect information about Indiana voters who were disenfranchised by the voter ID law.

I know you have done important work here in New York through the NY Democratic Lawyers Council.

You did important work in monitoring the 2005 mayoral race in New York City and local races in Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland and Ulster Counties.

You dispatched a team of lawyers to conduct election monitoring for New Orleans mayoral primary and other local races.

You worked on the Board of Elections regulations for voting machines, and you have been working with the New York State Democratic Senate Campaign Committee and the DCCC to work on election monitoring in key races 2006 so we can take back Congress and take back the NY Senate

I applaud you and thank you for those efforts.

The work you do matters, we know, for example, that voters in Ohio in 2004 were disenfranchised by a faulty election system. If you were an African American you waited an average of 52 minutes to vote. If you were white, you waited an average of 18 minutes. If you were young and African American you were more likely to be asked to provide photo ID, in violation of Ohio law.

We know that there are real people, real legitimately registered voters in Indiana who were disenfranchised by the Indiana Voter ID law during the primaries there earlier this month. For example:

  • The newlywed couple from Marion County who were both registered voters had gotten married since they last voted in 2004. The husband was allowed to vote but the wife was not because her name changed and it did not match her photo ID.

  • Or the married woman from Vanderburgh County who was driven by her husband (she does not drive) to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get an ID presented her social security card, her medical card, even her voting card, but she was denied a photo ID because she did not have a birth certificate.

  • Or the Postal employee wearing her full uniform who could not vote because election workers deemed her U.S.-government-issued employment identification to be an unacceptable form of identification because it did not have an expiration date.

These are real people who were denied their right to vote. If even one legitimate voter is denied their right to vote, than these laws need to be overturned or blocked.

That is why Democrats will continue to fight unfair Voter ID laws and other efforts to prevent lawfully registered voters, in particular, seniors, young people, minorities and low-income citizens from casting their ballots.

The amazing thing about this organization is that it brings together lawyers from a variety of fields of practice. They are united by their committment to the Democratic Party and their passion for upholding the law. More than anything I was surprised by the variety of people in attendance - some were seasoned professionals and some were young associates. They were all passionate.

A mother who wore a button that read "John McCain Doesn't Speak For Me," expressed her outrage over having to sit through graduation exercises and listen to John McCain last weekend as her daughter graduated, and this weekend, John Roberts, at her son's law school commencement. "It's a knife through the heart of a progressive mother," she told me.

A recent law school graduate dished on what it was really like to be a 1st year associate, but went on to say she was glad she could be a part of the NYDLC and work to make sure voting rights are protected.

A seasoned lawyer told me about his experience as part of the election protection team in Florida during the 2004 election and how he had to be part of the effort after watching what happened in 2000.

The bottom line is that groups like these demonstrate the power each person has to make a difference by bringing their particular skills and talents to the table for Democracy.

The New York Democratic Lawyers Concil, a chapter of the National Democratic Lawyers Council, is a statewide coalition of volunteer lawyers and law students committed to a simple yet fundamental proposition: that among the best ways to protect and promote a strong democracy is to protect and promote an accessible, open and fair election process.

Building on the tremendous election protection effort of 2004, the NYDLC/NLC will work closely with the Party at the national, state and local levels to promote voting rights and to identify and combat problems that undermine, either directly or indirectly, those rights. While the Council will work with the Party on other issues, its foremost objective is to organize early in every state and territory to carry out the Democratic Party’s commitment to this goal.

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