plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose

[Evan Daniel Ravitz <evan@xxxxxxxx>]

(French for "The more it changes, the more it's the same." Bad 
programming AND bad public policy. -Evan)

For Immediate Release    Contact: Timothy Rusch, Demos (212) 389-1407

September 19, 2005     Natalia Kennedy, Brennan Center, (212) 998-6736

VOTING RIGHTS GROUPS RESPOND TO CARTER-BAKER COMMISSION REPORT ON 
ELECTION REFORM:

FLAWED COMMISSION PROCEDURES YIELD FLAWED RECOMMENDATIONS;
SOME WOULD DISFRANCHISE VAST NUMBERS OF ELIGIBLE VOTERS

WASHINGTON, DC -A growing coalition of voting rights organizations 
issued the following statement today criticizing the deeply flawed 
deliberative process of the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal 
Election Reforma process culminating in a new report with some deeply 
flawed recommendations. The Commission was established in March of 
2005 with the goal of increasing voter access and restoring Americas 
confidence in the electoral process, and was co-chaired by former 
President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker III.

After just two limited hearings and no call for public comment, the 
Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform has issued a new 
report containing many deeply flawed recommendations. The substantive 
shortcomings of these recommendations are examined at length in a 
rebuttal available shortly at www.carterbaker.com and 
www.carterbakerdissent.com. In general, we are disappointed by the 
path that the Commission has chosenone characterized by a lack of 
transparency and a reluctance to conduct thorough research or consult 
with a full range of recognized experts. Unfortunately, this 
Commission failed to live up to the transparent and effective process 
of its predecessor, the 2001 Carter-Ford Commission on Federal 
Election Reform. Owing to its vast flaws, this Commissions 
recommendations suffer by comparison.

Unlike its predecessor, this Commission gave little attention to 
detail. There were no separate task forces devoted to any particular 
aspects of our election system. There was little attempt to gather 
rigorous empirical data to support any conclusions. The result is a 
report based on anecdote and supposition, rather than rigorous 
analysis of real-world facts.

Unfortunately, this process yielded an incomplete report of poor 
quality. Some of the Commissions recommendationsnotably, the call for 
non-partisan election administration, improved poll-worker training 
and more effective enforcement of the American's with Disabilities 
Actare constructive and will limit disfranchisement. Several of its 
recommendations, however, will have a chilling effect on voter 
participation and access. These should not be implemented under any 
circumstance.

For example, the Commissions Report recommends a draconian 
government-issued photo identification requirement as a prerequisite 
to voting, without any credible assessment of the need for such a 
measure and without adequate acknowledgment of the burden it will 
impose. We discuss in detail the shortcomings of this proposal at 
www.carterbakerdissent.com. The Commission recommends that beginning 
in 2010, all voters be required to present poll workers with a REAL ID 
card or its equivalent in order to vote.  REAL ID is a controversial 
new, Congressionally-mandated drivers license that was passed into law 
without debate and deliberation as an attachment to an omnibus 
military spending bill in May 2005. REAL ID puts unprecedented burdens 
on states in issuing drivers licenses to verify multiple documents 
with their issuing agency. Because of the laws requirements many 
citizens will not be able to obtain this identification.

The exclusionary effects of the REAL ID proposal are most vividly 
illustrated by those affected by Hurricane Katrina. More than 
one-fifth of New Orleans residents had no access to an automobile, and 
thus are among those least likely to have a drivers license. The 
hundreds of thousands of displaced citizens will find it difficult, if 
not impossible, to secure the identity papers they left behind or to 
obtain new records from government offices and hospitals that have 
been destroyed. These Americans, and many like them across our 
nationlike those with disabilities, the elderly, people of color, 
students and the poorwould be effectively barred from voting under the 
Commissions proposal.

The impact of REAL ID voting cards on Louisianans would be mirrored 
around the country. For instance, nearly four million Americans living 
with disabilities currently do not have a driver's license or other 
form of state-issued photo ID. In Georgia it is estimated that 36 
percent of residents 75 or older do not possess a driver's license. 
And a June 2005 study by the University of Wisconsin found that less 
than half of Milwaukee Countys African American and Latino adults had 
a valid drivers license. Yet nowhere in the Commissions Report are 
these enormous costs carefully balanced against the minimal benefits 
such a REAL ID voting card would provide.

The empirical and analytical backup for several other recommendations 
is similarly shoddy. For example, the Report's recommendations on 
felony re-enfranchisement are not only out of step with public 
opinion, but also fundamentally unworkable. The Commissions 
recommendationto permanently disfranchise some persons convicted of a 
felony, and to allow restoration of the franchise to others only once 
they have fully served a complete sentenceis a step backward from the 
policy of 37 states. It also fails to acknowledge that a clear 
majority of Americans favor restoration of voting rights once a person 
with a criminal conviction reenters society as a taxpaying citizen. 
The Commissions recommendation also leaves in place the patchwork 
system of restoration that creates potential for confusion, as in 
Washington State, and manipulation, as in Florida.

America deserved a blue-ribbon Election Commission with a sound 
methodology that relied on research and expert analysis rather than 
allegation and hyperbole. Reversing voting rights and a national trend 
toward fairness and full participation in democracy is not a 
bellwether of progress.  We urge Congress to consider the real 
problems that plague elections rather than the phantoms highlighted by 
the Commission.

.

For more information about the Carter-Baker Commission report, visit 
www.carterbaker.com, or visit www.carterbakerdissent.com to read 
dissenting commentary by Commissioner Spencer Overton.

###

Members of the press, for more information, or to schedule an 
interview with an expert from a Network member organization, please 
contact: Timothy Rusch, (212) 389-1407

Spokespeople include:

Jonah Goldman, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, (202) 
662-8321

Wendy Weiser, Justin Levitt; Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School 
of Law, (212) 998-6130

Miles Rapoport, Steven Carb; De-mos: A Network for Ideas & Action, 
(212) 389-1400

Endorsing Organizations (List in Formation)

Advancement Project

Appleseed Foundation

Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund

Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law

Citizen Action of NY

De-mos: A Network for Ideas & Action

Institute for Puerto Rican Policy

Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium

National Disability Rights Network

National Voting Rights Institute

People for the American Way Foundation

Project Vote

Service Employees International Union