Sen. Mitch McConnell, this week's worst warrior on voting.
Today is
Stand 4 Freedom day in New York City, in recognition of United Nations’ Human Rights Day. The message of the day: "It's time to Stand for Freedom. We must protect our right to vote."
The NAACP's Ben Jealous spoke with TheGrio about the march and the impetus behind it:
Seventy-five percent of black men in the state of Wisconsin currently don't have a valid ID. In Texas, the ID law wouldn't recognize your student ID, but it would recognize your gun license. It's impossible to look at a bill like the one in Texas and say it's not targeted.
It's hard not to look at the Wisconsin governor's subsequent decision to shut down ten DMVs all in the poorest areas and not feel like he must have known the impact that would have, making it harder for certain communities to have access. We at the NAACP have to deal with the carnage of this everyday. We deal with the students who are frustrated, because they show up at the poles and they're turned away being told that unless they can produce a driver's license from that state [they can't vote,] because their student ID isn't good enough.
The reality is—there was an argument for the poll tax. There was an argument for the literacy test. There was an argument for keeping women from voting. And they were all phrased in terms of vote security. Women it was argued shouldn't vote because if she was married, her husband would have two votes because he would tell his wife how to vote. People who couldn't pass the literacy test didn't know enough to be allowed to vote, and could be too easily influenced by others. Vote security is a real issue, but the poll tax didn't make voting more secure, discrimination against women didn't make voting more secure, and nor will voter ID. It's a solution without a problem.
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund released a report this week, in preparation for today's action, which "exhaustively details how 25 states have passed laws restricting voting rights, either by requiring photo identification or proof of citizenship at the polls, limiting early voting, passing stricter absentee ballot requirements, curbing third-party voter registration drives and venues for registration, implementing stricter felony disenfranchisement laws, and imposing residency requirements that make it harder for people to register to vote after they've moved."
In other news:
- The war on voting claims another lifelong voter:
For 63 years, Brokaw, Wisconsin native Ruthelle Frank went to the polls to vote. Though paralyzed on her left side since birth, the 84-year-old "fiery woman" voted in every election since 1948 and even got elected herself as a member of the Brokaw Village Board. But because of the state's new voter ID law, 2012 will be the first year Frank can't vote. Born after a difficult birth at her home in 1927, Frank never received an official birth certificate.
There is a record of her birth with the state. But the doctor who signed the record of her birth—which isn't an official certificate—misspelled her maiden name. So she could have pay $200 to have a corrected birth certificate issued; $200 to exercise her right to vote. Welcome to ALEC's America, or as NAACP Sr. Vice President for Policy and Advocacy Hilary Shelton calls it, James Crow Esquire, having to pay for an ID.
- Last week, the House of Representatives voted to disband the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), which was set up to ensure that states meet certain voting standards, including having functioning voting equipment and accessible polling places. It was set up to deal with problems like this:
As many as 60,000 of the votes cast in New York State elections last year were voided because people unintentionally cast their ballots for more than one candidate, according toa study being released this week. The excess-voting was highest in predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhoods, including two Bronx election districts where 40 percent of the votes for governor were disqualified.
The study, by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University Law School, blamed software used with new electronic optical-scan voting machines as well as ambiguous instructions for disenfranchising tens of thousands of voters. The old mechanical lever-operated machines did not allow votes for more than one candidate for the same office.
The New York machines are in violation of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), so the state is compelled by federal law to fix the machines, which they say will be done before the 2012 election. But if the GOP has their way, without the assistance of the EAC.
- Virginia is set to join the dozen of other states on the voter suppression front, diarist Andrew M reports.
As we all know, one of the big progressive losers in the 2011 election season was Virginia, who ended up electing an almost 2/3 majority Republican House of Delegates and a majority-by-tiebreaker Republican Senate. Already, proposed bills are hitting the internet for the next General Assembly session in January, and Senate Bill 1 is a tightening of Virginia's voter ID law which would raise the barrier to entry for many people to vote.
- Shockingly, it's still possible to be shocked by something that comes out of a Republican's mouth. Here's Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, talking about the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPV), a proposed plan for using a popular vote in presidential elections.
MCCONNELL: Hosting this seminar on the most important issue [the National Popular Vote proposal] in America nobody’s talking about. Everybody's following the debt crisis in Europe, the presidential election in America, unemployment statistics, but nobody is paying much attention to the genuine threat to our country. That's what I want to address this morning.
If that doesn't encapsulate the Republican view toward the voter, nothing does. The popular vote is a "genuine threat to our country," says McConnell. Which is precisely why Republicans are trying to take it away from as many voters as possible.
- Finally, let's end with some fun, repeating the highlight for the week:
"A Baltimore jury has convicted a political aide to former Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich of conspiring to suppress black voter turnout during the 2010 gubernatorial election."
