Tag: Voter Suppression (Page 4 of 4)

Think You Can Vote In the Next Election?

March 31, 2016 / MCDC

21 States, including Virginia, have new voting restrictions since the 2010 election. None of them are intended to make voting any easier.

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New Report: Virginia Ranks 50 out of 51 in “Health of State Democracies”

July 7, 2015 / MCDC

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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.

Students Fight Back Against Voter ID Law That Allows Gun Licenses But Bans Student IDs

March 18, 2015 / MCDC

The Nashville Student Organizing Committee and a group of nine students from Fisk University and Tennessee State University, both historically black colleges, filed a lawsuit in early March against the state, alleging that excluding student IDs from the acceptable voter ID list violates the 26th Amendment, which enshrines the right to vote to qualified citizens 18 years of age and older, as well as the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection. They also say the state does not allow voters to present out-of-state ID cards, which are widely held by college students living in Tennessee, therefore discriminating against out-of-state students.

“At every step of the voter ID law’s evolution, Tennessee state legislators have purposely fenced out college and university students, especially targeting out-of-state students, rejecting multiple bills that would have added student ID cards to the voter ID list,” the complaint said.

Why does Del. Mark Cole hate Democracy?

February 26, 2015 / MCDC

Because elections are locally administered in the United States, voter suppression varies among jurisdictions. At the founding of the country, most states limited the right to vote to property-owning white males. Over time, the right to vote was formally granted to racial minorities, women, and youth. However, throughout the latter 19th and early 20th centuries, Southern states passed Jim Crow laws to suppress poor and racial minority voters; among other things, such laws included poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses. Most of these voter suppression tactics were made illegal after the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Contemporary voter suppression techniques include voter ID laws, voter caging, intimidation of voters at polling places, and felony disenfranchisement. Research has shown that suppression of voters has become an integral part of politics for right wing parties in the USA. When political entities advocate for voter suppression policies, they typically use positive language such as “voter security” and “anti-voter fraud,” to justify their actions; but there is little evidence to prove that voter fraud is a significant problem in the United States.

BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF THE FREE LANCE-STAR

The House of Delegates Privileges and Elections Committee is where redistricting reform bills go to die. It is not selective. It kills bills the Senate already passed, and bills introduced in its own chamber. It kills bills introduced by Republicans and bills introduced by Democrats. At least it doesn’t discriminate.

Del. Mark Cole, a Spotsylvania County Republican, chairs the committee and sits on the subcommittee that routinely sticks a fork in redistricting-related measures. He is the rare Virginian who apparently doesn’t see a need to fix the procedure under which congressional and legislative boundaries are redrawn every 10 years.