[EL] Election law listserv comments

[Pildes, Rick]

I was gratified and relieved to receive this clarification from Judith Browne Dianis.  The actual comments in her testimony, which I've now read, do not say what the Daily Beast story reports, for the reasons Judith identifies.  Turns out it is the combination of a terrible headline and bad online reporting that accounts for a story that came across as overwrought regarding the 2012 election, even to those of us who worked on voter-protection issues for the Obama for America campaign.  

-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Hasen [mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu] 
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 11:50 PM
To: Judith Browne Dianis
Cc: Pildes, Rick; law-election at UCI.edu
Subject: Re: Election law listserv comments

Copying this message to the Election Law Listserv.

On 8/22/13 8:23 PM, Judith Browne Dianis wrote:
> Hello,
> (I hope you will share this with the listserv. )
>
> We stumbled upon an entry on the Election Law listserv about a recent Daily Beast article, Was 2012 the Worst Year Ever for Voting Rights?<http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/22/was-2012-the-worst-year-ever-for-voting-rights.html> In the piece - which highlights a new joint report<http://www.advancementproject.org/news/entry/2012-battle-for-voting-rights-a-precursor-to-even-harder-fight-in-2013-and> by Advancement Project and Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law about the wave of restrictive voting measures that preceded the 2012 election - reporter Eliza Shapiro paraphrases a quote, pulled from the report, by Advancement Project Co-Director Judith Browne Dianis. In the article's rewording of the original statement, it says:
>            Dianis said it was harder for African-Americans to "vote, cast a ballot, and have a vote counted" in 2012 than in any other recent election.
>   We understand that you have taken issue with this interpretation of Dianis' words, and we'd like to clarify what was accurately said. This quote was pulled from testimony given before the Senate Judiciary Committee in December 2012, in a hearing called "The State of the Right to Vote After the 2012 Election<http://www.advancementproject.org/resources/entry/right-to-vote-judith-browne-dianis-hearing-testimony-for-senate-committee-o>." The full comment does not specifically discuss African Americans, but the overall state of voting rights, and the spate of legislative barriers to the ballot that were introduced during the last election cycle. It reads:
>   When I testified before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights last year, I described the rash of new voting restrictions in the states as the "largest legislative effort to rollback voting rights since the post-reconstruction era" effectuating a trifecta of voter suppression - making it harder to register to vote, harder to cast a ballot, and harder to have a vote counted.
> As you acknowledge, there were more restrictive laws and practices enacted in the two years leading up to the 2012 election than in previous recent elections - including restrictive voter ID laws, cuts to early voting, large-scale efforts to purge registered voters, "show me your papers" proof-of-citizenship practices, and voter challenges at the polls. This unprecedented flood of tactics disproportionately affected voters of color, who are less likely to have state-issued photo ID, more likely to use early voting, more likely to be naturalized citizens, and more likely to be targeted for polling place intimidation.
> We agree, that for the most part, these attempts at disenfranchisement back-fired.  Organizations like Advancement Project worked tirelessly to make this happen and as a result, we did not see the decreases in voter participation that we would have otherwise. In fact, we saw record turnout of voters of color.  We welcome the opportunity for dialogue about the impact of restrictive voting policies, and hope this clears up the Daily Beast paraphrase which was somewhat misconstrued in translation.
>   Sincerely,
> Judith Browne Dianis, Co-Director, Advancement Project Cynthia Gordy, 
> Senior Communications Associate, Advancement Project

--
Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science UC Irvine School of Law
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