Transcripts For CSPAN2 Voting Rights Advocacy Leaders Testif

Hannah fried is the director of all voting is local. A collaborative Leadership Conference Education Fund in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties union foundation. And two president ial campaigns, spent several years in federal Government Services at the department of justice and the Environmental Protection agency, welcome. I know i am not doing this Barbara Arnwine is national cochair of the National Commission for voter justice. Barbara arnwine is also president and founder of the transwoman of Justice Coalition and served on the warrant committee for civil rights under law from february 1989 to june 2015. Barbara arnwine is renowned for contributions on critical justice issues including passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1991 in the 2006 reauthorization of the Voting Rights act. Welcome. Denise lieberman is director of advance projects power and democracy and a senior attorney. She works to identify and remove systemic barriers to voting. A seasoned constitutional and civil rights lawyer Denise Lieberman works in missouri in addition to advancing broad Voter Protection initiatives engaging in political analysis, legal advocacy, litigation and Community Building to advance Electoral Reform including spearheading a nationwide effort to combat repressive voting legislation in the past year. Welcome. Miss casey served as executive chief officer of the league of women voters in the United States of the United States where she is leading the organization to appear at Rapid Transformation and growth focusing on building power by engaging in advocacy, legislation, litigation and organizing efforts around issues of Voting Rights and democracy reform. Prior to joining the league in 2018 she served as coo of customs and organization at the forefront of the immigrant Rights Movement representing 100,000 members. You will see a lighting system in front of you. The light will turn green, when you have one minute left you will see the yellow late and when you see the red light wrap up. Hannah fried, youre recognized for five minutes. Movers of the subcommittee, i am hannah fried, the Campaign Director for all voting is local, the Collaborative Campaign of the Leadership Conference Education Fund. We fight to illuminate discriminatory barriers to voting before they happen. Since 2018 we worked in arizona, florida, ohio, pennsylvania and wisconsin. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. Our election system is broken. In 2016 problems at the polls prevented 1 million voters from casting a ballot. These problems disproportionately harm voters of color, young people, voting from americans and voters with disabilities. And it has two Decades Congress has recognized the need for strong federal protections for the right to vote passing a help america vote act in 2002 in reauthorizing the Voting Rights act in 2006. The past strong bipartisan support and robust record. Despite this, in 2013, five Supreme Court justices gutted critical protections for the Voting Rights act and since the shelby case, states and localities across the country have erected barriers without critical safeguards. Federal protections for voting are as vital today as they have been in the past century. They were allotted for record turnout but eligible americans voted at a rate of less than 50 in faced insurmountable obstacles. State officials purged voters for not voting from 2018, georgias secretary of state brian kemp purged 1. 4 million voters. Some states are more committed to purchase than ensuring inaccurate listening in this process. In 2018 georgias exact match law questioning the registration status and 50,000 voters over minor inconsistencies in their registration records. Recently ohio secretary of state admitted the purge system was rife with errors just shy of half 1 million ohioans, many africanamerican and low income voters would be purged under this law system. In 2018 voters placed polling place changes. Alicia Conference Education Fund democracy diverted report found section 5 states, there were 1173 fewer polling places in 2018 than in 2014. Despite the record turnout, 31 latino closed 171 polling locations after 2012 the most of any county studied in the report. Widespread polling place changes lead to the overuse of provisional ballots which are Campaign Analysis was 717 former section 5 counties found voters with more polling place closures are more likely to be asked to cast a provisional ballot. Contemplated provisional ballots would be used as a failsafe but they are less likely to be counted than a regular ballot. There overuse is the canary in the a minds niggling systemic problems that result in voters not knowing how or where to vote. Campaign analysis of provisional ballot usage has some strong connections. In pennsylvania voters in philadelphia county, 41 africanamerican are 5 times as likely to get a provisional ballot and voters in allegheny, 12. 7 black, or burke, 4 black and. Africanamerican students face unique barriers to voting, voters kept a disproportionate number of probation a ballot and twice as likely to have ballots rejected and voters countywide. And 40 in 2018 florida and m university, the sole public hb you, the only major public campus without an early vote site. In 2018 voters of color were more likely to have problems voting by mail and analysis by all voting is local of our state found voters in mostly White Communities are less likely to have mail in ballots rejected and voters living in communities of color, in arizona, over 1 of native American Voters are on the states permanent early voting list compared to 80 of nonAmerican Voters. In 2018 strict voter id laws targeted african American Voters with surgical provision at the Fourth Circuit in 2016. Last all our campaign helped hundreds of wisconsin voters through the arduous process of complying with the strict voter id law which was found to deter from voting 20 of africanamerican registered voters compared to 8. 3 of right registering. Election it ministration practices can and should be used to expand access to the ballot for all eligible americans. Too often they are a barrier to voting disenfranchising, voters of color. Congress must restore and expand safeguards of the right to vote ensuring every eligible american regardless of race, income, age or ability can make their voice heard. Thank you. Thank you very much. Ranking member davis and members of the subcommittee. I serve as the chief executive officer at the league of women voters in the United States. