“Justice for All” Civil Rights 2004 Conference

“Justice for All”Civil Rights 2004 Conference Contemporary Challenges to Civil Rights Dallas, Texas October 9-10, 2004 By Lillie Coney

Introduction Lillie Coney, EPIC, Senior Policy Analyst. EPIC is a public interest research center established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values.

Introduction Recently EPIC gained information through a Freedom of Information Act request that disclosed that the Census Bureau had provided information on Americans of Arab ancestry to the Department of Homeland Security. For more information: http://www.epic.org/

Introduction Lillie Coney, Coordinator of EPIC project the National Committee for Voting Integrity (NCVI) The Committee is supported by leading computer security technologist and electronic voting experts who lend their experience to communicate with voting rights advocates, election officials, and the public on the subject of electronic voting machines. http://www.votingintegrity.org

The Help America Vote Act Florida 2000 The 107th Congress saw 40 bills referencing the words “voting” and “election” in the 106th Congress there were 15 such bills and only 7 in the 105th Congress.

The Help America Vote Act HAVA came out of the Florida election experience, but not just the 2000 experience, but the 2002 e-voting disaster. The House of Representatives had passed the Martin Luther King, Jr. Equal Protection of Voting Rights Act of 2002 in December. The Senate passed the Help America Vote Act in April 2002 after removing the language from the House version of the bill and replacing it with its own version.

The Help America Vote Act Two versions of the bill meant a conference had to take place to reconcile the differences into one bill. This was a dead bill--and everyone knew it, but one unexpected thing happened--Florida II. While the bill lay neglected in the bureaucratic noise of the Hill. Members of the House and Senate were told that Florida was fixed, they had changed voting laws and bought new touchscreen voting machines

How Did We Get HAVA Florida 2000 The hanging chad Recounting paper ballots Florida 2002 E-voting debuts with many problems: see http://www.acm.org/usacm/Issues/Articles_Evoting.htm. Boward County vote short by 104,000, Texas voters confused by e-voting giving the wrong choice,

Congress Acts Another bad election year and the Presidential Election was less than two years away. Voters would be angry at nothing being done. When a dead bill is resurrected -- Crafting Legislation has been compared to making sausage--in this case the comparison is very apt.

Did Anyone Read the Bill? Rumors or facts: The bill requires that voters verify their choices T The bill requires a paper record T But it did not say when the record had to be produced The bill requires that all voting machines be touchscreen voting systems F

“The best-laid schemes of mice and men…” “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity…”

National Election Day Congress established the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November as the date for all National Elections. There are national elections every two years.

A Democracy in Transition • 19th Century America along with the rest of the industrialized world underwent rapid urbanization. • The face of politics changed with an influx of immigrants into cities. • Power shifted to first generation Americans.

Election Day In the early decades of the nation the only eligible voters were white male land owners. The numbers of eligible voters grew to include black men, then women, and later people 18 years of age and over.

Struggle for Power Immigrants gain control of local governments The rise of machine politics Cultural Clashes Class Conflicts Rise of the Good Government League and Political Reform Movements

Reform Movements Won At-Large Elections, Poll Taxes, Grandfather Clauses, Civil Service Reform, and many other changes lead to a reduction of influence for immigrant communities in the north and the laws restricting voting participation by minorities in the southern, western and some eastern communities.

Voting Rights Movement The Civil Rights Movement and Voting Rights Movement lead to the most dramatic change in the faces of political influence. The Halls of Congress and the Senate saw its first people of color since immediately following the civil war and reconstruction period.

A Covert Struggle for Voting Rights For most Americans it is assumed that voting rights are enjoyed by all citizens equally regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, or economic status. The reality for too many is that access to vote--to a secret ballot is a challenge. Disabled, language minorities, people of color, new immigrant communities, and former felons all struggle for equal voting rights.

“Justice for All” Civil Rights 2004 Conference