Republicans feign anguish over voting rights:
Congressional leaders must decide whether to try to rewrite the provision the court struck, but it’s not clear how such an effort would fare in the Democratic-led Senate and the GOP-controlled House. And at the state level, elected Republicans are enacting tighter voting restrictions that Democrats blast as harmful to their traditional base of supporters and groups the Republicans say they want to attract.
“I’m hopeful Congress will put politics aside,” Cantor said, “and find a responsible path forward that ensures that the sacred obligation of voting in this country remains protected.”
I don’t think Republicans are doing or plan on doing any “outreach” at all, on anything, but there’s a bigger myth in this narrative and it’s that national Republicans are somehow better than state level Republicans on voting rights. The only reason we don’t have restrictive national legislation on voting from national Republicans like what see at the state level is because most election law is state law. That’s why we needed the Voting Rights Act.
Let’s go all the way back to the Bush Administration and see how Republicans did on voting rights nationally, back when Republicans were principled centrist moderate good government types. We don’t even have to go back to Bush v Gore. There was plenty after that. Let’s begin with the witch hunts national Republicans launched against individual voters who might be Democrats:
Five years after the Bush administration began a crackdown on voter fraud, the Justice Department has turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections, according to court records.
Although Republican activists have repeatedly said fraud is so widespread that it has corrupted the political process and, possibly, cost the party election victories, about 120 people have been charged and 86 convicted as of last year.
Most of those charged have been Democrats, voting records show. Many of those charged by the Justice Department appear to have mistakenly filled out registration forms or misunderstood eligibility rules, a review of court records and interviews with prosecutors and defense lawyers show. The push to prosecute voter fraud figured in the removals last year of at least two United States attorneys whom Republican politicians or party officials had criticized for failing to pursue cases.
Previously, charges were generally brought just against conspiracies to corrupt the election process, not against individual offenders. The Justice Department stand is backed by Republican Party and White House officials, including Karl Rove, the president’s chief political adviser. The White House has acknowledged that he relayed Republican complaints to President Bush and the Justice Department that some prosecutors were not attacking voter fraud vigorously. In speeches, Mr. Rove often mentions fraud accusations and warns of tainted elections.
Enlisted to help lead the effort was Hans A. von Spakovsky, a lawyer and Republican volunteer in the Florida recount. In 2003, when the Texas Congressional redistricting spearheaded by the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, Republican of Texas, was sent to the Justice Department for approval, the career staff members unanimously said it discriminated against African-American and Latino voters. Mr. Spakovsky overruled the staff, said Joseph Rich, a former lawyer in the office. Mr. Spakovsky did the same thing when they recommended the rejection of a voter identification law in Georgia considered harmful to black voters. The Republican National Committee and its state organizations supported the push, repeatedly calling for a crackdown.
Then there was how national Republicans modified the EAC report on voter fraud and voter intimidation to exaggerate voter fraud and omit voter intimidation:
After the 2000 Florida election debacle, Congress established a body called the Election Assistance Commission to improve voting and democracy in this country. Two years ago, the commission approached me about doing a project that would take a preliminary look at voter fraud and intimidation and make recommendations for further research on the issues.
Yet, after sitting on the draft for six months, the EAC publicly released a report — citing it as based on work by me and my co-author — that completely stood our own work on its head.
We said that our preliminary research found widespread agreement among administrators, academics and election experts from all points on the political spectrum that allegations of fraud through voter impersonation at polling places were greatly exaggerated. The commission chose instead to state that the issue was a matter of considerable debate. And while we found that problems of voter intimidation were still prevalent in a variety of forms, the commission excluded much of the discussion of voter intimidation.
What was behind the strange handling of our report? It’s still unclear, but it is worth noting that during the time the commission was holding our draft, claims about voter fraud and efforts to advance the cause of strict voter identification laws were at a fever pitch in Congress and the states. And it has been reported that some U.S. attorneys were being fired because they failed to pursue weakly supported voter fraud cases with sufficient zeal.
If the point of these narratives about an imaginary national/state Republican split on voting rights is that national Republicans may have a difficult time pretending they are better than state level Republicans on voting rights, I agree, it will be hard to pull that off. There’s no difference between national and state level Republicans on voting rights. They’re opposed.
Hal
Well right there you know he has to be evil. I bet he has a little mustache he likes to twirl while tying you up to a rail road track.
Voter fraud is a barely there thing that has it’s roots in racist thinking that centers around dirty foreigners or undeserving poor people trying to throw national elections. I mean, how else could O’Bummer win? None of my friends voted for him, ergo, it must be voter fraud.
Kay
@Hal:
He really does look like that,too.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
And von Spakovsky does like like what he is.
PeakVT
“I’m hopeful Congress will put politics aside,” Cantor said
Fucking liar.
pokeyblow
Crack down on voter fraud: put Ann Coulter’s skanky ass behind bars.
Kay
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
They put his “research” up on the Federalist Society site after 2008 election. I was surprised by that at the time, but I wouldn’t be now.
