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You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Trump & Pence, Deliberately Undermining Our Voting Process

Trump & Pence, Deliberately Undermining Our Voting Process

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… because OF COURSE HE DOES, since he’s a committed proponent of the Republican plan to restrict and obstruct the rights of all Americans who are not reliable conservative Republican voters.

Ari Berman has a book to sell, and it looks like a very worthwhile read. Here’s a review by David Cole, in the NY Review of Books, “How Voting Rights Are Being Rigged”:

… The Brennan Center for Justice identifies fifteen states that have new voting restrictions in place for the first time for the 2016 presidential election, and five more that have had restrictions in place since the 2012 election. These include several states considered “battlegrounds” in the upcoming presidential election, or that have competitive elections for Senate seats, including Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, New Hampshire, Virginia, Illinois, and Arizona. In each of these states as well as many others, legislatures have imposed rules, like those in North Carolina, that limit opportunities to register and vote, and that demand forms of identification at the polls that many poor and minority citizens do not have—all in the name of fighting nonexistent “voter fraud.” Meanwhile Donald Trump, also invoking the specter of fraud, has sought to impose voting restrictions of his own, urging his followers to watch polls in November, a practice designed to deter Democrats from voting.

The 2016 presidential election looks increasingly like it will be close in the end, and many other races this fall are certain to be. These restrictive laws and practices, all invoked by Republicans, have the purpose and effect of reducing turnout disproportionately among racial minorities and the young, populations that are more likely to vote for Democrats. The Republican Party is evidently worried that the growing numbers of nonwhite citizens in the US are unlikely to vote for their candidates, a concern deepened by the campaign of Donald Trump. Instead of modifying their policies to address the interests of new voters, however, the Republicans have sought to suppress those votes. The strategy, profoundly antidemocratic in the small “d” sense, can swing elections in the short term. But in the long term, it will not only damage American democracy but will be self-defeating for the GOP…

… Ari Berman’s Give Us the Ballot is a captivating and definitive history of the Voting Rights Act, from its origins, inspired by the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, to the present day, in which Republican-controlled jurisdictions, freed of federal oversight by the Shelby County decision, are meticulously adopting restrictive rules akin to those North Carolina put in place.

Berman’s chronicle of the most important and effective civil rights law in American history makes clear that the right to vote, far from self-enforcing, has always been vulnerable to those who believe they can gain partisan advantage by changing the rules. As Berman puts it, “What should be the most settled right in American democracy—the right to vote—remains the most contested.”…

As initially enacted, the Voting Rights Act suspended literacy tests, authorized the Justice Department to challenge poll taxes, sent federal observers and registrars to monitor elections and register voters, and instituted the preclearance requirement. Subsequent amendments to the law outlawed literacy tests altogether, gave eighteen-year-olds the vote, extended protections to language minorities, such as Hispanics, Asian-Americans, and Native Americans, and prohibited voting rules that have the effect of diluting minority votes. The act has been extraordinarily successful. In the first decade after its enactment the percentage of southern African-Americans registered to vote increased from 31 percent to 73 percent, the number of black elected officials nationwide grew from under 500 to 10,500, and the number of black members of Congress increased from five to forty-four….

Republicans have responded, wherever they hold majority control, by restricting access to the ballot in ways that disproportionately disenfranchise minority voters. As Judge Motz noted in the North Carolina case, the fact that many of today’s restrictions are driven by partisan motives rather than pure racial animus does not diminish the fact that they are designed to restrict the number of minority voters because of their race. Berman’s history makes it clear that, given these continuing efforts at voter suppression, the Voting Rights Act remains as necessary today as ever….

Reader Interactions

112Comments

  1. 1.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Exqueeze me, but blah people are allowed to cast ballots in some places.

    This is voter fraud as its worst. 3/5ths of a vote counting as an entire white vote.

  3. 3.

    craigie

    I am increasingly glad that my kids have two passports. The need to pull the ripcord on this country, in their lifetimes, seems almost certain.

