Jackson rallies against New Orleans vote

The Rev. Jesse Jackson is touring Southern cities this week to rally opposition to next month's mayoral election in New Orleans, saying too many Hurricane Katrina victims scattered around the country will be unable to vote.

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Jackson and other civil rights leaders have demanded that the election be postponed. But they have not said when they believe the balloting should be held.

Jackson said the march will be the most critical demonstration since the civil rights era.

"Fast is not more important than fair. We marched for fair elections, not fast elections," he said at a church in Atlanta, referring to his involvement in the civil rights movement with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Black leaders have charged that Louisiana officials have not done enough to ensure that voters scattered by the storm will be able to vote. Louisiana loosened procedures for absentee balloting and plans to set up satellite polling places around the state for New Orleans residents driven from their homes, but it decided not to create such stations outside Louisiana.

I don't agree with the race-based considerations Rev. Jackson and some others are bringing forth for it is not the race of those potentially disenfranchised that matters but the very fact of disenfranchisement - even though it is true that in this particular case most of those disenfranchised are black. However, disenfranchisement definitely seems to be afoot here and Rev. Jackson is right to protest it.

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