Madison County Democratic Committee

Tag: Voter Suppression (Page 1 of 4)

Trump administration building a pretext to roll back voting rights on a national scale?

November 29, 2016 /

Oh, what a tangled web we weave..

Papa Putin Introduces ProgenyIn addition to insulting law-abiding voters everywhere, these lies about fraud threaten the foundations of American democracy. They have provided the justification for state voter-suppression laws around the country, and they could give the Trump administration a pretext to roll back voting rights on a national scale.

On Sunday, President-elect Trump unleashed a barrage of tweets complaining about calls for recounts or vote audits in several closely contested states, and culminating in this message: “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”

This is a lie, part of Mr. Trump’s pattern, stretching back many years, of disregard for indisputable facts. There is no evidence of illegal voting on even a small scale anywhere in the country, let alone a systematic conspiracy involving “millions.” But this is the message that gets hammered relentlessly by right-wing propaganda sites like InfoWars, which is run by a conspiracy theorist who claims the Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax — and whose absurdities Mr. Trump has often shouted through his megaphone, which will shortly bear the presidential seal. Mr. Trump added more fuel to the fire with the false claim of “serious voter fraud” in California, Virginia and New Hampshire — all states that went for Hillary Clinton.
 

Opinion | Donald Trump’s Lies About the Popular Vote

One big fear in the weeks leading up to the presidential election was that Donald Trump would try to delegitimize the results by claiming rampant voter fraud – a bogus specter he had raised throughout the campaign, particularly as his polling numbers got worse. In that scenario, of course, Mr. Trump was the loser.

Donald Trump’s strategy for minority Americans? Don’t let them vote.

October 12, 2016 /

The Republican nominee’s rhetoric, inciting white rural and suburban voters who fear the voting clout of black urban Democrats, is a recipe for voter intimidation and even violence on Election Day. It also lays the groundwork for his followers to believe, if he loses,that his defeat was a historic swindle.

This Republican project is racially intentional, as a recent federal court ruling in North Carolina said explicitly. It dovetails with other, similarly racist tactics in other states, such as the disenfranchisement of felons long after they have completed their sentences — a rule that has left 1 in 5 black adults ineligible to vote in Virginia.

Starting in August, and accelerating this month, Mr. Trump has stood before rallies attended overwhelmingly by his white backers and urged them to go to “certain areas” on Election Day. “Go and vote and then go check out areas because a lot of bad things happen,” he said in Pennsylvania, where lax state laws allow poll watchers to challenge voters as they arrive at precincts. “You know what I’m talking about,” he added. On Monday, he told his followers that they must watch “other communities.” “I hear these horror shows, and we have to make sure that this election is not stolen from us and is not taken away from us,” he said. “And everybody knows what I’m talking about.”

Yes, everyone knows what Mr. Trump is “talking about.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-strategy-for-minority-americans-dont-let-them-vote/2016/10/11/c3c509ac-8fe9-11e6-a6a3-d50061aa9fae_story.html?utm_term=.fcbec5ecfa1f

BREAKING: Virginia Supreme Court denies Republican effort to hold McAulffe in contempt

September 15, 2016 /

UPDATE: RICHMOND (September 15, 2016) — Attorney General Herring issued the following statement after the Supreme Court of Virginia rejected legislators’ motion to hold Governor McAuliffe in contempt for his efforts to restore Virginians’ voting rights:

“This contempt motion was completely baseless and I’m glad the Supreme Court dispatched it so quickly. Governor McAuliffe is doing the right thing in giving these Virginians back their voice and their vote and I hope the legislature will join the effort.” -Mark R. Herring, Attorney General

In a one-page order released Thursday, the Supreme Court said it would not require McAuliffe to return to court to prove that he is complying with the court’s July 22 ruling that struck down McAuliffe’s first attempt to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 felons via executive order.

The court also said it would not allow Republican General Assembly leaders to seek further documents through a new discovery process.

Virginia Governor – Ralph Northam – Newsroom

Virginia Governor, Newsroom, Newsroom

With weeks to go before early voting begins in the presidential election, Republicans had sought to block thousands of felon voter registrations, arguing that McAuliffe’s revised process for issuing individual orders still thwarted the state’s constitutional policy of barring felons from voting.

Virginia Supreme Court denies Republican effort to hold McAuliffe in contempt over felon voting rights

The Supreme Court of Virginia on Thursday rejected a Republican effort to have Gov. Terry McAuliffe held in contempt over his ongoing efforts to restore voting rights for felons.

Felony Disenfranchisement

September 14, 2016 /

More than one in five African-Americans in Virginia are disenfranchised, according to The Sentencing Project, a Washington-based nonprofit that focuses on criminal justice. McAuliffe has said the reinstatement of felons’ voting rights would distance Virginia from Jim Crow laws that have haunted it.

It’s 2016, but Republicans still think only white property owners should vote. Virginia is one of only four states in the nation – along with Florida, Iowa, and Kentucky – to disenfranchise all individuals with felony convictions for life. The only means of regaining voting rights in these states is through action by a governor or pardons board.

Please note on July 22, 2016, the Supreme Court declared the Governor’s grant orders of April 22, May 31, and June 24 to be unconstitutional. If you have previously used the searchable database, your status may have been changed to reflect that decision. If your rights were restored before April 22, 2016, your rights were not affected by the Supreme Court’s decision.

After the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in July that governors couldn’t restore the voting rights of felons en masse, Gov. Terry McAuliffe vowed the 13,000 felons that registered through the executive order he issued would be able to cast their ballots come November.

http://www.sentencingproject.org/issues/felony-disenfranchisement/

Voter registration is the antidote to voter suppression

September 12, 2016 /
True South: Unleashing Democracy 50 Years After the Mississippi Summer Project

True South: Unleashing Democracy 50 Years After the Mississippi Summer Project

The conventional wisdom in the South is that despite gains on the local level, candidates who represent the views of people of color cannot win statewide office. But this conventional wisdom ignores the numbers. In 2012 there were 3.7 million unregistered black voters, 3.2 million unregistered Hispanics and 750,000 unregistered Asians in the Black Belt.

VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF ELECTIONS CITIZEN PORTAL

The Freedom Summer activists understood that politics is at least in part a numbers game. We need to realize that communities of color have the potential to shift the balance of power in the U.S South through sheer force of numbers. Voter registration can make the future come faster in the Black Belt, and 50 years after Freedom Summer, it is time for another bold leap forward.

Voter registration is the antidote to voter suppression

We have the antidote to voter suppression. In fact, we’ve always had it. We have known what it is for at least half a century. Fifty years ago this month, Freedom Summer activists risked life and limb to register voters in Mississippi and spread the gospel of democracy across the southern United States.

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