This is truly a beautiful thing to see as Thomas Roberts of MSNBC took RNC Spokesman Sean Spicer down Point by Point on the issue of the Republican efforts at widespread Voter Suppression
http://www.rawstory.com/...
Thomas seems to have caught a bit of what Soledad O'Brien has been having for Breakfast.
The first thing of course was for the Repub to take umbrage at the suggestions that Republicans have been trying to implement a "Poll Tax".
“I actually find it extremely insulting to say that there was any effort by anyone to suppress the vote,” Spicer said. “I find that unbelievably insulting.”
Your insulted by the suggestion that there's been "
Any effort by anyone" to suppress the Vote?
How about this guy?
Or maybe this guy Nathan Sproul (who was hired, then fired, by the RNC!)
http://www.bradblog.com/...
After two full weeks of GOP operative Nathan Sproul's company, Strategic Allied Consulting --- which was created for, and then ,b>hired by the RNC to run voter registration operations this year in FL, CO, NC, VA and NV for more than $3 million --- the very same Rightwing media outlets which went wall-to-wall in 2008 over trumped-up allegations against the community group ACORN, have barely mentioned this year's GOP scandal, even though it includes far more serious allegations than ACORN was ever either investigated for or, certainly, convicted of.
Specifically, Sproul's company is being investigated for, among other allegedly fraudulent voter registration submissions, changed addresses on forms for existing Democratic voters and/or destroying new Democratic registrations entirely. Election officials fear that both actions could result in disenfranchised voters this November 6th, as Palm Beach County, FL Supervisor of Election Susan Bucher explained during my interview with her on Pacifica Radio two weeks ago, when the story was first breaking. Bucher was the first to discover the fraudulent forms in her county in FL. Similarly fraudulent forms have since reportedly been discovered in some 12 counties across the state.
I mean C'mon.. that's like saying "I'm Shocked,
Shocked" to hear that Voter Suppression has been going on in our fine Country". (2 Secs) "Yes, thank you I'll accept our winnings of Electoral Votes from Pennsylvania now..."
That is just completely Frelled Up, particularly when the RNC themselves had specifically hired Sproul's company having request him to change it's name because he'd been caught doing it before. Not to mention their long, long history of Unlawful Voter Caging.
But that was only the beginning, after that it got really good.
“I think to somehow equate showing a photo ID — which in most states is given free if there is an issue with the person’s economic condition — that somehow requiring people to show the same type of thing that would be required to get government assistance, get on an airplane, enter a government building is actually a common-sense move to make sure we maintain the integrity of the precious right to vote,” Spicer argued.
“Your basic American right isn’t to fly, is it?” Roberts pressed. “To get an ID like that in certain cases, it is considered to be a poll tax and a poll tax is unconstitutional. Is a poll tax constitutional or unconstitutional?”
“That’s like saying, to drive on a road is a poll tax because you have to get a license,” Spicer replied.
“Driving on a road and getting a license, that’s not a poll tax,” Roberts explained. “Going into a government building is not a poll tax, flying on an airplane and showing your passport is not a poll tax. But going to vote and having to prove who you are, but having to go out and spend money on getting that ID or driving 30 miles because you don’t have an ID place in your town so you’ve got to drive a disproportionate distance to get one, that is a poll tax. That costs you money.”
Why, yes it is a poll tax - and that's what the Attorney General Called it not that long ago.
http://abcnews.go.com/...
Attorney General Eric Holder went off script today to say that voter ID laws like one being implemented in Texas are “poll taxes,” equating the requirement that voters show a state-issued photo ID in order to cast ballots to the Jim Crow laws of the early 1900s.
“Many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them,” Holder said in a speech to the NAACP on Tuesday, referring specifically to a law being implemented in Texas. “We call those poll taxes.”
So it's not like Roberts is making that term up. It comes from here, the 24th Amendment.
http://www.usconstitution.net/...
1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
This is why a Federal Panel of three judges struck down the Texas Voter ID Law.
http://www.cnn.com/...
Although the law provides for approved voter registration certificates with no photo as acceptable for voting in certain circumstances, the court said the law imposes "strict unforgiving burdens on the poor." The court noted the requirements will fall heavily on African-Americans and Hispanics, who make up a disproportionate percentage of the poor in Texas.
This is why it was delayed in Pennsylvania, it was too much of a burden on the poor.
http://www.ncsl.org/...
As shown above Eleven states have just this year tried to implement these types of laws, many of them have been struck down or delayed including South Carolina's which was just ruled on minutes ago.
http://www.cnn.com/...
Washington (CNN) -- A federal court panel in Washington Wednesday ruled in favor of South Carolina's voter photo ID law, but said it cannot go into effect until next year because there's too little time to implement the new law for this November's election.
...
The judges noted that about 95% of South Carolina registered voters possess the approved photo IDs. That includes 96% of whites and 92% to 94% of African-American voters
...
The judges took note of the requirement in the Texas law, which has been blocked in court, requiring many citizens to get a birth certificate that costs $22. And in Texas, unlike South Carolina, many counties lack a place for voters to obtain qualifying photo identification cards.
So even though the vast majority of both whites and non-whites
already have states issued ID and there wasn't a $22 Fee required for those who would have to get a birth certificate in order obtain ID - the Federal Judges
Still wouldn't let this law go into effect because it would disenfrachise voters.
In the face of all this the only claim that Spicer had left was his argument that there would be "No Cost, in most states, for low income voters to get the ID they needed".
I'm just gonna call straight up Bullshit on that - because Thomas didn't bother - as I quote above you still needed to pay $22 to get your birth certificate in Texas, not counting gas, travel expenses and/or shipping to get if from the city you were born in if you aren't still living there, and that's on top of the cost of the ID.
Thomas did a good job on this one.
Vyan