Tag: voting

nprfreshair:

Republican Voter Suppression Efforts Are Targeting Minorities, Journalist Says

Since the 2010 election, 24 states have implemented new restrictions on voting. Alabama now requires a photo ID to cast a ballot. Other states, like Ohio and Georgia, have enacted “use-it-or-lose” laws, which strike voters from registration rolls if they have not participated in an election within a proscribed period of time.

Mother Jones journalist Ari Berman, author of Give Us the Ballot, says that many of the restrictions are part of a broader Republican strategy to tighten access to the ballot — an effort that was bolstered in 2013 by the Supreme Court’s Shelby County v. Holderruling.

“[That] decision,” Berman explains, “said that those states with the longest histories of discrimination no longer had to approve their voting changes with the federal government.”

As a result, Berman says, “You’re seeing a national effort by the Republican Party to try to restrict voting rights, and it’s playing out in states all across the country.”

Many of the new voting restrictions are occurring in states like Georgia, North Dakota and Kansas, which have critical races in the 2018 election. Berman says that it’s still unclear what the impact of the restrictions will be on the upcoming election, but he remains hopeful that the tide might be shifting on voter restrictions.

Berman points out that an amendment to Florida’s 2018 ballot would restore voting rights to more than 1 million former felons who are currently disenfranchised in the state.

“The 2018 election could go in two different ways,” he says. “It could be tainted by voter suppression, or it could be remembered as an election in which voting rights were expanded for millions of people.“ 

Photo: Voters cast ballots during early voting last week at C.T. Martin Natatorium and Recreation Center in Atlanta. Georgia has blocked approximately 53,000 voter registrations. Jessica McGowan/Getty Images

artekka:

seriesofnonsequiturs:

reading-writing-revolution:

[Text of Tweet: George Takei: If you are turned away at the polls because your name is not on the register, don’t walk away. Say this: I REQUEST A PROVISIONAL BALLOT AS REQUIRED BY LAW.

Don’t let them steal your vote]

Additional info:

“Provisional Ballot Laws are laws that require a provisional ballot upon verficiation of the idenity of the voter if a voter fails to present proper identification at the polls or when registering before voter registration deadlines.”

More here on national provisional ballot laws

Copied from facebook (source: John Young)

Poll worker here! Let’s talk about this “I DEMAND A PROVISIONAL BALLOT AS PROVIDED BY LAW” thing.

==
TL:DR; Yes, provisional ballots are important! And yes, you should absolutely ask for one if you need to. But there’s a couple of things to try first. A provisional ballot is a last resort.
==

It’s very common for voters to come up to the “check-in” desk, and not be found in the poll book. Some non-nefarious reasons why that might be the case:

1) The poll worker doesn’t understand how to spell your name.
2) You’re not in the right precinct (this happens ALLLL the time)
3) New married name?
4) You’re a college student, and you are registered, but you’re registered at home.

Here’s my recommendation for what to do:
* Make sure the poll worker is looking in the right spot (the book will be right in front of you; you can help find your name.)
* Mention your home address to the poll worker. THey may very well immediately say something like “Oh! Yes, you should be voting in the cafeteria. Here in the GYM, we are your next precinct over.”
* Ask politely to speak to someone to verify your status with the county. They will get on the phone with county folks, who will look you up in their BIG COMPUTER.

The steps above will, eight times out of ten, change you from the scary status of “Huh? you don’t exist!” to “Oh, right!
Okay, here you go, voter!”

If that doesn’t work, ask firmly and politely for a provisional ballot. If you say “AS PROVIDED BY LAWWWWW”, you will only get an eye-roll from a tired and hungry poll-worker. But hey, you do you – it really IS the law.

If you don’t get satisfaction, all is not lost. Step outside the precinct and call the ACLU, and they will send someone over to have some FIRM WORDS with the Judge of Elections.

How do I know? I’ve had ACLU lawyers sent to talk to me during an election: “Hey, we heard that you were turning voters away!” they said.

I wasn’t, but I DID NOT MIND having someone smart and informed come to check on what was up. The ACLU counsel was smart, engaged, and knew the rules. Had I been trying some crap, this person would have SHUT. IT. DOWN.

So, the BOTTOM bottom line is:
1) Provisional ballots are a last resort. You can read up on them; they’re definitely riskier than a full, “real” ballot. You want to vote at your proper precinct as your first choice.
2) Don’t panic if you’re not in the book. Are you in the right place?
3) If you decide you do need a provisional, be firm, polite, and persistent. There’s no “secret phrase” that’s going to make us poll workers hiss with dismay: “CURSESSSSSSS! They know about the provisionalssssss!”
4) But do stick up for yourself! And if you don’t get what you want, call it in! There’s LOTS of folks to help!

brunhiddensmusings:

idjitmonkey:

intelligentchristianlady:

What a wonderful initiative! Spread the word.

holy shit, spread this like wildfire guys before November 

one of the biggest and most devious tools being used against voters now is that voting locations for lower income neighborhoods and neighborhoods that are primarily black or hispanic are suddenly closed down, in the middle of nowhere, or only open for 4 hours a day

do whatever you can to help negate that being a barrier

jumpingjacktrash:

jumpingjacktrash:

“i don’t like either candidate so i won’t vote” what are you thinking, if enough people wuss out we’re going to have President None Of The Above? hey we’re counting the votes and ten percent of voters stayed home and jerked it to their own ideological purity, guess we just won’t have a president and all the executive level decisions will be made by a magic 8-ball for the next 4 years

i wrote this 2 years ago and – yeah. look, let’s just learn, ok? midterms coming up, pull up your big citizen pants and go do the thing.

thetrashknightofbreath:

“So, you don’t like the way our little fictional war came out? You don’t like Rachel dead and Tobias shattered and Jake guilt-ridden? You don’t like that one war simply led to another? Fine. Pretty soon you’ll all be of voting age, and of draft age. So when someone proposes a war, remember that even the most necessary wars, even the rare wars where the lines of good and evil are clear and clean, end with a lot of people dead, a lot of people crippled, and a lot of orphans, widows and grieving parents.”

— K. A. Applegate, in response to criticism of the Animorphs ending. (via queenofthepiskies)

odinsblog:

This is an obvious threat to African American ex-prisoners, and the message is that the state will target and punish them with unreasonable prison sentences for voting, even while on probation.

”I don’t think I’ll ever vote again. That’s being honest. I’ll never vote again.” – Crystal Mason

This is the new Jim Crow. This is an example of how Texas disenfranchises Black voters and suppresses voter turnout.

This is why Black people are disproportionately arrested and injected into the criminal “justice” system for even the smallest infractions.

The threat of re-imprisonment is how you dissuade all Black former-prisoners from voting, “just in case.”

Can you even imagine how different the South would be – how different AMERICA would be, if so many states didn’t use the criminal justice system and prison as a means to suppress the Black vote?