In eight days, we are probably going to win, God willing, the White House, and strong majorities in the House and Senate. We shouldn't let the first hundred days without passing a federal law against voter suppression. Let's call it the Voting Rights Act of 2009.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited states from imposing any "voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure ... to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color." Specifically it made it much harder for segregationists in the South to suppress the black vote. Literacy tests became illegal. Gerrymandering districts to dilute the ethnic vote became illegal. The Act mandated bilingual ballots in Spanish-speaking districts. Crucially, it changed the burden of proof in voting rights lawsuits. Previously, in order to abolish a law or practice that reduced the ethnic vote, a plaintiff had to prove that the law or practice was intended to discriminate. Under the new law, you only had to prove that the law actually discriminated, regardless of the intent -- a much lighter burden of proof.
Since 1965, with new technology, vote suppression has become far more sophisticated. The latest software allows political parties to identify their opponents' voters. Then you can apply a wide variety of voter caging techniques, from last minute purging of voter rolls, to flyers that claim that "Democrats vote Wednesday," to sending canvassers around to "collect absentee ballots," to spreading misinformation about where students claimed on their parents tax forms as dependents are allowed to vote, to sending out bogus absentee ballot forms. Recently, Georgia illegally purged 50,000 new voters.
Some of this is already illegal. But there seems to be little enforcement. Some of this comes from the Bush Department of Justice ignoring voter suppression. Some of it seems to come from placing enforcement in the hands of local officials -- often officials from the same party as the one doing to vote suppression. There seems to be a feeling that when an official breaks the law to deprive citizens of their right to vote, it is a matter for a civil lawsuit.
These crimes strike at the very heart of our democracy.
We need a Voting Rights Act of 2009 that would make it a federal crime to suppress the vote in any partisan manner, not merely a racist one. Knowingly lying, or publishing lies, about who can vote or when or where, should be a federal crime. Illegally purging voter rolls should be a federal crime. Officials who break the law to deprive citizens of the vote should be liable to do time in prison.
The Voting Rights Act of 2009 could reform voter registration. Who can and can't vote in a Presidential election should not be a local matter. It does not make sense that some states ban felons from voting for President, some let felons vote, and some let felons vote after a certain period has passed. It does not make sense that residency requirements vary widely across the nation.
The Voting Rights Act of 2009 could get serious about voting machines. Federal law should mandate a paper trail. Electronic voting machines should, at a minimum, meet the standards required for one-armed bandits in Las Vegas -- e.g. open source software and regular independent checks.
Unbelievably, there is no federal right to vote. In Bush v. Gore, the Supreme Court ruled that "The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States." This is actually a reasonable deduction from the Constitution. The Voting Rights Act of 2009 should establish, unequivocally, that all citizens of sound over 18 have the right to vote.
(The language of the Act could limit the rights of felons to vote, but personally I feel felons should have the right to vote. You can't expect people to abide by the laws if they have no say in them.)
Right after the election, the Obama Administration will have the opportunity to put a stake in the heart of voter suppression. As memories fade, so will the opportunity. Immediately after the election, we should all push our newly elected and re-elected representatives to erase this blot on American democracy. There is no legitimate argument against clean elections. Everyone should have the right to vote without impediment.