I was going to relax today and enjoy my 66 years of life…..but….NO! News just had to come out that I could not turn my back on……
By now most of America has heard about the court’s screwing of the Voters Rights Act (VRA)….how long will it be before we have a rush of Repub controlled states with new laws on Voter ID or times to vote or early registration or a lessening of polling sites….
The Brennan Center for Justice called these schemes “the biggest rollback in voting rights since the Jim Crow era.” Those measures included voter ID laws that disproportionately impact minority and Democratic Party voters.
Most of the states passing restrictive voter ID laws are in the South and are covered under Section 5. Voter ID laws in Texas and South Carolina (as well as in Wisconsin) were struck down by the courts prior to the 2012 elections. Moreover, in Texas a federal court recently refused to clear the state legislature’s redistricting plan, finding “the new lines intentionally discriminated against minorities.” Because of Section 5, Texas was blocked from racial gerrymandering.
How long will it be?
Rather, the Court’s conservative majority has taken advantage of a gap in the Constitution that must be addressed.
The Court’s 5-4 ruling invalidated the formula used to determine which states come under the requirement that changes to voting laws, procedures and polling place locations in all or part of fifteen targeted states be approved in advance by the Justice Department or a panel of federal judges. The ruling says that Congress went too far in seeking to prevent racial discrimination in voting when it reauthorized the historic act in 2006, with votes of 98-0 in the Senate and 390-33 in the House.
The argument I hear most about all this voter suppression stuff is that the system, state Repub system, is doing all they can to secure the ‘integrity’ of the institution of voting….to hear them talk voter fraud is running rampant…….that is so much crap! That is kinda like the racist that says he has lots of ‘black’ friends….we know he is lying……the integrity thing is a dog whistle to help sooth the nerves of voters……my retort to this argument is….if we keep one qualified person from voting then all integrity has been lost!
Dems have promised to go through Congress to reinstate VRA…..that ought to be a hoot and half…….Clowns arguing with mimes!
But not to worry! SCOTUS has made all right by voting 5-4 to find DOMA unconstitutional…….!
It will take the demographic change that is coming in the near future to remove the conservative white male vote that keeps neanderthals in office who pass these intolerable pieces of legislation. It’s their last desperate act to protect a dying political species.
We can only hope that there is a change coming…..if it comes I give it within 10 years….
This theme you are using – – “Notepad” – – really looks good!
Thanx John….I used it a couple of years ago and thought I would give it another try…..
“to hear them talk voter fraud is running rampant…….that is so much crap!”
Here are the facts:
*To date, 46 states have prosecuted or convicted cases of voter fraud.
*More than 24 million voter registrations are invalid, yet remain on the rolls nation-wide.
*There are over 1.8 million dead voters still eligible on the rolls across the country.
*More than 2.75 million Americans are registered to vote in more than one state.
*True The Vote recently found 99 cases of potential felony interstate voter fraud.
*Maryland affiliates of True The Vote uncovered cases of people registering and voting after their respective deaths.
*This year, True The Vote uncovered more than 348,000 dead people on the rolls in 27 states.
California: 49,000
Florida: 30,000
Texas: 28,500
Michigan: 25,000
Illinois: 24,000
*12 Indiana counties have more registered voters than residents.
*The Ohio Secretary of State admitted that multiple Ohio counties have more registered voters than residents.
*Federal records showed 160 counties in 19 states have over 100 percent voter registration.
*The Florida New Majority Education Fund, Democratic Party of Florida and the National Council of La Raza are currently under investigation for alleged voter registration fraud.
http://www.truethevote.org/news/how-widespread-is-voter-fraud-2012-facts-figures
How much voter fraud needs to be exposed before you think it is a problem? And if you think it is a problem, how would you solve it?
All that is dog whistles….because someone is dead and not removed does not make it fraud….the same with bad addresses….none of that is fraud. How many cases of the crime of voter fraud have been successfully pursued?
I believe the figure I saw was since 2000 there have been 10 cases of fraud…..that is not rampant…I stand my my assertion…
Calling it a “dog whistle” is a poor attempt to marginalize a failure in our system that could be used to commit fraud.
In Texas alone, from 2002-2012, they had 311 cases of voter fraud reported and 51 convictions. If the government would actually prosecute the criminals we would have more numbers of convictions, of course with voter IDs we would find more cases of fraud to demonstrate the failure of the system.
The “head in the sand” defense of voter fraud is disappointing, especially when used by a political party with the word “Democratic” in it’s name. You would think they would want everyone’s legal vote to count equally.
The term means it is a slogan to confuse and misinform….My numbers were from national elections….and you would think the other party would want more people voting if they were truly “democratic” but every state with a Repub control is doing many thing to limit the vote…..so far the more organizations being nailed for voter fraud have be GOP…….this is how we get nothing done…..we talk about voter fraud and we are talking about two different types of elections…..
There is no difference between national, state or local elections, they are all conducted by the same agencies. And I agree that members and supported of both parties that have been caught committing voter fraud, but it is the Democratic party that has ignored the problem and demonized anyone that tries to fix it.
“this is how we get nothing done” part of the problem causing the stagnation of progress is ignoring problems and marginalizing it with bumper sticker terms. Voter fraud is a problem and if we do not come up with a solution our elections will get less and less trustworthy.
I guess we shall disagree…..I do not see a problem with voter fraud….if there is that much of a problem in Texas then they should be watched and monitored…..but I do not see it a national problem…….how does lessening vote hours or doing away with early voting or same registration help control voter fraud?
Like I have said…no matter the motivation, if you keep one qualified person from voting then there is NO integrity left….there is NO justification for that….
“how does lessening vote hours or doing away with early voting or same registration help control voter fraud?” they don’t… but identification to prove who you are and where you live does.
“Like I have said…no matter the motivation, if you keep one qualified person from voting then there is NO integrity left….” You say that now, but how about when the republicans find a way to double count votes and get people to pose as dead voters and cast votes for republicans… will you still defend anti-identification policies? I will accept your signature for id laws when that happens.
As always lobotero, it is good to hear honest opinions from you.
FL, let me be clear……as long as every qualified person is issued the same ID card then I have no problem…..only when it is not uniform do I have the problem……what concerns me more are the other tactics being used…as always a pleasure….
“as long as every qualified person is issued the same ID card then I have no problem…..only when it is not uniform do I have the problem” That is all I am suggesting, voters need to have a means to identify themselves, and in doing so, prove their eligibility to cast a legal vote.
“what concerns me more are the other tactics being used” I would fight those battles with you. Early voting should be available in all states for one week prior to an election, I have used early voting every year it was available to me in Florida.
Now if we could only get our “representatives” in Washington to agree on these principles we may actually save this republic from itself.
My problem is that there are too many cases of voting changes….I believe that we will see in the next couple of elections that this section 5 is still needed….