  4. 4.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    I get so sick of this shit. I know a guy from high school, and he’s on Facebook with me, and he’s a Trump voter, and he’s convinced that there truly is voter fraud going on. I try to tell him, while working hard not to condescend, that a bunch of soulless dickheads are selling him lies, and that he deserves better than to fall in with shitbags like the creeps who run Breitbart, et al. Sometimes things like this feel like a lost cause, but I know this guy, and he really isn’t a bad guy. He’s just let himself be taken in by a party full of con men. Over the long haul, we can’t afford to write people like him off. For one thing, we share the country with them. Beyond that, these people aren’t the deplorables Clinton talked about. I do think we can reach him and others like him, and we have to find a way to do that. But I’ll be damned if I know what it is yet. For now, talking is a beginning, I guess.

  7. 7.

    wuzzat

    Indiana already has Voter ID laws. Mike Pence’s dream is to turn the rest of the US into Indiana. Anyone who doesn’t see the problem with this has either never been to Indiana or never left it.

  11. 11.

    lamh36

    on my way to bed, but just found out this older lady i used to work with in Texas has been diagnosed with cancer of the liver and pancreas!!!!

    She has her first oncology appt tmrw. She’s a cool lady.

    please send up prayers and light for her tonight guys…thx

    Fuq cancer…life is short fam…so live it up while u can

  14. 14.

    Betsy

    OT: can someone with a better memory than I kindly provide the link to a post that ran in the last month or two, where the question was posed whether to buy another car or fix the old one? There were a lot of great comments and analyses, and I find myself in need of reviewing them.

  18. 18.

    max

    Berman’s history makes it clear that, given these continuing efforts at voter suppression, the Voting Rights Act remains as necessary today as ever….

    Ya know, were we to actually get a wave election and take control of the House, the first order of business should be clear: Voting rights, and I do not mean some lame reworking of the existing VRA, but a requirement that all states check on discrimination, forced non-partisan redistricting (for Congress) for all states, D & R alike, and provision for voluntary federal ID cards (issued by the post office – they already issue passports) with clear definitions and provisions for the old so that people can get proper ID cards regardless of state rules. (And a requirement that possession of a federal ID is automatically a voter registration for federal elections.) On, and a removal of all disqualifications for voting for federal elections, excepting being under guardianship or being in prison or the nuthouse.

    Elderly Trump voters can get those cards too, just in case their Southern state is giving them hell about ID.

    max
    [‘Just wanted to note that.’]

  19. 19.

    JordanRules

    Liking the hypothesis that Orange Nazis sniffing is a sign of anxiety. Wonder how many sniffs per minute we’ll get tomorrow.

    Any attempt to “fix” it will likely be worse than the sniffing so that could be an interesting part of the cray cray.

  20. 20.

    SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch

    @Gertrude the Duck:

    O/T, but did you take your nym from the wonderful Gertrud in the 1959 Journey to the Center of the Earth? I love that movie, and I love that duck.

  23. 23.

    randy khan

    One of things that fascinates me (in a sick way) about the voter ID people is that they often think they’ve finished the argument when they start listing all the things you “have” to have an ID to do. And when you point out that many of things on the list don’t actually require ID (my favorite being buying alcohol – personally I’ve been asked for ID exactly once in the mumble-mumble years since I turned 18, and I’ve bought alcohol in an awful lot of states), they simply refuse to believe you.

    Not to mention that none of the things they mention qualify as fundamental rights, but that goes right over their heads.

  32. 32.

    Adam L Silverman

    @amk: They announced that/made the decision over a month ago. The race wasn’t tight then at all – it looked like Murphy was going to lose by at least 10 points. For some reason all the right wing sites decided to run the news today: Free Beacon, NewsMax, etc.

  35. 35.

    scav

    @wuzzat:

    Indiana already has Voter ID laws. Mike Pence’s dream is to turn the rest of the US into Indiana.

