Voter protection takes forefront in Signer campaign

by Aaron Rowden, 2L
Law Weekly
April 1, 2009

Michael Signer, a Democratic primary contender for the post of Lieutenant Governor of Virginia and long-time voter protection activist, addressed the Georgetown Law Democrats on Monday, March 23. At the event, Signer discussed his personal involvement in voter protection and gave some indication of the future of voter protection and his campaign for Lieutenant Governor.

Signer, an Arlington resident, had his first voter protection experience in 2001 while serving in soon-to-be Governor Mark Warner's campaign. Described by Signer as "voter protection 1.0," this 12-person operation was the first voter protection program for a state-wide election. It was successful, despite its novelty and small staff.

Following his success with the 2001 gubernatorial voter protection program, Signer was hired by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to serve as voter protection director for Virginia in 2004. Signer got the call to take a lead role in this project at the same time he was about to begin work for Wilmer Hale in D.C., but chose to take on voter protection instead.

The 2004 voter protection project was a more wide-ranging effort than the 2001 project and included tasks such as testing voting machines and cataloguing common problems. According to Signer, Virginia's top voter disenfranchisement problems are not things such as police intimidation tactics or voter suppression efforts, but rather long lines and voter machine malfunctions.

The resources available to the 2004 voter protection effort were also vastly superior to those available in 2001. Signer noted that in 2004, Virginia voter protection was making use of hundreds of lawyers from the Arlington and D.C. areas, a far larger resource pool than the dozen people involved in the previous election's program.

Out of the DNC's Virginia voter protection efforts, the New Electoral Reform Alliance emerged. This organization, which is primarily responsible for lobbying to allow for greater access to the polls, successfully lobbied to extend the amount of time Virginia voters have to appear before the canvassing board to authenticate provisional ballots. Other efforts included lobbying to end the use of paperless voting machines in Virginia.

Signer returned to voter protection in 2006 when he went to work on the project for Jim Webb's successful Senate campaign. Regarding the 2006 election cycle, Signer recounted the story of a specific suppression effort. A rural hog farmer had received a flyer from the Republican Party with the words "skip this election" written in large yellow letters.

The flyer actually stated that Nancy Pelosi and others wanted voters to "skip this election" but was printed in such a way as to dissuade non-Republicans from reading the entire document, and therefore served as a get out the vote document for Republicans and as a suppression document for Democrats.

Signer asked the farmer to sign an affidavit regarding these events, but the farmer did not want to do so because he was afraid he would be deported under Bush administration laws and policies. Signer was eventually able to reassure the farmer and get him to sign. While retelling this story, Signer criticized his own party for not thoroughly following up on election problems after the race is won.

By 2008, Signer said, election protection had evolved considerably. The increased level of participation in the program has allowed voter protection volunteers to have a relationship "almost like a lawyer-client." Technological sophistication has also made communication more efficient, leading to better resource allocation. As to actual problems in the 2008 election, Signer cited broken machines and, in his words, "Republican stalkers" trying to suppress turn-out.

Signer's campaign for Lt. Governor plans to focus on voter protection issues. He ranked voter protection amongst his top four priorities and revealed future voter enfranchisement measures that he thinks Virginia should work on.  Among these, he specifically mentioned his opposition to the disenfranchisement of felons, the need for early voting, the need to repeal Dillon's Rule, which prevents progressive reforms in cities without prior approval by the legislature, and the need to end the practice of political redistricting which has been going on since the 1980’s.

Signer mentioned that the political redistricting problem is compounded by the support the practice receives from some Democratic and African-American law makers who now want to use this traditionally Republican tool for their own purposes. Signer also decried the law against felons voting as a "Jim Crow law designed to achieve racial supremacy."

Regarding the role his experience working on behalf of voters has played in his decision to seek office, Signer stated "Election protection is probably the most central reason I am doing this race." Signer will officially launch his campaign in April.