
          Voting rights denied
          By The Editors
          Volume 14, No. 3, pp. 1-4
          
          George Bush celebrated the July 4th weekend this year with the most
flagrantly anti-democratic act of his presidency—the veto of
the National Voter Registration Act. The bill, which passed both
houses of Congress with wide but not veto-proof margins, would have
increased voter rolls from a disappointing 60 percent to an estimated
90 percent of eligible voters. With this Presidential exercise in
arrogance, supporters of the legislation are left for the time being
with the arduous but essential campaign to improve voter registration
laws state-by-state.
          Bush's veto should be seen for what it is—a partisan
Republican strategy to limit the franchise and deny access to the
voting booth. In a year of growing citizen rebelliousness against the
privileges of public officeholders, our chief public official
fears—as he well should—an expanded electorate, though
the bill would not take effect until after the 1992 elections.
          The President's terse veto message inexplicably cites "no
justification" for the bill, though seventy million Americans remain
unregistered. He rehashes fraud and corruption arguments but, as
always, with no substantiating evidence. In fact, the twenty-nine
states that register voters at motor vehicle bureaus and the
twenty-seven states that allow registration by mail, have found no
cheating.
          Bush further cites "unnecessary, burdensome, expensive and
constitutionally questionable federal regulation," but what more
constitutionally protected activity for government could there be than
insuring citizen



participation? It is here that Bush reveals what is
the real heart of Republican aversion to the bill—what is radical
about this bill It makes voter registration an official function of
the state.
          With the slogans of democracy on its lips, the United States
intervenes around the world. Yet the U.S. ranks last of twenty major
industrialized nations in voter participation—the only one
where the burden of participation is on the citizen.
          The bill's nickname, the "motor voter" bill, while handy, does a
disservice, for this legislation would have gone much further than
enlisting people with automobiles. Not only would the National Voter
Registration Act have automatically registered drivers' license
applicants, it would have required employees in public assistance,
unemployment compensation, and offices serving the disabled to
register voters. It would have encouraged the creation of additional
registration sites. It would have provided for registration by mail in
federal elections. Registered voters would have stayed registered,
ending wholesale purges so effectively used to control the outcome of
Southern elections.
          The results, extrapolating from states which already apply these
methods, would have been dramatic (see graph on page 3).
          The National Voter Registration Act would have lent even greater
significance to the struggle for power by disfranchised voters than
the sheer numbers of new registrants. The legislation would have
re-created a state obligation to register voters, shifting the
authority for voter registration from the fiefdoms of county
registrars to a matter of state responsibility.
          That obligation was abdicated as early as 1944, when the all-white
primaries were ended as a result of Smith
v. Allwright.
          With the effects of Smith, states looked for new ways to prevent
the franchise from being used by black voters. "Every voter
registration officer is a law unto himself," said political scientist
V.0. Key, in his 1949 book, Southern Politics. To
shield their mischief from scrutiny, states stopped keeping reliable
records about voter registration, especially by race. Even now, some
major Southern states, like Florida, Mississippi, and Texas, have no
state record-keeping system for voters.
          When the states stopped, the Southern Regional Council started,
painstakingly documenting county by county, compiling and publishing
the estimates of voter registration by race in the Southern states, in
order to prove that, despite the claims of most Southern white
politicians, blacks could not register and vote in the South.
          Under the leadership of Wiley Branton, Vernon Jordan, and John
Lewis, the Voter Education Project was



established as a special project of the Southern Regional Council from
1962 until 1972 to show how registration could happen. Two million
Southern voters were registered as a result of VEP's work. Working
together with local organizations, VEP proved that democracy might yet
come home to the South.
          But not without a price. In Mississippi, voter registration efforts
by COFO (the Council of Federated Organizations), headed by Bob Moses,
assisted by Dave Dennis, met with immediate violence. While the public
accommodations bill, an issue of custom and comfort, even economics,
provoked reaction, it did not match the violence that erupted over the
right to vote—a question of power. As Mae Bertha Carter, of
Sunflower County, Mississippi, puts it in this issue of
Southern Changes, "there's strength in voting. Voting
is hiring and firing power."
          Faced with energetic black registration, white leadership took
other measures. For instance, at-large voting schemes were implemented
in South Carolina and other Southern states. Voting precincts were
malaligned. These and other schemes diluted black voting strength,
making it virtually impossible for local black voters to elect candi-



dates of their choice.
          New initiatives had to be taken to attack at-large plans and win
fair redistricting for disfranchised voters. After Selma's Bloody
Sunday on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, when John Lewis and other civil rights workers were beaten and tear-gassed, the U.S. Congress
responded to the horrors of televised violence and, within weeks,
passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Act prevented any state or
local jurisdiction with a history of low voter registration and
resistance to black voting from making changes in election rules and
procedures without the approval of the U.S. Justice Department. The
Act—which largely affected Southern states—also provided
for private litigation and for Justice officials to enforce fair rules
for political participation.
          During the last thirty-five years, the Voting Rights Movement has
served as the means of enforcing the Voting Rights Act. And with
apparent results. Fifty years ago, not one black elected official
represented the South; now there are greater numbers at the state and
local level than in any other section of the country.
          As a result of fair redistricting, black representation in Congress
from the South could triple after the November
1992 elections. There will be thirteen to fifteen new members of
Congress representing the South from majority black
districts—more than at any time in U.S. history. At the same
time, Hispanic voters will send a record number of House members of
Congress to Washington.
          Yet, low levels of registration continue to plague the democratic
process. While black voters in some parts of the South are catching up
with whites in levels of registration, it is chiefly because all
levels of registration and voting are low and falling. At a time when
redistricting will allow members of the new Congress and state
legislatures to represent the diverse populations of our nation, the
South and the nation need to send new voters to the polls to continue
the reawakening of our democracy. The government needs to help people
register—not keep them from voting.
          George Bush is the first president in the
twentieth century to veto a voting rights bill. As John Lewis,
now a member of Congress, states, "like a thief in the night, the President wants to steal our best hope for the expansion of American
democracy." —The Editors
          Below, for example, the Atlanta Constitution and
Journal covered the Bush veto. U.S. newspapers and electronic
media largely ignored Bush's veto of the National Voter Registration
Act and the significance of the story. Because of the President's
partisan concerns, the United States is certain to remain the
industrial nation with the lowest rate of voter participation in the world.
          'MOTOR VOTER' BILL VETOED:President Bush
on Thursday vetoed legislation requiring states to register voters
when they apply for driver's licenses or government benefits, saying
it would impose needless, costly and constitutionally questionable
federal regulation. "It would also expose the election process to an
unacceptable risk of fraud and corruption without any reason to
believe that it would increase electoral participation to any significant
degree," Mr. Bush said in his veto message. ATLANTA JOURNAL
CONSTITUTION
        