Voter Rights vs. GOP Efforts: To Suppress, Purge, Discourage and Sustain GOP Power

On this critical issue only one group matters: “We the People”

Q&A: What is the most-effective way undermine our democracy and ensure only a “one-party” rule? Simple – block the vote, suppress the vote, purge voter rolls.

Background and Introduction [click here) from NBC News:

After the Supreme Court upheld Ohio's aggressive methods of pruning its voter registration rolls a triumphant Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted suggested other states look to it as a model.

(My note: BS Mr. Husted – your actions are just like former Kobach's – the same kind fool as you are who pushed fake voter fraud, and voter roll purging as something good. You two are cut from the same goofy ultra-rightwing GOP piece of crappy cloth and stand for voter suppression and not much else – shame on you).

All this is exactly what voting rights advocates are afraid of, for example from Paul Smith, vice president of Campaign Legal Center, who said in a call with reporters recently: “If you're a state that wants to get in the business of progressively purging your voters, they have a green light to essentially to copy the Ohio system.”

Smith further noted that minorities, lower-income, and younger voters (and many college students away from home and mostly Democratic-leaning groups of voters) — are the ones disproportionately affected by strict voter roll maintenance systems like Ohio's, which boots people after they don't vote in a few elections and fail to respond to a mailed notice, even if they would otherwise be eligible to vote.

Add to that this from Vanita Gupta, a former DOJ official who oversaw voting rights enforcement in the Obama administration who told NBC News: “The opinion is going to encourage other states to enact purge practices like Ohio’s that are going to result in voter suppression around the country.” Gupta is now the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

FYI: Ohio is one of seven states with voter purge processes that weigh voter inactivity in voter roll maintenance, and more than a dozen other states have indicated they would like to adopt the same system.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her scathing dissent pushing other states not to follow Ohio's example, writing in part: “States, though, need not choose to be so unwise. Our democracy rests on the ability of all individuals, regardless of race, income, or status, to exercise their right to vote. The majority of States have found ways to maintain accurate voter rolls without initiating removal processes based solely on an individual's failure to vote.”

This from Dale Ho, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Voting Rights Project, who said in a call with reporters: “This ruling is a setback for voting rights, but it is not a green light to engage in wholesale purges of eligible voters without notice.”

Noteworthy: Advocacy groups including Demos, the ACLU, and probably the best site for debunking voter fraud issues is the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU – all have said they would continue to fight against the removal of eligible voters from voting rolls.

Finally and directly related to this:

This all smells like a Steve Bannon project with Trump’s total blessing.

In fact, the phony “voter fraud commission” that was co-chaired by Kris Kobach from Kansas – He is he KS AG who is about anti-everything and this co-chair is VP Mike Pence – just as bad as Kobach on this issue.

Here are numerous reputable links to that (Note: It is not pretty):

• The Bogus Voter-Fraud Commission
• 44 states won't give some voter info to panel
• Kris Kobach pushes back on reports states reject voter-fraud panel
• Trump's Voter-Fraud Commission Has Its First Meeting
• Trump administration: Lawsuit could stop voter-fraud commission
• Almost every state resists Trump's voter fraud commission

My 2 cents: The best source for input is “We the People” the voters who count. We must not stand for this sleazy way for Republicans to ensure that only their side stays in power.

I say to the voters all across the land: Rise up to protect your right to vote or not, but always on your terms and not on the terms of some lunatic in state or local government who says otherwise. 

Finally, shame on the USSC for allowing this to be sustained – truly a sad day in our history.

Thanks for stopping by.