On July 4, 1776, The United States of America declared their Independence from Great Britain, and the long road to Democracy was begun, a road we are still on. Back then, Royalists opposed democracy. Today those Royalists operate under a different banner.
Those opposed to democracy today pretend that they are fighting Voter Fraud when actually they are fighting Voters. As Rep Joseph Trillo says, “I don’t want everybody to vote unless they are informed on the issues.”
Tom Door is spinning in his grave…
Featuring Joseph Trillo, Cale Keable, Arthur Corvese, Antonio Giarusso, Michael Marcello, Arthur Handy, Brian Newberry, Teresa Tanzi, Michael Chippendale and Nicholas Mattiello.
Susan Herman, president of the American Civil Liberties Union who is in Rhode Island today to speak at a panel discussion on policing, said she is not surprised to learn that a white police officer shot a Black man in South Carolina.
“I wish I could say I was surprised,” she told me. “Unfortunately it’s not news that a Black man was shot by a white police officer. That’s happened 100 times since March. What is news is that the system actually responded and the officer will be charged.”
A constitutional law professor who has headed the ACLU since 2008, Herman said the response in South Carolina compared to the response in Ferguson is encouraging.
“It’s a sign that an awareness has been sparked by the troubling events in Ferguson, and that awareness is starting to bear fruit,” she said. “It’s possible that South Carolina is being so responsive because the American people have woken up to the fact that Black lives do matter.”
Herman said more and more of the ACLU’s work is being focused on racial issues, such as those related to the Black Lives Matter movement, because people of color much more frequently have their civil liberties curtailed. “Ever since Ferguson there has been tremendous interest in stories like this,” she said. “I think prior to Ferguson, a lot of people thought there wasn’t a problem.”
Nationally, she said, the ACLU is focusing attention on mass incarceration and voter suppression laws, both of which disproportionately adversely affect people of color. “What’s special about the ACLU is we connect the dots,” she said, invoking the famous ACLU catch phrase – ‘defend everybody.'”
She termed the amount of money the United States invests incarcerating its citizens as “staggering,” adding, “We’re stripping money from schools so that we can lock people up. It’s a great big societal mistake.”
And Herman referred to voter ID laws as “voter suppression laws,” saying, “if our public servants are not accountable to the people, there’s no limit on what they can do.” I asked her if she was surprised that a nominally liberal state like Rhode Island has such a law and she said, “It’s really just a political tool and there’s not just one party that tries to give itself an advantage.”
I asked her to give the Ocean State a grade on defending Rhode Islanders civil liberties, and she declined saying instead, “If even one person in Rhode Island is searched because of their race, that’s bad.”
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It took me two separate bus trips to-and-from the Pastore Center in Cranston from where I live in Providence. This was after a year of wrangling to get other pieces of paperwork like an original of my birth certificate – I only had copies – which are difficult to obtain without a valid ID.
https://twitter.com/TransportPVD/status/567734538894589952
A couple things I’ve learned:
1. You cannot get a non-drivers’ state ID from any of the in-city locations. You have to go to the John Pastore Center on the Cranston/Warwick line, which for non-drivers is quite a hike on an infrequent bus. The clerk at the DMV made it clear to me that if I had been a driver and had a drivers license that was expired, it would have been no problem for me to use it as a supporting document, but that because I only had a non-drivers’ ID, I couldn’t. Location and process are really tilted against non-drivers.
https://twitter.com/TransportPVD/status/567736001498726401
2. The cost of the ID itself is pretty significant: $26.50, with a $1.50 charge if you use a debit card. The cost of a drivers’ license is somewhat higher, but the gap is pretty small. There was a great analysis of how many states have an apparent gas tax, which is then exempt from sales tax, and how this exemption inflates the value of the gas tax. The cost to get a drivers license should be looked at in the same way, since the base cost for an ID is so high. An ID fee is like a sales tax–maybe worse, really–because it charges people for the basic cost of being part of the workforce or voting, whereas a license fee presumably covers the cost of testing and administering road safety.
https://twitter.com/TransportPVD/status/567747700742172672
3. You must have originals! Don’t even bother trying to talk your way into a voter ID with photocopies, even if they’re accompanied by other documents, like college IDs, FBI background checks, BCIs, Medicaid cards, library cards, etc.
