**DO AMERICANS HAVE THE RIGHT TO VOTE?**

For Tavis Smiley\'s PBS \"Election 2004 Special Features\"

By Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (D-IL-2)

Wednesday, September 1, 2004

The United States sees itself as the center of world democracy. But do
Americans have the right to vote? Most Americans will be shocked to
discover the answer is \"No.\" Unlike the First Amendment\'s guarantee
of freedom of religion, press and assembly, the *individual right to
vote* is not guaranteed in our Constitution!

Most Americans are also unaware that, according to a joint study by
Cal-Tech and MIT, somewhere between four and six million votes
nationally were not counted in 2000. Many states had similar problems to
what occurred in Florida. My state of Illinois was the worst. Florida
got the attention only because of the closeness of their vote.

Voting in America is overseen by 13,000 different election
administrations, all separate and unequal, which is reminiscent of the
legal theory that established Jim Crow legal segregation for 58 years as
a result of the 1896 *Plessy v. Ferguson* decision.

The 15th, 19th and 26th Amendments prohibit *discrimination* in voting
on the basis of race, sex and age respectively, but they do not
affirmatively guarantee the right to vote. Voting in America is (like
slavery was) essentially a 10th Amendment issue - \"states\' rights.\"
Slavery is gone - overcome by adding the 13th Amendment to the
Constitution - but the states\' rights *system* of voting remains.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in *Bush v. Gore* (2000) that \"the
individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for
electors for the President of the United States.\" In other words,
Florida\'s state right to oversee the election took precedent over
counting every individual vote - or, legally, states\' rights triumphed
over individual rights. As a result, George Bush instead of Al Gore is
President of the United States today.

In essence the Court said, since there is no affirmative right to vote
in the Constitution, what does the Florida state statute say? It said
Katherine Harris (the Secretary of State; and co-chair of the Bush
Campaign) is in charge of the election and, according to *Florida law*
all the votes must be counted by midnight, December 12. Since the Court
decision came down at 10 pm on December 12, she said, in essence, if you
can\'t count all the votes in the next two hours George Bush is the
President.

But just in case the Court had ordered all of the votes counted and it
turned out that Al Gore had won the most popular votes in Florida, the
Republican-controlled Florida legislature had a back-up plan. Based on
the fact that there is no right to vote in the Constitution - and that
the Constitution says the right to elect electors resides in the state
legislature - the Florida legislature was prepared to ignore the six
million popular votes, elect their own Bush electors and send them to
Congress for certification. That would have been both legally and
constitutionally permissible.

During a Q & A session at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Convention in
Chicago former President Bill Clinton, after careful questioning,
acknowledged, constitutionally, we have a voting system largely based on
\"states\' rights\" and he supported adding an individual voting rights
amendment to the Constitution.

At the recent UNITY: Journalists of Color Convention, Roland Martin
asked President George W. Bush: \"In your remarks you said that 8
million people in Afghanistan registered to vote, and as you said,
exercised their God-given right to vote\...That may be a right from God,
but it\'s not guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution\...And in this age of
new constitutional amendments, will you endorse a constitutional
amendment guaranteeing every American the right to vote in federal
elections?\" President Bush responded: \"I\'ll consider it.\"

With the fall campaign likely to be another close race, it would be wise
for Democrats, Kerry-Edwards, indeed, anyone who believes in democracy,
to see to it that the value of adding an individual voting rights
amendment to the Constitution becomes an issue in the 2004 campaign and
no longer allow \"states\' rights\" almost absolute control over our
election process.

I\'m *convinced* that if Congress had the will, under our current
Constitution, it could do much more to strengthen the administration of
a unitary voting system, and protect and fully count all votes.

But I\'m *unconvinced,* absent a voting rights amendment, that any
solutions to these and other of our most pressing voting rights problems
will be universal or sustainable. How do we change the current system
and prevent another \"Florida\" from happening? How can we achieve equal
protection under the law in 13,000 separate and unequally administered
voting jurisdictions?

My answer is, only by adding an affirmative right to vote amendment to
the Constitution. Such an amendment would give Congress the power to
establish a unitary voting system, insure that every vote is counted,
and grant equal protection under the law for all voters. House Joint
Resolution 28 is such an amendment. You can get involved by calling your
congressperson and ask them to become a co-sponsor of this legislation.

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