Jackson Jr. calls for voting rights
By John Misinco     The Brown and White
4/14/2005

Americans have no federal constitutional right to vote, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. told a crowd in Packard Auditorium on Monday evening, during this year?s Tresolini Lecture in Law.

This alleged lack of legislature is why the Illinois Democrat and son of the famed civil rights leader called on students to support a constitutional amendment that would guarantee such a right and allow Congress to establish a uniform national voting system.

Jackson argued that because voting is essentially a state right and each state is able to set its own election laws, it creates what he considers to be an unfair system with widespread disenfranchisement.

?Our states? rights voting system is structured to be separate and unequal,? Jackson said. ?The Bible says if you build a house on sand, when it rains, the winds blow and the storms come, it will not stand. Our voting system is built on the sand of state?s rights.?

Jackson pointed out the numerous discrepancies that exist from state to state in determining who is eligible to vote and how elections are run.

For example, Jackson said ex-felons are allowed to vote in Illinois, but are not in several states, including Florida. Two states, Maine and Vermont actually allow prisoners to vote.

Jackson also said states have a wide range of deadlines and procedures for registering to vote and the actual method of voting can differ from county to county, ranging from paper ballots to touch-screen machines.

While other important rights such as freedom of speech and freedom of religion are citizenship rights and thus travel with a person from state to state, voting rights do not, Jackson said.

?At no point in time did I have to give up being a Baptist to get to Lehigh,? he said. ?My First Amendment right traveled with me between states.?

Several amendments to the Constitution, including the 15th, 19th and 26th, outline voting rights, but only in terms of nondiscrimination related to race, gender and age.

In the absence of a constitutional amendment, any attempt by Congress to establish uniform voting standards would be unsuccessful, Jackson said.

For example, some states have challenged portions of the federal Help America Vote Act, passed in the wake of the 2000 election. Among other things, the law mandates the use of provisional ballots and state supervision of voter registration databases.

Although improvements have been made since the 2000 election, Jackson said that?s not enough to satisfy him. He mentioned a Bank of America television commercial that included the slogan, ?Even one mistake in a million is too many.?

?In other words, they were working toward perfection in terms of handling our money,? Jackson said. ?We don?t remotely have a similar goal of perfection with regard to our votes.?

The constitutional amendment proposed by Jackson, now in his sixth term, is contained in House Joint Resolution 28. In addition to allowing Congress to set nationwide election standards, it would also force all states to allow same-day voter registration.

Although his previous attempts at introducing the same amendment have gained little support even among members of his own party, the latest bill has 58 co-sponsors.

However, there is no Republican Party support for the bill.

This lack of support has not discouraged Jackson, who has also proposed constitutional amendments related to a variety of causes including full employment, universal health care, abortion rights, affordable housing and a progressive tax system.

?It?s obvious that this is not something that?s going to happen next week,? he said. ?But I?m young and I?m patient and I?m determined to spend the rest of my time in Congress fighting to make it happen.?

During a press conference before the lecture, Jackson criticized Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry for not doing more to address voting rights issues during the 2004 campaign.

He also criticized his party for not effectively articulating its vision and for focusing more on programs instead of ideas.

?They run flat into the wall when they realize that they can?t pay for all these programs,? he said. ?So they don?t know what they stand for.?

He said Democrats should imitate the Republican Party, which he believes has been able to effectively organize its base around broad constitutional issues.

He went on to say that if the Democrats are to regain control of Congress, they need to have a strategy bigger than one election cycle by focusing on a theme that keeps the party together for a long time.

The Rocco J. Tresolini Lecture in Law was established in 1978. Tresolini was a professor and chairperson for Lehigh?s government department.

Past speakers have included Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Arthur Goldberg, attorneys Barry Scheck and Morris Dees, and journalists Nina Totenberg and Anthony Lewis.