Reply #6: LA: Voting Rights Protest Rally in NOLA – Jackson demands voting rights [View All]

[autorank]

Here you have it, they’re not going to do a damn thing to get the evacuees a chance to vote. The current efforts are “the least they can do,” and they are making sure it is the least possible effort thanks to the Louisiana state legislature which has forbidden the Secretary of State from satellite voting, public service announcements, and other measures outside the state of Louisiana. It’s a rigged game.



http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/02/us/nationalspecial/02orleans.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
April 2, 2006
Voting Rights for the Displaced Is the Rally Cry in New Orleans
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW ORLEANS, April 1 (AP) — Hundreds of protesters led by the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton rallied Saturday, demanding that all displaced New Orleans residents be allowed to vote in the April 22 municipal election.

Critics of the voting system — proposed for the election for mayor and other city positions — say it makes it difficult for displaced voters to participate.

"We want the Voting Rights Act," Mr. Jackson said at a news conference before the rally. Black leaders have argued that city elections, should they proceed, could violate the act.

<snip>.

Mr. Jackson and others are demanding satellite polling places for displaced voters in cities beyond New Orleans and even outside Louisiana. Fewer than half the city's 460,000 residents have returned since Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans on Aug. 29. Demonstrators also urged the release of updated lists of displaced-voter addresses, a request the Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied, saying it would breach privacy.