Hearings shine spotlight on roadblocks to voting in La.
22nd October 2018 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
Triggered by a judicial weakening of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 and augmented by the systemic application of restrictive procedural changes, the state of Louisiana has in the last several years created daunting barriers to voting across the state, reports a recent study by the Louisiana Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Based on comprehensive testimony given during two public hearings held in late 2017, the Louisiana Advisory Committee of the USCCR “sought to examine barriers to voting in the state of Louisiana which may have a discriminatory impact on voters based on race, color, disability status, national origin, and/or the administration of justice,” according to the report.
“The Committee sought to discover what obstacles to voting, if any, exist in Louisiana,” the study added. “…The Committee also sought to discover the proliferation, if any, of restrictions on voter access in the state of Louisiana.”
The findings proved troubling, according to the report. The study states that using methods such as closing polling stations in areas with a high number of Black voters, reducing options for early voting, and implementing voter ID laws that often target the vulnerable populations, Louisiana officials and court rulings have, in effect, restricted voter rights and fair access to elections.
Louisiana Advisory Committee Chairman and LSU law professor Robert Lancaster told The Louisiana Weekly that the discoveries found during the study reflect how important it is for citizens to stay vigilant when preserving their rights.
“The key [to positive change] is that public needs to be aware of barriers to voting and always question if any law or procedure makes it more difficult to exercise the right to vote,” said Lancaster, the Judge Earl E. Veron Endowed Professor and the J. Nolan and Janice D. Singletary Professor of Professional Practice at the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center.
“In our efforts to protect the integrity of our electoral process,” Lancaster added, “it is important to recognize how any restrictions or voting may have a disproportionate impact on minorities, the poor, disabled and elderly.”
The report began by listing recent state and national developments that have contributed to the restriction of voter rights, including the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in the case of Shelby County v. Holder that invalidated a key component of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and, in so doing, greatly weakened another provision of the VRA.
“Without the protections of Section 5,” the new study reported, Louisiana voters must wait until they are aggrieved before seeking judicial intervention. Lawsuits prompted by voting restrictions, once handled administratively by the Justice Department, must now be addressed through more expensive and less efficient litigation.”
At the same time, with the USCCR placing an emphasis in 2018 on studying minority rights, the Louisiana Advisory Committee decided “to investigate barriers to voting in Louisiana in September 2017,” Lancaster said. “We wanted to provide the Commission with as much Louisiana specific information as we could.”
As a result of the two public hearings last year — one at Grambling State University, the other at the Capitol building in Baton Rouge — testimony was produced that cited, with a large amount of data and other supporting research, several major issues related to voting access in Louisiana, one of the Southern states that has had a long, troubled history in terms of post-Civil War voting rights. (Additional testimony was taken at an April committee meeting and through written public input.)
One recurring theme during the hearings was the lack of an adequate number of polling stations throughout the state; one speaker, UL-Monroe political scientist Dr. Joshua Stockley, noted that more than 100 polling locations have been closed across Louisiana since 2012, while Jhacova Williams, a PhD candidate in economics at LSU, reported on research that indicated that areas with large Black populations tended to have fewer polling stations. Conversely, more voting machines and polling points were found in wealthier regions.
But there was more ominous information, Lancaster noted.
“Other testimony regarding the location of number of early-voting locations create access issues for the elderly, disabled and poor to participate in the early-voting process,” he said. “Ms. Williams testified that the lack of early-voting locations can also be correlated with minority populations in the area.”
But arguably the largest and most controversial aspect of the voting process has been the proliferation in numerous states of new or amended laws requiring voters to provide identification before they could cast their ballots, and the recent USCCR study found Louisiana to be no exception.
NAACP Legal Defense Fund member Ron Wilson testified that low electoral participation rates of voters in minority and poor communities can directly be tied to stricter voter ID requirements.
“…the voter identification requirement dissuades many people, particularly the poor and African Americans, from even attempting to vote,” charged the study.
And even though Louisiana law does provide a procedure with which voters without identification can still vote if they submit an affidavit, Lancaster said “we heard reports that voters were sometimes turned away instead of being offered an affidavit form.”
The testimony of Carol DeVille of the League of Women Voters in Lafayette proved particularly damning.
“[Deville] noted that her organization received a number of complaints that voters were being turned away when they did not present a photo identification and were never offered the affidavit as an alternative method of identification,” the report asserts. “She believed this was occurring because of overcrowding, lack of poll worker training, or because the poll workers had personal beliefs that may be influencing their decisions.
“Election officials and poll workers often believe they have discretion to deny the vote to people without an identification, contrary to state law,” the report added. “Ms. DeVille stressed that there needed to be additional poll worker training regarding the affidavit option and additional methods of oversight to ensure voters were not turned away due to lack of photo identification.”
The confrontations at the polls are compounded by the lack of same-day voter registration and the absence of provisional balloting.
“Requiring registration so far out prior to an election creates a barrier to people engaging in the franchise,” Lancaster said. “Many states allow for same day registration while maintaining the integrity of their elections and Louisiana can do the same.”
However, in addition to pinpointing many of the barriers to voting in Louisiana, the USCCR’s report also lays out numerous recommendations and proposals for breaking down those barriers and making it easier for citizens to participate in elections and uphold their rights. The study proposed that:
• The Secretary of State’s Office, through its Web site, more openly and transparently announce the reasoning for and details of any changes made to voting precinct boundaries or polling stations by each parish’s Board of Election Supervisors.
• The state continue to enhance early voting options for Louisiana citizens, such as employing new technologies, establishing new early-voting stations in underserved areas, expanding early voting periods, and creating more consistency and predictability in the process;
• Same-day voter registration be allowed and registration waiting periods discontinued;
• The voter ID process be more transparent, efficient and fair through simplification of the election rolls form;
• State law be amended to allow provisional ballots for all elections, not just federal ones;
• A state law be adopted that restores voting rights to ex-convicts immediately open release from incarceration, additional administrative support be provided to released felons when re-establishing their voting rights, and the voting process for non-felons while incarcerated be streamlined and enhanced.
Finally, the USCCR report stressed that many of its proposed improvements—such as the voter ID process and provisional balloting—must be underpinned by enhancing training for poll workers and increasing the numbers of such volunteers at each polling station.
The Secretary of State’s Office was contacted by The Louisiana Weekly for comments regarding the USCCR’s report but had not responded as of press time.
Lancaster said that while some progress has been made in the last few years toward removing barriers to voting — including a moderate widening of voting rights for felons, as well as allowing colleges and universities to issue student IDs that fulfill the requirements of voter ID regulations — especially during the 2018 legislative session.
But, he added, “There is still more that can be done.”
“I’m hopeful of positive change eliminating barriers to voting,” Lancaster said. “Full citizen participation is fundamental to our system of government and our elected officials understand that.”
This article originally published in the October 22, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
