"In February, March and early April of this year, WVWV registered 26,000 voters in North Carolina, approximately 57 percent of whom are African American," the organization noted in a statement issued Monday [May 5, 2008]. "No organization that would spend resources to register these voters would then turn around and attempt to disenfranchise them in May."The group says that its mailings and automated phone calls, which featured an African-American male, and another female voice, went out to "all unmarried women -- white, African American and latina -- as well as to African American men and married African American and Latina women."
Voices of Support for WVWV
Other groups are stepping forward on behalf of Women's Voices, Women Vote. Maude Hurd, National President of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, released a statement of support:
Could WVWV have stopped its registration efforts once it was too late to register to vote by mail for the general election? Yes. But the Department of Motor Vehicles and public assistance agencies routinely continue registration during this period as do many voter registration organizations. The result is that thousands of people who would otherwise not get registered at all are at least able to vote in the general election.William McNary, an elected Obama delegate, voter registration activist, and WVWV board member, writes in the Huffington Post:Given the heightened interest in this year’s primary, and North Carolina’s new procedures for registration at early voting, it would have been better if WVWV had been willing to pause its efforts and settle for registering fewer voters, or had shifted to a different registration strategy. That doesn’t mean they had bad intentions, or that their net effect on minority turnout in the primary was negative, or even that they were sloppy. It means that they overlooked how the special North Carolina circumstances this year would interact with their standard gameplan.
Given my candidate preference and my background and associations in voter registration efforts, I can say with great conviction, there was no effort to suppress or confuse African American voters, or any other voters in the state of North Carolina by Women's Voices, Women Vote.I have seen up close the work of Women's Voices, Women Vote and know well the commitment, passion and leadership our organization has shown in helping make the voices of unmarried women and other underrepresented voters heard. There may have been mistakes made in this particular registration drive in North Carolina, but Women's Voices, Women Vote motives were not malicious or intended in any way to confuse voters.
North Carolina Not the Only State
The Institute For Southern Studies, however, isn't satisfied with these answers, citing other incidents in other states as reasons for continued concern:
...[S]ince last November, in at least 11 states nationwide, Women's Voices -- sometimes working through its Voter Participation Center project -- has developed a checkered reputation, drawing rebukes from leading election officials and complaints from thousands of would-be voters as a result of their secretive tactics, deceptive mailings and calls, and penchant for skirting or violating the law.States that the Institute For Southern Studies say have been affected include Arizona, Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, Arkansas, Lousiana, Kentucky, and Ohio.
Benefit of the Doubt
In an attempt to address the ongoing controversy, Adam Bonin of The Daily Kos was invited to submit questions to WVWV Page Gardner. In the web article, "WVWV Responds to (Some) More Questions," he observes:Ms. Gardner was able to answer some of my questions, but not all of them. As a lawyer myself, I am loath to draw any inference from any non-answers. Given the ongoing NC Attorney General investigation (PDF) and NAACP complaint, WVWV has every right to be cautious in what it says until it is confident it has determined what happened (among other reasons for restraint)....[V]oter registration is hard, unglamorous and difficult-to-fundraise-for work. Regardless of what may have happened this year, WVWV's past successes are undeniable, and it is incumbent upon all of us to support those groups like Project Vote and Rock the Vote which do this necessary work on the ground level. This is especially true in the wake of the onerous voter ID laws now approved by the Supreme Court (with immediate dire, bizarre consequences). I hope that Women's Voices Women Vote again gives me the confidence to include them again on such a list of righteous organizations, but they've got a lot of work to do first.
Sources:
"Frequently Asked Questions."Women's Voices, Women Vote website www.wvwv.org, retrieved 7 May 2008.
Kromm, Chris. "Facing South Exclusive: D.C. nonprofit aimed at women voters behind deceptive N.C. robo-calls." Facing South, newsletter of the Institute for Southern Studies, 30 April 2008.
"N.C. NAACP files formal vote-suppression complaint against Women's Voices, alerts U.S. DOJ of concerns." Facing South, newsletter of the Institute for Southern Studies, 3 May 2008.
Hurd, Maude. "Statement of Maude Hurd, ACORN National President." Women's Voices, Women Vote website www.wvwv.org, 6 May 2008.
McNary, William. "Women's Voices, Women Vote." The Huffington Post, 1 May 2008.
Bonin, Adam. "WVWV Responds to (Some) More Questions." DailyKos.com, 8 May 2008.
