You might never know it, given the way so many Americans abuse it, but the most precious of all our rights is the right to vote. Voting is our only means with which to protect our other rights. Failure to vote is the most heinous crime against ourselves that we can commit, followed closely by voting without due diligence. If what we do top ourselves isn’t bad enough, Republican Secretaries of State are Stealing our right to vote.
In most states, the power to expand or curtail the right to vote is largely in the hands of an obscure official, the secretary of state. Thirty-one of these secretaries are currently Republicans or aligned with the GOP. And four of them have gone to extraordinary lengths to make it harder to vote.
Jon Husted of Ohio: Husted, who is running for governor next year, has purged more than 2 million voters since he took office in 2011. Voters are deemed “inactive” if they fail to respond to “purge notices” from the state, which are sent to residents who either move or don’t cast a ballot for two years. In Ohio’s three largest counties, voters in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods have been purged at about twice the rate of people in Republican-leaning ones. This fall, the Supreme Court will hear a case on Ohio’s practice of targeting voters for inactivity. If it rules in Husted’s favor, his brand of purging could catch on in other Republican-controlled states.
Brian Kemp of Georgia: Another 2018 gubernatorial candidate, Kemp recently came up with a similar way to remove poor and minority voters from the rolls. He instructed local election officials to mail notices to more than 380,000 registered voters, targeting people who had recently moved. Those who failed to respond within 30 days were placed on the state’s inactive voter list; they’ll be purged from the rolls if they don’t vote in two consecutive federal elections. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a petition in court alleging that some of the notices violated state and federal laws and that the scheme disproportionately affected low-income and minority voters. In response to the lawsuit, Kemp said his office would make sure that nearly 160,000 people who improperly received the notice would remain on the active list; the ACLU, apparently unconvinced, responded that Kemp had to notify those people of the change and take further action…
Inserted from <Mother Jones>
I shared two of four with you. Click through for the other two. including Kris Kobitch.
Every Republican in Office Is One Republican Too Many!
RESIST THE REPUBLICAN REICH!!
22 Responses to “Republicans Steal Your Right to Vote”
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awful
Yeah. Scroll down from the article to the next article and read how much damage voter suppression has already done. And not even in one of those four states.
And here’s a true story from North Dakota about how easy it can be to destroy a state’s historic determination that all who want to vote should be able to vote. Funny how when those who want to vote are native Americans, the picture changes.
When I read that one, I found it fascinating that the Republicans’ lone example of voter fraud had not even voted.
Sadly this is all to familiar by now. And every time Americans abuse their right to vote by not voting if they do/still have the opportunity to do so, they indirectly give their vote to Republicans and greatly increase the chance they won’t be allowed to vote for a long time to come.
Being relentless in purging voters, and curtailing our right to vote, is something that the Republicons have spent time and OUR money on.
Get them out, and get out and VOTE!!!
Living in Atlanta, I am all too aware of how tens of thousands of voters have been purged from the polls. Granted, one does need to remove the names of those who have died or moved out of the district; however, when this purging takes place just before an important election, that is suspicious. Especially if the purging was more rigorous in minority neighborhoods and/or areas that tend to vote Democrat.
RESIST and PERSIST!!!
The purging by Republicans always is.
And people are under the illusion that the US is a Democracy ?!!!
No kidding eh?
The “War on Drugs,” was/is a serious effort to convict, and jail as many blacks as possible, thus taking them out of the voting roles, and the procreating roles they might otherwise have filled. The GOPigs learned,long ago, that they cold not maintain any semblance of power without cheating, big time! And the bastards never wind up in jail, themselves.
I saw a video earlier today where Rachel Maddow (I think) interviewed Ari Berman on the affect of Wisconsin’s voter ID law (I can’t find it now of course). There is an excellent article in Mother Jones, Rigged: How Voter Suppression Threw Wisconsin to Trump, by Berman which is much the same. As I recall from the interview, some 45,000 people were prevented from voting — they tried to vote but were prevented — and most were Dems. Drumpf won the state by only 22,000 votes. Here is a very brief excerpt:
It is absolutely appalling that US citizens are faced with disenfranchisement from their constitutional right to vote. This does not fit my definition of democracy, not even representative democracy. Former Chief Justice Warren Burger is purportedly to have said “One person, one vote.” Not anymore.
Since November, 2008 I’ve been a volunteer driver to take people to the polls. I need to start looking to see if they need that service on off-year elections, too.
It’s actually a very enjoyable task, although sitting and waiting to take them home can be a bit boring.
Kudos!
Should I offer to teach you to knit or crochet?
Thanks all! Hugs!
a party that suppresses the voting rights of any citizen is not a party that should be allowed in a democracy.
Welcome, Paul. You sure have that right! TC will welcome you too, but I think he’ll forgive me for jumping in first.
I’ll consider it.
Welcome Paul!
Spot on!
GOPTP fascists.
Welcome Ivan!
Amen!