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. Squeek finally admits, “so I am not fully informed as to the reason for some of the changes.”

    Since you refuse to do any research to back up your alleged reporting, let me tell you there is no good reason in NC or anywhere else to restrict early voting, particularly if you are going to demand papers, and only the “right” papers. Did you even read what Elaine and O.S. posted?

    It’s about exclusion, Squeek, rank exclusion, and it’s for more reasons than just race. Maybe you do not see that, but as a reporter, you have become an enabler of exclusion.

  2. @JamesK:

    I don’t live in North Carolina, so I am not fully informed as to the reason for some of the changes. As long as they apply across the board to all people alike, I do not see a problem.

    The “same-day” registrations restriction seems facially reasonable. If you want to vote, you simply don’t wait until the last minute when the poll employees have their hands full. And, it applies to black and white alike.

    A week sliced off Early Voting? How much early voting is still left? I remember one state trying to whack off “early voting” the last week before an election so that the poll employees could get all the registers ready. Nothing unreasonable about that. And, it applies to black and white alike.

    Elimination of flexibility in opening early voting sites at different hours within a county??? Uh, why shouldn’t they all operate on the same time schedule? That way, maybe poll watchers of both parties know what time to be at the polls. And, it applies to black and white alike.

    Really, I am not seeing a reasonable basis for all the Democratic distress over this. Outside of the two reasons I mentioned earlier.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

    1. “I don’t live in North Carolina, so I am not fully informed as to the reason for some of the changes. As long as they apply across the board to all people alike, I do not see a problem.”

      Squeeky Fromm Girl Equivocator.

  3. Squeeky,

    Tell us some stories about your daddy Charlie:

    Although she was one of Charles Manson’s most trusted associates, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme had no hand in the infamous 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders orchestrated by Manson. She was a fixture in front of the Los Angeles courthouse during Manson’s trial, however, remaining loyal to him throughout. In September 1975, she pulled a gun on President Ford; she was grabbed by the Secret Service and later sentenced to life in prison. Fromme escaped from prison in 1987,

    but was captured and jailed until her 2009 release.

    (Squeeky Fromm). Especially how he taught you to be a girl and a reporter.

    Was it his idea or yours to become a fox girl reporter?

  4. GOP voter registration scandal widens
    A Virginia official is busted for tossing voter forms. Turns out he works for the national party, too
    By Brad Friedman
    10/19 12
    http://www.salon.com/2012/10/19/gop_voter_registration_scandal_widens/

    Excerpt:
    A man originally reported to have been working for the Republican Party of Virginia was arrested by the Rockingham County, Va., Sheriff’s Office on Thursday and charged with attempting to destroy voter registration forms by tossing them into a dumpster behind a shopping center in Harrisonburg, Va.

    “Prosecutors charged him with four counts of destruction of voter registration applications, eight counts of failing to disclose voter registration applications and one count of obstruction of justice,” according to a report late Thursday afternoon from TPM’s Ryan Reilly. More charges could be forthcoming, according to officials.

    But there is more to the story, as evidence emerges to document that it ties into a still-expanding nationwide GOP Voter Registration Fraud Scandal that the BRAD BLOG first began reporting in late September, after we’d learned that the Republican Party of Florida had turned in more than 100 allegedly fraudulent and otherwise suspect voter registration forms in Palm Beach County. The story has continued to widen ever since, to a dozen Florida counties and several other states, now including Virginia, and even to the upper-echelons of the Republican Party itself.

    The man arrested today was 23-year-old Colin Small of Phoenixville, Pa. As it turns out, he does not only work for the Virginia Republican Party. According to an online profile, he appears to be working for the Republican National Committee and, prior to that, served as an Intern for Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., in the U.S. House of Representatives.

    Joseph Tanfani at the Los Angeles Times is reporting that Small was “working as a supervisor as part of a registration operation in eight swing states financed by the Republican National Committee.”

  5. Squeeky,

    Here’s a story about alleged voter REGISTRATION fraud:

    Voter registration fraud allegation reported in county
    By Rob Munoz
    10/1/12
    http://www.mynews3.com/content/news/story/Voter-registration-fraud-allegation-reported-in/BL9kd0OWMUmR6pqdQfQeWg.cspx

    Excerpt;
    LAS VEGAS (KSNV MyNews3) — Allegations of voter registration fraud have surfaced across the country recently, and now an alleged case is being reported here in Clark County.

