106 State and National Groups Urge Virginia Elections Head to Prevent Voting Discrimination and Disruption

WASHINGTON – Amid threats of Election Day intimidation, 19 Virginia organizations are joining 87 national civil rights and voting rights groups to urge Commissioner of Elections Edgardo Cortes to create plans to prevent voting discrimination in advance of the first presidential election in 50 years without a fully operable Voting Rights Act.

In a letter sent to Commissioner Cortes, the groups cite their concern with the loss of Section 5 of the VRA, writing “Since Congress has failed to pass a bill to restore the VRA, which has resulted in DOJ’s lacking authority over voting changes in places that Congress determined in 2006 should continue to have federal oversight, we are extremely concerned that there will be widespread voter discrimination in the upcoming presidential election.”

To blunt the impact of voting discrimination, these organizations are engaging in a massive litigation effort and an election protection campaign to protect voters at the polls but voters have very little protection from local election changes, the misapplication and misunderstanding of new voting restrictions by poll workers, or threats of intimidation from polling place vigilantes. 

“The loss of Section 5 and the most racially bigoted presidential campaign in generations has created a perfect storm for voter intimidation and voter discrimination,” said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “Commissioner Cortes must address these unprecedented threats head on by creating and publicizing a clear plan to prevent intimidation and discrimination, and to make it unequivocally clear that this election will be safe, fair, and free from intimidation, violence, and discrimination.”

The full letter is below.

October 24, 2016

Virginia Department of Elections

Edgardo Cortes, Commissioner

1100 Bank Street, Fl. 1
Richmond, VA 23219

Dear Commissioner Cortes: 

On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States, and the 106 undersigned organizations, we write to express our grave concern over the first presidential election in 50 years without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). We ask that you continue your efforts to be especially vigilant in identifying and guarding against any actions before or on election day that interfere with Virginians’ right to cast their ballots.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 protected the voting rights of racial and ethnic minorities in several states and local jurisdictions where they were historically discriminated against in voting. These jurisdictions were covered by Section 5 of the Act, which required the Department of Justice (DOJ) to approve any changes to voting in specific states and localities. However, in 2013 the U.S. Supreme Court’s devastating decision in Shelby County v. Holder negated the pre-clearance requirement and the DOJ’s authority to send observers to covered jurisdictions. Following Shelby, numerous states have passed voting laws, which several federal courts agree have a disparate impact on people of color and language minorities. In the case of North Carolina, for example, the courts found that the state’s massive bundle of voting restrictions, passed within weeks of the Shelby decision, targeted African Americans “with almost surgical precision.”[1] Evidence shows that restrictive voter laws also suppress turnout of the elderly, ^[2] people with disabilities, ^[3] and students.[4]

While some courts have taken action to block discriminatory laws in states like North Carolina and Texas, these decisions came only after years of costly litigation during which impacted citizens were blocked from voting in the 2014 elections and this year’s primaries. Meanwhile, there is no way of knowing how many potentially discriminatory voting changes are being made by cities, counties, school boards, water boards and other local jurisdictions that were previously required to be precleared. According to “Democracy Diminished,”[5] a report by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), “more than 85% of preclearance work previously done under Section 5 was at the local level.”

Prior to Shelby, because of its long history of making it difficult for individuals to vote through poll taxes, literacy tests, and other restrictions, the Commonwealth of Virginia was required to have all changes precleared under Section 5. Since 2013, the Virginia legislature has taken advantage of Shelby to engage in many of the most common practices used to disenfranchise people of color, including restrictive voter ID laws and voter purges based on flawed immigration data.[6] In 2013, the state legislature modified an existing ID law to reduce the number of forms of identification voters could present to cast their ballots, invalidating all non-photo identification. LDF found that, as of October 2014, about 197,000 registered voters in the state lacked an acceptable ID to vote.[7] Virginia also adopted new restrictions on community-based registration drives by adding additional burdensome requirements. According to a report by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, these restrictions will disproportionately affect Latinos, who often register through these community organizations.[8] The legislature also appears to be committed to continuing the permanent disenfranchisement of citizens returning from incarceration, contrary to efforts by Governor McAuliffe and his predecessor. These new restrictions are particularly worrisome since the 2014 Senate election was decided by just over 17,000 votes and the 2013 governor’s race by a two-percent margin.[9]

We appreciate the work the Governor of Virginia and the Department of Elections are doing to overcome these restrictions and expand access to the ballot. We applaud the Department for its aggressive program to train organizations and individuals on the legal requirements governing group registration initiatives,[10] and we are encouraged by the Department’s initiatives to educate people about voter ID requirements and to facilitate acquisition of free IDs from registrars.[11] Nonetheless, it is clear that we need more action to protect the right to vote in Virginia and other states previously covered by the Voting Rights Act.

