Voter Suppression<\/p>\n
America is changing.\u00a0The demographics of our country are becoming \u201cbrowner;\u201d and within twenty years \u201cwhite people\u201d will no longer be a majority.\u00a0 This is not because the \u201cwhite\u201d population is shrinking, but other groups, particularly Hispanics, are growing faster.\u00a0 The America of 2040 will look different than the America of 2000, and for some that\u2019s terrifying.<\/p>\n
After Mitt Romney\u2019s failed Presidential election of 2012, \u00a0the Republican Party did an \u201cautopsy\u201d report.\u00a0 The bottom line:\u00a0 the Republican Party needed to broaden its appeal beyond the white rural and suburban populations because those groups aren\u2019t big enough to secure victories anymore.\u00a0The Party needed to expand, particularly into the growing Hispanic populations in swing states like Florida.<\/p>\n
But, with his very first speech announcing his run for President, Donald Trump threw the report out the window.\u00a0 He \u201cdoubled-down\u201d on border control and racism, speaking of\u00a0 \u201c\u2026murderers and rapists coming from Mexico\u201d and crossing the border.\u00a0 He automatically limited Republican outreach, but helped generate a backlash of white voters enough to gain the Presidency.<\/p>\n
So the Republican Party is faced with finding different means of maintaining electoral power.\u00a0 Their 2010 \u00a0\u201cRedmap\u201d plan to win state governments and gerrymander districts put them in charge of a majority of state legislatures. \u00a0 Gaining control of the state houses allowed them not only able to draw the maps, but also set the standards for voting.<\/p>\n
Through leaders like Kris Kobach of Kansas, the Party \u201ccreated\u201d a problem:\u00a0 illegal voting in elections.\u00a0 While every objective analysis of US voting shows there is almost no illegal voting occurring, the Republicans generated a \u201ccrisis\u201d of \u201cthousands and thousands\u201d of illegal voters, changing the outcome of elections.\u00a0 They then passed a series of laws to restrict access to voting.<\/p>\n
To white suburban voters some of these regulations seemed reasonable.\u00a0 Photo identification of voters, the need to have a current residential address, purging the voting rolls of those who failed to vote for several elections:\u00a0 all seemed like a good way to \u201csecure\u201d elections from those phantom illegal voters.<\/p>\n
But for those who live in urban areas and don\u2019t drive, for those who are young and changing their residence often, for those who only get interested in Presidential elections:\u00a0all of these changes take away their vote.\u00a0 Disenfranchisement has its greatest impact on the poor, minorities, and the young.\u00a0 It is little surprise that those groups tend to vote Democratic; the Republican plan is to maintain power by reducing the power of the electorate.<\/p>\n
MSNBC, in a series of recent reports, has highlighted specific areas of voter suppression directly effecting the 2018 election.\u00a0 The first is in North Dakota, where Native American voting may well determine the Senate election between Democratic incumbent Heidi Heitkamp and her Republican challenger Congressman Kevin Cramer.\u00a0 Voters in Native American reservations traditionally don\u2019t have \u201cstreet addresses,\u201d instead receiving their US mail at a Reservation Post Office box.\u00a0That PO Box serves as their \u201cofficial\u201d address for the purposes of the tribal identification documents.<\/p>\n
The North Dakota state legislature, under Republican control, changed the identification requirements for voting.\u00a0 Starting with this election, all voters must have government (or tribal) identification with a \u201cstreet address\u201d listed.\u00a0 As the reservations don\u2019t have \u201cstreet addresses\u201d the law effectively attempted to disenfranchise thousands of Native Americans.\u00a0 In 2012 the total of votes in North Dakota Senate race was 319,738;\u00a0the difference between the two candidates:\u00a0 1,936.\u00a0The reservations voted overwhelming for Heitkamp, the Democrat.<\/p>\n
While tribal officials are fighting a desperate battle to get their votes counted, voters on the reservations are likely to face challengers at the polls, questioning their right to vote.\u00a0 Even if the votes ultimately do count, it is likely that the voter turnout will be reduced by the crisis.<\/p>\n
In Georgia, over 53,000 new voter registrations have been \u201cflagged.\u201d\u00a0 A new Georgia voting law, passed by the Republican legislature, requires that all names and addresses on registration documents must be an exact match to government identifications.\u00a0 This includes differences in commas and hyphens.\u00a0 These new registrations have not been processed, and those voters are NOT notified that they can vote. The 53,000 will be allowed to cast \u201cprovisional\u201d ballots, but those will be challenged and the voters forced to produce documents verifying their information. \u00a0Over seventy percent of the registrations are minorities.<\/p>\n
And North Carolina, a state that has a long record of blatant black voter suppression, continues to \u201ctweak\u201d the process.\u00a0 This year they have, like neighboring Georgia, reduced the number of early polling locations; making it harder to get to them, and creating longer lines at the polls.\u00a0Also the new North Carolina law makes it difficult for counties to open for Sunday early voting, requiring them to open all of their polling places if they open one.\u00a0 Sunday voting is favored by many black churches, who go after services.<\/p>\n
This is all intentional:\u00a0keeping Democratic voters from voting.\u00a0Lower voter turnout favors Republican candidates.\u00a0 But, as Martin Luther King and Barack Obama both quoted:\u00a0 \u201cThe arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.\u201d\u00a0 Ultimately the changes in the American population will change our government.\u00a0 But for this election:\u00a0 Democrats must fight through the tactics of suppression, overcome the obstacles; and vote.<\/p>\n
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