Constitutional Law, Politics, Society

Jim Crow’s Demise Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

voting lines in FLAAlthough Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) does not believe “there is any particular evidence of polls barring African Americans from voting,” there is plenty of evidence that States are making it more difficult for African Americans to vote. Paul is using a strawman argument to recast the voting issue to one in which African Americans are prohibited from voting. Preventing African Americans from voting is the intended result of Republican efforts in numerous states. Using analysis of voting habits, Republicans have passed laws that intentionally create voting difficulties for groups that traditionally vote Democratic. Jim Crow has been dressed up a little, to become James Crow, Esq., but statistically speaking, the results are the same.

In Florida, minority voters waited to vote nearly double the time of white voters, as shown by this graph. voting time in FLAStatistical analysis of voting patterns showed that 61.2 percent of all early voting ballots were cast by Democrats, compared with 18.7 percent by Republicans. The Republican solution: delete six days of early voting and extend voting hours to accommodate those voters who have jobs. A GOP consultant noted that “cutting out of the Sunday before Election Day was one of their targets only because that’s a big day when the black churches organize themselves.” Although not directly targeting African Americans, the intention is to reduce African American voter turnout.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker closed down DMV offices in predominately Democratic areas after passing a voter ID law. In Ohio, Republicans curtailed early voting from thirty-five to eleven days, including the Sunday before the election when African-American churches historically rally their congregants to go to the polls.

In North Carolina, voter suppression has been taken to new levels. Among the new measures are:

  • The end of pre-registration for 16 & 17 year olds
  • A ban on paid voter registration drives
  • Elimination of same day voter registration
  • A provision allowing voters to be challenged by any registered voter of the county in which they vote rather than just their precinct
  • A week sliced off Early Voting
  • Elimination of straight party ticket voting
  • Authorization of vigilante poll observers, lots of them, with expanded range of interference
  • An expansion of the scope of who may examine registration records and challenge voters
  • A repeal of out-of-precinct voting
  • A repeal of the current mandate for high-school registration drives
  • Elimination of flexibility in opening early voting sites at different hours within a county

North Carolina now has the strictest voter ID law in the country. US military ID cards will be accepted, but IDs from students at state colleges will not be accepted. In the election of 2012, 1.4 million voters voted straight-ticket Democrat, while just 1.1 million voted straight ticket Republican, so that feature is gone. During the first seven days of early voting in the 2012 election, now eliminated, 458,258 Democrats used in-person early voting, while just 240,146 Republicans did so. Although not directly targeting African Americans, the intention is the same.

There doesn’t appear to be any help from the Constitution which states:

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

In a 2007, the Brennan Center for Justice reported (pdf) that “by any measure, voter fraud is extraordinarily rare.” If Republicans can’t win by getting more votes than Democrats, they’ll lessen the number of Democratic voters and achieve an identical result.

As President Lyndon B. Johnson said in 1965 regarding the right to vote:

Every device of which human ingenuity is capable, has been used to deny this right.

H/T: Tom Anstrom, Dara Kam and John Lantigua, Ian Millhiser, Washington Post, Associated Press, Charles P. Pierce.

 

329 thoughts on “Jim Crow’s Demise Has Been Greatly Exaggerated”

  1. In retrospect, I dearly love my Mainline Protestant Sunday School education.

    1. So with no real evidence of people voting when they shouldn’t except for Squeeky’s role model Ann Coulter a movement spontaneusly arises in many states to make registration and voting harder. In a further coincidence ALEC has been endorsing model legislation for these States to use. Nothing to see here floks just a coincidence we are told by people who both curiously and dishonestly support the movement. i call them racial denialists and they call me a racist, which is the mewlings of self righteous bigots.

  2. American University – a conservative Methodist founded institution – was named the most politically active school in the nation in The Princeton Review’s annual survey of college students in 2008, 2010 and 2012. It is hardly surprising that they would stand counter to the notion that voter fraud in is a ginned up non-issue presented when with facts that what they are talking about is an “unsubstantiated specter of mass voter fraud [that] suits a particular policy agenda.”

