CONNECT
‘Occupy the Voting Booth’-Thousands March to Protect the Vote
NationofChange / News Report
Published: Tuesday 13 December 2011
On Saturday, in conjunction with UN Human Rights Day, thousands of activists and concerned citizens in New York City held a march and rally to protest these restrictive new [voting] laws.
Tomorrow Attorney General Eric Holder will gave a major speech on voting rights at the LBJ presidential library in Austin. According to the library, “Holder will discuss the importance of ensuring equal access to the ballot box and strengthening America's long tradition of expanding the franchise.”
Holder’s speech could not come at a more critical time. Over the last year we’ve witnessed an unprecedented GOP war on voting, with a dozen Republican governors and state legislators passing laws to restrict voter registration drives, require birth certificates to register to vote, curtail early voting, mandate government-issued photo IDs to cast a ballot and disenfranchise ex-felons who’ve served their time. The Brennan Center for Justice has estimated that “these new laws could make it significantly harder for more than 5 million eligible voters to cast ballots in 2012,” and notes that “these new restrictions fall most heavily on young, minority and low-income voters, as well as on voters with disabilities.”
On Saturday, in conjunction with UN Human Rights Day, thousands of activists and concerned citizens in New York City held a march and rally to protest these restrictive new laws. The march began outside the New York headquarters of the Koch brothers, who have given more than $1 million to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the shadowy conservative advocacy group that has masterminded the push for new voter ID requirements this year. Protesters held signs that read “Koch Bros & The 1%: Undermining Democracy.”
The march then continued to the UN for a rally with civil rights leaders, good-government activists and voting rights experts. One organizer told me that 20,000–25,000 people participated in the march, which, if true, would be a very good turnout on a chilly December morning. (The AP, on the other hand, said that “hundreds” protested, though the numbers seemed significantly larger to me). Groups sponsoring the march/rally included the NAACP, SEIU1199 and the United Federation of Teachers.
The purpose of the march was both practical and symbolic. “The march on Saturday was an indication that Americans will not go backwards,” said Judith Browne-Dianis, co-director of the Advancement Project. “We will keep up the momentum to end voter suppression by taking to the streets, to the legislatures and to the courts. We won't be silenced by those who want to undermine democracy.”
The Advancement Project has helped gather 120,000 signatures asking the Justice Department “to oppose any discriminatory laws that will disenfranchise voters.” The Justice Department has that authority under the Voting Rights Act. DOJ has sent pointed questions to states like Texas and South Carolina about their new laws, but we still don’t know how aggressively they will enforce the existing laws on the books. Perhaps Holder’s speech tomorrow will shed some light.
“Occupy A Voting Booth,” read one sign I spotted on Saturday. Many of the speakers echoed that theme. While Occupy Wall Street is rightly fighting for systemic change in a broken political system, the demonstrators on Saturday are leading a struggle to protect the most basic of political rights—the right to vote. Because of the new GOP laws, Bob Fertik of Democrats.com recently told me, voting itself has become an act of resistance.
This story originally appeared in The Nation.
Copyright © The Nation – distributed by Agence Global.
Copyright © The Nation – distributed by Agence Global.
Get Email Alerts from NationofChange
ABOUT Ari Berman
Ari Berman is a contributing writer for The Nation magazine and an Investigative Journalism Fellow at The Nation Institute. He has written extensively about American politics, foreign policy and the intersection of money and politics. His stories have also appeared in the New York Times, Editor & Publisher and The Guardian, and he is a frequent guest and political commentator on MSNBC, C-Span and NPR. His first book, Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics, will be published in October 2010 by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. He graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University with a degree in journalism and political science.
FEATURE A
Connect with your friends
Find new content you might like and see what your friends are sharing!
10 comments on "‘Occupy the Voting Booth’-Thousands March to Protect the Vote"
February 05, 2012 9:06pm
OCCUPY THE DMV
Why don't you occupy the DMV and provide transportation to those you think can't get there to get a photo ID. What don't you need an ID for to get anything accomplished in the US? Cash a SS check, apply for government assistance, or obtain a college ID? Amazing how these people can get to the voting booth, but cannot get to the DMV! What a load of BS! Talk about integrity... I would like to guarantee the integrity of my (and your) vote, thank you!
December 14, 2011 9:07am
I don't understand why people have a problem with providing a picture ID to vote and for providing proof of their identity to register to vote if they are honest. This will prevent dead people from voting and relatives from voting for comatose patients which is happening now. I can't see why it would be considered discrimination to prove who you are when you vote.
December 14, 2011 7:53am
A counter to Republican efforts to violate people's civil rights at the polls is as I have stated elsewhere to OCCUPY the GOP. Voting needs to be thought of more strategically. We are free to vote for the candidate of our choice in the election but are limited in most primaries to the choice of our registered party. I think Ron Paul vs. Pres. Obama would be as good for the country as we can expect in these times. Ron Paul has consistently held his positions for decades. That alone is an improvement over others in the GOP race. He is reviled by the party elite and their media propagandists and their 1%er money. That alone recommends him. Many of his consistent positions on monetary policy, foreign policy, and the rule of law are areas that Obama promised change and has fallen short. Paul would call him on these issues. It would require that Obama do some 'splaining, and it would afford the cover for him to move in those directions if that is truly who he is. Such a strategic Occupation (of) the GOP would also help the GOP. Hundreds of thousands of small and medium business people, social conservatives, small government folks are finding themselves Republican by default but trapped by a party elite that mouths their values in order to manipulate their votes in favor of neo-con and 1%er agendas. To Occupy the GOP primary could,... no, would liberate the party's majority from its bondage to a toxic elite.VOTING IS KEY. To register Republican in time to vote in your primary is crucial. The convergence of the Occupy consciousness with Ron Paul's candidacy and President Obama's unmet campaign pledges creates a once in a lifetime opportunity to have our votes count. If we do this with sufficient numbers and it is stolen by computer vote-rigging, further bald partisanship by the Supreme Court, or denial of voter's civil rights it will be of such obvious scale that even the most mesmerized will have their veils lifted and the Matrix revealed to them.
