The Honorable Richard Durbin
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
Re: S.565/The Equal Protection of Voting Rights Act of 2001
Dear Senator Durbin:
The Equal Protection of Voting Rights Act of 2001, S. 565, is scheduled for mark-up in the Senate Rules Committee on Thursday, August 2, 2001. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) strongly urges you to vote for this legislation and against any weakening amendments. The Voting Rights Act of 2001 is an important step in addressing election reform issues critical to our democracy. It will assist state and local governments in meeting their constitutional duty of providing equal protection for all voters.
During the 2000 presidential election, millions American citizens were unable to vote due to technical problems, voter intimidation, voter suppression, and voter disenfranchisement. Congress now has a unique opportunity to correct these constitutional problems by passing the Equal Protection of Voting Rights Act of 2001. The objective of this legislation is to begin to provide relief to voters before the 2002 federal elections--and full equality by 2004. It will meet the three principal goals of election reform: uniformity, accuracy, and accessibility. The bill sets uniform performance standards for voting equipment, promotes accuracy by upgrading technology and allowing voters to correct any balloting errors, and ensures accessibility and convenience for all voters, including language minorities and persons with disabilities.
The legal foundation for the bill is sound, and the need for the legislation could not be more compelling. In one of its most important decisions, the United State Supreme Court held that the vote recount procedures in Florida violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. The Court explained that "[w]hen the state legislature vests the right to vote for President in its people, the right to vote as the legislature has prescribed is fundamental; and one source of its fundamental nature lies in the equal weight accorded to each vote and equal dignity owed to each voter." Bush v. Gore, 121 S. Ct. 525 (2000) (emphasis added).
Although the Court limited its decision to the recount procedures in Florida, the decision should apply wherever states fail to accord equal weight to each vote and equal dignity to each voter. The Court's holding that, once a state grants "the right to vote on equal terms, the State may not, by later arbitrary and disparate treatment, value one person's vote over that of another" is the rule for all elections. Id.
Effective federal legislation, the Equal Protection of Voting Rights Act of 2001, is the most certain and complete way to guarantee that all states meet the requirements outlined by the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore. Voters should not have to resort to the courts to ensure compliance with the "one person-one vote" rule. Imposing minimal federal standards is essential to achieving meaningful election reform. It is evident from the last election that several states were not only in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but also the National Voter Registration Act, and the Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act. Given states are not complying with existing law, it is difficult to imagine that they will behave differently without federal requirements.
We applaud your co-sponsorship of the Voting Rights Act of 2001 and urge you to vote in favor of this bill as it is presently written. We look forward to working with you as the legislative process continues.
Sincerely,
Laura W. Murphy
Director
LaShawn Y. Warren
Legislative Counsel