Conyers Opposes Baker/Carter Commission Report

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usnw/20050919/pl_usnw/conyers_opposes_baker_carter_commission_report__discriminatory_id_requirement_will_make_it_harder_for_tens_of_millions_of_citiz

To: National Desk

Contact: Dena Graziano of the Office of U.S. Rep. John Conyers (news, bio, voting record), Jr., 202-226-6888

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Rep. John Conyers, Jr., ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and founding member of the
Congressional Black Caucus, issued the following statement opposing the Baker/Carter Commission Report on Election Law Changes, released this morning:

"I am shocked that this Commission has decided to take us several giant steps back in the march for voting rights by recommending a national ID requirement for voters. This would inevitably disenfranchise minority voters and the most vulnerable among us -- those who live in poverty and the elderly. While I continue to believe that the 2004 elections showed our desperate need for election reforms, this misguided and highly controversial recommendation makes this Commission's entire report -- regardless of the merits of other recommendations -- dead on arrival from a civil rights and voting rights perspective. As a result, I am unalterably opposed to these discriminatory new requirements and will encourage my colleagues in the House and Senate to join with me in doing so.

"The lack of a fair and open process like that used by the Carter-Ford Commission was evident throughout. In the last commission, civil rights groups submitted research, reports, and testimony. This time around, civil rights groups were essentially barred from the process. The only input from the civil rights community (Barbara Arnwine from the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law) was essentially ignored on this critical issue. It speaks volumes that the public could not participate in a process that would effect their most fundamental right, the right to vote. Moreover, the Commissioners spent only a short time deliberating on these issues.

"If they had spent more time on the issue, they would realize that there are incredibly few documented cases of voter fraud to even respond to via legislation. Essentially, the Commission would have us create a massive and intrusive new bureaucracy, and one that discriminates and disenfranchises, in order to deal with a non-problem.

Conyers strategy is misplaced. Yes, the concern about fees for ID cards is real, but it can easily be won. Winning the Voter Verified Ballots issue is bigger and more important and hard to win. Don't let Conyers sabotage that effort.