a322x1n
2021-07-15 03:46:52 UTC
Conservatives are so pro-black, until black people try to vote.
Who couldn't vote?Voter suppression and gerrymandering are the Republicans weapons of
choice.
choice.
What is Voter Suppression?
Voter suppression is any effort that can prevent eligible voters from
registering to vote or voting. Suppressing the vote is generally
achieved by passing laws that restrict the right to vote, but it can
also take the form of government allowing private citizens to intimidate
voters or elected officials spreading lies or misinformation to
undermine faith in our electoral system.
Efforts to suppress the vote are primarily supported by Republican
officials at every level of government so they can either win elections
or remain in power by making it difficult for voters to vote them out of
office.
Most Americans, regardless of party, support things like criminal
justice reform, fair and equal wages, fighting climate change,
protecting LGBTQ+ rights, accessible & affordable healthcare, and
immigration reform. Unfortunately, the Republican Party of today is
opposed to most, if not all, of these policies and doesn't have a
broadly popular platform. But, by making it harder to vote, they can
still win elections despite only having the support of the minority of
American voters.
However, even though voter suppression is often discussed in terms of
Democrats and Republicans, it isn't a conversation about "left versus
right, but about right versus wrong."
HISTORY
In 1787, the majority of eligible voters consisted solely of
property-owning or tax paying white male citizens which was only about
6% of the American population. However, over the next few decades the
requirements of owning property or paying taxes were relaxed or
repealed. That said, women and people of color still had limited access
to the ballot box or none at all.
After the Civil War, all male citizens, regardless of ethnicity, were
finally given the right to vote with the passage of the 15th Amendment
in 1870. In response, white men, primarily in the southern states,
embarked upon a campaign of violence and electoral fraud to ensure their
continued victories at the ballot box. And by 1894 most of the
protections put in place to enforce Reconstruction had been repealed or
ruled unconstitutional which left the states free to pass regulations
like poll taxes, literacy tests, and state-sanctioned intimidation to
keep people of color from voting which would become known as Jim Crow
laws.
One small bright spot during this period was when women finally gained
access to the ballot box after the passage of the 19th Amendment in
1920. However, this bright spot was significantly dulled since this
only benefitted white women. Women of color were still mostly unable to
vote.
Jim Crow was the law of the land until 1965 when the fight for civil
rights led by people like Septima Clark, John Lewis, and Martin Luther
King culminated in the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Officially,
America took a significant step towards an inclusive democracy where all
voices could be heard to shape its future. Unofficially, there was still
much work to be done.
Unfortunately, the progressive movement could not capitalize on the
success of the Voting Rights Act to strengthen and entrench a truly free
and fair electoral system in America. And, due to the racist mechanisms
within our current form of government, specifically the Electoral
College, Republican President George W. Bush lost the popular vote but
won the Electoral College in 2004.
Subsequently, this President, elected by the minority of Americans,
nominated two conservative judges (John Roberts and Samuel Alito) to the
Supreme Court in 2005 and 2006. And in 2013, the five conservative
justices gutted the Voting Rights Act with their ruling on Shelby County
v. Holder, paving the way for a new raft of voter suppression laws.
Overnight Republican-controlled legislatures moved swiftly to make it
harder to vote. Sadly, this is a trend that has accelerated and has been
exacerbated by aggressive Republican gerrymandering and bad faith
arguments about non-existent voter fraud or The Big Lie regarding the
2020 Presidential election.
As of May 28, 2021, 389 bills were introduced in 48 states, with 22 of
them becoming law with the sole purpose of restricting the right to
vote.
WHO ARE THE TARGETS OF VOTER SUPPRESSION?
People of color are disproportionately affected by voter suppression
compared to white voters, but it impacts both groups. Also, voter
suppression affects women, queer & trans folk, disabled, low-income &
unhoused, elderly, and college students. These restrictive laws aim to
stop these groups from building broad-based fusion coalitions as part of
a moral movement to confront racial and economic inequality.
WHO DOES VOTER SUPPRESSION BENEFIT?
