The voting rights axe

Grandfather clauses and literacy tests might be behind us. But there's a new poll tax on the horizon: the price of a bus or plane ticket.\nLouisiana state officials are saying that if any of the nearly 200,000 displaced New Orleans citizens want to vote in the upcoming mayoral election, then they'll have to do it in person. That leaves out-of-state evacuees who are temporarily residing in places like Baton Rouge, La.; Houston; Dallas; and Austin, Texas, amongst others, with the challenge of finding and funding their way back home.\nTransportation, hotel rooms and meal plans aren't exactly an Orbitz.com click away for some of these folks. Let's not forget that the city had twice the national average poverty rate even before Katrina came into the picture.\nThe pre-storm New Orleans population was comprised of nearly 70 percent blacks. So it's no stretch to say that many of the folks who still haven't returned to NOLA -- more than 50 percent of the population, in general -- are black.\nSatellite voting stations have been installed for use by displaced residents around the state. But there's no word of building such units outside of Louisiana. Absentee ballot procedures have been loosened, but the process has been described as burdensome and confusing.\nFederal law will not allow Louisiana officials to release the names or contact information of displaced residents to voting precincts. Therefore, even eligible voters might not receive information on the whereabouts of satellite stations or other pertinent news.\nSuffice it to say that an unacceptable number of black voters will either be frustrated by difficult-to-overcome obstacles or totally impeded in their attempts to vote.\nIt's for that very reason that people like the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Bill Cosby are encouraging black churches, black colleges and the like to march in protest of the state's \ndecision to proceed with the April 22 elections. Many black leaders say the state's failure to provide organized and fair voting processes violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was created to destroy Jim Crow era barriers to black suffrage.\nOne of the act's first stipulations "requires that states with a history of discrimination show that any change in their election laws does not have a worsening effect or intent on minority voting strength or their opportunity to elect candidates of choice."\nIn the spirit of that rule, it seems legislators would consider changing election laws that had a worsening effect on minority voting power. \nThere are around two dozen candidates participating in the race for New Orleans mayoral position. Maybe one of them could offer hope and a solution for the people of that devastated city. But without a postponement of the election there isn't enough time to locate and inform voters. And without money to travel or take time off work, some displaced residents are without the means to vote at all.\nKatrina victims lost their homes and loved ones in the water. To disenfranchise voters is to add yet another loss to an already too long list.