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Diversity Caucus Statement on the Disenfranchisement of Voters, January 11, 2001
PRESENTER: States of DC, ME, OH, TX, GA, CA and the Diversity Caucus
ASGP Statement on Voter Disenfranchisement in the 2000 election
The Association of State Green Parties calls for an investigation of the alleged irregularities in Florida and other states, especially the alleged disenfranchisement of many African Americans, other peoples of color and those with physical disabilities.
These include: reports of intimidation and obstruction by crowds and officials, lack of ballots and working voting machines, refusal of assistance and foreign language translation to voters, failure to process registration and ballots, requiring a stamp on voter registration cards, the lack of ballots in Braille and access ramps to voting places, electioneering, and other errors and omissions affecting the rights of voters.
The presidential election stalemate in Florida reveals that voter fraud, manipulation, and intimidation against African Americans may not have ended with passage of civil rights laws, and sheds lights on some of the same practices used against Latinos, American Indians, immigrants, and poor whites in some states. The Association of State Green Parties condemns all such assaults on the democratic rights of thousands of voters.
The Association of State green Parties supports the demand of the Congressional Black Caucus that the Justice Department investigate these allegations as possible violations of the constitutional rights of thousands of Americans and as abuses of the 1965 Voting Rights Act
The Association of State Green Parties calls for the investigation of allegations of disenfranchisement of voters in the armed forces.
The Association of Sate Green Parties also condemns the disenfranchisement of convicted felons, according to the laws of certain states, which has resulted in the engineering of elections which have the effect of closing off, if not eliminating altogether, access to voting by people of color. The disproportionate incarceration of people of color and the War on Drugs, under which hundreds of thousands of Americans have been imprisoned for minor and nonviolent offenses, are unacceptable injustices that must cease.
The Association of State Green Parties demands that Americans convicted of felonies or any other offenses who have served their sentences have their full voting rights restored.
Because of the many injustices found in today’s US-criminal-justice system, particularly the War on Drugs, the suspension of voting rights for all other prisoners needs to be discussed openly in public.
Already on record opposing the War on Drugs, which addresses drug use and addiction as a legal and military crisis instead of a socioeconomic and health issue, the Association of State Green Parties asks all Americans to recognize the War on Drugs as a cruel and unjust tactic to deprive millions of Americans, especially people of color and the poor, of their constitutional rights, including the right to vote.
The Association of State Green Parties continues to demand equitable redistricting, enactment of Instant Runoff Voting and other election reforms, and closer monitoring of elections to increase participation of Americans in the electoral and political system.