The main benefactors of voter suppression are Republican lawmakers and
the corporate donors that fund them.
Bills that aim to restrict the right to vote are only introduced by
Republican lawmakers and passed in Republican-controlled legislatures
with little or no Democratic support. And these bills are only signed
into law by Republican officials.
The majority of the country supports the policies of the Democratic
party. And when Democrats turn out at the polls, Democrats tend to win.
In a healthy democracy, a political party will examine why they lost an
election and adjust their platform to appeal to more voters. However,
the Republican party has chosen to stop Democratic voters from
exercising their right to vote instead. What the Republicans did in
Georgia after they lost the January 5, 2021 provides a brazen example.
Proponents of these laws rely on the false narrative that these
restrictions are necessary to protect the integrity of our elections
from "voter fraud". The only problem is...
VOTER FRAUD DOES NOT EXIST
Justin Levitt's 2014 study found 31 cases between the years of 2000 to
2014 out of ONE BILLION VOTES. And if you need to see more proof then
read the Brennan Center for Justice's extensive report on "Debunking the
Voter Fraud Myth" and Refuting the Myth of Voter Fraud Yet Again. And
after Republicans officials and rightwing talking heads shrieked VOTER
FRAUD! after their favored Presidential candidate lost in the November
3, 2020 General election, their own Attorney General admitted there was
none to be found. Furthermore, election officials across the country
asserted there was no widespread fraud of any kind. Even former
President Trumps own officials declared it the most secure election in
U.S. history.
WHAT DOES VOTER SUPPRESSION LOOK LIKE?
VOTER I.D. LAWS - Proponents of Voter ID laws claim that ANYONE can just
get an I.D. And many states offer them for free. However, free I.D.s
have hidden costs, and are not always easy to obtain. Not everyone has a
car or lives close to an agency that provides I.D. And even if they do,
people may not be able to afford to take a day off from work to get an
I.D., or afford to pay for the documents needed to get a free I.D. A
recent study found that between 9,000 and 23,000 registered voters were
deterred from voting in Wisconsin in the 2016 Election. To learn more,
read the Truth About Voter I.D.
PURGING THE VOTER ROLLS - Notorious vote suppressor; former Kanas
Secretary of State, Kris Kobach, who has been successfully sued by the
ACLU multiple times for suppressing the vote, created CROSSCHECK.
Crosscheck purports to be a benevolent program that compares voter roll
data from state to state and removes duplicate entries to clean up the
voter rolls. But, a Stanford study found that for every legitimate match
Crosscheck finds, it produces nearly 200 false positives. This results
in voters showing up to vote only to find that they have been purged and
are now unable to exercise their right to vote.
Another purging method is "Use it or Lose it." States such as Ohio and
Georgia purge voters from the voter rolls if they do not vote after a
specified period of time which results in voters unable to vote.
LIMITING EARLY VOTING - Nearly every Election is held on a Tuesday.
Early voting gives voters who may not be able to get time off from work,
have family obligations, or any other legitimate reason an opportunity
to vote before the official Election Day. States with competently
implemented no-excuse early voting systems in place can see higher
turnout numbers during the early voting period which will aid in shorter
lines on Election Day allowing more voters to vote. If you cut early
voting it means everyone is forced to vote on Election Day which can
lead to extremely long lines which can suppress the vote.
FELONY DISENFRANCHISEMENT - In every state, but two, voters
automatically lose their right to vote when they are convicted of a
felony. The concept of prison is that a person serves their time and
their debt is paid to society. Adding obstacles to voting afterwards,
essentially extends their prison sentence because they do not have the
same rights as every other citizen. Click HERE to learn more about
felony disenfranchisement. Or if youre a voter with a felony
conviction who needs help registering to vote or voting, check out
Restore Your Vote from the Campaign Legal Center.
SABOTAGING ELECTION INFRASTRUCTURE - In May of 2020, Republican
President Trump installed a GOP loyalist and top Trump donor with
conflicts of interest and zero experience to head up the U.S. Post
Office as the Postmaster General. Trump continued to publicly disparage
the Postal Service while his Postmaster General sabotaged the post
office from within by removing sorting machines, cutting overtime,
firing or reassigning experienced postal veterans, removing postoffice
boxes, and changing procedure for the sole purpose of causing delays.
