-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Although 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. 
Statistical 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.
@MichaelM:
The labels are just labels. You know they don’t mean squat, and so do I. However, when in Cloud Cuckoo Land, you have to speak Cloud Cuckoo. Sooo, when I call them “liberals” they know what I am talking about. And so do you, else you would not have distinguished Bush and Cheney on the “other side.” Sadly, it is not just women who love Fascists. You might want to read up a little on Fromm.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
“The liberal “package”, on the other hand, seems to work only in short spurts, and usually just leaves a big mess for somebody else to clean up, all without actually accomplishing anything worthwhile outside of pleasing the liberal.” — Squeeky Fromm, Girl Distorter
No doubt about it, Squeeky, George “Deputy Dubya” Bush and “Five Deferment” Dick Cheney never fooled you for an instant — so perceptive your analysis of the “liberal package.”
Again. Please try and keep up with current events. In the right-wing-only American political arena, “conservative” means Democrat and “reactionary” means Republican. Bad enough that you resort to labels, but at least you could use labels that actually point in the general direction of a discoverable reality. When you start describing monumental mess-makers like Bush and Cheney while throwing around the meaningless noise “liberals” at those who had nothing to do with making the mess, then you truly have come unglued.
GeneH: You said: ” Empathy is a connection that allows people to share in that light even if it comes with the cost of sharing their pain.”
Uh, are you trying to raise taxes again??? Seriously though, you are just confusing “fear” and “awareness.” I am just not a Maudlin Dweeb (Dune reference).
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
On the contrary, Sqweaky.
I am following the Law of Identity.
One is fear and paranoia.
One is reason and empathy.
I cannot conflate their utility as they have entirely different utility.
And I’m sorry you’re so manifestly sexually frustrated. This is more than once you’ve brought the matter up. Maybe if you weren’t a pretend girl, you’d find a better quality of lover. Then again, when you’re empathy impaired, I have to imagine good sex is hard to find. Pardon the pun. Or not.
It’s a terrible thing to live in fear. It makes a mind irrational. It makes a mind malleable by outside forces. Fear is weakness. Fear is the mind killer.
By contrast, reason is light and wonder. It is the ability to see the beautiful symmetry beneath the skin of the world. It is the understanding that illuminates the shadows. Empathy is a connection that allows people to share in that light even if it comes with the cost of sharing their pain.
It’s sad your world is so dark and fearful and lonely, Sqweak.
Well done, Michael!
In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.” — George Orwell, 1984
To whom it may concern:
Dog-whistle Dialectics
You say “I’m sorry that …” but do not mean it.
In fact you mean to say that you rejoice
In ignorance and hatred where you’ve seen it;
And where you haven’t, there you make the choice
To do all in your power to redeem it
And see it screamed in Satan’s softest voice.
Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller”
@GeneH:
Uh, . . . like most men you are confusing size with both performance and usefulness. Personally, I like the conservative “package.” It seems to hold up well over a long time frame. The liberal “package”, on the other hand, seems to work only in short spurts, and usually just leaves a big mess for somebody else to clean up, all without actually accomplishing anything worthwhile outside of pleasing the liberal.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
You’re sorry that I’m not inappropriately governed by fear and the paranoia of non-existent threats?
I’m not.
Or perhaps the abundance of rationality, high level decision making, empathy and impulse control is perceived as a threat by those who live under the yoke of irrational fear and jumping at ghosts.
Yep.
It’s a terrible thing to live in fear.
@geneH: You said, “and liberals have a larger anterior cingulate cortex…”
Oh, I am sooo sorry that your poor little amygdala is undersized, and your cingulate is too big. Maybe one day science will find a cure for that, and then you and the other liberals can be just as smart as the rest of us!
In the meantime, just listen to the more conservative type people and they will try to keep you from doing foolish things and hurting yourselves, OK???
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
From the arid land of Texas
came the grease getter
Snot nosed bigot
“In caveman days , the entire amygdala package was very useful for survival. That is why such a package evolved in humans. In 2013…. not so useful.”
Which is funny considering that research has shown that conservatives have larger amygdalas – which controls fear and threat identification – and liberals have a larger anterior cingulate cortex – which controls rational cognitive functions, such as reward anticipation, decision-making, empathy, and impulse control.
Please…… give up labeling
Most humans like to label things…… labeling is an intrinsic part of the the human psyche. In caveman days labeling was very useful.* Labeling lead to survival. In 2013, not so much.
In 2013 the following labels are archaic and counter-productive….
#1 Black person , African American , jungle bunny , and the forbidden N word.
#2 TeaBaggers….. who the hell *WTH* is in this group ?
#3 Whites WTH belongs to this group ? What does it mean ?
#4 Anarchist ….. I am cerrtain that this is a very misused descriptor
#5 American WTH is in this group ? What do they believe ?
#6 America ( US ) … as in “US sells militarized drones to other countries” WTH is defined by “US” I would guess it is a oligarchy
* In caveman days , the entire amygdala package was very useful for survival. That is why such a package evolved in humans. In 2013…. not so useful.
99guspuppet
Hmmm. The only spittle I have been seeing is when the foaming-at-the-mouth race-baiters’ heads start spinning and the stuff goes all over the place. Maybe the sex industry guys will make a latex product for that??? They could call it “Spittle Lick!” and advertise it, “Licks Spittle every time! Buy some for your lefty friends!. . .Save your furniture!” Oh, what was that phone number on the Slip and Slide patent commercial thingy???
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Elaine,
There you go getting all intellectual on ’em.
They work themselves into a frenzy and you hand them a napkin to wipe the froth from their mouths.
Those of us who are tired of ducking the spittle flying around this thread thank you.
Blouise,
I’d be happy to sit next to you anytime!
I think a problem with some news reporting is that the media labels as voter fraud a number of things that aren’t actually voter fraud.
Elaine M.
1, August 17, 2013 at 1:53 pm
Squeeky,
Much of the fraud is actually election fraud. Ripping up Democratic registrations isn’t voter fraud, is it?
==============================================
lol … Elaine, ” … come sit next to me.” (Alice Roosevelt Longworth)
From Table 4B of the last census report:
US Voter Registration Rates (Citizens Only)
White: 71.9%
Black: 73.1%
Hispanic: 58.7%
Asian: 56.3%
US Voting Rates (Citizens Only, last Presidential election)
White: 62.2%
Black: 66.2%
Hispanic: 48.0%
Asian: 47.3%
Don’t forget about Texas where there is a big court battle brewing over Texas’s gerrymandering districts to diminish minorities having an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice, a voter I.D. law that is right up there with North Carolina’s, and other obstacles such as all counties not even having a place to get the required I.D. to vote.
Squeeky takes another d% of damage to her arguments with “they eliminated the idiots who”
Very telling you focused ONLY on the “idiot” part of your statement and not the “eliminate” part. You have appointed yourself the final arbiter of who is and who is not “fit” to vote. It makes you ineligible to be a reporter because you have yet to get any of your facts straight.
Hear this: your attempts to “eliminate” will fail miserably. You are free to honk “idiots” as long as you like. It will have zero effect. The right to vote is the same for everyone.
You do not have to like it.
Bruce, “most white people” should then instruct the state legislatures they control to back off with the voter suppression, the reasons for which have been laid bare. That would most assuredly help everyone succeed.