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Monday, September 11, 2006
Fighting the Voting Rights Act, county-by-county
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you think Georgia’s Republican members of the U.S. House have given up the fight against the Voting Rights Act, think again.
This summer, Congress passed, and President Bush signed into law, a 25-year extension of the measure that requires federal monitoring of election matters in Southern (and a few other) states.
But in a press release issued this afternoon, U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood declared that the cause is not yet lost.
First comes a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the 41-year-old act. “Whether it succeeds is anyone’s guess,” he says.
More interesting is a new strategy: Individual counties within the South (Georgia alone has 159) can individually petition for release from federal oversight. Norwood wants a parade.
“The overwhelming majority of counties are likely eligible today for immediate release from federal oversight,” Norwood says.
To win release, a county would have to show a clean record for the last 10 years, in which:
— No poll tax was levied or literacy test was issued;
— The county cooperated with the U.S. Justice Department, allowing it to review all changes relating to voting;
— The county hasn’t lost any lawsuits charging voting discrimination;
— No federal examiners have been assigned to watch polls;
— And a few other requirements too technical to go into here.
Says Norwood: “The tidal wave of litigation could force the Justice Department and the federal courts to grant immediate relief for the vast majority of counties. The party hack attorneys at DOJ would still have the state at large under their heel, but no longer our counties.”
A Ralph Reed sighting: One PhD to another.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ralph Reed, the former Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, seems to be finding his post-primary legs. The New York Post has his line in today’s editions: “Dr. Henry Kissinger at ‘21’ with Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition, at a table diagonal to Vernon Jordan’s …”
Friends of Reed say one of his activities is trying to figure out which 2008 presidential candidate he’ll line up behind.
