Dems Push Voter Registration, Education to Combat Voter Suppression from Republican ID Law
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
Please see below first-day coverage of the press conference held today:
Please see below first-day coverage of the press conference held today:
Please see below first-day coverage of the press conference held today:
Democrats Announce Strategy to Combat Voter ID Law
Tennessee Democrats say the state’s new voter ID law disenfranchises minorities and the elderly. It requires a photo ID to cast a ballot. Now they’ve unveiled a strategy to fight the law.
State and local election officials have started voter education efforts, ahead of the law taking effect next year. So have non-profit groups like AARP and the League of Women Voters. East Nashville Representative Mike Stewart says Democrats will do even more over the next year, including registering voters. Despite that, Stewart says the new voter ID requirement is a bad law.
“Taking somebody’s right to vote away by statute and then offering some education program, that’s like stealing somebody’s car, then dropping by their house and offering them a second-hand bicycle. I mean, the point is these people had the right to vote.”
The state’s Department of Public Safety has issued around 24-hundred voter IDs since July 1st. Some DMV offices will be open on Saturdays to accommodate the expected influx. County clerk offices will also start issuing voter ID cards. House Democratic Leader Mike Turner says the legislature’s Republican majority didn’t put enough money in the budget to pay for IDs for voters who don’t have them.
“We got to talking about this would be a poll tax if they didn’t fund this thing properly. We funded it to the tune of 400,000 dollars, but we did not know how much it would cost to do it.”
In Indiana, where the population is about the same as Tennessee, the state spent 10 million dollars over four years to issue voter IDs.
Election officials in all 95 counties will hold town hall meetings on the law tomorrow night.
“We’ve had all kinds of protesters here — tea party to labor unions to teachers. We’ve had the income tax debate here, where the crowds were spirited and there (were) actually a few rocks thrown through windows, but we did not ban the people from being down here,” state Rep. Mike Turner, D-Old Hickory, told reporters Monday morning. “This is wrong, and I hope they reconsider their actions.”
Turner, state Reps. Mike Stewart and Janis Sontany and Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Chip Forrester took part in an 11 a.m. press conference on the War Memorial Auditorium courtyard, just steps from the corner of Legislative Plaza where Occupy Nashville protesters were again setting up camp for the first time since police moved in early Friday morning.
Turner, Stewart and Forrester had previously condemned the new curfew and permit requirement. Haslam says he authorized the restrictions because the round-the-clock Occupy Nashville protest had created unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
They also said police could have dealt with complaints — which have included allegations of an assault, lewd behavior and robberies at the Occupy Nashville campsite — without breaking up the protest.
“Citizens’ rights don’t disappear at sundown,” said Stewart. “We’ve got plenty of laws on the books to take care of people who are disorderly. There’s no justification for stripping other lawful protesters of their rights just because you have the need to address one particular person.”
At Monday’s press conference, Democrats said the -a-day permit fee imposes a price on free assembly on the plaza, which lies at the base of the Tennessee state Capitol and atop a legislative office building.
Humphrey on the Hill // Oct. 31, 2011 // by Tom Humphrey
Election officials are holding “voter outreach” programs across the state Tuesday to explain the Tennessee law requiring a photo ID for voting, but Democratic officials said today the official efforts are “woefully inadequate.”
State Democratic Chairman Chip Forrester, joined by Democratic legislators seeking repeal of the photo ID law, held a news conference Monday at the Legislative Plaza to announce the party will have its own “voter registration and education” effort starting Saturday.
All 95 county election commissions are hosting events today – most in a “town hall” format — where citizens can hear an explanation about the new law and ask questions. That effort is coordinated by the state Division of Elections, overseen by Secretary of State Tre Hargett.
Forrester said the Division of Elections effort is inadequate because it focuses on the 126,000 persons who are now registered to vote but hold driver’s licenses without a photo, which are not acceptable for voting under the new law.
Democrats say there are about 675,000 people potentially impacted by the law. That includes people over age 18 counted in the 2010 U.S. Census who are not currently registered voters plus the 126,000 registered voters with invalid driver licenses.
The new law effectively creates “another layer of bureaucracy” to discourage those not now registered to vote from doing so, the Democrats said. Forrester cited a report finding Tennessee already ranks 49th among states in the percentage of eligible voters casting ballots.
Forrester and the Democratic legislators say their education effort will target all eligible voters with the goal of getting them registered to vote as well as in compliance with the photo ID law. Free photo identification card for voting are being offered at drivers’ license stations with 2,385 such cards issued as of Oct. 24.
The Democratic effort will continue for a year, Forrester said, to counter a law that “effectively labels 675,000 Tennesseans as second-class citizens, good enough to pay taxes but not good enough to be a voter.”
Hargett, meanwhile, said the 95-county outreach effort coordinated by the Division of Elections “is massive and certain to reach a tremendous number of voters.”
NASHVILLE — State Democrats today announced a year-long effort to educate Tennessee voters about the state’s new photo ID requirements for voting.
Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Chip Forrester called plans already under way by Republican election officials and the state Safety Department as “woefully inadequate.”
Forrester and other Democrats contend the new law passed earlier this year by the Republican-controlled General Assembly has the potential of “disenfranchising” as many as 675,000 voting-age Tennesseans.
The law requires voters to present state or federally issued photo ID, such as a driver’s license, along with voter registration cards to vote. Republicans say it is intended to combat voter fraud, which Democrats say hardly exists.
Democrats are kicking off their effort in 20 communities on Saturday, the same day that the Republican Gov. Bill Haslam’s administration is opening 19 driver service centers to issue voter-photo IDs. The centers will continue to open on the first Saturday of each month through early next year.
State Safety Commissioner Bill Gibbons announced today that, as of Oct. 24, the department had issued 2,385 forms of photo identification for voting purposes since the new law went into effect on July 1. The IDs are being issued free to those who certify they need it to vote.
The state’s 95 county election commissions, which are controlled by Republicans, are holding their own events to publicize the new law.
State officials are also coordinating outreach efforts with the seniors group AARP.
