Protecting Minority Voters: Our Work is Not Done

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New Report Shows Continued Pattern of Voting Rights Discrimination—African American, Latino, Asian American and Native American Voters More Vulnerable Than Ever

On the anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act and a year after the Supreme Court’s Shelby County v Holder decision gutted a vital protection of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), the National Commission on Voting Rights has released a new report showing where and how minority voters continue to be harmed by racial discrimination in voting. The report, Protecting Minority Voters: Our Work is Not Done, challenges the Court’s rationale that improvements in minority citizens’ rates of voting and voter registration and the success of minority candidates indicated that the coverage formula protecting minority voters was unconstitutionally outdated.

Among the Report Findings Between 1995–2014:

  • Voting discrimination is a frequent and ongoing problem in the United States. There were about 332 successful voting rights lawsuits and denials of Section 5 preclearance by the U.S. Department of Justice and another ten non-litigation settlements.
  • Formerly covered states in the South and Southwest stand out with some of worst records of voting discrimination–with Texas being at the top of the list. Texas stands out as having a remarkably high level of documented voting discrimination, including multiple state-level violations. And the States of Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina were not far behind.
  • From this report, we can also see that voting discrimination takes a variety of forms. Discriminatory redistricting plans and at-large elections continue to prompt the most successful lawsuits under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. However, there were also 48 successful lawsuits and ten non-litigation settlements relating to language translation and assistance.

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Hearing Summaries

With the support of a broad-based coalition of national, state and community-based organizations, the National Commission on Voting Rights conducted twenty-five state and regional hearings across the country, where we heard from hundreds of voters, grassroots activists, state and local advocates, and experts on the wide range of issues impacting voters today.

The following summaries represent some examples of discriminatory voting practices that were shared at the hearing. Additional testimony related to election administration specific issues will be released this fall along with the Commission’s second report.