4. As a Warden of Elections, I’ve been instructed many times at trainings to turn away people with IDs that are unexpired and valid but not from Rhode Island, even if those people have corresponding documents to prove their Rhode Island addresses.
https://twitter.com/TransportPVD/status/567735350651781120
5. Unless you have everything together perfectly, this whole process is going to cost you a lot of time. I’ve had copies of things like my birth certificate lying around the house for years for whenever I’ve had to start a job, but since I had to get an original, and didn’t have a non-expired ID, it took me about a year and a lot of interventions from family to get the new stuff in order. And because of the remote location of the Pastore Center, getting an ID as a non-driver means essentially taking a day off. The Center also closes at 3:15 PM, which is kind of ridiculous too. I brought the wrong paperwork the first time, so I actually made two trips back-and-forth by bus, racing against time with the ridiculous closing time and infrequent bus schedule.
https://twitter.com/TransportPVD/status/567746753483776002
How can we reform this? My thoughts:
1. A state ID should be available in urban locations. There are centers where one can go to renew existing IDs, but not to get new ones.
2. A state ID from someplace else should be as useful to getting a new ID as a drivers’ license from somewhere else is. This distinction is inequitable, and silly.
3. State IDs should be free.
4. Duplicates should be allowed, or at least a broader array of paperwork types.
5. One should be able to get an ID at night or on weekends. The Pastore Center closes at 3:15 PM! Possibly changing the ID process so that it isn’t taken on by the DMV would make sense, since identification for voting and working purposes is an entirely separate thing than driving.
The voter ID process and documentation needed for working has been something I’ve been aware of intellectually for some time, but going through the process really changed my perspective on it in ways that I didn’t expect. We have to change this if we’re going to stop disenfranchising people year after year.
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A Providence woman was denied the right to vote, according to an ACLU press release which details four incidents in which Rhode Island’s controversial voter ID law caused problems at the polls on primary day.
“An elderly Hispanic woman who did not have identification was turned away from voting in Providence,” says the press release. “According to a poll watcher, the warden wrongly told her ‘even for a provisional ballot, you need an ID.’ The woman left without casting a ballot. The warden confirmed to the poll watcher that this was her understanding of the rules.”
The woman did not give her name, and did not speak with the poll watcher, said Johanna Kaiser, an ACLU spokeswoman. “Under the law, any person without proper ID is supposed to be given a provisional ballot, and if the signature they provide matches the one on their voter registration, the ballot ends up getting counted.” said the ACLU press release.
The ACLU had approximately 12 poll watchers at voting locations in Rhode Island and identified four “problems” – three on election day and one with an early voter.
According to the press release, a man casting an emergency ballot the day before the primary “was initially not given a provisional ballot, but instead was told he was unable to vote because he did not have proper identification. He got to vote only because another person waiting in line, who was familiar with the law’s requirement, forcefully advocated on the voter’s behalf.”
Here’s how the ACLU described the other two incidents:
- “A Providence man with an expired license was initially told he could not vote. He told the ACLU that poll workers did not give him a provisional ballot until he showed them in writing that provisional ballots are available to voters without proper identification.”
- “Poll workers in Pawtucket denied a voter a provisional ballot when he did not show photo ID. The voter, who was aware of his right to such a ballot, explained the law to the workers, who then had to call a supervisor. It then took poll workers 45 minutes to determine how to administer a provisional ballot, according to the voter.”
Said Steve Brown, executive director of the RI ACLU: “The voter ID law was promoted by the Secretary of State as necessary to address an alleged perception of voter fraud. Yet the implementation of this law is in fact, not in perception, denying qualified voters the right to vote. That is where the real concern should be, and why the law should be repealed.”
Kaiser added, “We will again be sending letters to the the Board of Elections raising concerns about poll workers not being given clear enough instructions about their obligations under the law, and urging the Board to address this before the November election. The ACLU and other organizations sent letters to the Board ahead the primary, but to our knowledge the Board took no further action.”
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All across America, Democrats – and quite frankly courts, too – are waking up to the oppressive reality voter ID laws represent for too many minorities, the poor and the elderly. Judges in Arkansas, Wisconsin and other states have almost systematically ruled against voter ID provisions and well-respected Washington Post political scribe Chris Cilliza recently blessed the issue with this post.
The president of the United States even weighed in last month. “I am against requiring an ID that millions of Americans don’t have,” he said. “That shouldn’t suddenly prevent you from exercising your right to vote.”
Not Rhode Island, though. We the only blue state (along with Hawaii) with such a law, and we seem more content with it than some pretty red states. The Senate had its hearing (you can watch all sorts of good government groups and equal rights activists testify against it here) but the voter ID law seems pretty safe here in spite of the widespread liberal and legal opposition.
