ACLU gives 'info cards' to voters

 
By Gig Schlich   The Western Front
October 09, 2004

In an effort to avoid a repeat of the controversial voting errors in the general election of 2000, the American Civil Liberties Union announced this week that it is distributing "voter empowerment cards."

The pocket-sized cards intended to help educate voters about their rights at the polls are available in eight states, including Washington. They contain information that may help voters resolve any problems at the polls, said Doug Honig, communications director for the ACLU's Washington chapter in Seattle.

"A lot of concern was raised after the 2000 election about people who were eligible to vote being denied their right," Honig said. "(The ACLU) thought it would be valuable to have easily understood handouts telling people some of their basic rights."

The ACLU has aimed the cards primarily at low-income and minority voters in response to allegations of fraud and deception these groups raised in the 2000 race, Honig said.

The ACLU targeted Washington state with the cards because of the roadblocks the state sets for ex-felons trying to reclaim their right to vote, Honig said. The ACLU drafted a bill to the state House in 2003 that would have allowed individuals vote once released from incarceration even if legal payments are still due. The bill did not pass, according to the ACLU Web site.

Although Washington is one of the eight states the ACLU chose for distribution, it has not had any serious issues surrounding its voting practices during the recent past, said Debbie Adelstein, Whatcom County's chief deputy auditor.

"In Washington, we have the ability for anybody to walk into any poll anyplace and vote," she said. "If (anyone's ballot) doesn't belong in Whatcom County, then we forward it on to the county it belongs to."

Adelstein attributed the lack of problems to the state's provisional ballot system in which a voter with an eligibility issue receives a special ballot, and election officials sort out the validity later.

Bryan Sells, a staff attorney for the ACLU's Voting Rights Project in Atlanta, detailed some of the offenses throughout the country that the card addresses.

"Poll workers in Florida were turning away voters for reasons like (the voter) didn't have ID, and the voters didn't question it," he said. "They thought the poll workers must know what they're doing. In Missouri, voters were turned away because the polls closed while they were waiting in line (to vote)."

Each of these cases, Sells said, was because of misinformed poll workers. Identification is not required to cast a vote, and poll workers must allow any voters waiting in line when polls close to cast their ballots, he said.

"We want to keep things like this from happening again," Sells said.

The cards contain useful information for any voter, he said, such as where and when to register, who is eligible and a brief summary of what to do if one's request to vote is challenged.

Western graduate student Abby Sussman said the cards should be helpful to those who might not know what to do next if turned away at the poll.

"I think (the voter empowerment cards) would be a good idea," Sussman said. "They would probably help people who aren't as determined to cast their vote to find someone to talk to."

Honig said the ACLU is distributing the cards at various social-issues events throughout the state.