Voter ID laws have been passed in eleven Republican-controlled states
since the 2010 midterm elections; yet studies have shown that alleged cases of
voter fraud are virtually nonexistent. The voters most likely
to be turned away at the polls for not having valid state-issued IDs are groups
targeted for suppression - African Americans, Latinos, students and younger
voters, senior citizens, and now women -- groups that traditionally support Democrats.
In an effort to build support for voter ID laws, the
Republican National Lawyers Association published a report that identified only
400 prosecutions for the entire country during a span of ten years. That’s not even
one prosecution per state per year. Yet, an estimated 5 million voters will be
disenfranchised - enough to alter election outcomes
nationwide year after year.
Do you smell a rat? In
the state of Wisconsin alone, voter registration hours were lengthened in
Republican districts and shortened in Democratic districts. This is a fact.
Smell the rat! And Texas intends to go one step further:
"What I have used for voter registration and for identification for the last 52 years was not sufficient yesterday when I went to vote," said District Court Judge Sandra Watts. Imagine that! A District Court judge who is not allowed to vote! Watts has voted in every election for the last past 49 years; the name on her driver's license had been unchanged for 52 years; and the address on her voter registration card has remained the same for two decades.
Imagine her surprise when District Court Judge Sandra Watts was told by voting officials that she would have to sign an affidavit confirming her identity.
Why? The middle name printed on her driver’s license is her maiden name. The middle name printed on her voter registration card is her original middle name recorded at birth. It was enough to raise a red flag under new and more restrictive laws.
Is this
an unintended consequence of new voter ID laws in the Lone Star State? Hardly! This is why:
Meet
Wendy Davis, the Democratic candidate for Governor in Texas. In case you
haven’t noticed, Wendy Davis is a woman, and the good ole boys of the Lone Star
State don’t want women to vote for her.
Nothing
stays in stasis forever. Once you establish election chicanery as standard
operating procedure, it metastasizes cancer-like through the entire system. Today it
may be Republicans doing this to Democrats; tomorrow it may be the Manchurian candidate from Chargoggagogg-manchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg doing this to Republicans.
This year, I am writing a book on voter suppression. I have
interviewed canvassing commissioners of both parties, Democrat and Republican.
There is no daylight between them on how to run a fair and honest
election. Politicians, however,
are another story and especially notorious for chicanery and corruption.
In Florida last year, Governor Grifter-Scott ordered
the purge of 180,000 names from state voter rolls. Canvassing commissioners, both
Democrat and Republican, examined these lists and found all to be bogus - not
even one name.
How can you have full faith and confidence in the legitimacy of elections when results are rigged along party lines! The question is
rhetorical: You can’t. How can you vote in good conscience for a candidate or party that
wants to deprive you of a fundamental right? The
question is rhetorical: Don’t!
25 comments:
The Political Schtick October 25, 2013 at 5:19:00 PM EDT
I don't really give a schtick about this Mumgee Jumgee, all I really cry about is the depot, defenestration, and the sophistry of our grapes. Whoever gives me that gets my vat... On that flight I think I'll buy another gnu today, eat some Daleks, and kick a 20 ounce salamander drunk
I can't wiggle till the next erection is over. And people like Shadrach Meshach can climb back in their rickshaws.
That's one hell of a smelly rat all right. You could smell it from one end of Texas to the other.
First blacks, now women? If this is how the Republicans hope to counter the shifting demographics of the country -- by inexorably disenfranchising more and more people to compensate -- then the best they can hope for is to end up with a kind of apartheid state where voting is confined to a few privileged "correct" categories of people. That may work for a while but we know what happens to that kind of system eventually.
Let's hope that Texas women, like blacks in last year's election, respond by turning out in greater numbers than ever to show that they can't be pushed around like this.
This comment is from a conservative who runs a blog. I'm sure she has many many more true believers who agree with her (despite her bad grammar):
I'm thinking that the viewpoint of "NOBODY WHO PAYS NO TAXES CAN VOTE" law must go into affect before ANYTHING improves in this country. If that happened, I swear I think things could improve for us AND the entitlement dopes."
She'd love what they're doing to women in Texas.
I do appreciate semantics...and voter suppression is much to mild a term...please...let's call it what it is...ELECTION RIGGING.
Criminial, insidious, reprehensible, indefensible...and down right shitty. Election rigging....bought to you by Exxon Mobile and the Koch bros.
Many thanks to Shaw for re-posting this article on a subject of vital importance (on behalf of democracy, if we can keep it).
In an article posted more than two years ago, I wrote:
---------------------------
“No longer a contest between rivals, politics has devolved into a contest to win by any and all means necessary (even in violation of democratic principles); and the weapons of partisan warfare are fear, deceit, pandering, legislative chicanery, and ruthless guerilla assaults against the assets of the opposition party [my bold].
