Constitution

There's no shortage of contempt for youth civic engagement these days, apparently.

Yesterday, in Marshalltown, Iowa, troubled presidential candidate Newt Gingrich hosted a town hall meeting. The senior citizen-dominated crowd heard Gingrich argue that, since immigrants need to pass a citizenship test to become U.S. citizens, "young Americans" should be required to take a similar test prior to exercising their right to vote. Gingrich's suggestion was met with applause from the crowd. ThinkProgress captured the transcript and the video.

GINGRICH: [Immigrants] need to pass a test of American history. And candidly, it wouldn’t be bad to have a test like that for young Americans before they start voting.

Ironically, Newt shows that his idiocy extends into the civic realm, and that he himself might experience difficulty passing the test he suggests.

Newt would benefit from picking up any history textbook and reading about the Voter Rights Act of 1965 and the 26th Amendment.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 explicitly prohibits the use of any device or test to deny the right to vote on account of race. It states that "no citizen shall be denied the right to vote in any Federal, State, or local election because of his failure to comply with any test or device in any State." After President Nixon signed a bill into law in 1970 (based on The Voting Rights Act of 1965) that set the minimum voting age in federal, state, and local election at 18, and the Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional in Oregon v. Mitchell, 400. U.S. 112 (1970), Congress and state legislatures overwhelmingly passed the 26th Amendment to the Constitution, invalidating the Supreme Court's previous ruling. The Amendment reads:

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Newt didn't mention any specifics as a part of his proposal (what is "young," and how old does one have to be to be deemed competent enough to vote?), but unless he plans on pushing for a repeal of the 26th Amendment, it's a clear violation of the Constitution. Either Newt's trapped in a pre-1971 time warp, or he's as stupid as he thinks we are. Maybe both.

Legal issues aside, Newt's stupidity also reflects the grave danger Republicans face moving into the future. The GOP knows that the electorate is diversifying before their eyes and gaining thousands of unfriendly Millennials by the day. Politically, they have their work cut out for them.

Unfortunately, for these communities, the GOP frequently refuses to acknowledge its oppressive and harmful stances on policy and the Democratic process and conduct this work in an honest and legal manner. Accordingly, it refuses to engage in authentic outreach efforts with young voters and minority voters, choosing not to listen to these groups' concerns when it comes time to make policy. And so Republicans, to retain the power they do have, are forced to shrink our democracy, to rig the game, out of desperation.

The Republican Party knows that young people suffer because of its stances on myriad issues, whether that's the manufacturing of intelligence that got us into Iraq, the decline of Pell grant funding throughout Bush's two terms, the squandering of the trillions of surplus dollars over the last ten years, the outsourcing of our jobs and futures overseas, or the continued desecration of our environment; consequently, they don't trust us to make the "right" choice in the voting booth, or apparently, any choice at all.

Newt's suggestion that some Americans are not competent enough to exercise our constitutional rights is ironic, illegal, and cowardly. We must fight back by not only standing up to Newt, but also by vigorously contesting all of the disenfranchisement efforts the GOP has proposed to keep us from losing our inalienable right.

Update: Young Democrats of America and Democracy for America have teamed up to fight back against GOP voter suppression efforts all over the country. Newt's remarks are simply an extension of a philosophy that clearly governs the Republican Party's approach to democracy. Their action alert is provided below.

As a legislator in Montana, I’m proud that my state has defeated several bills aimed at suppressing the vote.

Unfortunately Montana is one of only a few success stories when it comes to our efforts to combat a concerted Republican plan to make voting much more difficult in states across the country.

In a New York Times editorial from last week, the Advancement Project, a civil rights advocacy group, described this rash of Republican-sponsored legislation as “the largest legislative effort to scale back voting rights in a century.”

That’s why two organizations dedicated to preserving the rights of all Americans have teamed up to take a stand against this outright assault on the fundamental democratic value of voting – you can join us here.

As Vice President of the Young Democrats of America, I’m excited to partner with Democracy for America, the people-powered political action committee working on progressive issues across the country to bring attention to this attack on young peoples’ voting rights.

A democracy depends on the people choosing their elected officials – not the politicians choosing their voters – and for that reason, DFA and YDA are launching a national campaign to defend democracy and defeat the Koch-funded attacks on voting rights.

Join us in defending democracy right now.

In addition to a this national statement in support of voting rights, YDA and DFA will be working together on a state by state basis to defeat the individual bills aimed at suppressing the votes of young people, working families, people with disabilities, the elderly and minorities.

There is little else more precious than our ability to participate in our democracy. Join me today in standing up for voting rights.

Thanks for all you do,

Representative Ellie Boldman Hill
Democrat
Missoula, Montana

Bumped - Mike.

Cross-posted at Project Vote's blog, Voting Matters.

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

While many see voting as an implicit right in a representative democracy, decisions in America about who can vote and how are actually controlled by the states and vary greatly from state-to-state, even from county-to-county.

Misinformation and misinterpretation of each state's particular laws—not only by voters, but also by state officials—has the potential to influence the outcome of the election, a problem seen recently as two of the country’s most disenfranchised groups – youth and former felons –have encountered procedural roadblocks to electoral participation.

Large voter registration drives are underway in Virginia, but the Roanoke Times has recently reported on problems that may hinder the participation of Virginia students. According to Kevin Litten of the Roanoke Times on Saturday, allegations of voter intimidation came out of Virginia Tech last week, when Montgomery County Registrar Randy Wertz issued a news release warning students that registering using their college addresses would be changing their permanent addresses. This, according to Wertz, could “affect student’s scholarships or tax filings, and would obligate them to change car registrations and their driver's licenses.”

Litten reports that officials from the Obama campaign, which has been conducting voter registration activities in Virginia, countered that “they had never heard of students' dependency status on their parents' tax forms affected by their voter registration,” and that the “other laws mentioned in the release are rarely enforced or subject to interpretation.” The officials worried that the statements could have a “chilling effect” on voter registration efforts, but Wertz denied that intimidating students was his intention, insisting that “his focus is making sure elections run smoothly and fairly.”

Fair and smooth elections become even more difficult when more voters are involved and the state is ill prepared. Wednesday's Roanoke Times expressed concerns that the influx of newly registered students—assigned to what is already the county's most populated precinct—could create long lines and transportation problems on Election Day.

The precinct, E-1, already has 3,600 active voters; the state is required to split precincts when they exceed 5,000 voters, but officials say it is too late to obtain Justice Department approval for the split if E-1 exceeds capacity before November. To at least help alleviate the waiting period to vote, officials say they are making efforts to hire extra officials to run the polls. But, to make matters worse, the polling place assigned for the precinct is located four miles from campus without connecting public transportation – a potential problem for students without cars.