December 13, 2011 3:58pm
That's where the muscle comes in. Right in the voting booths. We are many (99%) and they are few. None of us should ever feel helpless and powerless. They know where the power lies and we are now just finding out. Yes, the quake is on and the people have arrived and they will now start to straighten out. NO MATTER WHAT ELSE THE OWS AGENDA IS..... LET OUR GRANDE FINALE BE AT THE POLLING BOOTH. WE WILL MAKE AND SHAPE THE GOVERNMENT RIGHT THERE DECISIVELY. ... pierre Jacques on facebook
December 13, 2011 3:38pm
eric holder for equal access lolwrof this is man who thinks it ok to threaten elderly voters with clubs need maintain access for dead peoples votes
December 13, 2011 2:47pm
Prior to occupying the voting booths, I feel that it would first be necessary to affect primaries much like the Tea Party did in co-opting the process from the GOP. It is believed that the TP began attending GOP precinct meetings, became activists in those precincts and because so few people bother with them, it is easier to gain chairmanships of committees and get elected as delegates to the County, State and National conventions. These are the folk who decide who runs for office. With the FINANCIAL AND IDEA backing of the people like the Kochs, they gain considerable stature and power. Once this has been replicated throughout the varying levels of government, power is piggybacked from City Council to the State House to the Congress and ultimately the White House.The Democrats are better informed as a group and have the organization to pull this off on a scale larger than the TP. The various Occupation groups have the right idea and are covering a lot of bases. There is considerable crossover between Dems, TP, and Occupation with members of each group within the other groups.Voting as suggested by Citizen J naturally follows.
December 13, 2011 2:46pm
Don't forget about the 'paper trail' whether it is real or statistical. Real is easier to work initially, perhaps. Perhaps, in the hands of the voter confidence levels can be achieved, but policing is dangerous. The point is that any computer can be cheated. The issue takes a Darwinian appreciation applied to machinery. Even AI is so basic in parallel processing mode, to explain equally 'evil' crime, for what that is worth. The ballot is not the ballot unless it is a one, statistically.
December 13, 2011 2:09pm
LOL RON PAUL? REALLY? LOLOLOL its sickening how the repulsives are doing everything they can to undermine the democratic vote. people are not stupid ---they see the dirty low down things the repulsives do and won't stand for it!!!!!!!!!!
December 13, 2011 1:59pm
The problem is not the way we elect our Congress and Executives. It is not in the way our Judicial Brnch is appointed and confirmed. The problem is that virtually every elected official in the United States Government and most of the Justices and Judges are criminals.
Campaign contributions and other bribes could not sway honest men and women in the performance of the duties they were elected to perform. Ideology and bias could not affect the judgment of honest Justices and Judges. At least since Ford's pardon of Nixon our political elite and the top dogs of big cororpatiions have been allowed to be above the law. Look at the list of crimes that have been committed by high rannking officials under Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, and Bush 43 that went unpunished. Look at the crimes of Big Oil, Big Pharma, and Big Telecommunications that have not been punished.
What we are seeing is criminal behavior running wild in our government. We need to make whatever revisions are necessary to the U. S. Constitution to make this country a nation of laws as it once claimed to be.
I had a college professor who said the worst crime a politician can commit is getting caught. Getting caught undermines the public's faith in the system. Nixon got caught and it has been a downhill slide since.
December 13, 2011 12:14pm
A counter to Republican efforts to violate people's civil rights at the polls is as I have stated elsewhere to OCCUPY the GOP. Voting needs to be thought of more strategically. We are free to vote for the candidate of our choice in the election but are limited in most primaries to the choice of our registered party. I think Ron Paul vs. Pres. Obama would be as good for the country as we can expect in these times. Ron Paul has consistently held his positions for decades. That alone is an improvement over others in the GOP race. He is reviled by the party elite and their media propagandists and their 1%er money. That alone recommends him. Many of his consistent positions on monetary policy, foreign policy, and the rule of law are areas that Obama promised change and has fallen short. Paul would call him on these issues. It would require that Obama do some 'splaining, and it would afford the cover for him to move in those directions if that is truly who he is. Such a strategic Occupation (of) the GOP would also help the GOP. Hundreds of thousands of small and medium business people, social conservatives, small government folks are finding themselves Republican by default but trapped by a party elite that mouths their values in order to manipulate their votes in favor of neo-con and 1%er agendas. To Occupy the GOP primary could,... no, would liberate the party's majority from its bondage to a toxic elite.VOTING IS KEY. To register Republican in time to vote in your primary is crucial. The convergence of the Occupy consciousness with Ron Paul's candidacy and President Obama's unmet campaign pledges creates a once in a lifetime opportunity to have our votes count. If we do this with sufficient numbers and it is stolen by computer vote-rigging, further bald partisanship by the Supreme Court, or denial of voter's civil rights it will be of such obvious scale that even the most mesmerized will have their veils lifted and the Matrix revealed to them.