Voter Suppression: The Same Old Strategy

[G_j]

http://www.southerncoalition.org/voter-suppression-old-strategy/

Voter Suppression: The Same Old Strategy

July 31, 2014/in Recent News, Voting Rights /by Shoshannah Sayers

SCSJ recently represented the League of Women Voters of North Carolina, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, and other plaintiffs in a federal hearing requesting a preliminary injunction to stop North Carolina’s Monster Voter Suppression Law. At this time we are waiting to hear back from the court on whether or not the law will be halted until a full trial can be conducted. In the meantime, voter suppression tactics are being used in North Carolina and beyond – primarily to impede the voting rights of people of color, students, the elderly, and the poor. How did we get here? Read on to find out.

Supreme Court Decision Leads To Voter Suppression
When the US Supreme Court gutted elements of the Voting Rights Act, North Carolina’s political leaders, using voter fraud as a smokescreen, were the first out of the gate to rush ALEC-influenced voter suppression laws into effect. They are relying on an old strategy of voter suppression to control the outcome of elections. [1,3,5,8,9]

Voter Suppression Today

Remember the old Jim Crow tactics? — Poll taxes, literacy tests, discrimination based on race and gender, voter intimidation. Today’s tactics are disturbingly familiar [2,4]:

Instituting a strict photo ID requirement. Some see this as a type of poll tax since even “free” IDs require documentation that may be cumbersome and costly to obtain for some.

Reducing early voting times and eliminating Sunday voting

Prohibiting ballots cast out of the “precinct-of-residence”

Eliminating same day registration

Eliminating a popular program to pre-register 16- and 17-year olds

Intimidation by empowering independent “election integrity” groups to monitor polling stations and challenge voter credentials

In addition, county BOE’s have set early voting sites to disadvantage city voters compared to their rural counterparts.

These changes are designed to disproportionately disenfranchise minority voters, women, students, single parents, and the poor.



What others are saying about Voter Suppression in NC:

“The GOP’s claims of defending ‘voter integrity’, ‘fairness’ and ‘uniformity’ are complete nonsense” — Jamelle Bouie, Slate [2]

“This is the worst voter suppression law we have seen since the days of Jim Crow. It is a full-on assault on the voting rights of minorities” — Rev. William Barber, President, North Carolina NAACP [3]

“I can’t believe we are seeing this day again….Dr. King would be having a fit.” — Rosanell Eaton, a 93-year-old African-American co-plaintiff, who recalls enduring a literacy test when she first registered to vote [7]

“It was, bar none, the worst legislative process I’ve ever been through.” – Rick Glazier, NC House of Representatives [7]
The fear tactics might be updated but the contemptible strategy is the same old thing.

We must respond by getting out the vote. When they take away our vote, they take away our voice.

[1] http://www.msnbc.com/the-reid-report/watch/nc-voting-law-may-deter-voting-304531011824

[2] http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/03/republican_voter_suppression_rationales_why_voter_integrity_is_nonsense.html

[3] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/06/north-carolina-voter-id-jim-crow-challenge

[4] http://www.advancementproject.org/news/entry/north-carolina-naacp-and-others-challenge-states-voter-suppression-law-in-f

[5] http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/Democracy,_Voter_Rights,_and_Federal_Power

[6] http://www.southerncoalition.org/in-nc-voter-suppression-hits-women-minorities-hardest/

[7] http://prospect.org/article/courtroom-drama-voting-rights-paid-blood-under-siege-north-carolina

[8] http://www.thenation.com/blog/180608/north-carolina-will-determine-future-voting-rights-act#

[9]

Post based on a story from Steadfast NC with additions from SCSJ’s Shoshannah Sayers. Steadfast NC content used with permission.

[merrily]

1. The same old strategy is going to a whole new level

On C-Span, I watched some of the hearings about the IRS allegedly having discriminated against rightist organizations. Regardless of what anyone things the IRS did or did not do, all the RW organizations involved in the hearings that I watched were about voting.

On the one hand, were about registering voters. And, while they did not specify, I imagine the voters that they register will be in churches and other places where they are likeliest to register more rwers than leftists.

On the other hand, they will be challenging votes and voters who may not be entitled to vote (a) at all or (b) in the particular place where they showed up to vote.

And, get this, they were participating in nationwide phone calls every Sunday night to encourage each other, share ideas, etc.

That does not smell to me as though these groups were cropping up around the country spontaneously and coincidentally.

So, what kind of organizations is the Democratic Party establishing to counter this stuff that they heard during the hearings, same as I did?

I know of none, but some individual Democrats are doing what we can on our own to make sure people know what ID they need, if any, to vote, where the polling place for their current address is, what if they move before election day, etc. Most of that stuff is online and can simply be printed out and distributed for the cost of some paper and toner.

In my state, you don't need ID, but I always take a photo ID and a current electric bill, still in an unopened envelope, with me when I go to the polls anyway, just for "belt and suspenders." My surname has an unusual spelling that many people resist for some reason--even to the point of "correcting" me when I spell it out(!), so flashing the bill or ID can save me time, too.

But, if you live in a state where photo ID is required, you can check on whether elderly and/or disabled neighbors, friends or relatives need a ride to the DMV to get a photo ID or whether they need any other kind of help with that. In the case of people who are wheelchair bound, and even elders, they may not need a ride per se--different services may provide them with a free or inexpensive ride--but they could probably use the help of someone to accompany them and do the running around for them. Often, they are entitled to bring that person with them as an assistant at no extra cost

Anyway, do what you can to GOTV, as described above, and tell your Democratic friends and relatives around the country to do what they can, too.

There are more of us than of them. So, if we do whatever we can to help GOTV, the majority wins, as it should in this country.

[Cresent City Kid]

2. I couldn't agree more

The fight against the law should go on, but a plan B, to comply and vote anyway when possible should part of the overall strategy.

[merrily]

3. Sure. Even if the law is fought, the remedy may be a free photo ID, etc. It may not be zero ID.

And, no matter what the remedy is, most of us are not going to sue and it's almost August. A lawsuit may not get the job done before November. Besides, education and encouragement about the right polling place, etc., may be useful anyway. We can probably all do something, no matter what the law eventually settles down to in our respective states.

[G_j]

4. agreed

100%

[merrily]

5. ......