[kj] ot - you may not vote

[fluwdot at earthlink.net]

unless we say so
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NAACP CHAIRMAN JULIAN BOND CALLS FOR 
ELECTION PROTECTION TO DEFEND VOTING RIGHTS ACT
                                                                                                
Julian Bond, Chairman of the Board, National Association for the 
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), has called on 
Attorney General John Ashcroft to take steps to protect minority 
voters against practices meant to deceive or intimidate minority 
voters during the elections this fall. 
 
Bond said a report on voter intimidation and suppression 
released by the NAACP and People for the American Way 
shows that deliberate efforts to deceive or intimidate voters into 
staying away from the polls continue to emerge in major 
elections. 
 
The report, entitled, “The Long Shadow of Jim Crow: Voter 
Intimidation and Suppression in America,” documents several 
decades of race-based efforts to deter minority voters, including 
African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans from casting 
their votes.   
 
Bond said: “We are calling on Attorney General John Ashcroft, 
state attorney generals, political parties and election officials 
everywhere to halt these tactics, to closely monitor groups in their 
communities with a history of voter suppression, and to send a 
clear message that America guarantees that every voter can cast 
his or her vote without running a gauntlet of hostile forces or dirty 
tricks, and that every vote will be fairly counted.” 
 
Tactics cited in the report include; asking minority voters to vote 
on alternate days, demanding forms of identification not required 
by law to vote, the use of phony voter purge lists containing 
legitimate voters, and harassment of voters at the polls. “Minority 
voters bear the brunt of every form of disenfranchisement, 
including pernicious efforts to keep them away from the polls”, 
said Bond.
 
He said, “When the 1965 Voting Rights Act eliminated literacy 
tests and the poll tax, the enemies of democracy turned to other 
means.”  This year, with widespread predictions of a close 
national election, Bond said, “We are reminding voters, election 
officials, and the media about the kinds of dirty tricks that can be 
expected.  We must be prepared to confront and defeat them.”
 
The report said that in South Dakota's June 2004 primary, Native 
American voters were prevented from voting after they were 
challenged to provide photo IDs, which were not required by state 
or federal law.  
 
This summer, Michigan state Rep. John Pappageorge (R-Troy) 
was quoted in the Detroit Free Press as saying: "If we do not 
suppress the Detroit vote, we're going to have a tough time in this 
election. African Americans comprise 83% of Detroit's 
population.”
 
Most recently, armed plainclothes officers from the Florida 
Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) questioned elderly 
black voters in their homes as part of a state investigation of 
voting irregularities in the Orlando March 2003 mayoral election. 
Critics have charged that the tactics used by the FDLE have 
intimidated black voters, which could suppress their turnout in this 
year's elections.  
 
Founded in 1909, the National Association for the Advancement 
of Colored People (NAACP) is the nation’s oldest and largest 
civil rights organization. Its half-million adult and youth members 
throughout the United States and the world are the premier 
advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter 
mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and 
private sectors.