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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMembers of Congress Call for End to Mass Voter Suppression and Insecure Elections
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35846-members-of-congress-call-for-end-to-mass-voter-suppression-and-insecure-electionsCongressional briefings are typically dull affairs, usually with only a few dozen participants, but it was standing room only in a House Judiciary Committee hearing room on April 21, when nine members of Congress, their staff and 200 activists gathered to address the present crisis in US democracy: voter suppression and the manipulation of US elections.
In 2016 - the first presidential election since the US Supreme Court's gutting of the Voting Rights Act - a slew of new malicious laws and tactics are disenfranchising millions of Americans, even as the private control of US vote-counting technology has come under renewed scrutiny in a primary season marked by allegations of fraud and election rigging.
This high-stakes, emotionally charged election cycle has seen widespread closure of polling locations, unprecedented voter roll purges, voting machine failures and extreme waiting lines that cause countless voters to turn away without having cast a ballot. Many have been given "provisional" ballots that are simply not counted. Irregularities in Arizona, North Carolina, Wisconsin and New York have engendered intraparty accusations and lawsuits, exposing a dysfunctional and often undemocratic election process.
The nine members of Congress who spoke, all from predominantly minority districts, loudly condemned the "new Jim Crow" laws that have been forced on over half the states in the US, and which the lawmakers believe were designed to deliberately suppress voters in their districts, particularly people of color, the poor, the elderly and students.
In 2016 - the first presidential election since the US Supreme Court's gutting of the Voting Rights Act - a slew of new malicious laws and tactics are disenfranchising millions of Americans, even as the private control of US vote-counting technology has come under renewed scrutiny in a primary season marked by allegations of fraud and election rigging.
This high-stakes, emotionally charged election cycle has seen widespread closure of polling locations, unprecedented voter roll purges, voting machine failures and extreme waiting lines that cause countless voters to turn away without having cast a ballot. Many have been given "provisional" ballots that are simply not counted. Irregularities in Arizona, North Carolina, Wisconsin and New York have engendered intraparty accusations and lawsuits, exposing a dysfunctional and often undemocratic election process.
The nine members of Congress who spoke, all from predominantly minority districts, loudly condemned the "new Jim Crow" laws that have been forced on over half the states in the US, and which the lawmakers believe were designed to deliberately suppress voters in their districts, particularly people of color, the poor, the elderly and students.
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Members of Congress Call for End to Mass Voter Suppression and Insecure Elections (Original Post)
KamaAina
Apr 2016
OP
Sadly, I remember Obama vowing to do something about voter suppression after the 2012 Election...
TrollBuster9090
Apr 2016
#4
bkkyosemite
(5,792 posts)1. I find the timely ridiculous.
monmouth4
(9,708 posts)2. You don't think this is a serious problem? n/t
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)3. Massive Elction Fraud! Massive! Who does this benefit most?
TrollBuster9090
(5,954 posts)4. Sadly, I remember Obama vowing to do something about voter suppression after the 2012 Election...
...and here it is 2016, and everything is either exactly the same or worse.
zentrum
(9,865 posts)5. I think it's worse.
Jim Crow is slightly disguised, but alive and well.
LisaM
(27,813 posts)6. Eric Holder tried valiantly on this, but it was like fighting a moving target.
http://www.thenation.com/article/eric-holders-voting-rights-legacy/
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court made the decision that ended the Voting Rights Act. There wasn't much Obama could do, unfortunately.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court made the decision that ended the Voting Rights Act. There wasn't much Obama could do, unfortunately.
wiggs
(7,814 posts)7. I remember John Conyers holding hearings, submitting petitions, and
giving speeches about the importance of election integrity...during W's reign. And those were working to bring attention to a CRITICAL issue. But when the dems had congress, nothing happened. No reform. No follow up. No progress. So here we are again.