11 a.m. Thursday, March 16, in Yakima
Community activists denounce pending election reform legislation that could disenfranchise Latinos voters
United Farm Workers, Grupo Mexico and other community groups will denounce legislation that could disenfranchise thousands of Latino during at an 11 a.m. news conference Thursday in front of the Yakima County Courthouse (128 No. 2nd St.).
SB 5743 includes an amendment that requires county election officials to "randomly investigate" voter registrations for accuracy. The Senate agreed to amend SB 5743 so that it also requires the Secretary of State’s Office and county auditors to check on the citizenship of each voting applicant with federal immigration authorities. The bill has unanimously passed the Washington Senate.
“This bill may end up disenfranchising thousands of Washington immigrants who are U.S. citizens and have every right to vote,” said Erik Nicholson, Pacific Northwest regional director of the UFW. “It will serve much like a poll tax to dissuade Latinos and other immigrants who have attained their US citizenship from exercising their right to vote.”
"We are not against election reform, but it must be done carefully and fairly,” added Lupe Gamboa, president of Grupo Mexico, a statewide organization advocating for Latino civil and economic rights.. “There is no need for this provision as it has been shown that nonresidents don’t abuse the voting system. This provision singles out Latinos and other immigrants for discriminatory treatment and must be removed. With one slight misspelling of your name, you may get identified in the system as not being eligible to vote when you really are. We’ve already seen U.S. senators and congressmembers listed on the Homeland Security “no-fly” list. There’s no transparency, no appeals process, no notification to the affected voter.”
WHO: Members of the United Farm Workers, Grupo Mexico, other community activists.
WHAT: News conference calling attention to pending legislation (SB 5743) that could disenfranchise Latino voters.
WHEN: 11 a.m. Thursday, March 17, 2005.
WHERE: In front of the Yakima County Courthouse (128 N. 2nd St.).
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