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Dr. Brenda Williams of The Family Unit testified, at the NCVR South Carolina state hearing, about attire guidelines for people seeking to obtain voter ID in the state.Analiese Eicher, grassroots organizer with One Wisconsin Now, testified about limits to weekend voting at the NCVR Minneapolis regional hearing.Voting Rights Attorney Robert Rubin testified about the impact of the loss of Section 5, at the California NCVR hearing.Julie Garreau, of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, former South Dakota State Senate candidate testified about the vast distances that prevent Native Americans from reaching the Dewey County polls.
At the NCVR California hearing, Michelle Romero, Greenlining Institute’s Claiming our Democracy Director, expressed concerns about the language barriers limited English speakers face at the polls.Leslie Jones, Beth Metzger, both from Kentucky Protection & Advocacy, and Eben Cathey, Communication Coordinator at Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition at the NCVR Nashville hearing.Ingrid Alvarez-DiMarzo, Connecticut State Director of the Hispanic Foundation, at the New York Tri-State hearing stated her concerns with African American and Latino voters inability to access ballots on Election Day in Bridgeport, Connecticut.At the Colorado hearing, Nadine Padilla, Political Director of Native American Voters Alliance, spoke of the challenges Native American voters face in rural New Mexico often driving almost 2 hours to the nearest polling sites located in hostile communitie
A public witness at the NCVR California hearing spoke of the obstacles that the youth face when trying to participate in the electoral process.Bret Healy, consultant for Four Directions, Inc. testified at the Rapid City hearing, about the hardships and intimidation individual plaintiffs in voting rights cases in Montana and South Dakota have faced.From left, O.J. Semans Sr, Executive Director of Four Directions Inc., and Bret Healy, consultant for Four Directions, Inc. testified at the Rapid City hearing, about the hardships and intimidation individual plaintiffs in voting rights cases in MontanaMark Wandering Medicine expressed the hardships he and his daughter faced as a result of his involvement in a voting rights case seeking satellite offices for in-person absentee voting on Indian reservations in Montana at the Rapid City hearing.
Above from left, National Commissioner Dolores Huerta, and Guest Commissioners Kathay Feng, Alice Huffman, and Judge Cruz Reynoso heard testimonies at the NCVR California hearing.Maureen Haver, a Common Cause Texas Board Director, testified about voter suppression tactics deployed in Harris County during the 2010 election cycle at the Texas hearing.At the NCVR North Carolina hearing, Rep. Mickey Michaux, the longest serving member of North Carolina General Assembly, spoke about continued voter suppression efforts in the state.Tanya Fogle, a member of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, testified about the lengthy process and difficulty she experienced regaining her right to vote following a felony conviction.
Tanya Fogle, a member of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, testified about the lengthy process and difficulty she experienced regaining her right to vote following a felony conviction.Lori Shellenberger, Director of Voting Rights at ACLU California, Aida Macedo, former California Field Manager for Election Protection, and Fred Nisen, Equal Access Attorney at Disability Rights California presented testimony at the NCVR hearing.At Las Vegas hearing, Rachel Anderson, professor of law at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, highlighted the continuing problem of disenfranchisement for formerly incarcerated individuals in Nevada.Betty C. Andrews of the Iowa-Nebraska NAACP State Conference testified about the detrimental effect of the permanent disenfranchisement of individuals with felony convictions in Iowa.
74 year old Teddy Smith Roglar, public witness at the Nashville hearing, stated that she could have been arrested for voting with a felony record in the state of Kentucky.Deanna Kitamura, attorney for Asian Americans Advancing Justice LA, Mindy Romero, Project Director of California Civic Engagement, and Neal Kelley, Registrar for Orange County, presented testimony at the California hearing.Commissioner Hon. Judge Nathaniel Jones, formerly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, formerly the Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio expressed his disappointment with modern voter suppression.Petee Talley, Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO and of the Ohio Unity Coalition, recalled issues with miscounted votes in the 2000 Presidential election.
Guest Commissioner Alice Huffman, head of the NAACP California State Conference, presented her remarks at the NCVR California hearing.Guest Commissioner Kathay Feng, Executive Director of California Common Cause, at the NCVR California hearing.Guest Commissioner Judge Cruz Reynoso, former California Supreme Court justice and current professor at UC Davis School of Law, heard testimonies at the NCVR hearing.National NCVR Commissioner Dolores Huerta, co-founder of United Farm Workers and lifelong social justice advocate, received testimony at the NCVR California hearing.
Aida Macedo, former Field Manager for Election Protection Legal Committee, spoke about voter intimidation in Orange Cove, California at the NCVR hearing in San Francisco.Peg Rosenfeld, Election Specialist for the League of Women Voters of Ohio, spoke about the importance of protecting voter access at the Ohio state hearing.Eugene Lee, Voting Rights Project Director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Los Angeles, testified on vote dilution in the Asian American community.Public witness testifying at the NCVR Pennsylvania Hearing.
At the Pennsylvania hearing, Mary Catherine Roper, Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU Pennsylvania, testified about voter registration issues negatively impacting students in Chester County.Above to the right, Marian Schneider, Senior Attorney at the Advancement Project testified about long lines at the polls in Chester County, Pennsylvania in 2008.Witness panel at Rapid City hearing: Mel Siyo, member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and Chairman of the Rapid City Human Relations Commission, Libby Skarin, Policy Director for the ACLU of South Dakota, Garth Massey, Director of International Studies at the O.J. Semans Sr., Executive Director of Four Seasons, Inc. testified about the hardships and intimidation individual plaintiffs in voting rights cases in Montana and South Dakota have faced, at the Rapid City Hearing.
National Commissioner Patty Fergueson Bohnee, Director of the Indian Legal Program and Indian Legal Clinic at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at the Rapid City Hearing.Hearing participants Jeff Wice, Susan Lerner, Aunna Dennis, DeNora Getachew, and Dan Kolb posed questions at the New York Tri-State hearing.Kim Keenan, General Counsel to the NAACP, John Dunne, former Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Juan Cartagena, President & General Counsel of Latino Justice PRLDEF, at the NCVR Tri-State hearing.Wade Henderson, Executive Director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and guest commissioner at the National Voting Rights Commission Ohio Regional hearing.
Dr. Divine Pryor, Executive Director of the Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions, speaking on felony disenfranchisement at the NCVR New York Tri-State hearing at Fordham Law School.Leila Quinn, Greater Boston Program Associate for Generation Citizen, expressed support of election reform bills in the state of Massachusetts, at the New England Regional hearing.Guest Commissioners Rahsaan Hall, Brenda Wright, National Commissioner John Dunne, and Guest Commissioner Rachael Cobb at the NCVR New England Regional hearing.From left, Elainy Mata, former poll worker for the City of Boston, Kate Bowden, attorney at the Rhode Island Disability Law Center, and Sandra Kautz, creator of Grassroots Southwest Boston, testified at the New England regional hearing.
