Ironing Out Democracy

A fine history of screwing voters

By Cara Bayles

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With one month left before this year's legislative session ends, the clock is ticking on numerous bills, most of which will fade into irrelevancy come July 31st. This year saw an influx of voting bills, and Avi Green, of MassVote, is optimistic some will squeeze through.

"I'm incredibly hopeful," he enthuses. "We're late in the game, and all of these bills are still alive. That's hopeful."

The bills awaiting a verdict aim to smooth out inequities and increase turnout.

"Here's a trivia question: How long before the election should you register to vote?" Green asks. "Twenty-one days. A lot of people know the reasons they're passionate about a candidate, but if you don't know the answer to the trivia question, you're SOL." As a poll worker, Green had to turn away unregistered voters. "We give them a registration form as a consolation prize and say, 'See ya next year.'"

Bilingual ballots could continue to boost turnout. In 2005, the Department of Justice supervised elections in Boston's immigrant communities, and sued the city for violating the Voting Rights Act. The court mandated bilingual poll workers and ballots in Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese.

The agreement expires in 2008. The city already approved legislation maintaining bilingual ballots, this time with candidates' names transliterated. Amy Leung, with the Chinese Progressive Association, explains current ballots offer multilingual instructions, with names printed in the Roman alphabet. "It's not fully bilingual if it doesn't include transliterated names," she says. "If I gave an English speaker a ballot with everything in English, except the name in Chinese characters, it would still be difficult to read."

Secretary of State William Galvin implements all things electoral. His spokesman, Brian McNiff, says he worries about writing names phonetically. "He believes that could lead to confusion with the voters," McNiff says. (His typical example is "Menino" sounds like the Chinese word for "imbecile" ... the classic response being that English-speakers who voted for Bush didn't elect a shrub.) "As a general rule, we don't favor election rules that only apply to particular communities."

If the legislature doesn't pass the home-rule petition, Bostonians lose bilingual ballots. The Greater Boston Chinese Golden Age Center's Ruth Moy says this could limit voter turnout, particularly among elderly immigrants. "I think the elderly are eager to vote, but they hesitate if they don't know how to read the ballot," she says.

Another bill is concerned with giving votes equal weight. The Electoral College allots each state electors (based on population), who all vote for their state's winning candidate, reducing the complexities of voting maps to the familiar "red" and "blue" states. In the 2000, 1888, 1876 and 1824 elections, the candidate with fewer votes won the Electoral College, and the presidency.

Pam Wilmot is executive director of the Massachusetts branch of Common Cause, an organization attempting to replace the Electoral College with a national popular vote. Legislation approving the switch has passed in Maryland, Illinois and New Jersey, and is pending in many states.

"We tend to sit out presidential elections, since whatever margin you win by, you get all the electors. In Massachusetts, it's pretty clear the Democrat will win, so campaigns focus on swing states," she says. "Some people remember they learned in civics class that small states benefit from this. They do in theory, but don't in fact."

Green says the Electoral College belongs to a history of denying voting rights, dating back to the three-fifths compromise in the Constitution. "Slave owners voted 'on behalf' of their slaves, so they had more electors than northerners. African-Americans, women and men without property were not allowed to vote," he says. "The history of our country has been overcoming that critical initial defect, slowly but surely extending the vote and making sure those votes were equal."