Trump also held up coronavirus relief for Americans because legislators
wanted to include funding for the Post Office in the aid package. Many
Americans are hoping to vote by mail in 2020 because, as of September
12, 6.4+ million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus and
193,000+ have died.
GERRYMANDERING - Drawing electoral districts in order to favor one
party, and in this case, the Republicans. After the 2010 census the GOP
initiated Operation REDMAP in order to draw districts favorable to GOP
candidates. This resulted in the Democrats often getting the most votes,
but the GOP getting the most seats which you can see illustrated HERE.
Gerrymandering is one of the greatest threats to our Democracy because
it denies legitimate representation in government.
To be fair, this is one area where you can also point the finger at
Democrats, but not to the extent that Republicans do it. And even if
this was an instance of both sides do it, only Republicans are passing
laws that limit access to the ballot box in order to enhance the impact
of their partisan gerrymanders.
UNDERFUND ELECTION DAY RESOURCES - If the state, county, or district
does not provide adequate funding to properly staff and/or equip its
polling places, this will result in longer lines and longer wait times.
People may not be able to physically or financially stand in line for
hours and give up which effectively denies them the right to vote. Below
is a video of the Georgia June 9, 2020 Primary after they closed polling
places, failed to provide enough provisional ballots, and installed
defective voting machines. Thousands were disenfranchised.
DEFYING THE LAW - If a voter is in line to vote before polls close then
they have a right to stay in line until they can cast their ballot. But,
sometimes election officials will close a polling place the second it
hits the official closing time which is in violation of election law.
For example, during the June 23, 2020 Kentucky primary, election
officials closed the ONLY polling place in Jefferson County at 6:00pm
despite voters still in line to vote.
CLOSING ID OFFICES - In states requiring specific forms of ID to vote,
voters without it must go through the process of obtaining it. But, on
more than one occasion officials have closed agency offices that issue
the IDs voters need which effectively denies them the right to vote by
denying them the ability to get the ID they need.
MIS and DIS - INFORMATION - Voters receive official looking mailers with
incorrect information on them like deadlines, polling places, and
election times and dates. For example, during the 2011 Wisconsin recall
election, the Koch-backed group Americans For Prosperity sent mailers to
predominantly Democratic areas telling them to make sure their absentee
ballots were in by August 11. The actual deadline was August 9.
Furthermore, the Republican party has partnered with misinformation /
disinformation networks like FOX News, OANN, and Newsmax in order to
erode faith in our entire electoral system.
VOTER INTIMIDATION - In 1981, Republicans sent armed off-duty police
officers into minority neighborhoods during the New Jersey gubernatorial
race claiming it was to ensure ballot security. But, what it actually
did was intimidate minority voters from casting their vote. This led to
the 1982 consent decree which barred the GOP from engaging in this type
of activity. However, in 2018, the consent decree was allowed to expire
and the Republican party swiftly moved into action to prepare for
large-scale voter intimidation in 2020 with the goal of targeting likely
Democratic voters. The GOP has a stated goal of recruiting 50,000 poll
watchers who will be deployed to polling stations visited by likely
Democratic voters with the intent to challenge their right to vote.
OFF-YEAR ELECTIONS - Off-year elections have historically low turnout,
so by setting elections on off-years it makes it easier for
well-organized and well-funded interest groups to push their preferred
candidates and policy initiatives through.
CAGING LISTS - A political party will send registered letters the
addresses of people of the opposite party and if the letters are
returned undeliverable then they challenge the legitimacy of that voter.
The reality is that the voter may have just moved and never updated
their address. Click HERE for more info.
Voter suppression is an assault on civil rights and a threat to a
legitimate representational democracy. We need to replace all
politicians who support voter suppression laws with people who will
fight for free and fair elections for all Americans.
If you want to fight voter suppression, check out our RESOURCES page.