    A source tells News 3 that he witnessed someone directing someone to rip up a voter registration form.

    The same source says it seems similar to what happened during the elections in 2008.

    According to emails obtained by News 3, the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office is looking into the matter.

    In a statement this person gave to the Secretary of State’s Office, they say they witnessed a man registering voters in Henderson and “he told her she needed to fill out another form. And when she marked democrat he told her to rip it up and fill out another form and leave party affiliation blank.”

  6. Over in our neck of the woods, a near riot broke out at the Watauga County, NC Board of Elections meeting last Monday. Pat McCroy is the first Republican governor in two decades. That means he (as a proxy for Art Pope and the Tea Party) was able to take over appointments to the BOE. Watauga County is in the northwest corner of North Carolina, and home to Appalachian State University. One of the top issues on their agenda is to cage Appy State students and faculty and make voting as hard as possible for them. Since most, if not all, have state issued ID cards, they had to find another trick. How about making a super precinct with 9,300 voters and the polling place has 35 parking slots?

    The Tea Party types Pat McCroy appointed to the Board showed up at the meeting August 12 with a clearly laid out agenda. It was messy at the meeting, but there is video (Yay!). See the link from the High Country Press, below. Here is what they want:

    1. Eliminate the Appalachian State University (ASU) early one-stop voting site.
    2. Force all early voting into one location hard to access by students, faculty, and staff at ASU.
    3. Outlaw any verbal public comment at Board meetings and require that written comments be screened to ensure they were “pertinent” and communicated without cussing or libel.
    4. Require that the 27-year Elections Board Director, a woman totally on the straight up and beloved by the entire county, not be allowed to meet with anyone in her office without supervision.
    5. Mandate that anyone calling into the local BOE office have their names recorded.
    6. Move the “New River” precinct (a heavily populated precinct in and around the town of Boone) out into the very corner of the precinct into a virtually unknown location and as far away from municipal voters as possible.
    7. Combine three Boone precincts into one Super Precinct consisting of 9,300 voters. The voting precinct facility has only 35 parking spaces. Furthermore, the voting facility is as far as possible from ASU without crossing the county line.

    The state is investigating. I have no idea how independent the state board is, but will try to find out.

    http://www.hcpress.com/news/after-so-many-comments-state-board-of-elections-reviewing-mondays-local-elections-board-meeting.html

    OK, now what was that about making sure only registered voters could vote as their only concern?

  7. Squeek, your reporting is completely lacking. You do not address the closings of early voting, the same-day registrations, and other completely non-thretening voting methods that are now illegal in North Carolina. With your vaunted I.D., those methods would pose no threat to the non-threat you are worried about.

    Why is that? Can you report on that? Why close the doors in people’s faces after you have seen the already too-long lines? What in heaven’s name does that have to do with voter fraud?

    The remarks from the gentleman from PA are good place to start,

  8. @GeneH:

    From “Squeeky’s Dictionary” (H/T to Ambrose Bierce!)

    dis tract verb. 1. To introduce facts and reason into an emotional argument.

    2. To interrupt self chest-thumping activities with a dose of realism.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  9. Gene, the most troubling aspect of this whole debate is the rank exclusion based on, well, nothing at all. Always with the Us. v Them.

  10. @jamesk:

    I do not care which party it effects. There should be one vote for one person, and even picture ID does not completely guarantee that, it is a reasonable step.

    You are correct that it is not illegal to drag Sam the Stumblebum to the polls and get him to vote for your guy. Practically speaking, there is not much way to prove you gave him a $3 bottle of Thunderbird. But, with voter ID, it is more unlikely that you can drag him to several precincts, and then get an absentee ballot or two out of him.

    Sam could still be utilized in nefarious ways, but the cost of the ground game would go way up. Which is one of the two reasons why the Dems are having panic attacks over this. The other is the chance to play the race card some more.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  12. Squeeky continues the inexplicable victimhood with “Not that you will actually read it:.”

    Ok, based on the content of that article, who’s voting rights shall we then restrict and why?

    “Walking around money” is not voter fraud.We have secret ballots in this country so there is no way to verify how someone actually voted, unless truly corrupt schemes were in play, and those were noticeably absent from the article you worried I might not read…why, again?

