I have been arguing through the night and into today with a handful of supporters from the Sanders campaign (NOT ALL, a HANDFUL!) who are convinced that the horrific problems in AZ were due to voter suppression from the GOP and the Hillary Clinton campaign. A number of diarists have dealt nicely with this — I want to call out this diary by Delphine for identifying it as a nonpartisan voter suppression issue, which is exactly right (BTW, I support Hillary, Delphine supports Bernie — this shows we can agree, y’all!)
I wanted to emphasize, as others have, that this problem is squarely at the foot of elected GOP officials who are keen to suppress the vote.
The lack of available voting places in Maricopa county was engineered by GOP County Recorder Helen Purcell. To her credit, somewhat, she owned up to her culpability here after being pounded on by voters and by a GOP governor eager to deflect. www.krdo.com/… She had help on going this way by budget cutting from the GOP controlled legislature.
The problem with ballots and registration? That goes to the Arizona Secretary of State, elected GOP official Michelle Reagan www.azsos.gov/… I very seriously doubt there was any kind of co-conspiracy among the DNC, Clinton campaign, and Sec. Reagan to cause registration problems for voters in the Dem primary. On the other hand, there is strong motivation to suppress dem votes and, as Ari Berman noted in the Nation, one tool to fight this has been ripped away in the form of the gutting of the voting rights act by the Supreme Court www.thenation.com/…
Is this just Arizona? Of course not. There were problems, probably on a smaller scale, in Michigan on primary night — thinkprogress.org/… and there were problems in the 2012 election there too with ballot availability for dem voters — and, oh, look here — common denominator to AZ? GOP Secretary of State! en.wikipedia.org/…
There were problems with dem voters getting ballots in Florida in last week’s primary. www.cbsnews.com/… Guess what? GOP Secretary of State! en.wikipedia.org/…
Where have we seen this movie before? Florida hanging chads, weird Palm Beach ballots? Hmm, GOP Secretary of State.
Massive lines in Dem precincts to vote in Ohio in the 2004 presidential election? Hmm, GOP secretary of State. Threats of problems in Ohio in 2012? Hmm, GOP Secretary of State
I know of no counterexamples to this. When voting problems emerge in democratic leaning precincts, you can always trace them to partisan electioneering by the GOP.
So here are a few protips going forward:
1) Vote in local election officials who are either nonpartisan or democratic party members!
2) If you care about things like the SCOTUS decision alluded to above, vote for the democrat in November even if it is not Bernie (for Bernie supporters) or Hillary (for Hillary supporters). Because you can be damn sure whoever they put on the court will never do something like gut the voting rights act or hand the election to someone like George W Bush when there is a GOP driven election controversy.
3) Quit blaming the DNC and Clinton campaign for perceived electoral conspiracies. It is the states that set election dates, the states that set ballots, the states that set precinct numbers in primaries. It is only in caucus states where the parties have primary control over process (not date). By the way, you notice that Bernie seems to be doing well in caucus states?
4) IN states with GOP election officials, be proactive before the elections/primaries! The local dem party may be overwhelmed — help them out! Volunteer! Get educated about any issues before they happen!
5) I direct this to Bernie supporters: can you please educate your fellow Bernie supporters about this so they will quit misdirecting aim at the DNC and HRC on these issues and go after the real culprits in the GOP?!?!?!?
THank you.