Why Voting Rights Matter
In Florida, Ohio, Minnesota and Colorado, AFSCME members are leading the fight for the right to vote.
The governors and legislators who are gunning for collective bargaining rights are going after voting rights, too. For them, it’s all about silencing working people at the workplace and in the voting booth.
During the past year, more than 30 states have either introduced or passed laws that restrict the right to vote. Some states, such as Florida and Ohio, shortened the length of time for early voting. Florida has also compiled a database of 180,000 suspected “non-citizens.” Gov. Rick Scott is requiring that they prove citizenship or be purged from the voter rolls. Even a 91-year-old World War II veteran in Broward County, a voter since age 18, is on the list.
Other states made it harder for volunteer organizations such as the League of Women Voters to register citizens to vote. In others, more extensive identification is required of voters, or restrictions have been placed on the types of ID that are
acceptable at the polls.
These measures are the handiwork of ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, which derives support from the same corporate titans who want to restrict collective bargaining. ALEC and its funders say the point is to reduce voter fraud. In reality, voter fraud is almost non-existent. For example, a Wisconsin study found that out of nearly 3 million votes cast in 2004, there were only seven substantiated cases of voters knowingly casting invalid votes.
The new restrictions have one purpose: to purge people of color, poor people, the elderly, the disabled, and students from voter rolls. These voters often make use of options such as early voting and Sunday voting, and they frequently don’t have government-issued photo IDs. In fact, one study indicated that in Wisconsin — where Gov. Scott Walker last year signed a law requiring a photo ID at the polls — half of African Americans and Latinos lack a valid Wisconsin driver’s license.
It’s no coincidence that these laws are taking effect in advance of the 2012 elections. Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, a Republican, actually predicted that the new law in his state would “allow Governor Romney to win” Pennsylvania.
AFSCME Florida is working diligently to make sure no members are disenfranchised at the polls, while in Ohio, AFSCME helped put the state’s voter suppression bill on the November ballot. In Minnesota, Councils 5 and 65 are involved in the effort to defeat a constitutional amendment to change state election laws in several ways, including requiring a government-issued photo ID to vote.
“I think it’s absolutely wrong that some people are trying to roll back the clock on the right to vote,” says Grace Baltich, a social worker in Wright County who is president of Local 2685 and vice president of Council 65. “This proposed amendment erodes participation by people who have been left out in the past and tend to vote Democratic.”
AFSCME members have also been active in the fight against Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s push to stop the city and county of Denver from mailing ballots to voters who did not vote in 2010, including military voters who are overseas, declaring them “inactive.”
“We need to hold accountable the politicians who took these radical steps the next time we vote,” AFSCME Pres. Lee Saunders said, “before they eliminate our voice at the ballot box completely.”
