Did anyone listen to Terry Gross' Fresh Air today on NPR? The theme of today's show was voter intimidation or suppression tactics.
She interviewed someone from a Philadelphia voter rights group, who brought with him an anonymous flyer recently distributed in low-income and college neighborhoods in the city. The flyer suggested that anyone with an outstanding warrant or even unpaid traffic tickets shouldn't go vote on Nov. 4th lest they risk getting arrested.
Now, this kind of voter intimation tactic is OUTRAGEOUS. But what was equally outrageous to me is this. Terry Gross asked her interviewee who might be responsible for disseminating such a flyer. The person (whose name was Zak - don't recall last name) feigned ignorance. Instead he was quick to point out that we shouldn't assume it was from Republicans because the Republicans, when contacted, claimed it was a Democratic tactic to make it seem like the Republicans had distributed the flyers.
What amazed me at this point was that Terry Gross didn't bother to follow up with the obvious question: why would Democrats intimate or suppress voting groups friendly to them just to make the Republicans look bad??!!
I sent Terry Gross an email giving her a piece of my mind. Actually, at no time in all the vignettes on the topic of voter suppression did Terry attempt to get at who was behind these tactics. In each story, the targeted voter groups were either communities of color, low-income or college students - all obviously Democratic voting groups. But Terry and her guests suggested that it was unclear who was behind these tactics, and that both Democratic and Republicans were guilty of them. Well, I didn't hear one story that would implicate Democrats.
The states of Virginia and Florida were singled out for their aggressive voter suppression schemes. On the State of Virginia's official website, college students are warned that if they register at their school address, instead of home address where their parents live, they risk losing their student loans, health benefits and tax-exempt status as dependents under their parents and other grossly untruthful claims.
In Florida, the Republican state government pushed through the most draconian voter registration law in the country. Each voter registration form is compared to the state's official directory (DMV or social security, eg) and if there is ANY tiny discrepancy, the voter registration is rejected. By tiny, I mean, say, the registration form lists the name as "Dave" but the DMV form has "David". Or on the registration the person neglects to put a middle initial whereas there is one on the state record.
All of this makes my blood boil. I am an immigrant to this country and victim of racism and xenophobia throughout my life. But still, I am shocked that in the 21st century, this kind of anti-democratic, civil rights violations take place. Am I just naive?
I do know that the Lawyers' Commmittee on Civil Rights, the National Lawyers' Guild and other human and legal rights organizations have recruited thousands of lawyers to be at polling places throughout the country to make sure voter suppression and intimidation are held in check.