    Even Romney’s campaign manager, one who knows about the losing, understands restricting votes based on fraud that does not exist but is in fact a smokescreen, along with gerry-mandering, to repress votes, is a loser’s game, and really jeopardizes whatever Alamo the GOP had hoped to mount in 2014.

  14. Squeeky Fromm, Girl Reporter 1, August 17, 2013 at 2
    ============================
    When your daddy grew up … he once famously said “There are more voter id / voter fraud laws than there are prosecutions for voter fraud.”

    Ann Coulter should be prosecuted for voter fraud.

    She is the only person I know of who actually committed voter fraud.

  15. Squeek will find no real defense with “It seems to me that the Democrats are doing a lot of screaming and hollering over an ID card system that will help prevent something that supposedly isn’t happening.”

    Nice straw man and wholly transparently ineffectually wrong.

  16. @Gene:

    I provided a good link above to The Atlantic. I also provided a link to the CT DMV, and its plans vis a vis increased federal ID provisions. I pointed out other nominally “non-Jim Crow” countries have voter ID, for what they presume are reasons. I also asked what I think was a very good question about the mechanics of PROVING voter fraud.

    So far, the only response has been to provide statistics which show a low rate of arrest for voter fraud. Which may indicate a low rate of fraud, true. Or may just indicate a low rate of arrest. Hmmm. I wonder if some things may just be hard to uncover, must less prove???

    Let’s take Prostitution! Here is a state by state analysis. OH Look! There were only 7,554 arrests in the whole dang State of Texas in 2010!

    http://prostitution.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000120

    Wyoming only had 7! Hmmm. Is prostitution not occurring, or is it just hard to catch and prove? And not big on anybody’s radar.

    It seems to me that the Democrats are doing a lot of screaming and hollering over an ID card system that will help prevent something that supposedly isn’t happening.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  17. John Oliver rips into Republicans over their ‘sharknado of voter suppression’
    By Eric W. Dolan
    Tuesday, August 6, 2013
    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/06/john-oliver-rips-into-republicans-over-their-sharknado-of-voter-suppression/

    Don’t worry about the political “clown car” of 2016 presidential candidates, The Daily Show host John Oliver said Monday, because you won’t be able to vote anyway. Oliver discovered there was a “sharknado of voter suppression” sweeping across the nation thanks to the Supreme Court and Republican-controlled state legislatures. Republicans have insisted they are simply cracking down on voter fraud, but Oliver observed that voter fraud was actually quite rare.

    *****

    Ballotproof
    Following the demise of the Voting Rights Act, southern states like Texas, Florida and North Carolina quickly move to disenfranchise poorer voters.
    http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-august-5-2013/ballotproof

  18. 1. We need state voter ID laws to prevent fraud.

    Prosecutable cases of voter fraud are rare. For example, a 2005 statewide study in Ohio found four instances of ineligible persons voting or attempting to vote in 2002 and 2004, out of 9 million votes cast. An investigation of fraud allegations in Wisconsin in 2004 led to the prosecution of 0.0007 percent of voters. From 2002 to 2005, the Justice Department found, only five people were convicted for voting multiple times. In that same period, federal prosecutors convicted only 86 people for improper voting.

    According to Barnard political scientist Lorraine Minnite, most instances of improper voting involve registration and eligibility, such as voters filling out registration forms incorrectly or a person with felony convictions attempting to register. Neither of those issues would be prevented by a state photo ID requirement. According to George Washington University law professor Spencer Overton, a former member of the Commission on Federal Election Reform, “a photo ID requirement would prevent over 1,000 legitimate votes (perhaps over 10,000 legitimate votes) for every single improper vote prevented.”

    2. Requiring identification at the polls affects all voters equally.

    In The Washington Post, Kansas Secretary of StateKris Kobach recently defended what he called the “reasonable” new photo ID requirements. “It’s absurd to suggest that anyone is ‘disenfranchised’ by such protective measures,” he wrote in July.

    He’s wrong. State photo ID restrictions disproportionately affect African Americans, Latinos, young voters, people over 65 and people with disabilities. Advancement Project studies show that 11 percent of eligible voters, or about 21 million people, don’t have updated, state-issued photo IDs: 25 percent of African Americans, 15 percent of those earning less than $35,000, 18 percent of citizens age 65 or older and 20 percent of voters age 18 to 29.

