Voting Rights Are Civil Rights

In the most horrible days of Jim Crow, there was one government restriction on the rights of minorities that was more important than any other when it came to maintaining segregation.

Denying The Right To Vote.

Daily injustices such as separate drinking fountains or segregated seating on buses were highly visible. But if they had disappeared, African-Americans would still have had little  ability to be full citizens without the right to vote. Our nation was founded by people willing to die for the right to vote. All rights in the United States grow out of the right to vote. And our Constitution is unambiguous: the right to vote is sacred.

One of the most important results of the Mississippi burning murders was its role in leading to the Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed the right to vote for all adult Americans. J.E. Chaney, Mickey Schwerner and Andy Goodman were murdered because they were trying to guarantee that very right.

Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act, governments throughout the South have become more responsive to the needs of all citizens. That is a great thing. More citizens have become active participants in our Republic. That is a great thing. Mississippi has more elected African-Americans to office than any other state. I wonder if Medgar Evers could have imagined that.

Now, however, the right to vote is under attack once again. Under the guise of preventing voter fraud, states have  passed laws that have disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters. Obviously, fair elections are crucial to our nation. But the question must be answered: is actual voter fraud a major problem?

Gov. Rick Scott of Florida ordered a massive purge of voting rolls in his state. Is Florida rife with voter fraud?

Mary Cooney, public-services director for the Broward Elections Office: “While there may have been complaints about perceived voter fraud, I am not aware of any actual cases which were turned over to law enforcement.”

“It’s just not widespread,” said Vicki Davis, president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections.

Nationally, likewise, there is simply no evidence of massive voter fraud. Most important, there is no evidence–none–of any concerted effort to organize voter fraud. The Bush administration conducted a five year study of voter fraud which resulted in 86 convictions. You read that right: 86 cases in 5 years. The Brennan Center For Justice reported  that if the election were held today, up to 5 million people–disproportionately poor, minority, and elderly, could lose their voting rights because of 86 cases of voter fraud in five years.

Florida, Wisconsin – EVERY state should be studying what laws they might pass to increase voter registration and participation. That is America.  Denying the right to vote to eligible voters is not.

Voting Rights are civil rights. Voting rights are at the heart of America. when Washington’s army crossed the Delaware, they were risking their lives in support of a revolution that had placed voting rights at its heart. “No taxation without representation.” At the conclusion of the Civil War, after offering the enslaved people freedom, the first  right guaranteed by the Congress were voting rights.  Susan B Anthony went to jail and many women were harassed because they sought  voting rights. Woodrow Wilson declared that World War I had voting rights at its core: ” We will make the world safe for democracy.” FDR said: “Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.

Medgar Evers was murdered, Cheney, Schwerner, and Goodman, were murdered while fighting for a right guaranteed by the Constitution and now under assault by partisan legislators and governors who appear to be trying to eliminate termites by using napalm. Voting rights must be seen as the center of the ongoing struggle for civil rights for all Americans.