PRESS RELEASE
FROM THE OFFICE OF
Congressman Artur Davis
7th Congressional District of Alabama
208 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-0107 		image of U.S. Congress seal with capitol dome in the background
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 12, 2005
 

HURRICANE KATRINA DISPLACED VOTERS BILL CONTINUES TO GAIN SUPPORT IN CONGRESS

- Davis believes displaced residents should have a voice in rebuilding their communities -
 
WASHINGTON  --  As efforts continue to reconstitute the physical infrastructure of the Gulf Coast communities ravaged by Hurricanes Katrina last month, Members of Congress are beginning to examine the implications facing federal representation in the region.

 

In September, U.S. Representative Artur Davis (D-AL) proposed legislation that would offer displaced voters from the impacted Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi area the same voting status as military service men and women serving our nation.  The Displaced Citizens Voter Protection Act of 2005 (HR 3734) ensures that victims of Hurricane Katrina and Rita have the right to vote by absentee ballot while temporarily displaced.  Its provisions ensure that displaced citizens receive the same voting protections currently available to military and overseas voters.  The absentee ballot voting provisions of the Act apply only to those individuals who certify that:

 

1) they are otherwise qualified to vote in their original place of residence; and

 

2) they intend to return to that residence in the near future. 

 

The Act covers elections for federal office held through 2008 and provides that state agencies designated under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 take steps to notify individuals of their absentee voting rights.

 

“Our displaced citizens should have the same rights as our soldiers, and for that matter our college students, to participate in their states elections while they are temporarily away from home.  This bill would allow evacuees to assert by affidavit that they intend to return to Louisiana or Mississippi and to vote in the 2006 and 2008 federal elections by absentee ballot,” Davis said. 

 

To date, 33 co-sponsors have signed on in support of the legislation.  Also, U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) recently introduced companion legislation in the Senate.

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