Minorities shouldn't vote...

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-20-2004
Minorities shouldn't vote...
9
Thu, 10-07-2004 - 11:20am
so say the Republicans...


October 7, 2004

CAMPAIGN 2004: THE BIG ISSUES

The Poll Tax, Updated



When members of Mi Familia Vota, a Latino group, were registering voters recently on a Miami Beach sidewalk outside a building where new citizens were being sworn in, the Homeland Security Department ordered them to stop. The department gave all kinds of suspect reasons, which a federal court has since rejected, but it looked a lot as if someone at Homeland Security just didn't want thousands of new Latino voters on the Florida rolls.

The suppression of minority votes is alive and well in 2004, driven by the sharp partisan divide across the nation. Because many minority groups vote heavily Democratic, some Republicans view keeping them from registering and voting as a tactic for victory - one that has a long history in American politics. It is rarely talked about publicly, but John Pappageorge, a Republican state legislator from Michigan, recently broke the taboo. He was quoted in The Detroit Free Press as saying, "If we do not suppress the Detroit vote, we're going to have a tough time in this election cycle." Detroit's population is more than 80 percent black.

A recent report by the N.A.A.C.P. and People for the American Way includes page after page of examples of how this shabby business works. On Election Day, "ballot security" teams head for minority neighborhoods. They demand that voters produce identification when it is not required, take photographs of voters and single out immigrant voters for special scare tactics.

Two years ago in the governor's race in Maryland, leaflets appeared in Baltimore saying that before voters showed up at the polls, they had to pay off all parking tickets and overdue rent. The same year in Louisiana, fliers were distributed in African-American areas to tell voters, falsely, that if they did not want to vote on Election Day, they could still vote three days later.

What is particularly discouraging this year is the degree to which government officials have been involved in such efforts. In South Dakota's hard-fought statewide Congressional race, poll workers turned away Native American voters who could not provide photo identification, which many of them do not have, even though the law clearly says identification is not required. In one heavily Native American county, the top elections official, who is white, wrote out instructions saying no one could vote without photo identification. In Texas, a white district attorney threatened to prosecute students at Prairie View A&M, a large, predominantly African-American campus, if they registered to vote from the school, even though they are entitled to by law.

And in Florida, the secretary of state, Glenda Hood, had a list prepared to purge felons from the voter rolls; the list had many errors and would have turned away an untold number of qualified black voters. She abandoned the list only when news organizations sued to make it public, then pointed out its many inaccuracies.

In addition to these blatant forms of vote suppression, elections officials have been adopting policies that appear neutral on their face but often have the effect, and perhaps the intent, of disproportionately disenfranchising minorities. With huge registration drives under way among minorities in swing states, some secretaries of state have adopted bizarrely rigid rules for new registrations.

In Florida, Ms. Hood is insisting that thousands of registration forms on which a citizenship box is not checked are invalid, even though elsewhere on the forms each applicant has sworn that he or she is a citizen. In Ohio, Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell was insisting until recently that any registration form that came in on anything less than 80-pound paper stock had to be rejected. The continued disenfranchisement of convicted felons in many states also has an unmistakable racial component.

The suppression of minority votes has continued because it is perceived as a winning tactic, and because it is rarely punished. This needs to change.

Trying to prevent members of minorities from voting can be a violation of federal and state law. Election officials, poll watchers and voters should be on the lookout for vote suppression, and should report it. And prosecutors should look for criminal cases to pursue. A few high-profile prosecutions of political operatives, and even elections officials, would go a long way toward ending a disgraceful American tradition.


Making Votes Count: Editorials in this series remain online at nytimes.com/makingvotescount.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Thu, 10-07-2004 - 4:41pm
All of the spinning is making me dizzy.
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2004
Thu, 10-07-2004 - 9:39pm
The only people I know who are being prevented from voting are Nader supports - by the Democrats!
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 10-07-2004 - 11:20pm
Interesting that you don't think that attempting to suppress peoples who are trying to vote should be prosecuted criminally.
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-20-2004
Fri, 10-08-2004 - 1:48pm
This whole thing disgusts me. Bush needs to go.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-24-2003
Fri, 10-08-2004 - 3:58pm
I am so sick of this. If there is one thing they should have the decency to leave alone, it is the right to vote. They fear a large turnout... the fewer the better, less democracy is better. Says much.
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-10-2004
Sun, 10-10-2004 - 9:38am
This is what really gets me. The Republicans go on and on about the reason we went to war in Iraq was to provide the Iraqi's with the Freedom we have and they deserve. However, every time I turn around there is more news about the ways the right is trying to squelch our freedoms. It makes me sick. This is supposed to be a democracy. The Bush administration does not care about our freedom, this administration is only concerned about remaining in power so they can punish their enemies and reward their rich, elite friends who put them in power. It has nothing to do with democracy and the good of the nation as a whole. Here in Michigan there is a big to do about Michael Moore "bribing" students with Tostito's and underwear to vote. The republicans here are having a fit and want him prosecuted for breaking the law for bribing. Well, the prosecutors for the county this is happening in are Republicans and fortunatley they are not taking these charges seriously. All Moore is trying to do is get people to vote and in a tougne and cheek manner. He is not handing out millions of dollars if they promise to vote Democrat. Please, have a sense of humor.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-24-2003
Sun, 10-10-2004 - 10:23am
ITA...
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-07-2004
Sun, 10-10-2004 - 11:14am
"If we do not suppress the Detroit vote, we're going to have a tough time in this election cycle."

-- Michigan State Rep. John Pappageorge, R-Troy, while discussing election strategy at a meeting of the Oakland County Republican Party in Michigan.


http://www.freep.com/voices/columnists/eholl27_20040727.htm

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-31-2003
Sun, 10-10-2004 - 12:15pm
I think you need to find more sources than those that support a left leaning ideology. You might be surprised to find out that some of what you are being told is simply spin.
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