That’s not to say there isn’t the political will for state legislators to address election law this session.
The anti-master lever bill passed the House last night 70 to 0. This puts amazing pressure on the Senate to do likewise – note the activist role the Providence Journal is taking by urging readers to call legislators.
The master lever, or straight party voting, doesn’t serve democracy well and should go. Ken Block in particular deserves great praise for leading the charge against it. I’d say it’s solid evidence he can effectively use a bully pulpit to affect political change, and that’s what he says he wants to do as governor.
To that end, I kinda find myself wishing voter ID laws hurt Ken Block supporters, too. Then he may have taken me up on my offer to tackle both voting rights issues. Because just as we should ensure the ballot is as straightforward as possible, we should also ensure that everyone has access to a ballot.
Rhode Island wasn’t mentioned in the Washington Post’s list of 13 states “to watch” on voting rights despite the big push here to end straight party voting. Maybe we could gain some positive national attention on a good government issue if we did away with both the master lever AND voter ID this year?
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Voter ID is a reaction to the imaginary, nonexistent problem of in-person voter fraud. When Senator Frank Lombardi imagines the law’s repeal, he recounts a weird nightmare scenario in which sleazy politicians send imposters to the polls and forever alter the political landscape.
I heard echoes of the Ghostbusters’ Dr. Peter Venkman in Lombardi’s delivery, “Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!”
Senator Lombardi continues by inventing the statistic that 99% of politicians are ethical, which gets a great reaction from Republican Senator Dawson Hodges:
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Part of the problem seems to be that many of the legislators in the Rhode Island General assembly don’t really have any idea of what it is like to be poor, homeless, disabled or otherwise marginalized by society. As a result, they jump to easy answers or rely on “anecdotal evidence” or gut feelings when deciding on policy. Consulting with experts and authorities about how changes in the law might affect certain parts of our population takes time and effort, two things our legislators don’t like to expend.
Case in point:
Some of the ID’s being considered for people who need to prove their identity in order to vote do not actually exist, according to Kate Bowden of the RI Disability Law Center. “For example, we represent many people who live in public housing, I’m not aware of a public housing corporation that issues IDs for the people who live there, and public housing ID is one of the IDs on the list.”
Telling people they can vote using a form of ID that doesn’t exist smacks of a Marie Antoinette “Let them eat cake” level of classism and disregard.
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At the RI Coalition for the Homeless, says LeeAnn Byrne, caseworkers spend a significant amount of time trying to secure photo ID for the homeless, because “they do recognize it’s important for obtaining housing and other services.” Any delay in obtaining such ID should not disqualify a person from voting, and if someone enters a shelter once month before an election their ability to vote should not be the number one concern of caseworkers.
These people need help to get back on their feet, they should not have to worry about whether or not their right to vote will be respected.
“It’s just important for all of you to know that our constituents are constantly silenced while they experience homelessness, one of the most overlooked and invisible populations in our state,” she said. “They face daily barriers to obtain all their daily needs, from food to shelter to clothing. The one place where they are equal, the one place they can share their voice without discrimination should be the voting booth.
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Voter fraud, when it occurs, happens during registration and through absentee ballots, not at the polls, points out John Marion of Common Cause. Money spent enforcing a worthless voter ID law cannot be spent to prevent real voter fraud, or to expand and improve our electoral process.
Marion went on to explain that provisional ballots, which may be cast by those without proper ID, are a different kind of ballot, and there is no guarantee that such votes will be counted or any recourse for voters to take to ensure that they are counted.
Are we setting up a two-tiered voter system? One for those who have money and “proper” ID and a second one for the poor? It certainly smells like class warfare to me.
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“The NAACP wants to make voting easier,” said Providence chapter President Jim Vincent, “not harder.”
That’s because voter ID laws tend to disenfranchise minority voters, though Vincent says he’s confident Rhode Island’s law wasn’t intending to that, as he said is the case in other states. Instead, he warned of “unintended consequences.”
Jim Vincent later went on to counter Senator Lou Raptakis who recalled a recent election in East Greenwich that was won by one vote. Thus even one instance of voter fraud, says the Senator, might sway such elections if we do not maintain the current Voter ID law.
But Jim Vincent, president of the Providence chapter of the NAACP, counters that the voter ID disenfranchises the very people he represents. He says sacrificing ten good votes to prevent one bad vote makes no sense.
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