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on Voting Rights and Election Administration in america. An issue of paramount importance to our organization. The league of women voters is nonpartisan, founded 100 years ago in 1920 by men who understood the importance of securing Voting Rights for women. The district of colombia with 764 local affiliates in every Congressional District it outlawed Racial Discrimination voting and established procedures to protect equal access to vote for everyone. Despite a long history of support for legislators of all political parties, in 2013 the Supreme Court overturned key provisions in the case of shelby county. Since that decision politicians across country of past unnecessarily restrictive legislation and adopted practices that discriminate and disenfranchise voters of color and minorities whose first language is not english. Making it harder for them to register and more difficult to vote. These restrictive legislative initiatives include an effort on voter id requirement in texas, wisconsin and pennsylvania. The league pushed back against efforts to roll back early voting hours in ohio and push back against efforts to roll back and aluminate reforms like preregistration and Different Administration in north carolina. Ethan shelley the shelby decision weakened the Voting Rights act as a mechanism to fight discrimination by striking down preclearance and oversight provision. These oppressive laws have major impact on our election. Excessive long lines in urban areas where minorities reside consolidation of polling sites with little or no notice, reduction in early voting hours that limit participation, massive voter purchase with no effective notice for registration barriers on election day. In adequate numbers of machines where early voting showed a clear influx in voter participation. Because these issues show up in areas with large minority populations in states like georgia, florida, north carolina, arizona, michigan, ohio, and texas, it is unlikely the scheme was incidental or unintentional but instead expressly targeted the growing population of the new american majority including minority use and income sensitive individuals. In effect these oppressive laws shut out the new american majority and denied citizens the protection of their right to vote. With these minority targeted voting barriers for the 116th congress has a momentous opportunity to restore Voting Rights in this country. The opportunity to strengthen the Voting Rights act by creating a new formula that will trigger preclearance of certain changes to voting laws and administrative practices is immediate now more than ever. The creation of a National Notification process that lets all voters know changes to election processes occur in shores voters are informed prior to them showing up to the polls on election day. Of congress failed to act immediately the redistricting cycle to occur without a fully functioning Voting Rights act that will allow states to push through unjustifiable changes to their laws that will have direct impact on voters for a decade. Without continued oversight to protect voters from all backgrounds, the league of women voters and to inform and protect voters affected by policies and practices. That should not be the sole role of the league and our partners, the responsibility of government to create enforce laws for the democracy our forefathers designed to foster an open, transparent government powered by the people for the people. It is the duty of government to protect the rights of voters and encourage participation in the political system, not barriers to prevent participation as we have are 100 years of looking forward to working across the aisle to determine points of consensus for any and all Voting Rights legislation considered before congress and look forward to working with elected leaders to uphold their responsibilities, ensuring voters have the ability to exercise their right to vote. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on restoring the Voting Rights act and i look forward to working with you all on this important mission. You are recognized for five minutes. The subcommittee thanks you for testifying on this important topic. I dedicate my remarks to the memory of elijah cummings. My name is Barbara Arnwine. Ive artie been introduced. I recognize the commission for voter justice which was conceived by jacksons senior, represented here today by reverend todd yuri of baltimore and i want to make sure we get this into the record that this commission was formed in july 2017 to respond to the myriad Voter Suppression. When Donald Trumps manifold assertions of pervasive voter fraud and subsequent creation of the now defunct president ial Advisory Commission on election 70 we felt there was an urgent need to counter his dangerous and erroneous narrative and provide a truthful account of the urgent need for protection of our democracy from the insidious threat in the modern era of Voter Suppression. I created the map of shame in april 2011 which was the First National to expose and educate the American Public about the rise of contemporary Voter Suppression measures which i released a map saying it is formidable and substantial regiment of disenfranchising barriers to the ballot box, ability to have votes counted for millions of eligible but vulnerable voters. This is launched in january 2018, the commission tells a series of hearings for 14 states looking at Voting Rights and has engaged in many Voter Education and other efforts. One thing we heard in june 2018 from professor donald jones of the university of miami was the only proper way to look at the era we are in is understanding when it comes to Voting Rights, america is facing its second civil war. That is how extreme this period is. This reality of an active war against the rights of american citizens to exercise the right to vote and have their votes counted is supported by mounting evidence when we consider the myriads of Voter Suppression laws passed, the multitude of Voting Rights cases filed in the state and federal courts, the numerous reports documenting access by states that impair the right of citizens to vote and have their vote counted and continuing negative cases from the Supreme Court on the threat of social media as documented by the select Senate Commission investigation report. We also have created a new tool and document called the 61 forms of Voter Suppression. Let me be very clear that a year ago this was less than 30. The creativity, insidious this, rapid expansion of Voter Suppression measures is that extreme and it is growing. If i were to do this today would probably ask more formally that shows you how creative the states are being and how persistent they are being in pursuing this. Are major finding of our hearings have been already expressed by some of the testimony but i want to make clear one point. There are two really critical things we need to appreciate today. One is when shelley versus holder was decided we were only 18 months into the regimen of modern Voter Suppression. We are now eight years deep into this regiment. And the congress now knows more than the Supreme Court back in 2013. You have substantially more evidence about the impact of the absence of a preclearance mechanism. The second thing i want to make clear is nothing in the world can substitute for preclearance to prevent Racial Discrimination and in this era of massive Voter Suppression is clumsy and ineffective regimen is not enough so we want to commend congress for this hearing, we would like to move into the record and the testimony of reverend Jesse Jackson the 61 forms of Voter Suppression and i would like to expand my remarks, thank you. With no objections so ordered. Thank you very much. You are now recognized for five minutes. Thank you, members of the committee for holding this important hearing on Voting Rights and Election Administration. My name is Denise Lieberman, director of power and democracy at the project national office, it is a National Racial Justice Organization working in partnership with grassroots organizations to develop communitybased solutions inspired by the tactics that produce the earlier landmark civil rights victories. We are proud to stand behind many partners on the ground and states, fighting battles for Racial Justice and the right to vote and the need is great. We are faced with the greatest battle for the solvency of our democracy since the post reconstruction era. Particularly gratified at the subcommittee has chosen to have a people panel. Because to protect the right to vote in the need for congress to take definitive action to secure the right to vote for all citizen lies in the lived experiences of people for whom protection is most needed and people whose voices are most often