ACLU Calls for Override on Vetoed Voting Rights
Bills; Says Ehrlich’s Election Commission Report Sacrifices Rights to Politics
MEDIA RELEASE:
January 11, 2006
CONTACT:
Meredith Curtis, ACLU of Maryland
410-889-8555, ext. 115
BALTIMORE – Calling for action to protect against serious threats to the right to vote seen in recent elections in this state, the American Civil Liberties of Maryland is asking members of the General Assembly to override Governor Robert Ehrlich’s vetoes of vital voting rights bills passed overwhelmingly last session. These reforms protect and strengthen the franchise, and they need to be in effect ahead of the statewide elections this fall.
The ACLU also takes strong issue with the interim report publicized today in the Baltimore Sun from the election commission empanelled by Governor Ehrlich. Despite releasing the report’s conclusions to the media, the Governor’s staff claimed today that the report had not yet been finalized, and therefore could not be provided to the general public for review. “This reluctance to allow public scrutiny was well founded, as the report in fact presents a one-sided and misleading analysis of the issues raised,” said ACLU Staff Attorney David Rocah, who testified before the Commission.
For example, although the report supported the Governor’s veto of the Voters Rights Protection Act based on concerns that its rules regarding provisional ballots would allow increased opportunity for election fraud, the report failed to acknowledge that those same rules are already in place for federal elections, and that a review by the State Board of Elections of the 2004 ballot showed only a single case of the type of fraud mentioned out of more than two million votes cast. “To sacrifice the voting rights of real people based on an ill-founded concern about non-existent fraud is profoundly misguided, and the wrong public policy for the State of Maryland,” said Rocah.
In supporting the three bills, the ACLU of Maryland is joined with the Maryland NAACP, the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, SEIU-DC/MD, Common Cause Maryland, Progressive Maryland and many other groups. The vetoed bills are:
* Senate Bill 287, the Voters Rights Protection Act of 2005 ensures that provisional ballots are counted; codifies what documents can be used to establish a voter’s proof of identity; makes it illegal to suppress the vote through the dissemination of false or misleading information; and makes other forms of voter intimidation illegal and subject to criminal and civil penalties.
* Senate Bill 478, Election law-Early Voting establishes a process to allow voters to vote in elections at early voting places in the State up to 5 days prior to a Primary or General election.
* House Bill 622, Elections-Absentee Voting on Demand allows any registered voter to vote by absentee ballot.
“In 2005, we celebrated the adoption of federal voting rights 40 years ago, but we know that there is still work to be done to ensure that these rights in Maryland are protected and strengthened,” said Susan Goering, Executive Director of the ACLU of Maryland. “Since 1965—and especially in the last decade -- voters’ rights have been threatened in ways the drafters of the federal bill could not have foreseen. It’s time for Maryland to step up to the plate and close those loopholes…now.”
The ACLU of Maryland knows first hand about the hurdles that Maryland voters still face in casting their ballots and making their votes count. The ACLU monitored the 2004 election – distributing thousands of Voter Empowerment Cards and setting up a hotline to field calls from voters who encountered problems at the polls. The Voters Rights Protection Act would address the widespread confusion about provisional ballots that we saw again and again around the state last fall. The legislation also would outlaw the dissemination of information that intentionally misleads or intimidates voters from going to the polls. For example, it would make it illegal to distribute flyers such as those seen in majority African American districts in Baltimore City during the 2002 election, which told voters the wrong day for the election and said voters better be sure to pay overdue rent and not have any overdue warrants.
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