    And yet he was heading for a personal loss there.

  36. 36.

    Ruckus

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
    Ask him how if there is so much voting irregularities that many/most places where voting restrictions have been imposed, republicans have been winning elections. If he acknowledges this ask him if those republicans who have been elected got there by fraud if it is so wide spread, especially if he thinks that it is all being done by democrats. Explain to him how ballots are handed out and have been for a long time, how they are counted and that there are people who are from both parties present when they are counted and doing the counting and that there are cross checks to insure that there is no cheating. Ask him how voting works for him. Does he just walk in, take a ballot and vote? No, he has to sign his name and the signatures have to match for him to get a ballot.

  39. 39.

    Ruckus

    @lamh36:
    I wish your friend well. Good medicine, good doctors, a strong will and a lot of luck.

    And I say this regularly, FUCK. FUCKING. CANCER.

  45. 45.

    JordanRules

    While looking up, ‘signs a startup is failing’ I realized I probably have a good idea whether I need to move on or not already.

    Oy and ugggghhh!! Job hunting is wack! I wonder if Ivanka has the same concerns? Deep side eye

  46. 46.

    Another Scott

    @Betsy: You’re quite welcome. Glad to help.

    BTW, if you need to search for things here in the future, it’s pretty easy with Google. Simply Google the exact text:

    site:balloon-juice.com new car

    to look for the text “new car” in posts here at balloon-juice. The “site:” prefix tells Google to only search on this site. That’s how I found that post.

    Good luck with your auto adventures! I hope they’re not too painful.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  47. 47.

    Adam L Silverman

    @amk: Yes, but… From their perspective it didn’t look like it made sense to put money in as they weren’t going to get a pickup/seat flip in FL. Its tightened way up. I have no idea how the debate went last night between him and Senator Hydrophilia. Rubio is in trouble here and I’m not sure that the DSCC would or would not make a difference at this point. Absentee ballots went out on 4 OCT. The Democrats have registered thousands more voters in Florida than Republicans. While not of the forecasters have FL as a toss up, from what I can tell from seeing ads, knowing how state politics work from when I used to teach that at UF, I think the state is a toss up. If Murphy’s got a competent campaign they’re in touch with the Clinton campaign folks and there will be coordination.

    You have to remember that Murphy is sort of a Florida yellow dog. He’s a moderate Democrat in a state that hasn’t produced anyone other than Bill Nelson that can win statewide at any level in decades. The state of FL Democratic Party’s bench is meh. They keep running the least interesting and engaging candidates for statewide state level office year in and year out. When you can’t beat Rick Scott who actually freaked out and refused to come out and debate until someone sorted him out backstage, then you’ve got a candidate that can’t capitalize on an opening. And that’s part of the problem: no one here with statewide name recognition that has the ability to inspire and capture the imagination. I’m sure they’re all lovely people. I’m sure they’ve been successful and want to continue to do good things. But its like running wallpaper paste for office.

  49. 49.

    Ruckus

    @efgoldman:
    Did you recover fully? I hope so.
    I have essential tremor. If not properly medicated my hands shake bad enough that writing is tough and looks very little like what it did 2-3 yrs ago and I almost can’t put the toothpaste on my toothbrush or make change at a store. Medication makes me mostly functional but the body gets used to the level of med and so you end up having to take more but it also affects BP and so there are limits. And there are things I can no longer do in my profession, things I normally do and did 2 yrs ago, and that’s with medication. I’m damn good at what I do but my value is eroding right in front of my eyes. I don’t mind getting older, in fact it’s not a bad thing at all, but having your body turn on you a lot sooner than later is hard to deal with. And I have a HS friend who says that it’s state of mind that keeps us young or not. I’m thinking of offering to give her a tour of the VA hospital, that might just cure her of think young, stay young.