Despite bipartisan support, Congress has failed to pass a bill to restore the VRA, and DOJ therefore has reduced authority over voting changes in places that Congress determined in 2006 should continue to have federal oversight. We are extremely concerned that widespread voter discrimination in the upcoming presidential election will go unchecked, especially because there will be no DOJ observers holding jurisdictions accountable. In the 2012 general election, DOJ sent 780 federal observers to 51 jurisdictions in 23 states.[12] Following Shelby, DOJ has said it will not deploy election observers in 2016. The potentially detrimental effect of the loss of this critical voter protection tool cannot be overstated.[13]

Given the many recent examples of post-Shelby voting discrimination, we urge you to remain vigilant regarding potential voter disenfranchisement in Virginia this November.

Sincerely,

State Signatories

AAUW of Virginia

AJC Washington DC Region (VA, MD, DC)

American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia

Central Virginia Chapter A. Philip Randolph Institute

Hampton Roads Virginia Asa Philip Randolph Institute chapter

International longshoremen association local 1624

League of Women Voters of Virginia

NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia

National Council of Jewish Women Virginia

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia

Roanoke Branch NAACP

SEIU Virginia 512

Southern Coalition for Social Justice

Virginia AFL-CIO

Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations (VACOLAO)

Virginia Education Association

Virginia Latino Leaders Council

Virginia Organizing

Virginia State Conference NAACP

 

National Signatories

9to5, National Association of Working Women

A. PHILIP RANDOLPH INSTITUTE

AFL-CIO

African American Ministers In Action (AAMIA)

American Association of People with Disabilities

American Association of University Women (AAUW)

American Constitution Society for Law and Policy

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees

American Federation of Teachers

American Jewish Committee (AJC)

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

Americans for Democratic Action (ADA)

Anti-Defamation League

Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF)

Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC

Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote)

Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law

Bend the Arc Jewish Action

Black Women’s Roundtable

Black Youth Vote!

Brennan Center for Justice

Campaign Legal Center

Center for Women Policy Studies

Common Cause

Democracy Initiative

Demos

Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund

Fair Elections Legal Network

Feminist Majority

Franciscan Action Network

Friends of the Earth – United States

Human Rights Campaign

Human Rights First

IAWRTUSA

Institute for Science and Human Values

Jewish Council for Public Affairs

Jobs With Justice

LatinoJustice PRLDEF

Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

League of Women Voters of the United States

MALDEF

MoveOn.org

NAACP

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.

NAACP-National Voter Fund

NALEO Educational Fund

National Action Network’s Washington Bureau

National Asian Pacific American Bar Association

National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum

National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO)

National Association of Social Workers

National Center for Transgender Equality

National Coalition on Black Civic Participation

National Congress of American Indians

National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA)

National Council of Churches

National Council of Jewish Women

National Education Association

National Federation of Filipino American Associations

National LGBTQ Task Force

National Urban League

NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice

OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates

OWL-The Voice of Women 40+

People For the American Way Foundation

People’s Action

Project Vote

Public Citizen

Rock the Vote

Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

Sikh American Legal Defense & Education Fund (SALDEF)

Southern Poverty Law Center

The Center for Popular Democracy

The Voter Participation Center

The Voting Rights Institute

U.S. Women and Cuba Collaboration

Union for Reform Judaism

United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries

United Food and Commercial Workers International Union

US Human Rights Network

Vote.org

VoteRiders

Voting Rights Forward

Voto Latino

Women’s Research & Education Institute

World Without Genocide at Mitchell Hamline School of Law

Young People For, a program of the People For the American Way Foundation