Prop. 200 foes not giving up: NAACP, others warn of peril to minority rights
Thursday, February 17, 2005 at 12:26AM
TheSpook
Arizona voters approved it and the U.S. Department of Justice gave it a
green light, but opponents of Proposition 200 aren't ready to give up
the fight. A coalition of community groups is vowing to continue
battling a law they consider discriminatory toward immigrants,
Hispanics and other people of color. "The fight ain't over till we
win," Clarence Boykins of the NAACP said Monday at a Tucson press
conference. The coalition's first objective is to persuade the
Department of Justice to reverse a preliminary decision that the
proposition does not harm minority voting rights. The Jan. 24 decision,
issued by the voting section of the department's Civil Rights Division,
made Arizona the first state to require proof of citizenship for voter
registration. It also requires voters to show identification before
casting a ballot. Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias accused the
department of ignoring the fact that few if any cases of voting by
noncitizens in Arizona can be confirmed. Without being able to prove
that, the District 5 Democrat said, "what is this really about?" Elias
predicted the ID requirement invites racial profiling at polling places
and that Hispanics and Indians would be treated differently from other
voters. Potentially even more far-reaching is the impact the
proof-of-citizenship requirement would have on grass-roots voter
registration drives organized by activists, civic organizations and
political parties. "Clipboard registration is going to go out the
window," Elias said. [more]
Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).
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