  50. 50.

    hovercraft

    Oh my God, General Barry McCaffrey just said he thinks that the Obama administration has been very smart by not putting ground combat troops in the fight to retake Mosul.

  51. 51.

    Gvg

    @Adam L Silverman: I have only heard anti-Murphy ads here recently. Before that nothing. It’s a super pac and it’s one ad over n over again. Accuses him of lying on resume, exaggerating his qualifications. I looked it up. As far as I can tell, the ad is the one that exaggerating and over stating what Murphy said. He is pretty young with not that impressive a life yet. Rubio actually isn’t much himself though. Can’t believe he thought he was ready to run for President. Looking at who chose to run, I think all the republicans with brain already knew the voters were nuts and to save their reputations. I also think the sanest already retired.

  57. 57.

    Ruckus

    @Betsy:
    I had a 2003 Honda Element and if they still made them I’d have bought another. I reread through some of the thread Scott posted and saw a comment by Randy Kahn about his Acura that he got hit in. My Element was rear ended by a drunk 10 yrs ago who was going 100-110 according to witnesses, while I was doing 70. Never lost control or even had to fight for it and the left rear wheel was hanging on by only a couple of suspension bolts. Suffered no injuries nor did the airbags go off. The front wheel of the car that hit me, a BMW 3 series, did fall off but the asshole was too drunk to notice. The cops caught him when he stopped to pee. He didn’t know he’d hit anyone.

  58. 58.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gvg: I’ve seen that one. I’ve also seen both Murphy campaign and pro-Murphy PAC ads running. And a few Rubio campaign ads as well.

  60. 60.

    redshirt

    @Adam L Silverman: It’s amazing to me the Bush’s are really Maine based even though they’ve pretended to come from Texas for a long time. Kennebunkport.

    Pretty much summarizes the OLD Republican party. Before Donald broke it.

    Good luck, Humpty.

  61. 61.

    Peale

    So if I only knew gay Filipino naturalized citizens, I would be panicking right now that its over for Hillary. Geebus…3 for 3 Trump voters so far and I’m afraid to contact the other ones I know. Fortunately, the only one who isn’t is a deep blue state is in Nevada and I don’t think he’s going to vote. My personal GOTV efforts are NOT paying off.

  62. 62.

    NotMax

    @Adam L Silverman

    Dunno if you have Netflix, but new on there is a movie about the siege of Jadotville.

    May or may not check it out later on. The initial viewing of the trailer gave off too much of a “white man’s burden” vibe for my sensibilities. But seen strictly as a piece of military history it might hold up better.

  65. 65.

    barns

    @Peale: Yea your right game over. Time to throw in the town. Hillary only has a 96% probability of winning a historic landslide so she’s probably going to lose.

    Damn you Al Gore.

  68. 68.

    Jibeaux

    Maybe Carl Hiaasen could run in Florida. When he’s done writing the script for this election, of course, which is what I assume is happening. While suffering from fois poisioning.

  70. 70.

    Peale

    @redshirt: He’s popular enough. I think 76% approval, but it is early. I was wondering when he was going to become the darling of the far left, and yep, right on cue, he’s the next Hugo Chavez, about to finally destroy the Empire. You know that’s the case, so they will excuse the vigilantes due to high crime rate. Which I find a little ironic because the outsted Thai PM also had a few thousand drug related killings on his dossier and that is proof that he is a U.S. puppet.

    There really isn’t a strongman they won’t sleep with these days.

  73. 73.

    hovercraft

    @Major Major Major Major: @Peale:

    2012 2016
    DEM. REP. DEM. REP. Change towrds D
    Filipino 36% 46% 52% 33% +28
    Vietnamese 32 36 45 29 +20
    Hmong 63 12 76 6 +19
    Korean 56 33 70 27 +19
    Asian Indian 68 10 71 13 +1
    Chinese 56 19 51 18 -4
    Japanese 59 28 59 34 -6
    Cambodian 62 11 68 26 -9
    All Asian-Americans 51 28 57 24 +1

  74. 74.

    hovercraft

    The chart got messed up, so try the link to 538

    But yes basically Filipino 33% republican, topped only by Japanese 34% R

    EDIT: Filipino Americans did become 28 % more democratic since 2012, so there’s that.

