Oct 27, 2004 

Millions of eligible voters may be prevented from casting their ballots on November 2nd due to non-existent or flawed procedures used by state election officials to purge felons from voter rolls, according to a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union and Demos.

The report, "Purged! How a Patchwork of Flawed and Inconsistent Voting Systems Could Deprive Millions of Americans of the Right to Vote," shows that states, even those with identical disfranchisement policies, conduct purges very unevenly because of flawed or nonexistent legislative guidance. As a result, legal voters, including voters who share similar names with felons, are mistakenly taken off of voter rolls.

This report is the latest initiative of the Right to Vote Campaign, which includes eight national civil rights organizations working toward the end of felon disfranchisement through research, public education, voter registration and litigation. According to the Campaign, nearly five million people - 1 in 43 adults - are disfranchised in the United States. Among Africans-Americans, 1 in 13, or 1.8 million people, are disfranchised. More than 600,000 women are denied the right to vote, and more than half a million veterans are disfranchised.

"Every vote should be counted accurately, every vote should be counted equally, and no one should be denied the right to vote based on the color of his or her skin," says ACLU President Nadine Strossen.

Click here for more information and to read the report online.

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More than a year after the ACLU’s FOIA request for records concerning the interrogation and treatment of detainees at overseas detention facilities, a federal court order directed the Defense Department and other government agencies to release the critical documents. The ACLU received from the federal government nearly 6,000 pages of highly redacted documents related to the abuse of prisoners, including information on the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Among the documents was a previously unreleased psychological assessment report examining factors contributing to the abuse at Abu Ghraib. The first contributing factor, the report found, was the soldiers’ immersion in an unfamiliar "Islamic culture" and the "association of Muslims with terrorism," which created "misperceptions that can lead to the fear or devaluation of a people."

The report faults the chain of command for the lack of training and supervision and for creating an "I can get away with this" mentality. "Unfortunately, the government continues to withhold records that would show who was ultimately responsible for the systemic abuse of detainees," said Amrit Singh, an ACLU staff attorney.

A log of the records received is online at www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released.

To read the complete press release, click here.

In response to new, potentially restrictive criteria, the board and leadership of the ACLU has made a principled decision to turn down $1.15 million in future funding from the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations. In a statement clarifying the ACLU’s position, Executive Director, Anthony D. Romero expressed his regret at the decision to turn down funding from these two "true friends and allies."

The ACLU said the new language used by the foundations was unnecessarily vague, which could have a chilling effect on civil liberties. The language includes potential prohibitions on free speech and other undefined activities such as "bigotry" as part of a misconceived war on terror.

"The loss of funding is significant and it will have profound implications for our programs. But while it may weaken our finances, it also strengthens our resolve," said Romero.

The ACLU made a similar decision in August to pull out of the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) because of a new requirement that groups accepting funds check their employees’ names against vague, government-compiled “terrorist watch lists.” The CFC distributes the personal charitable donations of federal employees through a payroll deduction program. With the interests of nonprofit groups all across the nation in mind, the ACLU is actively challenging this new requirement until it is lifted.

Government employees looking for an alternative way to support the ACLU can give to the ACLU Foundation online, or send their gifts to the ACLU Foundation at 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10004, Attn: Theresa Rizzo.

Read Anthony Romero's full statement online

Find out more about the ACLU’s case challenging the Combined Federal Campaign requirements

For more details on event locations and performers, visit the ACLU College Freedom Tour homepage.

You can help the ACLU by voting to allocate a portion of this year's financial support to our work - our distribution of Working Assets funding is determined solely by how many votes we get.

Take a few moments today to vote for the ACLU in one of two ways:
1) Fill out the ballot that accompanies your phone bill
2) Vote online at: http://www.workingassets.com/voting/

At this very moment, leaders from the House and Senate are engaged in heated negotiations over what could become the most dramatic restructuring ever of our nation’s intelligence agencies. One of the key sticking points is the creation of a robust Privacy and Civil Liberties Board to ensure that government actions do not infringe on our liberties.

The 9/11 Commission endorsed the creation of a strong board. Yet in its version of the legislation to implement the commission’s recommendations, the House rejected the creation of a board, a position that the Bush White House has endorsed. Fortunately, however, the bipartisan Senate version of the legislation included a strong board.

Act Now! Tell Congress that we can be both safe and free and that the final intelligence reform bill must include the creation of a powerful and independent Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to act as a watchdog over our civil liberties.

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