    You really do pick some fine cherries there, Sqweak.

    Too bad they’re all sour.

  3. Oh my goodness, those Brennan people are some real rocket surgeons! Look at this:

    Fraud by individual voters is both irrational and extremely rare. Most citizens who take the time to vote offer their legitimate signatures and sworn oaths with the gravitas that this hard-won civic right deserves. Even for the few who view voting merely as a means to an end, however, voter fraud is a singularly foolish way to attempt to win an election. Each act of voter fraud risks five years in prison and a $10,000 fine – but yields at most one incremental vote. The single vote is simply not worth the price.

    Because voter fraud is essentially irrational, it is not surprising that no credible evidence suggests a voter fraud epidemic.

    I suspect these little dweebs are in for a real shock when they graduate, and pass the bar exam, and go to work as REAL lawyers. They will be flooded with all kinds of irrational people who risk jail and big fines for shoplifting, drug sales, theft, phony prescriptions, prostitution, dwi’s, dui’s, underage drinking, etc. Here is something more tangible than Sunday School thinking:

    The limited information available on duplicate registrations indicates that a substantial number of Americans are registered to vote in two different states. According to news reports, Florida has more than 140,000 voters who apparently are registered in four other states (in Georgia, Ohio, New York, and North Carolina).8 This includes almost 46,000 voters from New York City alone who are registered to vote in Florida as well. Voting records of the 2000 elections appear to indicate that more than 2,000 people voted in two states. Duplicate registrations are also seen elsewhere. As many as 60,000 voters are reportedly registered in both North Carolina and South Carolina

    The November 2004 elections also showed that irregularities and fraud still occur. In Washington, for example, where Christine Gregoire was elected governor by a 129-vote margin, the elections superintendent of King County testified during a subsequent unsuccessful election challenge that ineligible ex-felons had voted and that votes had been cast in the names of the dead. However, the judge accepted Gregoire’s victory because with the exception of four ex-felons who admitted to voting for Dino Rossi, the authorities could not determine for whom the other illegal votes were cast. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, investigators said they found clear evidence of fraud, including more than 200 cases of felons voting illegally and more than 100 people who voted twice, used fake names or false addresses, or voted in the name of a dead person. Moreover, there were 4,500 more votes cast than voters listed. One potential source of election fraud arises from inactive or ineligible voters left on voter registration lists. By one estimate, for example, there were over 181,000 dead people listed on the voter rolls in six swing states in the November 2004 elections, including almost 65,000 dead people listed on the voter rolls in Florida.

    http://www1.american.edu/ia/cfer/report/full_report.pdf

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  4. Policy Brief on the Truth About “Voter Fraud”
    September 12, 2006
    Voting Rights & Elections
    Restricting the Vote
    Myth of Voter Fraud

    As the leading democracy of the world, our voting system should be free, fair, and accessible to all eligible Americans. It’s important to protect the integrity of our elections and stop voter fraud. But we should not be making it harder for millions of eligible Americans to participate in our democracy.

    Summary

    Fraud by individual voters is both irrational and extremely rare.
    Many vivid anecdotes of purported voter fraud have been proven false or do not demonstrate fraud.
    Voter fraud is often conflated with other forms of election misconduct.
    Raising the unsubstantiated specter of mass voter fraud suits a particular policy agenda.
    Claims of voter fraud should be carefully tested before they become the basis for action.”

    Read the rest at Brennan Center for Justice – New York University School of Law

  6. Voting rights are under attack in this country as state legislatures nationwide pass voter suppression laws under the pretext of preventing voter fraud and safeguarding election integrity. These voter suppression laws take many forms, and collectively lead to significant burdens for eligible voters trying to exercise their most fundamental constitutional right.

    During the 2011 legislative sessions, states across the country passed measures to make it harder for Americans – particularly African-Americans, the elderly, students and people with disabilities – to exercise their fundamental right to cast a ballot. Over thirty states considered laws that would require voters to present government-issued photo ID in order to vote. Studies suggest that up to 11 percent of American citizens lack such ID, and would be required to navigate the administrative burdens to obtain it or forego the right to vote entirely.

