05-10-2014, 10:27 AM
|
|
|
Purveyor, Fine Asian Porn
Industry Role:
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Posts: 38,323
|
Click HERE for full-size graphic
Quote:
Voter suppression -- also known as caging -- is any action or behavior intended to deter an individual or group from voting.
In the history of American politics, a wide range of dirty tactics have been used by both major political parties to intimidate or disqualify voters traditionally aligned with the opposition.
During the "Jim Crow" era in the southern U.S., state and county governments evaded the 15th Amendment -- prohibiting voter discrimination based on race or color -- -- by imposing a series of literacy tests, poll taxes and even thuggish "poll workers" to block African-American voters from casting a ballot.
Modern methods of voter suppression are more subtle, but the intention is the same: to employ legal and illegal means to affect voter turnout in an election.
Critics of the new voter ID laws are crying foul, accusing the states of imposing a solution in search of a problem, citing Justice Department statistics that voter fraud is extremely rare: 86 convictions out of 300 million votes cast in recent elections [source: Berman].
The real reason for the rash of new voter ID laws, critics argue, is that certain Democratic-leaning voters -- African- and Hispanic-Americans, students, the elderly and the disabled -- are less likely to possess a valid government-issued ID [source:American Civil Liberties Union]. Strict voter identification laws, they say, have the intended effect of discouraging or disqualifying traditionally Democratic voters.
|
Quote:
Disinformation is another hugely popular tactic for suppressing votes in a target population. In the 2008 elections, Democrats in Nevada received robo-calls informing them that they could vote on November 5 -- a day after the election -- to avoid long lines.
Hispanic voters in Nevada received similar messages saying that they could vote by phone [source: Freeman].
Voters in Lake County, Ohio, received official-looking mail stating that voters who had registered to vote through Democratic-leaning organizations would barred from the 2008 election. And Michigan's Secretary of State had to fight a phone-based disinformation campaign telling absentee voters to mail their ballots to the wrong address [source: Zernike].
|
Quote:
While intimidation and disinformation are recognized examples of voter suppression, other methods are much more controversial. A strict voter ID law in Indiana, for example, has the blessing of the Supreme Court, yet the Justice Department has moved to block similar laws in Texas and South Carolina under accusations that the laws "[deny] or [abridge] the right to vote on account of race, color or membership in a language minority group" [source: Chebium].
Similarly, a number of Republican-controlled state legislatures have passed laws barring convicted felons ? even those who have served their time ? from ever voting again. Other states have tightened the window for absentee, overseas and early voting, and banned same-day voter registration.
Some states want to require voters to provide a proof of citizenship. Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) claim these laws have one purpose: to restrict and suppress the ability of minority, disabled and elderly voters from casting their vote [source:American Civil Liberties Union]. Supporters of these laws argue that increased restrictions only result in fairer, cleaner elections.
|
ADG |
|
|