Consider the asymmetry between union busting and the Citizens United decision. If Citizens United opened the door to unlimited corporate funding of political speech, events in Wisconsin have closed the door on union funding for Democrats. All told, union busting, Gonzo-gate, voter caging, voter ID cards, and the smear of Acorn are manifestations of a GOP master plan to eliminate traditional bases of Democratic support.
In theory, true democracy is predicated on choice, and choice connotes a policy debate between rivals. If one party, however, employs ruthless tactics to cripple the opposition beyond viability, what we have left is essentially a one party system with only token opposition. In other words: A democracy in name only. Wisconsin is where the GOP changed the dynamics of democratic engagement from contest to conquest.”
---------------------------
Let’s look at the demographics behind this strategy: 96% of African-Americans and 71% of Latinos voted for Democrats in 2012. Increasing numbers of women identify or lean with Democrats - 58% to 33% representing a 25-point advantage for Democrats.
It is clear that women and minorities represent major constituencies for the Democratic Party, and a major threat to Republicans. Thus, in order to suppress election turnouts for Democrats, the GOP has embarked upon a strategy of voter suppression.
The GOP is especially alarmed in Texas where women and minorities far outnumber a declining base of white male voters. How can the GOP win without changing policy positions that appeal to these groups? By suppressing the vote with unfair redistricting and voter ID laws!
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott admitted as much. There is nothing illegal in targeting Democrats, he alleges, even if women and minorities become collateral damage. No kidding! Abbot said as much in a brief filed in federal court – just hours after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act.
In other words, Texas Republicans purposefully redrew district lines to strengthen their grip of power and are trying to argue that their strategy is only designed to rig elections in an effort to make Democrats extinct rather than suppress minority voters. An incredibly unethical and fraudulent argument masquerading as a tacit admission of guilt!
How do we usually regard one-party rule? I believe the correct word is “totalitarianism.”
Infidel753: If this is how the Republicans hope to counter the shifting demographics of the country -- by inexorably disenfranchising more and more people...
It certainly appears as though that is their strategy going forward. And I don't see how this could work out well for them. Hopefully it will work out to the benefit of the country (with Democrats controlling all three branches of government).
Great. The left has their own Sarah Palin now.
An extreme left-winger running for governor of Texas on an abortion platform too extreme for even socially liberal Europe.
I can't wait to watch how this turns out.
Shaw, I've seen that meme and I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone in our country who pays no taxes...
Apart from income, medicare and social security taxes, what about sales, excise, gas, security taxes, etc?
I would dare say the majority of us at the lower end of the scale pay plenty of taxes when you include the totality of what we pay...
I think the right wing response is that there is no guarantee to vote in the Constitution.
Since it's not explicit, the states can screw people around as they see fit. Preserving government by the people still means government by wealthy white males.
Some managers of conservative blogs think it's more damaging to allow the poor to vote than to elect a governor in Florida who makes health insurance decisions and is also responsible for the largest case of Medicare fraud in history.
Unfortunately,they have a while to go disenfranchising in key states. They are terrified of loosing Texas and are going to fight like demons.
Rotten Wheeler said...
Off Topic For One Monument.
Does the ASSOCIATIVE-HOLOGRAM and Professional Clematis who masticates rust on that PROCRASTINATOR'S BLEACHED banjo, actually realize how scrumptously he kisses?
To Skoal Man:
Your attempt to lie about Wendy Davis' stand on late-term abortion won't get by here:
PolitiFact rates that statement as FALSE.
"The day state Sen. Wendy Davis announced her run for governor, Texas Right to Life announced it would air a radio ad calling her an "abortion zealot."
Audio that the anti-abortion group released Oct. 3, 2013, of its ad said, "Wendy Davis opposes any limits on abortion."
Our ruling
Texas Right to Life said, "Wendy Davis opposes any limits on abortion."
Although Davis has spoken and voted against certain abortion limits, her campaign statement and her stated support for the Roe v. Wade decision indicate she opposes late-term abortions except in extreme circumstances. The group did not provide, and we did not find, evidence of Davis opposing "any limits on abortion."
We rate this claim as False."--Politifact
The rightwing loons are out there. Just look at how quickly they landed here to smear Wendy Davis and her stand on abortion. If a rightwinger writes it, it's probably a lie. Unfortunately they lie to themselves (see their predictions on a Romney win and what a good idea it would be to shut down the government) and so they think everyone else will believe their rot. Who was it who said "we create our own reality?" Oh yeah, the master of lies Karl "Turd Blossom" Rove. The Skoal Man thought he could leave a pile of crap here unchallenged and get away with it? Another rightwinger who has no acquaintance with reality.
I never said she opposed any limits on abortion. I said that the Sarah Palin of the left's abortion stance was more extreme than socially liberal Europe.
But anyway, congrats on burning down a strawman.
