Fighting to vote

National leaders, entertainers and thousands of citizens will march and rally in New Orleans Sat. April 1st to demand the enforcement of guidelines set forth in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which protestors feel will be violated if the April 22nd municipal elections are held, as scheduled, in the crescent city.
Rev. Jesse Jackson, president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, will lead a distinguished group of political leaders who are saying the New Orleans spring elections are going forward without approval from the U.S. Department of Justice, that is cited in Section two and five of the act, to “pre-clear” all changes made in voting procedures.
“The New Orleans election-must not go forward,” Jackson said in a released statement to the press. “New Orleans is now reduced from 450,000 residents to about 150,000.
“Now their rights are about to be trampled once more in an injustice that may finally do more to destroy New Orleans than the storm did by disenfranchising the city’s black majority,” he said.
In March, the U.S. District Court of Louisiana denied a lawsuit that sought to delay the elections and allow special measures that would have insured displaced citizens have the right to vote.
Jackson said with Orleans Parish registered voters displaced in 44 states, to hold the April 22nd election is arbitrary.
In a letter addressed to John K. Tanner, voting section chief in the civil right division of the U.S. Department of Justice, Louisiana state senator Cleo Fields proposed that the spring elections be re-scheduled to September 30, 2006, “since that date has already been scheduled for state-wide elections.”
“The state has literally ‘put the cart before the horse’,” Fields wrote in the letter, dated March 7, 2006. “300 of the city’s 442-primarily in black neighborhoods-voting precincts are unavailable for voting because of damaged sustained in and after Hurricane Katrina.”
Fields also stated that the changes in precinct location can cause voter confusion that can clearly lead to vote dilution.
If the projected April 22nd election is allowed, political leaders are weary it will be the first time in history that a public election will be held with secret voting rolls since candidates running for office will not be able to contact voters and elected officials will not be able to communicate with their constituents.
“People must challenge unjust policies,” said Gary Flowers, vice president of public policies for the Rainbow PUSH Coalition based in D.C. “This is a stand we must take.”
Flowers was designated by Jackson to conduct a 15-city tour to meet with legislators, pastors and civic leaders to energize groups to move beyond the talk and start taking action.
“We are very excited to stand on the shoulders of our ancestors who marched, bled and died for the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” Flowers said. “It cannot, not be successful. We won by our fight because we are right.”
Jackson said he would lead the march across Gretna Bridge, which was blocked by state troopers preventing Katrina survivors from obtaining shelters in the immediate wake of the storm.
“We will demand voting rights to return for all residents of New Orleans,” Jackson said. “We will not allow voting rights to be trampled by those happy to build a New Orleans stripped of its racial majority.”