posted on: Saturday, September 08, 2012

By Samantha Davis

With the 2012 Election two months away, voting rights issues are under review in battleground states. Since January 2011, legislatures in 30 states have attempted to enact voter suppression laws.  As an African American woman getting ready to vote in only my second presidential election, I find it quite terrifying that after decades of fighting for voter equality and democracy, the rights of U.S citizens to vote are being threatened.

These new measures include Voter ID laws, restricting early voting and disproportionate purging of minorities and poor people from the voter rolls. Although the main justification for such laws is preventing voter fraud, no evidence has been presented to indicate that voter fraud poses a real threat to our democracy. For example, during the 2008 elections Wisconsin lawmakers decided to solve the “problem” or voter fraud by enacting a voter ID law that requires all voters to present valid, government-issued identification in order to vote. According to a Joyce Foundation-funded report “From Registration to Recounts Revisited,” potentially fraudulent votes in Wisconsin accounted for less than .00007 percent of all ballots cast.

The evidence do suggests that restrictive voting laws disproportionately affect young, minority low-income voters as well as the elderly or those with disabilities, all of whom tend to vote Democrat. Numerous studies published by the Brennan Center highlight the barriers and conflict such laws will cause come Election Day:

• Approximately 5 million U.S citizens could be denied their right to vote with Voter ID laws.
• 1 in 10 eligible voters lack the necessary government-issued photo ID required by new restrictive voter ID laws, including 25 percent of African-Americans and 18 percent of Americans over 65.
• In the 10 states that enacted the new, restrictive voter laws, more than 1 million eligible voters live below the federal poverty line. Critics of Voter ID laws point out the poor will have to pay to obtain their Birth Certificate, which will deter the poor from voting.
• Nearly 500,000 eligible voters in 10 states with restrictive voter ID laws live in households without vehicles and reside at least 10 miles from an ID-issuing office open more than two days a week.
• Sixty-three percent of the votes needed to win the presidential election will be obtain in those states that have adopted restrictive voting laws.

Given this evidence, it is clear that Voter ID laws are simply a new poll tax designed to make it harder for the poor, elderly and minorities to vote. In August, a federal court agreed with this assessment when it blocked Texas’ Voter ID laws.

My home state once again has disappointed me in its decision to enforce some of the most restrictive voter-id laws for the 2012 election. One of the authors of law, Pennsylvania State Rep. Mike Turzai, let the cat out of the bag about the law’s true intent when he said, “voter ID…is going to allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania… done.”

There is a role for everyone to play in combating these attacks on our constitutional rights. Foundations need to do their part to defend the constitution and American democracy. Too often, foundations shy away from causes promoting social justice and equality. Times such as these are when U.S citizens need bold foundations most.

Philanthropy should be concerned about who doesn’t get to vote and the Alliance for Justice states that foundations can play a vital role by lawfully doing the following:

1. Support efforts to educate voters about new restrictive voting laws.
2. Support litigation challenging the laws. 
3. Public foundations can earmark grants for lobbying.  Private foundations can make general support or specific project grants to public charities working on these issues.
4. Private foundations have certain limits on funding voter registration drives, but there is still a lot that can be done to support organizations fighting these laws.

For example, the Joyce Foundation emphasizes that the foundation has supported a variety of efforts over the years to protect the voting rights of citizens and, more recently, to guarantee that elections are carried out efficiently, honestly and in ways that ensure that all citizens have the right and the opportunity to vote.

Furthermore, the Open Society Foundations supports work that ensures more access to the ballot, including efforts to comprehensively reform our election systems, protect voters from rapidly proliferating suppressive policies and intimidation schemes, and address the undue influence of money on politics. 

These foundations and others have played a major role in protecting voting rights and strengthening democracy; and they have made commendable victories. 

Stated best by Laleh Ispahani, director of the Transparency and Integrity Fund at the Open Society Foundation:

“The right to vote, as the Supreme Court famously wrote, is “preservative of all other rights.” That right is under the most intense assault in decades.  But philanthropic funding is producing results.  As a result of our support for litigation, public education, and communications, seven courts in six states have blocked restrictive laws, and the prevailing media narrative about these laws is that they are an illegitimate attempt to make it harder for some Americans to vote.  Our support has also advanced the modernization of voter registration systems in the states; reforms like online voter registration and automated voter registration from government agencies have been shown to increase registrations dramatically from those agencies and from young people. We invite other foundations is to join us in funding groups engaged in these difficult struggles. ”

If you are a grantmaker interested in joining other philanthropist in strengthening democracy please contact Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation.

Samantha Davis is field assistant at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP).