The District Chronicles

Issue date: 10/14/07 Section: Politics

In 2000, while sitting on the Fulton County Registration Board in Georgia, von Spakovsky endorsed the idea of ''purging'' election rolls of felons and joined a Republican group called the ''Voting Integrity Project.'' This group helped remove voters from election rolls in Florida - denying countless legitimate Democratic voters in Florida their right to vote.

This year, a group that worked with von Spakovsky at the Justice Department wrote a letter to the Senate Rules Committee expressing their concern about his nomination. In it they called him the ''point person for undermining the Civil Rights Division's mandate to protect voting rights.'' History proves them right. In 2003, von Spakovsky overruled the career professionals on his staff and upheld then House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's 2003 Texas redistricting plan - a plan the U.S. Supreme Court determined violated the rights of Latino voters.

Von Spakovsky's record speaks for itself. He should not serve on the panel responsible for protecting the integrity of federal elections. The United States Senate must stand firm in our commitment to fighting the disenfranchisement of minority voters and reject this nominee.

And we should go further. We need to undo the work of the partisan operatives like von Spakovsky and protect our citizens from deception and voter intimidation. I have introduced a bill that would prohibit and criminalize practices that seek to intimidate or mislead voters to keep them away from the polls on Election Day. This bill also requires the Attorney General to take corrective action by providing the public with accurate information about the time and place of elections and the rules of voter eligibility.

We must ensure that all eligible voters can vote - and that their votes will be counted. Our brave civil rights leaders gave too much for partisan nominees to chip away at this right.

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