(fwd) Beyond the Voting Rights Act: Why We Need a Constitutional Right to Vote

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Published on Monday, August 8, 2005 by ReclaimDemocracy.org

 

Beyond the Voting Rights Act:

Why We Need a Constitutional Right to Vote

by Jeff Milchen

 

As thousands of civil rights advocates celebrated the 40th anniversary of the

Voting Rights Act (VRA) in Atlanta last weekend, most media coverage conveyed

the Act's importance in protecting minorities' political rights. Yet many of

those same stories helped perpetuate a dangerous illusion by asserting that a

right to vote is guaranteed by the 15th Amendment.

 

The trouble is the Supreme Court doesn't see it that way.

 

In its 2000 ruling, Alexander v Mineta, the Court decided the 600,000 or so

(mostly black) residents of Washington D.C. have no legal recourse for their

complete lack of voting representation in Congress (they have one

“representative

†in the House who can speak, but cannot vote). The Court affirmed the

district court's interpretation that our Constitution " does not protect the

right of

all citizens to vote, but rather the right of all qualified citizens to vote.â€

And it's state legislatures that wield the power to decide who is “qualified.

â€

 

As a result, voting is not a right, but a privilege granted or withheld at

the discretion of local and state governments.

 

Yes, our Constitution explicitly prohibits discrimination in granting the

franchise based on a person's race, sex, or (adult) age via the 15th, 19th, and

26th Amendments, but those protections are like a house with no foundation.

States and other governments can and do disenfranchise individuals and groups of

citizens, and so long as they do it without provable bias, it's entirely

legal.

 

Washington, D.C. residents are not the only victims. Without an affirmative

right to vote, Americans repeatedly are disenfranchised or otherwise deprived

of their political voice and denied a legal basis for retrieving it.

 

Just months after the Alexander decision, a 5-4 Court majority in Bush v.

Gore denied Florida citizens a right to ensure their votes were counted, saying

" the individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote [for

presidential electors]. " Tens of thousands of Floridians who were purged wrongly

from the voting rolls were denied recourse against Republican state officials

who, in the name of preventing felons from voting, disenfranchised them.

 

The Bush v. Gore ruling also meant Florida 's legislators could have followed

through on their threats to simply disregarded citizens' votes and choose

electors themselves.

 

Our lack of a right to vote also weakens legal arguments for challenging

anti-democratic structures that routinely prevent citizens in several states

from

enjoying a choice other than Democrats or Republicans at the polls. Georgia,

for example, has institutionalized a two-party duopoly, devoid of outside

competition, by requiring independent or " third party " candidates for U.S.

Representative to gather signatures from 5% of registered voters, a feat not

accomplished since before the VRA.

 

Worse, Georgia and Indiana recently passed laws requiring government photo

identification to vote, despite an absence of evidence that people are

impersonating others at the voting booth. Georgia 's law must first be approved

by the

Department of Justice under a provision of the VRA (expiring in 2007 unless

renewed by Congress) requiring jurisdictions " with a history of

discriminationâ€

to gain approval from the DOJ before changing voting laws.

 

If these laws take effect, a disproportionate number of minority, poor and

elderly people who lack ID will be dissuaded from voting. This is exactly the

kind of discriminatory scheme the VRA was created to stop, but so long as voting

is a state-granted privilege rather than a right, courts are likely to let

the law stand.

 

While we speak of “spreading democracy†globally, the U.S. is one of just 11

nations among 120 or so constitutional democracies that fail to guarantee a

right to vote in their constitutions.

 

Although many constitutional scholars reject the Supreme Court's reasoning in

denying such a right, blaming the justices will not solve our problem. It's

time we caught up with our own rhetoric by amending our Constitution to

transform a right to vote from myth to reality.

 

Jeff Milchen directs ReclaimDemocracy.org , an organization working to

revitalize American democracy and restore citizen authority over corporations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

" Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit

are like men who are so afraid of being murdered

that they commit suicide to avoid assassination. "

President Harry S. Truman