As Iraq teeters on the brink of civil war (here, here and here), President Bush continues to claim that “we are making progress in the march of freedom” (and here). Bush points to the Iraqi elections as evidence that Iraqis “are determined to shape their own destiny.”
Meanwhile, the Bush Justice Department is doing little to protect the voting rights of Hurricane Katrina survivors who likewise want to shape their own destiny. Indeed, the April 22 municipal elections will determine who gets to return and rebuild New Orleans.
But in stark contrast to the Iraqi elections for which polling places were set up in U.S. cities, Louisiana election officials have failed to launch satellite voting locations to ensure that displaced voters will have an equal opportunity to have their voices heard. So, Louisiana state Sen. Cleo Fields has asked the Justice Department to block what he charges is an “illegal election."
The NAACP has joined Fields in calling for the postponement of the election. In a statement, NAACP President Bruce Gordon said:
I am convinced that at this point in time the elections scheduled for April 22 are in fact illegal elections. The state cannot guarantee or provide some level of insurance that a substantial percentage of New Orleans voters will be able to vote either by absentee ballot or in person...
Holding the election on April 22 under the current plans would seriously harm the voting rights of hundreds of thousands of New Orleans citizens, most of whom are African Americans who have been displaced and are still residing temporarily outside the city and outside the state.
To add your voice to the growing chorus (and here) demanding that the Justice Department enforce the Voting Rights Act, click here.