    The push for photo ID laws and other restrictions is largely championed by the GOP and conservative groups. Record rates of voter registration and turnout among young and minority voters in 2008 affected federal races across the nation, as about two-thirds of new voters registered as Democrats in the 29 states that record party affiliation. The 2010 midterms put more conservatives in office who want to combat this trend. The right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council, for example, drafted and promoted photo ID legislation that was introduced in more than 30 states.

    3. The new laws are cheap for states and voters.

    The Advancement Project’s report “What’s Wrong With This Picture?” shows that taxpayers will bear the costs of these measures — more than $20 million in North Carolina, for example, to educate voters and provide free IDs to those without them, as the state’s law requires. This hurts states that are facing big budget constraints. For voters, even if an ID is free, getting the documents to obtain it can be expensive and difficult.

    Many states require at least four original forms of identification to obtain a photo ID — documents such as a certified birth certificate, marriage or divorce record, adoption record, a Social Security card, or naturalization papers. A birth certificate in Texas costs $22, a U.S. passport costs as much as $145, and naturalization papers can run up to $200. People born out of state who lack transportation, work multiple jobs, have disabilities, or are home-bound or poor can’t access or afford this paperwork.

    Now that many states have reduced hours and locations of motor vehicle departments and other agencies because of budget cutbacks, getting an ID can be a battle. In Wisconsin, 25 percent of DMV offices are open one day a month or less, and fewer than half are open at least 20 hours a week. What can prospective voters who have to work or care for their children during these limited hours do but go without?

    4. There’s no way to fight photo ID restrictions.

    Though the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an Indiana photo ID requirement in 2008, that law passed muster in part because the state provided some voters with free identification. New laws in states where employee or student IDs can’t be used to register to vote — such as Wisconsin, Texas, Tennessee and South Carolina — are stricter.

    Under the Voting Rights Act, states with a long history of voting discrimination, mainly in the South, must obtain the approval of the Justice Departmentor the D.C. District Court to change their voting practices. Regardless of the Supreme Court’s Indiana precedent, the Justice Department could reject new voter ID laws in South Carolina, Alabama and Texas. The department also enforces Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits any state from implementing a discriminatory voting practice. In Wisconsin — where 55 percent of African American men and 49 percent of African American women lack state identification — preliminary data indicate that the photo ID law could be racially discriminatory. If the Justice Department agrees, it could stop the law’s implementation.

    5. Perpetrators of voting fraud don’t face serious legal consequences.

    Both federal and state laws include stiff fines and imprisonment for voter fraud. Under federal law, perpetrators face up to five years in prison and a fine of $10,000 for each act of fraud. In Alabama, voter fraud is punishable by up to two years in prison and a $2,000 fine. In Wisconsin, the punishment is up to 31 / 2 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Missouri imposes a penalty of up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. And in Texas, the maximum prison sentence is 10 years.

    Kimberly Prude of Wisconsin spent more than a year in jail after being convicted of voting while on probation, which she attributes to her confusion over her eligibility. Usman Ali, a Pakistani, was deported after improperly filling out a voter registration card while renewing his driver’s license in Florida, where he had lived legally for more than 10 years. How can anyone suggest that the authorities aren’t on top of voter fraud — or that new ID laws aren’t motivated by politics?”

    Five myths about voter fraud By Judith Browne Dianis, Washington Post

  20. Former Florida GOP leaders say voter suppression was reason they pushed new election law
    Former GOP chair, governor – both on outs with party – say voter fraud wasn’t a concern, but reducing Democratic votes was.
    By Dara Kam and John Lantigua

    Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
    http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/early-voting-curbs-called-power-play/nTFDy/

    Excerpt:
    A new Florida law that contributed to long voter lines and caused some to abandon voting altogether was intentionally designed by Florida GOP staff and consultants to inhibit Democratic voters, former GOP officials and current GOP consultants have told The Palm Beach Post.

    Republican leaders said in proposing the law that it was meant to save money and fight voter fraud. But a former GOP chairman and former Gov. Charlie Crist, both of whom have been ousted from the party, now say that fraud concerns were advanced only as subterfuge for the law’s main purpose: GOP victory.

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