Category: Voter Rights (Page 5 of 15)
Please join the Madison County Democratic Committee at our next regular meeting, Saturday, September 12, 2015 at 9:30 a.m. at the George James Community Center, located at 1215 George James Loop, Radiant, VA 22732.
We’ll have a brief business meeting, followed by a screening of the 40-minute documentary Selma: The Bridge to the Ballot. After the film, we’ll talk about what we can do to register local voters, help those who are eligible to have their voting rights restored, and get out the vote!
This event is free and open to the public.
See you on the 12th!
![LyndonJohnson_signs_Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965[1]](https://mlegrd0d2dsc.i.optimole.com/cb:6jfX.43614/w:auto/h:auto/q:mauto/f:best/https://madisondems.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/lyndonjohnson_signs_voting_rights_act_of_19651.jpg?w=604)
Fifty years ago, the Voting Rights Act outlawed literacy tests and other measures that had prevented African-Americans from voting. After its passage, Congress amended the act four times to increase its scope.
But in 2013, a Supreme Court decision blocked the act’s enforcement provision, which opened the door for states to pass new voting restrictions. Journalist Ari Berman says that many of the new restrictions discriminate against poor people, young people and people of color.
Block The Vote: A Journalist Discusses Voting Rights And Restrictions
Fifty years ago, the Voting Rights Act outlawed literacy tests and other measures that had prevented African-Americans from voting. After its passage, Congress amended the act four times to increase its scope. But in 2013, a Supreme Court decision blocked the act’s enforcement provision, which opened the door for states to pass new voting restrictions.
![FINGERPOINT-RIGHT[1]](https://mlegrd0d2dsc.i.optimole.com/cb:6jfX.43614/w:auto/h:auto/q:mauto/f:best/https://madisondems.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/fingerpoint-right1.png?w=150)
This is the least understood and least reported big issue in Virginia. Our state government is an all-powerful disaster zone. The normal checks and balances on a state legislature are:
1. Federal government.
2. State judiciary.
3. Local government.
4. The state constitution.
4. The voters themselves.
5. The executive branch – the governor.
The Virginia General Assembly has steadfastly marginalized the checks and balances of each of these outside entities with the partial exception of the federal government which the GA cannot control (although it tries – from Massive Resistance to Medicaid Expansion).
State judiciary – Virginia is the only state where state judges are directly elected by the legislature with no independent nominating or selection committees. What’s worse, practicing attorneys in the General Assembly elect and re-elect the very judges who decide their cases. Appalling.
Local government – strict Dillon’s Rule construct. Localities in Virginia are not allowed to determine the height of grass and weeds in their counties without General Assembly approval. No, I am not kidding
State constitution – The state constitution is routinely flaunted by the General Assembly. Virginia’s constitution requires that Congressional and state legislative districts be compact and contiguous. Take a look at the district outlines determined by the General Assembly. Do they look compact and contiguous? I guess somebody could appeal the districts to the state judiciary … oh wait, they are in the pockets of the General Assembly.
The voters themselves. Gerrymandering, off year elections, hardest state to get on the ballot as an independent, no term limits for legislators, America’s least competitive state elections, no recall elections, no voter initiated referenda … the voters have been marginalized.
The executive branch. Virginia is the only state in America where the sitting governor cannot run for a second consecutive term. Our governor is a lame duck on the day he or she is inaugurated.
Virginia’s problems stem from an over-powered, corrupt and unaccountable General Assembly.
via Egberto Willies
“We in the US have a growing minority population, a younger minority population that will over time convert the number of white Americans into a minority of the population,” Chris Matthews said. “If you are a Republican how do you deal with that quandary, giving the fact that your Party builds its numbers on older white people. You make it harder for minorities to vote.”
And that is what all Americans must ensure does not happen. Everyone in our melting pot must have equal access to the vote. Will more journalists make this an issue and hold the Republicans to account? They likely won’t but you must.
Few journalists are willing to succinctly call out the GOP for exactly what they are attempting to do. They are using and creating bad laws to steal elections.
There are two specific methods being used. The first is gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is used to pack a few districts with Democrats thus allowing the majority of districts to have a slight to substantial majority of Republicans. This allows for a Congress where there is a Republican that does not reflect years of Democrats receiving vast majorities of the actual votes.
In 2012 Democrats won thousands more votes than Republicans, yet Republicans received more than double the amount of representatives in Congress. This has also been replicated in state legislatures. This was the first part of the process.
Now that Republicans control most of the legislatures undemocratically, they have allowed them the wherewithal to implement the second part. That second part takes America back to the Civil Rights days. It is deeper than simply voter suppression. It is vote prevention and voter repression. This is not new. Who can forget Chris Matthews highlighting Republican State Representative Mike Turzai (R-PA) statements to that fact?
CONTACT US
MCDC
PO BOX 81
MADISON VA 22727-0081
info@madisondems.org
Paid for by Madison County Democratic Committee
