Here's another prime example of GOP voter suppression:
http://www.nativetimes.com/...
Two elderly Yup'ik speakers and two tribal organizations have filed a federal lawsuit against Alaska, saying state election officials have failed to provide language assistance at the polls as required by law.
The lawsuit was filed Friday, naming Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, the state's top election official, as a defendant, along with his director of elections, Gail Fenumiai. Regional election officials in Fairbanks and Nome were also sued, The Anchorage Daily News reported.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court by the Anchorage office of the Native American Rights Fund, says the state is violating the federal Voting Rights Act by not providing ballots and voting instructions for speakers of Yup'ik and its dialect in Hooper Bay, Cup'ik. - Native American Times, 7/22/13
More below the fold.
Here's a little bit of background info:
http://www.alaskapublic.org/...
James Tucker, of counsel with Wilson Elser, litigated the earlier suit, and brought the new case in Anchorage Friday.
“All of the things the state said it was going to do in the Bethel region and apply statewide to all Yupik speakers, they just simply haven’t done it,” he said by phone from his office in Nevada Monday.
The new case takes place in two regions adjoining Bethel: the Wade Hampton and Dillingham census areas.
Tucker said many of the interpreters at polling stations do not understand what they’re supposed to do. And oftentimes they’re incapable of translating legal jargon such as ballot initiatives into local languages.
“What we’re seeing and what led to this lawsuit isn’t that they’re doing the bare minimum of what’s required by the law, because they’re not,” he said. “They’re doing the bare minimum to get away with what they think they can without being sued.” - Alaska Public Radio, 7/22/13
And with the Supreme Court striking down Section 4, Mead Treadwell (R. AK) and the Alaska GOP could get away with disenfranching Native American voters:
http://www.anchoragepress.com/...
That legacy of discrimination once held Alaska, along with a handful of Southern states and counties, to a set of requirements in Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. A formula under Section 4 of the Act determined which local governments, due to their histories of racial discrimination, should receive extra federal oversight over elections to ensure they aren’t suppressing minority voting. In Feb. 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court heard opening arguments in Shelby County, Alabama’s suit to have both sections overturned.
Plaintiffs in the case argued, among other things, that it’s unfair to hold racism from the past against governments today. In its majority opinion, the Court agreed, upholding the constitutionality of federal oversight (Section 5) in its June 25 ruling, but nixing Section 4, suggesting that Congress come up with a new formula based on evidence that shows modern-day racial discrimination against voters.
“Nearly 50 years later,” the Court wrote in its majority opinion, “things have changed dramatically.” The opinion references data showing disparities in Southern states between black and white voters in 1965, when the Voting Rights Act was passed, against numbers from 2004. Back in the bad old days, the difference between black and white voter registration was stark. The closest gap was in Virginia, with 61 percent of whites registered versus 38 percent of blacks, a difference of 22 percent. It was widest in Mississippi, where around 70 percent of whites were registered to vote but only 7 percent of blacks, making a gap of around 63 percent. But in 2004, the gap between white and black voters in Southern states ranged from around 10 percent to around negative 4 percent; meaning that, in some states, there are actually a greater percentage of blacks registered than whites.
In its amicus brief to the Supreme Court, the State of Alaska says voter registration rates among Natives and non-Natives are comparable. But Jim Tucker, legal counsel for the Native groups that filed an amicus brief in support of the Voting Rights Act, says the State’s own numbers tell a different story: an 18 percent gap in voter registration between Native villages and the rest of the state. - Anchorage Press, 7/18/13
And Alaska press has taken notice of Treadwell's actions to help suppress the Native American vote:
http://www.alaskajournal.com/...
On June 25, when the Supreme Court gutted Section 5 of the VRA, Mead Treadwell posted on his Facebook page a picture of himself giving a thumbs-up to the decision. He also told Peter Granitz of APRN that he was pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision. Treadwell’s record of opposition to Alaska Natives’ voting rights is consistent and troubling.
The Supreme Court/Treadwell assault on Alaska Native voting rights is particularly tragic because it unravels a bipartisan legacy of the Alaska Congressional delegation.
The protections that our Congressional delegation put in place for Alaska Natives now are gone thanks to Treadwell’s jihad and the Supreme Court’s judicial activism. Alaska will suffer the consequences, regardless of Treadwell’s personal motivations for taking a policy position that harms our state. - Alaska Journal of Commerce, 7/3/13
I've written before about the Alaska GOP's efforts to suppress the Native American vote so it would make things easier for them to defeat Senator Mark Begich (D. AK) who happens to have a great record on Native American affairs and has called out the GOP's efforts to disenfranchise Native Americans. You can more here:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
And here:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Treadwell might be the establishment's pick for the GOP nominee and he has a decent chance to unseat Begich but Begich has a terrific record and has proven to be an effective Senator. Begich has a better record delivering for Alaska than Treadwell and he'll have that to tout during the campaign. Begich is a true blue Alaskan who knows his state very well so the only way to make him less competitive is to suppress a key voting block that helped him win in 2008. Well we're not going to let Treadwell get away with it. If you would like to donate or sign up for Begich's campaign, you can do so here:
http://www.markbegich.com/
By the way, don't forget that Senator Begich will be on The Ed Show today at 5 PM with Senator Tom Harkin (D. IA) talking about Social Security:
Sens. Tom Harkin and Mark Begich will be given a national audience tonight on The Ed Show at 5 p.m. ET. We can embolden these Social Security champions by making sure millions of progressives tune in to learn about the proposals. That'll also make it clear to other senators that when they step up to strengthen Social Security, we'll have their backs.
Senators Harkin (D-IA) and Begich (D-AK) have given us something to fight for. Stand with them by joining Social Security Works and Democracy for America in a petition calling on their colleagues to join them:
http://democracyforamerica.com/...
It’s important to sit up and take notice when Senators step out and introduce bills that would increase Social Security benefits at a time when all the other pillars of our retirement security are coming up short.
What they’re proposing is simple:
Increase cost of living adjustments (COLAs), not decrease them. Instead of cutting benefits through a Chained CPI formula, Senators Harkin and Begich have proposed using a benefit formula designed specifically to take into account seniors’ rising living expenses such as healthcare, food, and housing.
Ensure that the wealthy are paying their fair share into Social Security. Currently, Americans are only paying Social Security payroll taxes on their first $113,700. That means that Wall Street CEOs are not paying the same rate as the rest of us. By lifting the payroll tax cap on Social Security, we can extend the life of Social Security for decades to come.
Increase Social Security benefits for almost all recipients by approximately $70 per month, or $800 a year. Senator Harkin’s bill would reform the benefit formula for all beneficiaries, but target those most in need. This would result in an across the board benefit increase, with the most going to those in the lower and middle classes.
Sound good to you? Tell them you agree by signing the petition now!
http://democracyforamerica.com/...
Thank you,
Michael Phelan
Social Security Works
You can sign the petition here:
http://democracyforamerica.com/...