The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties held a hearing on Feb. 26 to examine the problems of voter suppression and poor enforcement of voting rights. The hearing largely focused on the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) lax enforcement of voting rights mandates in the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). Evidence of tactics to prevent people from voting (voter suppression) was also presented.

A press release from Subcommittee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) said, "The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy — a right that must be protected and defended ... However, under the current Administration, the Department of Justice has a remarkably poor record of protecting that fundamental right. Laws that protect voters from discrimination on the basis of race, language or disability have not been properly enforced. Indeed, it would seem that political pressures have deterred the Justice Department from fulfilling its mandate."

The hearing's first panel included testimony from Asheesh Agarwal, Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, which is charged with enforcing civil rights and voting rights laws. Agarwal's testimony defended DOJ against criticism that it has not adequately prosecuted voter suppression cases. However, Gerry Herbert, Executive Director of the Campaign Legal Center and former attorney with the Civil Rights Division, testified that "professionalism and nonpartisan commitment to the historic mission of the Division has been replaced by unprecedented, political decision making. The result is that the essential work of the Division to protect the civil rights of all Americans is not getting done."

Other voter suppression tactics addressed during the hearing include voter caging, an illegal process of purging people from the voter rolls if they fail to answer registered mail sent to a place where they are not currently living. This strategy works to suppress votes by minorities, college students, people in the military, and others. Testimony also addressed excessively strict voter identification requirements, strict rules to purge voter rolls because of administrative errors, and lax enforcement of NVRA.

Two nonprofits, Project Vote and Demos, submitted written testimony in advance of the hearing detailing DOJ's failure to enforce provisions of NVRA that would increase the number of low-income registered voters. Section 7 of NVRA requires public assistance agencies to offer voter registration services to all individuals when they apply for benefits, recertify benefits, or change of address (otherwise known as the motor voter provision). Project Vote found that these agencies failed to offer voter registration, and voter registration from public assistance agencies has decreased 79 percent since the provision was first implemented. "Specifically, we are concerned that Mr. Agarwal's statement fails to acknowledge or explain DOJ's record of largely ignoring evidence of state non-compliance with the NVRA's requirements for registering low-income voters, while focusing selectively instead on urging states to purge more voters from their rolls."

Barnard College professor Lorraine Minnite, author of a Project Vote report The Politics of Voter Fraud, testified that "the alleged epidemic of voter fraud sweeping the country is a fabricated myth. It can not compare to the massive challenges the states face in administering elections in ways that open up the process and make voting easier for all Americans, but especially for our most vulnerable citizens for whom the barriers to access to the vote are still too high."

Before the hearing began, the committee voted to issue a subpoena for former Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell for testimony about the 2004 election. On Jan. 29, Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and Nadler wrote a letter to Blackwell to "explore the state of voting rights and the allocation of resources to end voter suppression and voter fraud." Blackwell has refused to appear voluntarily. The Associated Press quoted Conyers as saying, "Mr. Ken Blackwell, wherever you are in North America today, please know that we are not sending the gendarme for you this moment." Conyers added, "I do not like to issue subpoenas. ... The only problem is we can never reach him."