Voter Suppression: Report from the Field

By JONATHAN ZASLOFF

Recently, I was able to get a couple their voter IDs, and I made sure to tell them: “Make sure you tell all your friends. I can try to help them get ID as well.”

The mom said: “Oh, wait: my son just turned 18, and he needs an ID.”

“Great!,” I said. “Bring him to the food pantry next week.”

And therein lies a tale.

He came in this morning, and so I went through the process of ordering him a birth certificate online. With that, and maybe some school records with his name on it, we could get him ID. It would mean a several-hour wait at the DMV, but okay.

Not so fast.

For reasons known only to some, a system called “ProCheck” — which as far as I know might be a private company — did not clear him and so he couldn’t get his birth certificate online. We could appeal to Lexis/Nexis (that’s right) for a “full file disclosure,” which could take months and might not even work.

So more precisely, he could only get his birth certificate online if we downloaded more information. And what was that information?

Well, if he has a student ID with his photo on it AND his school transcript, that would work. And if he doesn’t have a photo school ID? Then we would need another ID — like, say, a driver’s license or state-issued ID. But that was precisely why we were trying to get the birth certificate in the first place!

Joseph Heller, call your office.

Once again, there is a workaround. If his mom goes to the DMV and gets HER state ID (now she only has a Voter ID, which lets her vote but nothing else), then we can go over to the Durham County Register of Deeds, and get her son’s birth certificate (without her own state-issued ID, the mom can’t get her son’s birth certificate). Then we will have to go back to the DMV for another multi-hour wait, so that he can get his ID. So that is three trips, for a family that does not have a car, and each trip means a several-hour wait. We will get it done, but it will take lots of time and energy.

All to enable someone who is 18 years old and unquestionably a citizen, with no criminal record, to be able to vote. These are smart people but not educated and without a car. Without Spread The Vote, there is NO WAY they would have been able to vote next year.

Which is exactly the way that the Jim Crow Party wants it. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is voter suppression.

Jonathan Zasloff is a professor at the UCLA School of Law and spent a few weeks in North Carolina this summer as a volunteer for Spread the Vote (spreadthevote.org, phone 323-694-0738) helping citizens who don’t drive get ID cards that will allow them to vote.

From The Progressive Populist, September 15, 2019

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