Year 2012 Motions and Resolutions passed

POLICY THAT THE DEPARTMENT OF ELECTIONS FOR THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO SHALL EXTEND THE RIGHT AND OPPORTUNITY TO VOTE AS BROADLY AS POSSIBLE TO ALL ELECTORS, INCLUDING ALL REASONABLE EFFORTS TO ENABLE VOTING OF ELECTORS CURRENTLY ELIGIBLE TO VOTE AS WELL AS SUPPORTING ALL EFFORTS TO EXTEND THE RIGHT TO VOTE TO ALL ELECTORS

Unanimously adopted by the San Francisco Elections Commission on April 4, 2012

 

WHEREAS, the right to vote is the most important right in a democracy, and

WHEREAS, the San Francisco Department of Elections is a nominal defendant in litigation filed on March 7, 2012, by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and others  challenging the Secretary of State’s interpretation of voter eligibility requirements, particularly as they apply to low-level felony offenders in county jail or on post-release community supervision, as issued in her December 2011 memorandum stating that these persons are not eligible to vote, and

WHEREAS, it is the history of California to extend the right to vote to more electors in part by eliminating disqualifications from voting which do not relate to the ability to vote intelligently or honestly, such as in Otsuka v. Hite, 64 Cal.2d 596 (1966), in which the California Supreme Court struck down the disqualification of otherwise valid voters on the basis of a conviction for “infamous crimes,” finding it not relevant to the ability to participate intelligently in the electoral process (citing the United States Supreme Court decision of the same year, Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections (1966) 86 S.Ct. 1079), and

WHEREAS, the San Francisco Department of Elections in co-operation with the Sheriff Department has done an exemplary job in facilitating voting by electors who are in county custody at the time of elections, and

WHEREAS, there is  broad and national push by some organized groups to impose new restrictions on voters for this presidential election cycle, all too often placing new and insurmountable burdens on longtime voters with the apparent aim of blocking certain voters from exercising this sacred right, and

WHEREAS, the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law estimates that some five million valid registered voters might be affected adversely by new voter identification laws nationwide, which is a number less than the margin of victory in two of the last three presidential elections, and finds that these changes were consciously contrived to have the effect of making it more difficult for certain classes of people to vote (see ‘Voting Law Changes in 2012,’ available in summary or comprehensive form at www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/voting_law_changes_in_2012),

THEREFORE, IT IS NOW RESOLVED BY THE ELECTIONS COMMISSION OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO,

THAT it shall be the policy of the San Francisco Department of Elections to continue its efforts of extending the right and the opportunity to vote to all electors within budgetary and operational limits, including those low-level felony offenders who are currently in county jail or on post-release community supervision, to the extent allowable by law, and

THAT it shall be the policy of the San Francisco Department of Elections to support the elimination of all disqualifications of otherwise qualified electors from voting if those restrictions do not bear directly on the ability to participate in the electoral process intelligently or honestly.