I've got a 50/50 bet with my buddies on whether you'll censor this comment or not.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/02/kirsten-powers-i-don-t-stand-with-wendy-davis.html
http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2013/07/on_abortion_wendy_davis_repres.html
Scowl Man: An extreme left-winger running for governor of Texas on an abortion platform too extreme for even socially liberal Europe.
If that's the case, how come the Republicans are so desperate to rig the election by using tricks to prevent women from voting?
Skoal Man said...
"I never said she opposed any limits on abortion. I said that the Sarah Palin of the left's abortion stance was more extreme than socially liberal Europe."
First off she's not extreme, I've shown you that with PolitiFact's analysis of her position. Second, Davis can actually speak in native American English, and is far more educated than Palin ever could hope to be. But nice try at lumping her with the GOP's resident pea-brain.
That alone disqualifies you from being taken seriously on anything.
Skoal Man: "I've got a 50/50 bet with my buddies on whether you'll censor this comment or not."
Do I actually drive you righties that nuts that you come here, read my blog and comments, then BET with your buddies on what I'll say or do?
Wow!
You need to get out and have some fun and not allow me to live rent free in you heads.
She's not extreme in your eyes Shaw. There are many reasonable people who disagree.
Politic is now the authority on what is extreme and what is not?
I thought they verfied the veracity of statements and positions of politicians
But then again I'm not thinkimg partisanship
Scold Man October 27, 2013 at 5:48:00 PM EDT
Can anyone be more worsted for Textiles than Wilomena Dacron, the Domestic candy date for Gobbler of Taxis?
Will the crabs ever crease?
Are the peonies of Taxonomy being tickled for idioms?
Now I'm a cow. And our sobriety has become complacently ignominious. It startled the Organza and now this? This Illiad will destroy the galvanized ship of a once primed groovey Slate..
I burp. And she regrets an endocrine from Dr. Gooose. And if he were still a bride, Gorky Tippler would be crumping for her.
She’d make a bitter Gremlin of a conversation clump.
Hypothyroidism, thy name is Lassie!
Negrescent compensation is right!
The Nimbospores over at the "Prometheus" blaue augen live there.
PolitiFact that is.
Skoal Man’s comments offer good examples of how a troll derails a topic of conversation by changing the subject. This post is about Voter Suppression, or as okjimm prefers to call it, "ELECTION RIGGING." This post is NOT about abortion, or the policy positions of Wendy Davis, or PolitiFact’s analysis of Wendy Davis, or any other off-topic distraction or non sequitur.
Congrats! You've chased off another troll that threatens your fantasy bubble.
I was posting as Skoal Man, among others, but I won't be back.
I use no vulgarity and engage in none of the caustic rightwing invective against our president or First Lady, but you've nonetheless chosen to selectively delete my comments when they were too inconvenient for your pinched worldview.
You don't want dialog. You want self-congratulatory circle jerks where everyone feels morally and intellectually superior because they parrot the proper PC propaganda that all good progressives know with metaphysical certainty is correct.
Anyway, I see someone else has picked up the Skoal Man moniker and is making slobbery rabid rightwing comments that do not accord with my beliefs, so it's all for the best I suppose.
Skoal Man,
This was your first comment on this thread which featured (O)CT(O)PUS's post Texas's attempt to suppress women's votes.
Skoal Man said...
"Great. The left has their own Sarah Palin now.
An extreme left-winger running for governor of Texas on an abortion platform too extreme for even socially liberal Europe.
I can't wait to watch how this turns out."
As (O)CT(O)PUS correctly pointed out, your comment had nothing whatsoever to do with the post. You tried to change the subject from disenfranchisement to abortion. And you compared a highly educated woman, Wendy Davis, to the TeaParty's resident nitwit.
I graciously allowed your comment to stand when other stricter bloggers would have deleted it outright.
Now you come here and complain because I didn't allow you to hijack the thread and talk about what you wanted to and not what the post is about?
We would have been happy to have a dialog if you had been willing to stick to the subject of the post and not act like a troll and change the subject.
I have no control over the clowns at the conservative blogs who steal people's names and avatars. It's what they do best. They CHEAT and MISREPRESENT when they can't win an argument.
I see no problem with voter ID laws in principle if acquiring an ID is made simple and easy. And, if the requirement is once every 10 years until your 68. The 2'nd, 3'rd, 4th, and 5th time just to update your picture.
But yes, the examples you supplied indeed points to serious flaws and indeed has the effect of suppression.
Anonymouse: "I see someone else has picked up the Skoal Man moniker and is making slobbery rabid rightwing comments ..."
Oh no! If some Scold Man had hijacked your moniker and is now making allegations against you, then you need to find that alligator.
"Oh no! If some Scold Man had hijacked your moniker and is now making allegations against you, then you need to find that alligator."
Yes. And Scold Man needs to do that before that person casts asparagus against him.
And PRONTO before those Brussels sprout again!
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