“…i will not go quietly, i will not lie down…” - DHenley
I’m not sanguine on this. The rigth wing of the court will find some other reason that discriminatory intent is really OK unless you can prove individual discrimination.
As per usual, voting “rights” advocates would rather whine than act. This can be a SPUR for voting, if handled correctly. “VOTE to keep your name on the rolls” or something like that.
This is a perfectly sensible solution. I was registered to vote in 2 locations in OH, and may be even today, although I left the state 20 years ago. My name, if on the rolls, should be removed. The ridiculous statement that “50% of registered voters vote” is due NOT to people not voting, but more likely due to inflated and inaccurate voting lists which have not been properly maintained.
When I started to vote, in 1969 (Yorty v. Bradley, round one), if you missed two California general elections in a row, you had to re-register. Once you let people register without interference or having to jump through carefully placed hoops, I don’t see why it’s all that onerous to have to vote in every-other general election. (I don’t think municipal elections counted against you, but I’m not sure.) The schwerpunkt of the rights movement would be better directed against ploys to make registration or voting difficult (ID requirements, short early-voting periods, under-manned or widely separated voting places, and stuff like that) than against a requirement that you use the franchise.
time to fight fire with fire, use the same approach to disenfranchise repube voters with a vengeance, see how fast new voter’s rights laws are written
Given the current GOP, the problem is a) November, and b) playing the long game is irrelevant if your opponent upends the board, scatters the pieces everywhere, and crushes them to dust.
Can Democrats get the names of the people who have been purged? I’m thinking those could be some pretty motivated voters if they find out that the state has tried to scrub them ahead of the vote.
Not sure if the law requires the state to provide a list of those purged. But if not, I assume the Dems could simply* compare the old list to the new one, identify who’s missing, then try to contact them to find out if they’re still there and want to be re-registered.
(*by “simply” I just mean there’s nothing very complicated about it. I don’t mean that this will be an easy or quick task, it won’t. It will be a lot of work. The good news is it’s work that’s well-suited to volunteers.)
I’ve got an idea. How about starting a program where Democrats that control state legislatures and governorships start playing the same game - only far more brutally.
First of all, any Republican traitor that starts trying to replicate these restrictions need to be publicly outed. And I’m talking put their photos, names, addresses, places they work and any personal information possible online so they can be a target for disdain, protest and have to downright look over their shoulders wherever they go. They want to destroy Democracy? Then your life gets to suck too, traitors.
Close all driver licensing offices in white rural areas and move them all to the inner city. Close half the polling places out there too or at least remove 75% of the voting machines to make it hours to stand in line to vote. Stuff like that.
I really wonder when the Dems are going to understand that these dirty right wing parasites are not going to ever play by the rules. They need to be utterly crushed.
They are winning “some races,” Nick. And there will be more.
I’m just wondering if in some cases people not voting is a protest against who is running. I wonder if we could get more people voting if in each position being voted on had None Of the Above as a choice? People get to polls and both parties get to see how uninspiring their candidates are.
No, it’s that too many people aren’t in the habit of voting for whatever reason - Nader started the trend about the parties being the same (asshole), and Fox stepped right up to hype the anger and fear and hate.
Do we as democrats want to run on hate? Fear, certainly - you’re going to pay way more for health care, if you can get it at all.
Anger? That’s a given.
IDK but sometimes I’d like to see None of the Above win over R or D.
Me, too. Those days are the ones that are long gone.
There’s only one way to fix this, which is to remove Republicans from ALL levels of power, political, business, religious, and so on, everywhere.
I’m afraid I have to disagree with you sir. History shows that the right wing of the court will find some other reason that discriminatory intent is really OK.
No matter what proof you offer:
The Supreme Court’s Failure To Protect Blacks’ Rights
February 24, 2011·11:13 AM ET
…The 13th Amendment, which was ratified in 1865, abolished slavery. Three years later, the 14th Amendment provided blacks with citizenship and equal protection under the law. And in 1870, the 15th Amendment gave black American males the right to vote…But that didn’t happen — and wouldn’t for decades — in part because of decisions handed down by the Supreme Court, which declared the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional in 1883… It also passed a ruling stating that the Enforcement Act of 1871, which forbade meetings of Ku Klux Klan members, was unconstitutional…
In every instance, purges like this, and other attempts to screen out voters, the effect will be to discriminate. That’s because that is the idea.
Democrats control only 26 or so state legislatures so you couldn’t make much headway using them as a way to suppress R votes, but you’re suggesting that Dems play by crooked rules and stack the deck against other voters. So, one illegal maybe unconstitutional move matched by another?
The Democrats and organized liberalism have to take some blame here. Obama let the GOP take the states. He failed to defend ACA or even explain it in the 2010 midterms. Geogre Sorois spent a forturn on marijuana legalization–a trivial issue in the bigger scheme of things (that criminal justice business was to quiet tghe Black clergy, it obviously wan’t going to be a resuly. Soros should have spent it on voter registration and voter rights instead. If we don’t recognize the failure of K Street liberalism and the Dems, this kind of stuff just happens over and over.