home > resources > archive ACLU of Utah Activist Email Newsletter: October 2004 In this issue: Supporting Voters’ Rights in Utah Draper City Repeals Unconstitutional Sign Ordinance "Unconstitutional" -- a SLC Film Screening Oppose Using Intelligence Reform to Cloak Legislation Supporting Voters’ Rights in Utah What would you do if you were turned away at your polling place or presented with obstacles that made voting difficult? You would probably confront anyone who challenged your right to vote. But many Americans don’t know what their rights are and aren’t prepared to challenge authorities and others who try to prevent them from voting. Nationally, the ACLU will be out in full force on Election Day to see that all votes--Democrat, Republican, and third party, black, white, and Hispanic, young and old--are counted. We’ll be monitoring the voting process, intervening to help unjustly treated voters whenever we can, and gathering critical evidence that may be helpful should post-election legal action be necessary to defend the right to vote and to have the vote counted accurately. Here in Utah, we are especially interested in what happens in polling places located outside of the major metropolitan areas, where smaller populations may receive less election oversight and greater chances of voter disenfranchisement. The ACLU of Utah wants to assure that each vote cast in Utah is counted accurately and equally. It is also important that election laws are applied uniformly throughout the state. You can assist the ACLU of Utah by visiting our web page where you can get information about voters rights as well as print out a Poll Monitors report to help us track any issues with polling places around Utah. Before you vote on November 2, please print out our Election Report, take it with you and take a few extra minutes to answer the questions posed in the survey. You may also fill out our survey online. The right to vote and to have one’s vote counted accurately and equally is as fundamental a right as we have in this country. Thank you for your vigilance in ensuring that this right is respected. Click here for our poll monitoring survey and additional information about voters’ rights in Utah. Draper City Repeals Unconstitutional Sign Ordinance In a settlement agreement filed in federal court, Draper City agreed to repeal an ordinance that the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah claimed unconstitutionally restricted residents’ political speech by limiting the posting of political signs on private property. As part of the agreement, the Draper City attorney will write to city attorneys in all other cities in Salt Lake County suggesting they review and repeal similar ordinances. The City also agreed to pay the plaintiffs’ attorney fees and court costs. The settlement agreement ended a federal lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Utah and cooperating civil rights attorney Brian Barnard on behalf Robert Latham, Heather Rice, and political candidate Ken Larsen, who wanted to displays political signs in Draper. Latham and Rice wished to display campaign signs in yards more than thirty days prior to Election Day, an action expressly prohibited by the Draper ordinance unless the signs were left over from a primary election. Larsen, running for governor under the People’s Choice Party, was prohibited from posting signs before October 3, whereas under Draper’s ordinance, signs supporting the Republican candidate were allowed any time after May 22, thirty days prior to the Republican primary election. In a complaint filed on September 14 in Federal Court, the ACLU of Utah and Barnard argued that by placing durational time limits on political campaign signs, the ordinance prohibited Draper residents from engaging in otherwise lawful and protected political expression. The suit also claimed a discriminatory classification of candidates based on participation in a primary election. Two days after the suit was filed, Draper City agreed not to enforce the ordinance before Election Day on November 2. "Unconstitutional" -- a SLC Film Screening Salt Lake City Underground Video Resistance presents "Unconstitutional," a Robert Greenwald documentary on the USA PATRIOT Act, on Saturday, October 30, at 6 p.m. at the Gould Auditorium in the University of Utah Marriott Library. A $3 donation is suggested. Reinard Knutsen of the ACLU of Utah will give a short presentation on the USA PATRIOT Act before the film. Just 45 days after the September 11 attacks, and with virtually no debate, Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act. Touted as legislation necessary to protect Americans from terrorists, the Patriot Act is in fact being used to prosecute ordinary Americans in non-terrorist situations. This film tells the frightening stories of how this legislation has caught innocent citizens in its predatory web. More than 300 communities in 41 states have passed resolutions in opposition to the Patriot Act. Hundreds more are joining the fight. Click here for more information, to watch a trailer of the movie, or to order a DVD of the movie. Oppose Using Intelligence Reform to Cloak Legislation Congress continues to use the proposed intelligence reform legislation to provide cover for some of the worst anti-immigrant provisions in the last decade. These repressive provisions attack the courts’ ability to provide oversight over immigrant proceedings, allow the government to work with oppressive foreign governments against asylum seekers and stipulate new ID requirements that limit even legal immigrants’ ability to get driver’s licenses. Although the 9-11 Commission did not say the government needed to target immigrants, this bill would expand the government’s ability to deport more people without a hearing. It would also allow the government to seize people who may have entered the United States outside the system in the last five years and throw them into a so-called expedited deportation process without the right to a lawyer or to at least make their case in court. The government would -- with no check or balance on its powers be allowed to decide whether an individual is allowed to stay or be sent to another country, even ones like Libya, North Korea or Iran, as long as those governments **promise** not to engage in torture. And if for some reason the government cannot deport you, this Republican legislation would allow the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security to put you in jail for the rest of your life without any ability to go to court to appeal your imprisonment. Take Action! Urge Congress to oppose these radical and mean- spirited provisions. Click here for more information and to take action. Return to top of page

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