SOURCE: ACLU OF ARIZONA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

CONTACT:
Alessandra Soler Meetze, Executive Director, ACLU of Arizona, 602-650-1854 ext. 106 (office) or 602-418-5499 (cell)

PHOENIX – On the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona released a report showing how thousands of Arizonans may be denied their fundamental right to vote.    

The report shows that Arizona elections officials often dispense incorrect and inaccurate information about the voting rights of individuals with criminal records and process voting rights applications unevenly across the state. 

“We live in a nation that prides itself on free and fair elections, yet this report reveals that Arizona’s especially complex scheme to withhold voting rights from people with former felony convictions runs counter to our democracy and to our obligations under international human rights laws, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” said Alessandra Soler Meetze, Executive Director of the ACLU of Arizona.

Arizona’s disfranchisement and restoration policies are far out of line with the vast majority of other states. In fact, Arizona is one of only eight states to bar individuals with certain felonies from ever voting again unless they are willing and able to successfully navigate what is an onerous and intimidating and ultimately discretionary judicial restoration process.  As a result of Arizona’s especially complex scheme to withhold the vote from people with felony convictions, one of every 23 Arizona voting age residents is unable to vote. 

The ACLU of Arizona commissioned University of Arizona law students Raymond Bryant and Sonja Stupel and University of Arizona business student Mark Felix to analyze how the civil rights restoration process works in Arizona. They conducted two separate surveys: one to assess how well election officials understand and apply the felon voting ban and one to assess how the voting rights restoration process works.

Both surveys, which are summarized in the report released today entitled Breaking Barriers to the Ballot, showed that an alarming number of county elections officials provide inaccurate information to people with criminal convictions of their right to vote. In addition, they revealed that Arizona’s three largest and most populous counties process rights restoration applications unevenly, rendering the right to vote dependent on where a person lives.

Among other things, the studies found that:

• Fifty-four percent of county election officials surveyed responded incorrectly to basic questions as to which people with felony convictions are eligible to vote.
  
  
• More than half of the officials surveyed either responded incorrectly or did not know that an individual with two or more felony convictions could seek to have his or her rights restored.
  
  
• County officials give applicants inconsistent reasons when denying their applications for restoration, and sometimes give them no reason at all, in violation of the law requiring them to do so.
  
  
• Some counties close hearings on applications to the public and even to the applicants, so the process both lacks transparency and prevents applicants from being able to correct deficiencies that may lead to denial.
  
  
• One major county required anyone convicted of a felony to apply to have rights restored, despite a statutory exemption for people with first time, single felony convictions.

The UDHR was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948, to codify the basic human rights of all people, and is widely considered to be the founding document of the modern human rights movement. Article 21 specifically states that “everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.”

The ACLU of Arizona is calling on county and state officials to recommit to the principle of free and fair elections for everyone – as laid out in the UDHR – by taking steps to end widespread confusion about the voting rights of people with criminal records and provide adequate notice to all eligible individuals of their right to vote. 

The report is available on-line at: http://www.acluaz.org/votingreport.pdf