He went from volunteer in Bush v Gore to national conservative expert on voting. What better qualification could one have!
I am not a kook
Hmm, a flare has gone off in the wingnutosphere? “Obligation of voting” instead of “voting rights”. I bet this is going to become a tell.
rikyrah
Kay,
thank you for keeping on this.
yes, I want them to bring up the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and I want these muthafuckas to have to go on national tv explaining why they won’t bring it up for a vote on the floor, beginning with Orange Julius.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Let’s not forget that the US Attorneys Controversy was also about “voter fraud” (at least in part). The GOP war on voting has gone on wherever they think they can get away with it.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@rikyrah:
I like his idea, but I don’t want to compromise in the House. They’ll put horrible things in there.
We got provisional ballots as a compromise last time, and then judges used the fact that we HAD provisional ballots to justify upholding restrictions. They made it worse. They’re like a placebo.
Lurking Canadian
@PeakVT: Actually, I suspect he’s telling the truth in this case. It’s just that the “bipartisan agreement to preserve our sacred voting obligation” he’s talking about is a return to the rules in force in 1795. I’m sure he’d be glad to reach across the aisle for that.
rikyrah
Kay,
I loved Jim Clyburn saying it should be NATIONAL.
HELL FUCKING YEAH
make em vote on that. ….no ‘discrimination’…force the entire country to have to justify their bullshyt.
mai naem
I don’t mean to sound negative but the Repubs have zero incentive to do anything about voting rights and every incentive to make voting difficult. I find this absolutely scary. You gerrymander a district here, another one there, and before you know it, the Dems will be down an additional 20 seats. You can use section 2 but if it’s after the damage is done, then the damage is exacerbated. I guess I need to read up on Section 2 and see what the penalties are. Making it even harder is seeing Ruth Bader Ginsburg on USSC and she looks damn frail. If something happens to her all bets are off as to what cases will make it to the USSC. Its bad enough thinking of this happening with Obama being in office, but if it’s a Repub. Jeezus.
Kay
@rikyrah:
I think they should draft the bill and then all start screaming “we want a clean bill!”
No changes OF ANY KIND :)
They’ll be horrible. We know that. We can save a lot of time. Upordownvote!
JoyfulA
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Nice long Wikipedia article, but it doesn’t mention that Josh Marshall’s reporting was based on crowdsourcing, which was really cool. I wish crowdsourced investigation had continued and grown.
JoyfulA
@rikyrah: I’ve been saying it should be national on Twitter and getting a “Great Idea!” response. Pennsylvania hasn’t been any better than the average Southern state since Corbett’s been governor.
I’d like everyone to talk it up. It’s an idea that’s time has come.
catclub
I think it is time for a careful re-reading of the VRA for options that the AG has to object to voting changes
before they take effect. Just because there is no defined pre-clearance set of jurisdictions, does not mean the AG cannot oppose changes – in federal court. I am hoping, anyway. Time to go read.
e.a.f.
Voter fraud? sounds like a myth to me. 86 convictions out of a population of 350 Million. Yes, man the barracades. Really some one needs to get a grip in the U.S.A.
Repealing the Voting Rights Act sets the U.S.A. back just a tad, back to the middle of the last century. Sitting up here in Canada thinking it must be very embarassing for American citizens to be about to celebrate the 4 July, while denying citizens their rights. With the Roberts court decision, the Americans no longer hold any moral ground. Jim Crowe is alive and well in America. What is happening with the repeal of the Voting Rights Act is similar to what we see in countries where one ethnic group declares war on another. When Americans wonder why the Suni and Shite’s fight each other, just remember the repeal of the Voting Rights Act.
A Humble Lurker
@e.a.f.:
You’re sending mixed messages, Canuck.
Villago Delenda Est
There’s only one way this can work.
Cantor needs to blow his worthless fascist brains out. At once.
debbie
Conservatives = Christian Sharia, no matter how much lipstick is slapped on.
RaflW
Also known as American citizens entitled to the vote. Fod g*ds sake, these voters and want-to-be voters are citizens of this jerkwater nation first, and (possibly) Democrats second.
In the Franken/Coleman recount, I recall that the one person convicted of voter fraud, it was a parolee voting before his rights were restored…and he voted for Coleman (R-Asshatsville).
RaflW
Overal, thank you Kay for reminding us of the US Attorney scandal. One thing Repubs do better is to dredge up old (often still bogus) crimes on the left and flog them over and over. Republicans have a looooong list of actual high crimes and misdemeanors, we need to flog ’em and hang them around the necks of these bastards. They’re still often pulling the levers of power even after their perp walks, so make ’em pay again. And again!
StringOnAStick
My husband is a liberal (like me) but not a political junkie so he doesn’t see this stuff and discuss it like folks on this blog do. We were watching an old Colbert that included a VRA skit, and hubby looked at me and asked me why every state has its own set of voting rules. His attitude was more one of “why is this crazy shit even legal?”. Indeed, why is it?
Seems to me that this is a high leverage topic that the Democratic party could make some serious hay over if they would just concentrate and organize!