From left, Cheryl Clyburn Crawford, Executive Director MassVOTE, Gavi Wolfe, Legislative Counsel ACLU of Mass., Pam Wilmot, Executive Director Common Cause Mass., and Sara Brady, Policy Director MassVOTE, presented at the New England regional hearing.Damian P. Gregory, spoke of waiting in line for hours with a friend in a failed attempt to vote during the Early Voting period in Miami Dade County at the Florida state hearing.Fred Nisen, Equal Access Attorney at Disability Rights California, testified on limited disability access to the polls at the California hearing.Fred Nisen, Equal Access Attorney at Disability Rights California, testified on limited disability access to the polls at the California hearing.
Peter Mendoza, Community Learning Resource Center of San Francisco, testified on the difficulties persons with disabilities experience while attempting to vote.Peter Mendoza, Community Learning Resource Center of San Francisco, testified on the difficulties persons with disabilities experience while attempting to vote.Nikkey Finney, an award-winning American poet urged attendees to get involved in voting rights efforts, at the South Carolina hearing.Sekou Franklin, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science at Middle Tennessee State University testified about the controversial ‘blackbird’ mailer that was disseminated throughout Tennessee’s 2nd district in the 2008 election.
From left, Greg Moore, Executive Director of the NAACP National Vote Fund, and Ellis Jacobs, an attorney with Advocates for Basic Legal Equality testified on cut backs to early voting in Ohio, at the NCVR hearing in Columbus.Ellis Jacobs, an attorney with Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, testified on decreasing opportunities for early voting and reductions to the number of polling place locations in Ohio.Joan Gibbs, Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evens College, testified on the lack of minority representation in New York through redistricting and the State’s inability to call special elections to fill vacancies in the state legislature.At the North Carolina hearing, Anita Earls, Attorney & Executive Director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, presented her statements on racial gerrymandering minimizing the influence of Black voters in the state.
Kendra Glover, a paralegal in the office of the General Counsel of the NAACP who is from Suffolk, Virginia, testified about the redistricting process in her hometown after the 2010 census. On the right is Jean Jensen, Guest Commissioner.Camille Wimbish, Elections Administrative Director for the Ohio Voice, testified on issues of early voting, changing precincts, and precinct consolidations at the Columbus hearing.George Korbel, an attorney with the League of United Latin American Citizens, holding up two models of Texas gerrymandered House districts, testified about what he called the “vast arc of exclusion” at the NCVR hearing in Houston.At the Arizona hearing, Patty Hansen, Coconino County Recorder, testified about the incredible waste of resources and the great confusion ensued by Arizona’s implementation of a dual registration system.
Hearing witnesses listened to testimony at NCVR Nashville hearing held at the Greater AME Church.At left, Henry Yee, Co-Chair of the Chinatown Residents Association Boston, testified on the need for Chinese language ballots in the City of Boston at the New England Regional Hearing.Dorothy Hsu, Legal Fellow at the Asian American Legal Defense Fund, testified about ongoing Asian Indian language assistance failures, such as too few interpreters at poll sites and missing signs identifying interpreters, at polls in Queens, New York.Above, Jerry Vattamala, Attorney for the Asian American Defense and Educational Fund, testified on the decreasing amount of English language assistance for Asian languages, including Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Cambodian.
Drost Kokoye, speaking on minority language assistance issues at the polls in Paragon Hills, Nashville.At left, Ana Sostre-Ramos testified at the Pennsylvania hearing about Spanish speaking voters being turned away at residential polling sites in Philadelphia.Su Fang Gao, an 80-year old public witness at the NCVR California hearing, testified in Cantonese about the need for staffing polling sites with workers who speak Chinese languages.At the NCVR hearing in Birmingham, Catrena Norris Carter, President of Women of Will, testified about the adverse impact Alabama voter ID laws have on African Americans, Latinos, the elderly and the young.
Gregory Mendoza, Governor of Gila River Indian Community spoke on voter turnout among his constituents at the NCVR Arizona Hearing.Justin Jones, Chair of the Nashville Student Organizing Committee, holding up his student ID and voter registration card as he testified about the barriers to student voting.Justin Jones, Chair of the Nashville Student Organizing Committee, testified about the barriers to student voting as he pointed out that Tennessee allows voters to use their gun registration card, but not student IDs as acceptable forms of ID.Sam Wercinski, Executive Director of the Arizona Advocacy Network testified about Arizona voter ID requirements disproportionately impacting people of color and students.
John R. Lewis, Executive Director, Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc. and Guest Commissioner received testimony at the NCVR Arizona Hearing.Professor Craig Jackson of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law received witness testimonies at the NCVR Texas hearing.At the NCVR hearing in Houston, Robin Chandler, Policy Specialist at Disability Rights Texas, explained various issues that persons with disabilities face while trying to vote.From left, Guest Commissioner Deborah Chen, Guest Commissioner Craig Jackson, Robin Chandler, Policy Specialist at Disability Rights Texas, Guest Commissioner Goodwille Pierre, and Guest Commissioner Howard Jefferson at the NCVR hearing in Houston.
At the NCVR Texas hearing, Cynthia Spooner, former sworn deputy voter registrar, election precinct judge, and ballot board oversight member, highlights issues she encountered throughout the voter registration and voting process in Harris County.Crystal Sowemimo, student at the University of Houston and intern for the Texas Public Interest Research Group, spoke on youth voter turnout in Texas.Crystal Sowemimo, student at the University of Houston and intern for the Texas Public Interest Research Group, spoke on youth voter turnout in Texas.Mario Salinas, Texas State Deputy Director, Mi Familia Vota presented testimony on low voter participation among young minorities throughout the state of Texas.
Mario Salinas, Texas State Deputy Director, Mi Familia Vota presented testimony on low voter participation among young minorities throughout the state of Texas.Rogene Gee Calvert, Director, Texas Asian American Redistricting Initiative presented testimony on difficulties Asian American face during the voter ID attainment process, at the Houston hearing.Rogene Gee Calvert, Director, Texas Asian American Redistricting Initiative presented testimony on difficulties Asian American face during the voter ID attainment process, at the Houston hearing.From left, Deborah Chen, National Treasurer & Board Member, OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, provided her opening remarks at the NCVR Texas hearing alongside Professor Craig Jackson of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law.
Deborah Chen, National Treasurer & Board Member, OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, provided her opening remarks at the NCVR Texas hearing alongside Professor Craig Jackson of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law.

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