  75. 75.

    gwangung

    @Frankensteinbeck: Well, hell, most of the Filipinos I know are theatre folks and they sure as hell ain’t for Trump….(many of them are also gay, but that’s redundant in the theatre world)(tho I disgress….)

  77. 77.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I’ll bet the dipshits at ABC haven’t bothered to ask Pence to provide the specifics of any of these “proven cases” that Pence is pulling out of his worthless Jeebofascist ass?

  79. 79.

    Mnemosyne

    I am trying SO hard not to get into arguments with friends of friends on Facebook. Not Trumpists, but people who are stupid enough to think there’s no difference between Trump and Hillary.

    You know what? If you really can’t tell the difference between the two of them, then stay the fuck home. You have my permission. I don’t want to hear your whiny “contrarian” bullshit for one fucking second longer.

    I am glad that I now know that you’re a total moron who should never be taken seriously on any topic, so thank you for that, at least.

  81. 81.

    Lizzy L

    @Villago Delenda Est: He sounds more and more like his running mate. One positive result from this insane election: the world is crazy and I know it, but Mike Pence is not likely to ever be elected to anything. Nada, zip, zero, rien, nichts, nothing.

  83. 83.

    Coin operated

    @Villago Delenda Est: I have a truckload of Oregon Trump supporters on facespace. “Hicks in the sticks” is what I like to call them…to their face occasionally. Hate that they’re dragging Hillary’s chances down that far.

    Edited for proper version of they’re

  85. 85.

    hovercraft

    @Villago Delenda Est: @Coin operated:
    That where the Snack Team Six had their excellent adventure, no? And if I recall the county(ies) surrounding the refuge are populated by oathkeeper types. Or am I confusing it with the area where that community college shooting took place?

  88. 88.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @hovercraft: Both are like that. Douglas County, where the cc shootings were at, has a “Sandy Neck Truther” for a sheriff, and everything east of the Cascades (and the Malheur Wildlife Refuge nearly all the way to Idaho) is like that.

  91. 91.

    danielx

    @wuzzat:

    Mike Pence’s dream is to turn the rest of the US into Indiana.

    I’ve lived in Indiana most of my life, and can tell you that Pence was likely a goner if he’d run for re-election as governor. There are still a hell of a lot of lawn signs that say “Pence Must Go”, although I grant they’re mostly in larger towns. People were tired of Pence’s act, sincere though it may be. He still comes across as a more sanctimonious version of Rick Santorum, with fewer kids and better hair but just as insufferable. It gives me a warm feeling to contemplate Mike Pence’s political career sinking like the Titanic; makes me want to toss him an anvil.

    Note: yes, there is a school of thought that feels “Indiana: Luv It Or Git The Fuck Out” would be a great state motto.

  93. 93.

    gwangung

    Oregon has a white supremacist history. And outside of Portland and the college towns, its white and not very appreciative of non-whites (even in places like Ashland, home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival)…Even the more liberal white folks can be…inexperienced when dealing with minority issues.

  95. 95.

    SoupCatcher

    Was at the barber today, in San Jose, and a couple of guys in the shop were talking about voting for Trump to “shake things up” or “just can’t vote for Hillary.” Everyone, myself included, is a native Californian of Mexican descent, so would be suspect to Trump for the same reason as Judge Curiel. I joked that I was surprised Trump hadn’t offered a set of silverware to people who vote for him, like in a timeshare sales pitch. That led to comments about half-finished condos and stiffing contractors. I don’t think anyone changed their mind – California will be solidly blue regardless – but it was interesting to me that even the guys who were talking about voting for Trump acknowledged he was a sleazy businessman.

