The Republican Party is mired in a series of controversies involving accusations of voter suppression.
The Republican Secretary of State who is running for governor of Georgia is taking a lot of public relations and legal heat for purging 53,000 people from the voting list for the Nov. 6 election. Most of these newly disenfranchised are people of color.
New Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh cast the critical swing vote in favor of removing Native Americans from voters’ lists in North Dakota because they have box number addresses rather than the customary street addresses, at the request of the federal government.
And there are reports of voters disappearing from the lists of the eligible in Florida, with the GOP at the forefront of the controversy.
Though I am personally appalled at what I consider attempts to rig the only game in which the common riff-raff have any power, theses kinds of shenanigans have been documented in days gone by. Who can forget the poll tax, the voting literacy test and many other attempts to limit the numbers of certain kinds of voters, the poor, women and people of color, particularly in the deep South?
But I hear tell there’s a story about “town and gown” voting issues in Texas that are very close to what I experienced as editor of the Albion Evening Recorder almost 40 years ago.
It seems a predominantly white town is home to Prairieview A & M University, a predominantly black college. The town spent many years trying to keep those black students away from the polls at election time because they only temporarily live here and they don’t reflect the values and opinions of the local folks.
Townsfolk have held that their local elections shouldn’t be decided by the influence of young people who won’t be living here in years to come, so they aren’t affected by decisions of today. The college students insist it’s a matter of being disenfranchised just because of where they live for nine months out of the year.
It is very inconvenient to insist college students travel to their home towns to vote on one election day. It’s also not right to make them jump through hoops others don’t have to, such as making arrangements for absentee voting in their home towns.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled consistently on this issue through the years and has sided every time with the students.
I remember in 1980 the Albion Public School system failed three times to pass a sorely needed millage request. It was in the fall of 1980 that the request was finally approved. The reasons were the asking price was lowered and the participation of Albion College students.
A hue and cry went up against the millage results, with opponents accusing the school officials and their allies of getting college students to the polls to saddle district residents with taxes they won’t have to pay.
But it needs to be said that just about the only power people have in a democracy or a constitutional republic is at the ballot box. And I can’t get over the nagging feeling that the people currently in power want to keep things that way and will defend the status quo to the hilt.
My biggest problem with the entire process is the realization that if voting is the only power the people really have, the rich and powerful will use very effective means to get what they want. They do it with marketing and advertising. And folks, they are very good at it.
If slick marketing and advertising can get us to buy bottled water when the critical substance is essentially free otherwise, we are in big trouble.
I don’t know who said it, but I read somewhere about 30 years ago the argument that people in a democratic society eventually will vote away all their freedoms. All it really takes is clever marketing and advertising.
College students can vote absentee in their home towns. To quote ‘Who can forget the poll tax, the voting literacy test and many other attempts to limit the numbers of certain kinds of voters, the poor, women and people of color, particularly in the deep South?” kind a forgot they were all Democrats doing that did you?
Welcome to the Democratic Party they will love you, After watching elections in Illinois for years when we lived in the Chicago area I can say your Party has no room to cast dispersion on others. Every election more people vote in some precincts run by Democrats than there are total people.
Did the Socialists become Democrats or the Democrats become Socialists?
Good article Dave. 70% of us citizens could give a crap about the left or the right socialists or liberals. Most people live by their gut. If it feels wrong something is wrong. But some people are so blind to the facts they make up garbage and call it the truth. Keep up the good work.
From the article it sounds like it was a 5-4 vote with new Associate Justice Kavanagh casting the vote to deprive Native Americans the Right to Vote.
The Supreme Court voted 6-2 to deny hearing an appeal on a 2016 North Dakota law. Voting to deny were Chief Justice Roberts, Associate Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Sotomayor, & Breyer.
Voting to hear the appeal Associate Justices Kagan, & Ginsburg.
Not voting as he was not confirmed when the issue was presented to the court Associate Justice Kavanagh.
While presented as being against Native Americans it was against those who do not have a valid residential address. If all you have is a PO Box you aren’t eligible to vote. I have a box in Kentwood for my mail, I can’t vote in Kentwood. My residence is in Dorr. I could rent a box in North Dakota, that doesn’t make me a resident either.
Kentwood box was rented as my credit card started charging gasoline ($345 fill-up) in Portugal.
North Dakota does not register voters — the only state that does not.
And if you read up on the decision it is only one tribe that has failed to provide street numbers and street names. The policy asking for proof of residence dates back to 2004. ND law settling the issues was from 2016. Two years should have been enough to issue valid ID’s to those who are actual residents.
Again not the evil conservatives stealing something from the people, just a fairly simple case decided by the SC with a 6-2 margin. Two of the liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor & Stephen Breyer voted with the majority.