A DUer Investigates - The Disenfranchisement Of Katrina's Survivors

Adding Insult to Injury for Katrina Survivors
- Barriers to Voting Due to Inadequate State & Local Efforts
- Two Law Suits Fail to Remedy the Situation.

Special for "Scoop" Independent Media
Michael Collins


Does this Katrina evacuee have the right to vote in the upcoming New Orleans municipal elections? Without a doubt but her prospects have been limited by an unresponsive state legislature and Federal authorities.

CONTENTS
- A second loss in state court.
- Demographics and disaster.
- April 22, 2006: Primary Election Day in New Orleans.
- A limited ability to vote further limited by scarce information.
- Acting in good faith?
- Iraqi and Mexican citizens voting in the United States have more rights than Katrina evacuees.
- A new chapter in the ongoing American Revolution: the struggle for voting rights for Katrina survivors.

Wash. DC. - Two court decisions this weekend create barriers to voting for hurricane Katrina survivors spread around the United States. The U.S. District Court of Louisiana (Eastern) denied a lawsuit that sought to delay elections and allow special measures to enable voting by several hundred thousand displaced New Orleans evacuees. Advancement Project, a civil rights organization, filed the suit with ACORN (a national community rights organization) and individual voters.

The suit asked for immediate relief for displaced voters through satellite polling places in major evacuee locales, publicity efforts in these areas to let people know their right to vote, and an expanded form of identification to include Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Red Cross documentation with a New Orleans address. The suit also asked the court to declare that the Louisiana legislature's Act 40 and the Secretary of State's emergency voting plan "impose a severe burden on displaced voters' fundamental right to vote."

After the judge ruled against the Plaintiffs, Advancement issued a statement saying, "Advancement Project is extremely disappointed at the recent ruling of Judge Ivan Lemelle (a Clinton appointee) against providing satellite polling places to Katrina evacuees currently residing outside of the state of Louisiana." The statement went on to note that current election law "fails to ensure that displaced residents will be able to exercise their voting rights - and that thousands of displaced victims of Katrina will have to travel great distances in order to cast their ballot."

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A second loss in state court.

In the second case, Louisiana State District Court Judge William Morvant, Baton Rouge, ruled out candidate access to potential voters by denying New Orleans candidates access to a FEMA list of addresses for evacuees. This is the most comprehensive list of evacuees and their current locations. The Louisiana Attorney General and Secretary of State have the list. It is unclear whether FEMA would release the list even if the court had allowed it. State Representatives Charmaine Marchand and Cedric Richmond are seeking the list to contact voters and encourage voting. They represent the sections of New Orleans hardest hit by hurricane damage which were predominantly black. The American Civil Liberties Union opposed the release on the basis of privacy rights.

Judge Morvant noted that the plaintiffs failed to prove that this was a "voting list" or public document. He left the door open for an expected appeal (Morvant previously ruled that the states anti-gay laws were unconstitutional, a ruling reversed by the Louisiana Supreme Court). This prompted State Senator Cleo Fields, D, Baton Rouge, to term the upcoming primaries "secret elections" since voters have no way to gain information about the candidates or their positions. Fields went on to say: "How are these people going to run for office if they can't get in touch with their constituents? Ninety-seven percent of the people in their districts have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina." (From Baton Rouge Channel 2)