  96. 96.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @hovercraft: Koreans were majority Republican until the late 90’s, 00’s. The tended to be Republican due to the perceived anti-communist position of Republicans v. Democrats and also many were small business owners. A couple of things happened, Republicans became much more anti immigrant(especially California Republicans) and younger Koreans don’t think as much about the Communist menace as their elders did, and finally younger Koreans are more professionals rather than running a small business.

  97. 97.

    Dog Dawg Damn

    Talked to the father-in-law, and he’s voting for Trump in a swing state because he figures he’ll be impeached in 6 months and “that’ll be like a reset”.

    The complete disregard for norms of civility, peace, civic duty, etc. is breathtaking.

    At the same time, he’s a solid R voter, so the fact that he’s openly musing about how the Orange Menace will be impeached can’t bode well for his prospects in the state. I do think the state is going to swing blue, as polling suggests.

  98. 98.

    Dmbeaster

    @Millard Filmore:

    States may impose these restrictions, after the states have, at taxpayer expense, made sure that all citizens have whatever provenance is needed to vote.

    The Supreme Court should have fashioned this rule when fhey first considered the issue. Instead, they ignored the requirement that States make sure citizens can exercise the right. Voting should not depend on “show me your papers” mentality that the citizen must satisfy the State before being allowed to vote.

  99. 99.

    Mnemosyne

    @gwangung:

    One of my Filipino-American coworkers (originally from SF) who’s in his 50s was shaking his head the other day because one of his sisters is going to vote for Trump. It sounds like she’s alone in the family on that, though.

  102. 102.

    Brachiator

    @Dog Dawg Damn:

    Talked to the father-in-law, and he’s voting for Trump in a swing state because he figures he’ll be impeached in 6 months and “that’ll be like a reset”.

    Interesting strategy. So, he would be happy to see Pence as president after Trump was removed??

  103. 103.

    magurakurin

    @Villago Delenda Est: More like East of 82nd Avenue and South of Woodstock Blvd. I lived in Portland for 13 years and spent most of my time traveling to trail heads to climb mountains and crags. Been all over the state. Oregon is a blood red hellhole once you leave Portland. Even in the city it can be bad. I lived for a good many years in a part of town known as Errol Heights…oh man…it was bad. Deliverance bad.

  105. 105.

    Arclite

    Only 31 cases of voter impersonation since 2000 out of 1 billion votes cast

    One of those was Ann Coulter and another was Ramesh Ponnuru.

  106. 106.

    magurakurin

    @Villago Delenda Est: It’s an island. Soon after you leave town…wilderness of pain. And places like Roseburg and Grant’s Pass downright scary. Ashland is a bit of an island, though, as is Bend. Provisional outposts. Of course, all the population lives in Portland. The rest of the state is pretty empty.

  108. 108.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @magurakurin: Corvallis is an island, too. I don’t dispute you about outside of Eugene…Springberg is pretty iffy, and you get into the rural areas and yes, it’s dumbasses. But Peter DeFazio is our rep, and there you go…he wins Lane every single time.

  109. 109.

    magurakurin

    @Villago Delenda Est: I mean, I loved Oregon. And it is solidly blue. No question. The good people far, far out number the crazies…because all those little towns scattered about are so tiny. But there is a real disconnect with the folks in Portland who don’t leave their safe zones very much. They lack perspective of the depth and ugliness of the opposition. I imagine things must be better now and the safe zones must be much wider. It was a while ago when I lived there…back in the spotted owl days…I kept a baseball cap to tuck my long hair up into when I ventured beyond the city walls…

  110. 110.

    seaboogie

    @lamh36: Finally off to my meditation cushion before bed, and setting my intention and offering to your friend, via the Universe.

  111. 111.

    PIGL

    @Peale: Let me shout this the far left: you’re wrong. The question is why you’re so down with the official enemies list as to see these three men as in any way similar.

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