Welcome to the return of our war on voting series, a joint project of Joan McCarter and Meteor Blades.
With the first primary of 2016 less than four months away, it's time for everyone to pay attention to voter suppression again. A good way to understand what it's all about is to read Ari Berman's fine new book, Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America. Berman, who has written extensively about the subject as well as the intersection of politics and money, writes about voter suppression regularly in The Nation.
With meticulous research and in interviews with major figures, Give Us the Ballot enlightens us about the history of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and how efforts were made to undermine from the beginning by the Republicans' "Southern Strategy" and ultimately gutted by the Supreme Court in the Shelby decision. Especially compelling for me is Berman's focus on one of the few people I consider true heroes, John Lewis, now a congressman from my home state of Georgia and one of the young activists of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee who trained us volunteers for Mississippi's Freedom Summer in 1964.
In his review of Berman's book in the Boston Globe, Jordan Michael Smith wrote in August:
Heroes, as well as villains, populate “Give Us the Ballot.” None is shown to be more heroic than John Lewis, the civil-rights activist turned Atlanta congressman. His name is present on the first and last pages of the book, and many in between. He was fighting for voting rights when he was beaten in Selma in 1965, and he is fighting for voting rights as he protests stricter voting identification requirements in 2015. Typical of his rectitude is Berman’s moving anecdote that Lewis supported broadening the VRA in 1975 to ease voting for Mexican Americans, who sometimes spoke only Spanish and lived in jurisdictions not subject to special federal regulations. Some African Americans worried the VRA would not be renewed at all by Congress if it was broadened. Lewis held firm: “It would be a mockery of the whole Voting Rights Act effort during the past 10 years if we leave the Voting Rights Act as it is and not cover the other minorities in this country.” The upgraded bill passed.
Berman has done us all a tremendous service.
Below, you'll find some briefs on voter suppression.
• Communications Workers of America seeks voter suppression stories: The union has launched a "Voting Rights Denied Story Project" to elicit stories from members about obstacles they have encountered when they try to vote. Whether it's finding out they aren't on the registration list or ridiculously long lines at the polling place, CWA wants to hear about it. Members can tell their story by filling out a form until Tuesday, Nov. 3—and sending it to Tova Wang at twang@cwa-union.org or a letter to Tova Andrea Wang, CWA Director of Democracy Programs, 501 3rd St., N.W., Washington, DC 20001.
• Ben Carson says "voter fraud" measures aren't racist: In an interview with the Topeka Capital-Journal, Carson backed up Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach's efforts to purge tens of thousands of incomplete registration applications. They are incomplete because the would-be voters did not have any of the often-difficult-to-obtain documents required to prove they are citizens. Hillary Clinton had tweeted that the U.S. should not be putting up obstacles to voting by young people. Said Carson, who is on a book tour:
“I’ve made it my personal project, every time I visit a country outside the U.S., to ask what do they do to ensure the integrity of voting? There’s not one single country anywhere — first world, second world, it doesn’t matter — that doesn’t have official requirements for voting,” Carson said.
“My question to those people who say we’re racist because we apply those standards: Are all the other countries of the world racist? I don’t think so. Voting is an important thing. Obviously, you want to make sure that it’s done by the appropriate people.”
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Alabama surrenders a teensy bit on DMV closures: The state sparked a national outcry after it closed 31 rural DMV offices that serve primarily African Americans. The state will now keep those open one day a month starting in November. The key issue: Alabama has a strict voter ID law and DMV offices are the source of a state ID that is accepted at the polls.
Critics of the closures, including Selma, Alabama native Rep. Terri Sewell (D), say it’s not enough. In a statement, the congresswoman called the new plan “bare minimum access” for the thousands of voters in those counties who lack the proper ID, and who may have difficulty accessing the office during that one day because of work or transportation issues.
“Alabama cannot require photo identification for voting and then make decisions to close DMV offices in communities that are disproportionately African American, rural, and low income,” she said.
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Five conservatives who have admitted they favor voter suppression.
• Brennan Center publishes "The Case for Voter Registration Modernization in 2015: The key elements, which the Brennan Center for Justice, based at New York University School of Law first proposed a decade ago, are Voter Registration Modernization has four components: 1) states should adopt electronic systems and ensure that citizens are automatically added to the voter rolls when they interact with government agencies; 2) make sure that voters stay registered when they move within a state; 3) allow citizens to register to vote online; 4) allow people to register or update their information at the polls.