“Voter Empowerment is the basis for our democracy,” was the reminder from Congresswoman Barbara Lee with her special Guest Rep James Clyburn of South Carolina. She brought together a panel that described how the Supreme Court devastated Section 5 Voting Rights by the Shelby Act, and how that process diminished access to voting systematically; -the consequence of which we see in the drift and calamity of this primary season. Not at all by accident: one of the examples given was the Supreme Court Section 5 that allowed the 400 polls in 2008 in Arizona, reduced to 200 in 2012, ho be reduced to 60 polls with the result of voters standing in line for eight hours.
The panel Congresswoman Lee assembled each brought the message of the evening over and over again that there are no voting rights if access is diminished. that if voting isn't accessible and affordable to all citizens, we don’t have a democracy. “The Bedrock of democracy is the right to vote,” Lee said as the evening began. Ultimately, the recommendation made was to support HR 2867 that not only seeks to defend and protect voter rights but to empower the rights and engagement of voters across the country.
NAACP's Hillary Shelton referenced state after state changing of inaccessible voting practices taken on, and noted that 17 states will have voting restrictions for the first time in this 2016 election. But California Secretary of State Alex Padilla reported there are three advances for voters in California’s Alameda County. Thanks to California's Proposition 47, those released from incarceration can gain their right to register to vote. Also, the new Motor Voter model in California like that of Portland, Oregon, offers with DMV registration automatic registration to vote. As well, Padilla described the increased and modern means to vote 7 am-8pm with 6000 poll workers with 2000 of them bilingual so any language can be accommodated for the 800,000 AlamedaCounty residents available for 2016’s primary election. “We’re ready for our voters in California,” Paadilla said.
John Dobard of the Advancement Project works to identify and file cases when evidence of racial and linguistic bias are found in voting practices. Denise Hulett, of MALDEF, demonstrated what will make the difference for the voter who behind the curtain closure is doing a very private deed of voting. Representation of minorities is where change can be made; district elections resulting in elected officials from those community districts, and those elected from the community hiring police from that community. “This is the source of transformation” Hulett said, that which brings from minority groups their issues and the means to social justice and equity.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee was highly acknowledged by all in this Congressional Forum on Voter Empowerment, Rights & Engagement this evening for her consistent and effective stand for those excluded from the benefit of full equity in voter's rights or human rights. Her stand of courage and leadership was acknowledged by Representative Clyburn in their work together over many years.
It was Representative James Clyburn who spoke of the new law discriminating against LGBTQ in North Carolina that took the room to silent recognition of the power of his words. He described the effects of redistricting that has served to suppress voters. In Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida, times for voting were changed and reduced for voting that did not allow for workers who punch a time clock to make it. The deliberate splitting of communities, as in the North Carolina High School, polarizing and disempowering communities of color through redistricting, also a consequence of the Supreme Court he gave as an example of what lies beneath the voter restriction efforts. Very specifically these efforts were a consequence of the power of the coming together of communities who voted and brought to office our first African American President in 2008.
Rep. Clyburn told of meeting his wife in jail as a protester in the heat of the SNIC movement in the 1960’s. He said that no one could have seen that the grounds that were gained in civil rights would ever be challenged again, but here we are. The quiet in the room registered that we are all aware daily of the attacks on Civil Rights and women's rights any day of the week, and the essential right to vote in the midst.
Our nation does not operate in a straight lines, but drifts, Clyburn said. From the right to the left as it did in the 60's; but then it drifts from the left to the right, and on and on. Moving-drifting left to right is the motion of our American politics, Clyburn observed. "The only thing that changes the drift is intervention: empowerment of voter's rights is the battleground,” Clyburn said. What this election is about is very much a consequence of this drift.
Congresswoman Lee brought to us tonight an experience of her constant vigilance in the arc of human rights. What we have ahead is up to each of us. That is clear. Participating, engaging in making sure across the country, our basic rights as citizens to vote is everyone's right and privilege. Figuring out our part is moving the dial in that direction can be our privilege.