Voter Suppression 101

For Immediate Release
Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Contact: Zandra Rice Hawkins
603-892-2150

What’s behind the Seacoast Republican Women’s new strategy to “clean up voter lists for 2010”?

Concord, NH – One has to question the intent of the Seacoast Republican Women’s event scheduled for this morning, which advertises showing you how to “clean up voter lists for 2010”¹:

• Ed Naile, Chairman of The Coalition of NH Taxpayers will speak to the Seacoast Republican Women on the subject of ‘Cleaning up NH’s Elections – Voting Process Fraud: What You Can Do Now for 2010’ on Wednesday, January 13th 2010 from 9:00 – 11:00 AM. Learn about a process that you can use in your own town to help clean up voter lists for 2010 in order to prevent some types of fraud before they occur. This will be the launch of an initiative for SRW members to use in their own towns.

According to Project Vote ², the GOP has a record of using terms like “voter fraud” and “ballot security” to disenfranchise and suppress voters:

• On November 3, 2008, on the eve of an historic defeat for the GOP, the Republican National Committee (RNC) quietly filed a motion to dissolve an existing consent decree ³ that prohibits them from engaging in so-called “ballot-security” measures, such as sending direct mail to voters for the purposes of compiling challenge lists—a practice known as “voter caging” that has historically been used to deter thousands of Americans (largely low-income and minority citizens) from voting. The RNC claims it is necessary to untie their hands so they can protect against “voter fraud,” but history has proven time and time again what the GOP really means by “ballot security”

“The conservative movement has a long history of crying voter fraud as a way to discredit or disenfranchise working family voters, even though in numerous legal cases their claims have not been validated,” said Zandra Rice Hawkins, executive director of Granite State Progress. “We’ve seen it happen all over the country and its politics at its worst. For example, during the 2008 elections, Republican Party officials in Michigan actually proposed challenging any voter whose home had been foreclosed on. Are these the strategies the Seacoast Republican Women are advocating? We need to know just what the Seacoast Republican Women are planning to do in this new initiative of theirs, and what potential harm it will wreak on New Hampshire’s tradition of engaged citizenry.”

###

^1 http://www.nhteapartycoalition.org/tea/nh-events/^
^2 http://www.projectvote.org/newsreleases/431-new-project-vote-media-memo-assesing-gops-record-of-voter-caging-and-other-so-called-qballot-securityq-measures.html^
^3 http://www.projectvote.org/images/publications/Voter%20Caging/DNC_v_RNC_1986_Consent_Decree_1.pdf^

Granite State Progress is a progressive advocacy organization that addresses issues of immediate state and local concern. Granite State Progress works as a communications hub for the progressive community to provide a strong, credible voice in advancing progressive solutions to critical community problems.

Back to Granite State Progress