South Dakota voter suppression

ACLU Blog Post: Let Eileen Vote

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here. The text:

Let Eileen Vote.

What’s new in voter suppression land today? South Dakota is trying to prevent Eileen Janis — and hundreds of other citizens — from voting.

Eileen grew up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and does suicide prevention work. She registered to vote for the first time in 1984. “I always vote because my mom told me to,” she says.

But when she went to cast her ballot in the historic 2008 election, she found that she had been illegally removed from the voter rolls. Though she had been convicted of a felony, her sentence to probation meant that she had not lost the right to cast a ballot. “I went [to vote] with my son who had just turned 18. As soon as I tried to vote I was told no because I was a felon.”

The illegal denial of Eileen’s voting rights is part of South Dakota’s long and troubling history of violating the civil rights of Native Americans. Native Americans are highly over-represented in the criminal justice system, so denying voting rights to people on probation has an unfair and disproportionate impact on Native American voters.

The ACLU sued on behalf of Eileen and other Native Americans wrongfully purged from the rolls. We won, and South Dakota was ordered to make sure that people on probation were allowed to cast their ballots.

But the South Dakota legislature is now considering a bill that would strip Eileen and anyone else convicted of a felony of the right to vote, even if they never serve jail time and are living in their communities.

Measures designed to suppress the vote have been sweeping the nation, and South Dakota appears to be jumping on the bandwagon — but not if we can help it.

The Voting Rights Act gives the US Department of Justice (DOJ) the power to ensure that voting laws do not discriminate. Tell the DOJ to protect the right to vote in South Dakota and across the nation. And urge Congress to pass the Democracy Restoration Act, which would let Eileen — and all Americans with past convictions who are living in their communities — vote in federal elections.

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DailyKos: Suppressing the Vote 2012 — South Dakota Edition

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here. The press release text:

South Dakota Attacking the Right to Vote Again

Currently before the South Dakota legislature is HB 1247, a bill which will substantially change the voting rights of those with criminal convictions. Currently, under South Dakota Law certain criminal convictions do not result in the removal of the person from the voting rolls. HB 1247 would make it state law that anyone convicted of a felony does not have a right to vote.

Felon voting rights were recently at issue in the ACLU lawsuit, Janis v. Nelson. This suit was brought by the ACLU because the State of South Dakota was illegally removing voters because of felony convictions that did not disqualify them to vote. South Dakota law currently allows those convicted of a felonies who receive sentences that do not involve jail time to vote. HB 1247 would make it so that anyone convicted of a felony could not vote which is a substantial change to current South Dakota law.

“This bill would move South Dakota back decades by denying an entire group of eligible voters the right to vote” said Robert Doody Executive Director of the ACLU of South Dakota. The right to vote is one of the most fundamental rights we all have as Americans and any attempt to take away that right is suspect.

“One of the most disturbing parts of this law is how it will negative effect American Indian voters who are disproportionately represented in the South Dakota criminal system. This law taken into the state’s terrible past history of discrimination towards American Indians shows that Jim Crow era suppression of minority voting is alive and well in South Dakota” Doody said.

Felon disenfranchisement laws were intentionally set up in the Deep South to remove African American voters from the voting rolls. This piece of invidious racial discrimination is now being brought to South Dakota to attack American Indian voters.