    Three additional states passed laws to require documentary proof of citizenship in order to register to vote, though as many as 7 percent of American citizens do not have such proof. Seven states shortened early voting time frames, even though over 30 percent of all votes cast in the 2008 general election were cast before Election Day. Two state legislatures voted to repeal Election Day registration laws, though Election Day registration increases voter turnout by 10-12 percent. Finally, two states passed legislation making it much more difficult for third-party organizations to register voters – so difficult, in fact, that some voter registration organizations are leaving the states altogether.

    Despite this frenzy of state legislation to counteract so-called voter fraud and to protect the integrity of our elections, proponents of such voter suppression legislation have failed to show that voter fraud is a problem anywhere in the country. ” – ACLU

  7. In the 2012 election 66.2% of blacks voted, compared to 64.1% of whites. I’ll use the words of the 14% of voters who think voter fraud is not a problem. You suppression folks “have a solution looking for a problem.”

  8. “I think voter fraud is a very minor problem. I think voter suppression fraud/voter intimidation is a much bigger problem.”

    That’s it in a nutshell, Elaine.

  9. Squeeky:

    The point was that both states allowed the person to vote, i.e. the provisional ballot, upon a condition subsequent.

    So, as long as a person got to vote, the fact that the person’s vote didn’t get counted is irrelevant?

    The condition which determines whether a provisional ballot is counted or not, is the point.

  10. Anyone remember Paul Weyrich–a founder of ALEC?

    ‘I Don’t Want Everybody to Vote’ — The Roots of GOP Voter Suppression

  11. nick,

    I think voter fraud is a very minor problem. I think voter suppression fraud/voter intimidation is a much bigger problem. Why 48% of Americans think voter fraud is a major problem is something the press should look into. I’d guess its because of propaganda coming from certain groups–groups who’d like to suppress the voting of certain segments of our population. Our feckless MSM often repeat the talking points of these groups. It’s what happened with the climate change debate. Certain players with deep pockets helped spread their propaganda through thinks tanks (funded by them) and astroturf groups (funded by them).

  12. @Nal:

    My goodness! The point was that both states allowed the person to vote, i.e. the provisional ballot, upon a condition subsequent. R.I.’s law was based on Indiana’s:

    It is extremely important that President Jimmy Carter and a commission including liberal experts on voting came out in support of Voter ID. One liberal member of the commission, Clinton-appointee Professor Robert Pastor, led a study by the Center for Democracy and Election Management that found evidence in favor of voter ID–evidence that is never mentioned by liberals.

    Speaking of not being mentioned, it is more important news that the liberal state of Rhode Island passed voter ID. While the left either ignores Rhode Island (as Hasen does in his book) or tries to distinguish it, the fact remains that Democrats passed a voter ID law modeled on the law passed by Republicans in Indiana, as the Rhode Island law’s chief sponsor admits. Independent Governor Lincoln Chaffee signed the bill, after he spoke with “representatives of our state’s minority communities, and I found their concerns about voter fraud and their support for this bill particularly compelling.”

    Why did Democrat politicians and minorities in Rhode Island want Voter ID? Simple: to stop vote fraud. Sponsor Senator Harold Metts stated: “I sponsored the Voter I.D. legislation in the Senate on behalf of Black and Latino constituents concerned about voter fraud. . . . For decades many of us have heard complaints about voter fraud. . . . I cannot accept the logic of those who dismiss this by saying that ‘there have been no formal complaints filed.’ The old system was not set up to readily weed out fraud; and it would be very hard to prove.”

    Almost everyone in Rhode Island knows the state’s long and unfortunate history of political corruption, which includes vote fraud.

    What makes Rhode Island different from other states is that there is effectively no Republican Party in the state. Stopping vote fraud will not help the Republicans or Independents. It will hurt corrupt and/or machine Democrats and benefit clean or honest Democrats who are in power right now in Providence.

