Resolution: 73A-11-3
Adopted: July 12, 2011
A new attack on the right to vote is spreading across the country. Anti-democratic forces are working in many state legislatures to pass laws designed to make it more difficult for many Americans to exercise the most basic right in a democracy – the right to cast a ballot. These are the same extremist elected officials and their supporters – emboldened by gains in the 2010 elections – who are passing legislation to eliminate collective bargaining, rescind or dramatically reduce healthcare and pension benefits, and gut public services.
To consolidate their power in the 2012 elections, these forces are proposing and enacting state legislation to make it more difficult for certain segments of the population to vote. They are pushing laws that would require stringent voter identification, limit early voting, end same-day registration, and make it difficult for groups to register new voters.
In twenty states that do not currently require voter ID at the polls, legislation has been introduced to institute such a requirement, making it more difficult for many voters to cast their ballots on Election Day.
Texas, Kansas, Wisconsin, South Carolina and Tennessee enacted voter ID laws this year. Indiana and Georgia already had such requirements. The Maine legislature ended same-day voter registration. Florida shortened the early voting period and imposed onerous restrictions on voter registration drives.
Wisconsin requires a government-issued ID in order to vote. In Texas, the law allows handgun licenses but not student IDs for voter identification. Minnesota passed a new voter ID requirement this year but it was vetoed by the governor; supporters have vowed to pass a new bill next year.
There are two types of Photo Voter ID requirements. Some legislation mandates every voter to show a photo ID in order to vote, requiring voters who do not have a photo ID to cast a provisional ballot which is counted only if the voter returns to election officials within several days after the election to show a photo ID. Other legislation requires voters to show a photo ID in order to vote, or, if they do not have a photo ID, they must meet other criteria in order to cast a ballot.
Voter ID requirements disproportionately affect students, minorities, senior citizens, and those in the lower-income brackets. These criteria are reminiscent of darker times in our nation’s history when voters had to pay poll taxes, pass literacy tests, or demonstrate ownership of property in order to vote. Such practices were used to intimidate and deny the right to vote to minority citizens and women.
The new voter ID requirements are a poll tax by a different name. In Wisconsin, where the legislature passed one of the strictest Photo Voter ID laws in the nation, a 2005 study by the University of Wisconsin found that 55 percent of African-American men, 49 percent of African- American women, 46 percent of Latino men, and 59 percent of Latino women do not have a driver’s license. A 2006 nationwide study by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University found that one in four African-Americans lacks a government-issued photo ID. In Missouri, the Secretary of State identified nearly 240,000 registered voters -- mostly elderly, disabled, poor, and minority citizens -- who lack a government-issued photo ID.
In 2008, African-Americans, Latinos, and youth voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. It is no coincidence that the Photo Voter ID requirements and other recently enacted challenges to the right to vote will suppress the vote in these populations.
This is the civil rights issue of our time and it must be stopped.
Resolved: CWA will educate members about the nationwide attempt to adopt new voter ID laws and the threat that these laws pose to our democracy by suppressing some citizens’ right to vote.
Resolved: CWA will join with allied groups to expose the true intent of voter ID laws and work with allies to eliminate them.
Resolved: CWA will inform members about what they must bring to polling places in each state in order to vote so that our members, their families, and people they know will be able to cast their ballots and not be denied the fundamental right to vote.
Resolved: CWA will participate with the AFL-CIO and other allied groups in the 2012 election protection program and will document abuses and the consequences of these laws on voters.