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Press Release

STATEMENT FROM NATIONAL LULAC PRESIDENT ROSA ROSALES REGARDING THE VOTER ID BILL.
MISGUIDED BILL WILL DISENFRANCHISE MANY LEGAL VOTERS

September 21, 2006

Contact: Lizette Jenness Olmos
(202) 833-6130 ext.14

Washington, DC – LULAC National President Rosa Rosales has released the following statement in reaction to the House passage of the H.R. 4844, the Voter ID Bill which requires proof of citizenship in order to vote:

This Voter ID Bill is cynical mean-spirited legislation intended to suppress legal voters by placing unnecessary hurdles on low income and minority populations who are already much less likely to vote than middle and upper income white voters. It is the equivalent of a 21st century poll tax which aims to keep legal low income and minority voters from voting. Many seniors and low income Americans do not drive and do not have a driver’s license. While they can purchase a passport to prove their citizenship without getting a driver’s license, many will not want to jump through these additional hoops just to be able to vote. For LULAC it is critical that the civil rights of all citizens regardless of their race, color and creed are protected. Minority communities fought hard against the Jim Crow laws of the past and we will not allow our electoral process to go back to the days when politicians enacted unnecessary barriers to prevent minorities from voting. This bill is an unnecessary violation of civil rights pure and simple.

The cases of voter fraud based on voter identity are minimal. According to a League of Women Voters report, voter fraud due to a misrepresentation of identity was statistically insignificant (.00004%) in 2002 and 2004. In Ohio out of the millions of votes cast in the two elections, only 4 were found to fall under the type of voter fraud targeted by this bill. We have seen a higher percentage of mass voting irregularities and problems with voting machines as seen just this month in the Maryland primary.

Many courts have already struck down state bills similar to the Voter ID bill. A Missouri court struck down a similar state law earlier this month, and on Tuesday, State Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford, Jr. of Georgia ruled that the state’s law requiring a photo ID was an unconstitutional condition for voting. The Voter ID Bill would require everyone to present a photo ID before voting in federal elections by 2008. By 2010 voters would have to have photo IDs that certified they were citizens. We urge the Senate to reject this bill that aims at setting back the clock.

The League of United Latin American Citizen (LULAC) is the oldest and largest Latino membership based civil rights organization in the United States. It advances the economic conditions, educational attainment, political influence, health and civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community-based programs operating at more than 700 LULAC councils nationwide.

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