    That is why liberals like MSNBC’s Chris Matthews all but laughed in the face of the Advancement Project director on his show, when she denied vote fraud existed in Philadelphia. But think of it this way. In Philadelphia, you don’t even get prosecuted for waiving a billiy club and threatening people, as the New Black Panthers did; do you really think anything is going to happen with buses of people illegally voting for others multiple times as Matthews described? That is why ID is so important in a place like Pennsylvania and even in a place like Providence.

    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/03/20/setting-the-record-straight-on-lefts-war-against-voter-id

    Unlike Chris Matthews, I am laughing!

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  13. Elaine, Never did I say, nor do I believe, voter fraud is of “epic proportions.” Let’s be honest in this debate, please. The Washington Post poll from August 2012, from which I have been quoting, actually asked that question. 48% of voters think voter fraud is a major problem. 33% of them view voter fraud as a minor problem. Only 14% see it as no problem. Put me somewhere between the major/minor folks. If 10 is major and 1 minor, I’m a 4. I believe we can put you in the 14% category?

  14. Squeeky:

    Like Indiana, which has the provisional ballot option.

    Rhode Island’s provisional ballot is not like Indiana’s at all:

    “The [provisional] ballot is counted only if (1) the voter returns to the election board by noon on the Monday after the election and: (A) produces proof of identification; or (B) executes an affidavit stating that the voter cannot obtain proof of identification, because the voter: (i) is indigent; or (ii) has a religious objection to being photographed; and (2) the voter has not been challenged or required to vote a provisional ballot for any other reason.”

    Hardly comparable to Rhode Island’s signature comparison method.

    PoliGraph: Higgins’ voter ID claim accurate:

    After the 2008 general election, the authors polled Indiana’s 92 counties to find out how many people had to fill out a provisional ballot because they didn’t have proper identification, and how many of those ballots were ultimately counted. According to the research, 1,039 voters filled out a provisional ballot because they lacked the right ID, and 137 of those ballots were counted. That means nearly 87 percent of the ballots were not counted.

  15. davidm,

    From your Wikipedia link:

    “Canada did not fight in the Vietnam War and diplomatically it was “officially non-belligerent”.[1] The country’s troop deployments to Vietnam were limited to a small number of national forces in 1973 to help enforce the Paris Peace Accords.[2]”

  16. nick,

    Where is the overwhelming evidence that voter fraud has become a ubiquitous problem that’s of epic proportions in this country?

  17. @MikeS:

    Hmmm. Well, I am a little agitated today, but it isn’t over any of the above stuff. I think I made some pretty good points, provided relevant information, and hopefully made a few people laugh along the way. What has got my dander up is that I had to read about 2 hours or more worth of stupid football stuff for a poem I am writing. And I am still not sure I got it right.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  18. The only “evidence” that is worth anything is when there are rules of evidence. Although much of the information provided here is indeed “overwhelming,” it is not “overwhelming evidence.”

  19. Nal:

    Well of course the left is going to try to distinguish Rhode Island from the mean old Republican state. I read something on Mediaite about that. Problem is, some of the mean old states, have some of the same provisions. Like Indiana, which has the provisional ballot option. That didn’t save Indiana from getting sued by the Democrats.

    Plus, do you really think that you guys wouldn’t have lumped Rhode Island right in there with the mean, old Jim Crow-y states if it had been a Republican legislature there??? Worse, do you think anybody outside the lefty echo-chamber has any doubts that you would have?

    That’s why the lefties have to look at the actual provisions as opposed to hollering “Jim Crow!” and “Racist!” every chance they get. Not that that will ever happen. Race baiting pays off! Can’t let the truth get in the way of that.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  20. Some interesting differences in Rhode Island’s voter ID law:

    Rhode Island accepts college ID.

    Rhode Island has a “critical fail-safe for those voters without ID. Any voter without the proper identification can cast a provisional ballot. If their signature on the provisional ballot matches the signature on their voter registration, as determined by the local board of elections, the provisional ballot will count.”

Comments are closed.