VOTING SHENANIGANS continue, with news in Ohio and Florida, beyond the voter I.D. issue in Pennsylvania already mentioned this past week. The election is Tuesday, Nov. 6.
Buzzfeed reports that members of the Democratic election board in Ohio rebelled when the secretary of state banned weekend early voting, which got them suspended from the county board.
More from Ohio:
All Ohio counties will have uniform times for in-person early voting this fall, and no county boards of election will offer weekend hours, Secretary of State Jon Husted announced Wednesday.
Husted said all county boards must be open for voting from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays for the first three weeks of the period (Oct. 2 through Oct. 19), and must be open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays for the last two weeks before the election (Oct. 22 through Nov. 2).
Also this week, a federal court threw out a Republican effort to restrict the amount of early-voting days in Florida, which directly impacted minority voters and went against federal voting laws. From the AP:
A federal court says a Florida law that restricts the number of early-voting days could result in a dramatic reduction in participation by blacks. The Republican-controlled Florida legislature last year cut the number of early-voting days to 8 from 12.
But the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled late Thursday that because of the law’s potential impact on minority voters, it would not allow Florida to put the changes in place in five Florida counties covered by federal voting laws.
If it looks to you like Republicans are trying to suppress the vote, I really can’t make an argument otherwise. Why else would they work to shorten voting hours and days or make it more difficult for working people to vote by not allowing weekend early voting and the most days possible to vote? If Republicans wanted more people to vote they’d open the access as wide as possible.
There is no alternative analysis or “balance” to offer for the sake of “fairness,” because it doesn’t exist in the cases presented above.
All Republicans may not be racist, but all racists are Republicans.
As the sun rises in the east, suppressing the minority vote is what Republicans do. They will always do it.
So, isn’t it high time that the Democrats come up with an effective strategy to countervail these shenanigans, instead of continuously whining? Don’t the Democrats ever get sick & tired of always being on the defensive?
“All Republicans may not be racist, but all racists are Republicans.”
As utterly vile and anti-American, anti-Constotition as I know the repugnantklan/teabagger mob to be this simply isn’t true. I know several “Democrats” who are plain old racist. One said “I can’t vote for McCain and I won’t vote for the N—-R”
Until the Dems have enough of a majority to pass legislation there isn’t really much they can do other then have the DOJ keep on it and publicize the heck out of what they are doing. To me it seems as plain as the nose on someones face exactly, even to the point of them saying it publicly what they are trying to do…but as long as conSERvative judges go along….
Spot on Ramsgate. Short and to the point TM.
But lets not forget an important point that the MSM is only now coming around to Republican voter suppression. Let us not forget that pathetic commercial by MSNBC in which Andrea Mitchell says both parties do things to suppress or make it harder to vote. Clearly not true. Clear BS in the false equivalency thing.
Rachel, Sharpton Chris Hayes and Current have been on top of this for a while. The rest of the MSM are only know opening their eyes to these activities. I think the reason for that is they believe that the Repubs will lose a boat load on on election day and therefore feel safe that the Repub party won’t be on power to yell at them after the election.
In a Democracy, especially in the US where men and women have died for the preservation and right to vote., voting should be as free and accessible as breathing.
Republicans, ever the repugnant hypocrites, applaud (as everyone should any attempt at democracy) Iraqi’s voting by using ink spots on their fingers, but do everything they can to prevent US citizens who may disagree with them from voting.
The Dems are only now raising their head out of the gopher hole to make sure it’s ok to fight back. They want to make sure the Repubs don’t yell at them for doing so.
Judging from what has been going on here in GA, and it being mostly elderly voters who are going to have problems, they just might be slitting their own throats as the GOP voting base is mostly elderly citizens.