Voters Were Blocked From the Polls on Super Tuesday by New Voting Restrictions

[octoberlib]

 The 2016 election is the first in 50 years without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act.
By Ari Berman



 On Super Tuesday, voters went to the polls in Waller County, Texas, where 28-year-old Sandra Bland controversially died in police custody last year. It has been described as “the most racist county in the state of Texas,” with the highest number of lynchings between 1877 and 1950. In 2004, the district attorney tried to prevent college students at the historically black Prairie View A&M University from voting where they attended school.


Waller County resident Imani Clark, a student at Prairie View A&M, was blocked from casting a ballot by Texas’ strict voter ID law. She does not have a driver’s license or own a car and does not possess one of the seven forms of government-issued identification required to vote in the state. She could vote with a handgun permit in Texas, but not her student ID.

The 2016 election is the first in fifty years without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. Texas is a perfect case study of what has happened since the Supreme Court gutted the VRA. Clark is a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging Texas’s voter ID law, which has been struck down on three different occasions under the VRA but remains in effect while the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decides what to do with the case. Clark keeps winning and still cannot vote. (More than 600,000 registered voters in Texas lack a voter ID but the state has issued just 653 of them over the past three years.)

 Texas ran out of ballots at polling locations. State election websites were down in the morning in Alabama and Texas. Voters were not notified that polling places were moved in Georgia. The Election Protection hotline received over 2,000 calls, the majority from Texas and Georgia, two states that previously had to approve their voting changes with the federal government under the VRA.This could be a disturbing preview of what’s to come in the general election, when 16 states will have new voting restrictions in place since 2012 and Republicans are more likely to target Democratic-leaning constituencies.

http://www.thenation.com/article/voters-were-blocked-from-the-polls-on-super-tuesday-by-new-voting-restrictions/

[msongs]

2. yes hillary personal went to every precinct and barred the door. to keep her own voters out nt

[truedelphi]

4. Party leadership has been informed by activists that this was on the table.

They never responded very positively or actively to the message.

I finally quit as a voting activist. If knowing what is going on is not ever something I can tell to the party leaders, and receive a pro-active response, than what is the point?

[octoberlib]

9. I agree with you. This is troubling. Do they want to win or not?

[truedelphi]

10. There was an excellent Op over at DailyKos some time back regarding how

We of the electorate think that the Party Leaders want us to win, but they do not necessarily want to win.

They get lots and lots of stuff even if they concede or outright lose.

Here in Calif., Senator Di Feinstein basically set out to ensure that Ahnold Schwrtzenegger won the governorship. Yet we "little people" were derided if we complained about her pick for that election cycle. And her pick,a Mr Bustamente, was a pick she made for whatever it was that she got for seeing to it that Ahnold was a shoe-in!! (In the Primary that year, Steve Westley won - but Di Fi came out with all sorts of reasons why we could not have him as our candidate. Including that it "was not his turn" !! )

[octoberlib]

11. This is frustrating. No wonder people feel powerless.

[LannyDeVaney]

5. Your post makes zero sense. Zero.

[link:|

[peacebird]

8. Bill Clinton disrupted the vote in Mass. He disenfranchised voters in multiple precincts

He and his bullhorn and his security detail blocked voters from reaching their pools.
Inside polls he asked voters to "pull the lever for Hillary"

ALL ILLEGAL

Hillary should lose her votes and her delegates from Mass.

[octoberlib]

6. The gutting of the VRA has nothing to do with Hillary Clinton.

This will effect any Democrat running for office.

[unblock]

7. seriously? these are republican anti-democratic and anti-minority and anti-poor restrictions

how exactly does clinton benefit over sanders from this, never mind how would clinton benefit over drumpf in the general if she wins the nomination?

[truedelphi]

3. Democratic Leadership has been informed by activists about this sort of thing,

At least since November 2004.

They don't care. They do so many illegal things, they would rather keep a lid on it... What did which Party Leaders in Calif get in return for not bothering to count one million votes back in a recent initiative, when the Gm food labeling initiative was on the ballot?? Monsanto and other Big Gm food people have loads of cash - which Dem leaders got what as payback for that "oversight" ??

[littlebit]

12. In the state of TX

if you do not have a gov issued ID and can not afford to get one you can get a certified voter permit free of charge from the DPS.

[ananda]

14. But it has to be a picture ID and it costs money.

This is essentially a hidden poll tax.

Not only that, but who knows what kinds of documentation
you already have to have just to get the DPS permit.

[littlebit]

16. The permit is a

picture ID used specifically for voting. All you need is a birth certificate and a utility bill proving that you live where you say you do. The ID is free.

[Jenny_92808]

13. When Bernie Sanders becomes President,

I would like to see him do an execute order making ALL federal primaries/general voting (as a default) to be vote-by-mail. Where all registered voters would receive a, postage paid, ballot in the mail. And maybe an option for in-person voting for those who like to participate that way.

I live in WA state and am spoiled....we have vote-by-mail as the default. I don't have to request a ballot...it just automatically comes in the mail

[SickOfTheOnePct]

18. Nice idea but impossible

A President can't blatantly override the Constitution by executive order.

[Lizzie Poppet]

15. And in some cases, by Bill Clinton. (nm)

[Dont call me Shirley]

17. And where is the Democratic leadership on this voter suppression issue?! Crickets!