thenewjournalandguide.com

By Julianne Malveaux
NNPA Columnist

    In late September, the “nonpartisan” Web site Real Clear Politics reported that President Obama leads Republican nominee Mitt Romney is several battleground states.  According to the polls, President Obama leads by 5.2 percent in Ohio, 4.5 percent in Virginia, 4.2 percent in Nevada, 4 percent in Iowa, and 3 percent in Florida.  Do we believe the polls?  I’m not so sure.  But I surely don’t believe these polls should alter an aggressive effort to re-elect this Democratic president.
    There are lots of ways to do voter suppression.  One is to deny people ballots, or to change the rules on voting. Mandatory state-issued ID, new and more distant polling places, and all of the shenanigans documented by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law are methods of voter suppression. In some cities and states, police cars have been parked outside polling places, intimidating those who may have minor infractions of law, including unpaid parking tickets.

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

    Voters in high-minority voting areas may encounter bullying on their way to the voting booth from right-wing activists.
    According to a new report, “Bullies at the Ballot Box”, volunteers affiliated with the Tea Party and True Vote may send as many as 1 million people to area polls to intimidate minority voters. The report was prepared by Demos and Common Cause. It analyzes voter protection laws in 10 key states.
    “This fall, there is a great danger that eligible Americans will find themselves facing bullies at the ballot box – overzealous volunteers who take the law into their own hands to target particular voters,” said Liz Kennedy, counsel for Demos, in a Sept. 11 Huffington Post opinion-editorial piece.     
    “Past examples of abusive practices have been directed towards targeted populations, such as communities of color, students, and those who’ve faced foreclosure,” Kennedy said. “This attempt to manipulate the voter pool should concern anyone who wants a fair election with a legitimate result that reflects the choices of all eligible Americans.”

WASHINGTON
    Election turnout among young people of color, including African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans, may drop by nearly 700,000 voters in states with new photo ID laws, a decline potentially impacting presidential contests in the battleground states of Florida and Pennsylvania, according to a report released recently by the Black Youth Project.
    Completed by Cathy Cohen, a University of Chicago political science professor, and Jon C. Rogowski, an assistant political science professor at Washington University, the report found that turnout among young minority voters in states with new restrictive ID laws  could fall below 2004 and 2008 levels. The projections include Blacks, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders.

By Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter
New Journal and Guide

    The U.S. Justice Department has approved Virginia’s revision of its voter identification law, and state and local election officials are busily working to put  them in place before the November 6 General Election.
    To make sure that the new law is applied effectively during the General Election, the Governor has  ordered state officials to  mail new voter cards to  4.7 million plus voters. State and local election officials have also launched a campaign  to educate people about the new requirements.
    The new cards will arrive in the mail at voters’ homes between  September 19 and October 2, and can be used as identification at the polls, according to a spokesperson for the Norfolk Voter Registrar’s Office, a rule which existed before the I.D. laws were changed earlier this year.
    During the 2012 session of the General Assembly, lawmakers passed a law requiring voters to present some form of document identifying them. The list was extended to include college-issued I.D. and concealed weapons permits.  Also voters can use their state driver’s license and I.D cards, military cards, any state or federal employee I.D. card, a utility bill, bank statements, pay checks indicating name and address, and  social security cards.
    Legislators who pushed for the changes say the new law provides voters greater access to the polls and blocks voter fraud.

By Marian Wright Edelman

NNPA Columnist

         At the Children’s Defense Fund’s recent national conference Barbara Arnwine, the executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and a leader of Election Protection, the nation’s largest nonpartisan voter protection coalition, issued an urgent call to action. Right now assaults on voting rights across the country in advance of the 2012 elections are keeping her very busy.

Arwine said 25 million Americans who had voted in 2008 did not vote in the 2010 midterm elections, and when new state legislators came into power after those elections, their first priority was figuring out how to keep those 25 million people from returning to the polls.

         Legislators in 35 states quickly drafted bills making it harder for people to vote: “everything from photo ID laws, to laws restricting early voting, to laws making it harder for third party registration groups to register people to vote, to laws making it harder for people to vote on Sundays because in many states that’s when Latinos and African Americans voted the heaviest, to laws restricting student voting.” Arnwine said the lawmakers behind these bills were counting on the targeted voters not noticing what was happening until it was too late.

WASHINGTON, DC

   With so much at stake in the upcoming election, the NAACP and the National Education Association (NEA) are teaming up to register, educate and activate hundreds of thousands of voters ahead of the 2012 elections. 

  “This partnership between NEA and NAACP on voter rights is part of a shared social agenda that will reach beyond the ballot box in November,” said Becky Pringle, NEA secretary-treasurer. “We’ll continue to work as partners, combining our influence and power to fight for jobs programs, economic justice and fair housing, and adequate and equitable funding of public education. We are proud to be part of this tremendous movement, just as we were proud to fight for voting rights in the 1960s.”

  Seasoned NAACP field organizers recently engaged local NEA activists in a two-day training with workshops focused on voter registration/activation tools.  Participants also attended a session on the new voter suppression laws like cuts to early voting and strict government-issued voter photo ID requirements that are emerging across the country and could prevents millions of eligible voters from casting a ballot. The people most affected by these laws are disproportionately people of color, women, seniors, blue-collar workers and students.

According to BET.com, a new technology is offering voters everything they need to know to make sure their vote counts in the upcoming presidential election.

Civil Rights groups have launched, The Election Protection Smartphone App. The app enables voters to verify their registration; register to vote; find their polling place; and learn about any new voting rules and regulations in their state.

To download the app, text OURVOTE to 90975. The hotline number is 866-OUR-VOTE.

Or click here to download

Click here to read more about it on BET.com.

Need to know about voter ID requirements in VA? Click here.

By Randy Singleton

Community Affairs Correspondent

New Journal and Guide

PORTSMOUTH

     Rev. Al Sharpton was the keynote speaker at the Urban League’s Act Now Empowerment Rally at Grove Church in Portsmouth on Wednesday (July 18).  The purpose of the rally was to encourage civic engagement, develop community leadership, and to educate residents about Virginia’s new voter identification law.  

     The church was packed to capacity and some of the Hampton Roads most prominent political figures and civic leaders were in attendance, including Portsmouth Mayor Kenneth Wright, State Senators Maime Locke and Louise Lucas, and Delegate Kenneth Alexander.  The event was hosted by WAVY-TV news anchor woman Alveta Ewell.  

RICHMOND
    The State Board of Elections (SBE) is aware of incorrect information circulating via mass emails stating that voters who have not voted since the 2008 General Election must re-register to vote 25 days prior to Election Day November 6, 2012 in order to be eligible to vote. This information is false.
    There is absolutely no requirement to re-register in Virginia.  Voters are not removed from the rolls solely for the reason of not voting; however, it is recommended that voters check their registration status to ensure it is current.  If a voter has not voted since 2008, and also moved since that time, it is possible that a voter’s record may have been moved to inactive status.  This shift would occur if mail delivered to the voter was returned undeliverable, and the voter also failed to respond to a later address confirmation mailing.  Voters identified as inactive will be permitted to vote after signing a statement at the polling place.

By Randy Singleton

Community Affairs Correspondent

New Journal and Guide

NORFOLK

     Norfolk State University hosted a town hall meeting on Virginia’s New Voter ID Law on Thursday, (June 28) at the Lyman B. Brooks Library.  The town hall was sponsored by the Martin Luther King Living History and Public Policy Center in Richmond.  The town hall featured an information session on voter rights, registration, and rights restoration.