The struggle for voting rights turns to Boston
ON THE 40TH anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, communities of color are now Boston's new majority. But, like a throwback to an earlier era, the City of Boston is being sued for allegedly violating the voting rights of limited-English speaking citizens.
The recent lawsuit brought by the US Department of Justice against the city is neither a frivolous charge nor a political football. It follows years of complaints and extensive documentation of irregularities experienced by immigrant citizens.
For example, in 2003, voters in Ward 3 Precinct 8 reported widespread polling irregularities and coercion when elderly, limited-English-speaking voters were told for whom to vote by city election workers as well as campaigners operating inside the polls in sight of the warden.
Following complaints by elderly voters, the Chinese Progressive Association helped some voters document their experiences in the form of detailed, signed affidavits. These voters, however, wished to protect their privacy because they feared retaliation or being ostracized within the close-knit community. After numerous inquiries, we found that neither the City of Boston nor the secretary of state could protect individual voters' confidentiality.
Only the US Department of Justice was able to give us this assurance; its investigators now have these affidavits, and they have conducted extensive interviews with these individuals. Identical affidavits in the name of John or Jane Doe were filed with both the City of Boston election commissioner and the secretary of state in September 2003. City officials, however, used this technicality to disingenuously proclaim that ''no complaints have been received." After a prolonged media exposure and pressure from the secretary of state, some changes were made at the polls. While additional bilingual workers were hired, they were told that no training was required and that their job was simply to follow the warden's instructions.
In 2004, community, legal, and advocacy groups organized an election protection operation to send observers into select polling sites around the city and document voters' experiences. While outright electioneering was less evident than in 2003, further violations of voters' rights were witnessed and documented, including a serious shortage of bilingual election workers to assist Asian and Latino voters, voters' ballots marked by election workers without asking the voter if assistance was required, limited English proficient voters asked for identification when no such documentation was required, lack of bilingual signage, improper distribution of provisional ballots, and a problem of untrained election workers.
In 2005, Department of Justice officials came to Boston to observe the special elections in response to concerns about alleged electioneering among Russian voters in Allston-Brighton and to interview voters and community leaders from the Asian and Latino communities.
To her credit, new election commissioner Geraldine Cuddyer has taken these concerns seriously and has begun reaching out to immigrant community groups to work for collaborative solutions. But the Department of Justice lawsuit follows years of irregularities and a pattern of practices which obstruct immigrant citizens' exercise of their voting rights.
Perhaps the timing of the lawsuit is unfortunate for the mayor. Some local officials of color defend the city by declaring that they heard of no problems last year. But the fact that some officials were unaware does not make the charges unreal or those voters' rights unimportant.
There was an elderly man who spoke to our staff when he came out of the polling station. He said an election worker had seized his ballot, selected some candidates and deposited the ballot in the scanner. ''It was my first time voting, and I never even got to touch the ballot," said the man. ''If this is voting, then I'm never going to vote again."
Violation of voters' rights is more than a political embarrassment or inconvenience. Rather than deny that violations exist or attempt to sweep them under the carpet, officials would do best to show concern about these problems and work affirmatively with the Department of Justice to correct them. That would show us how much we have progressed in the last 40 years.
Lydia Lowe is executive director of the Chinese Progressive Association and co-chairwoman of the New Majority coalition.
