These new regulations, and the not-so-well hidden motives behind them, are strongly reminiscent of the Jim Crow laws of old, which we all know were set in place to disenfranchise Black Americans. Just as America was patting itself on the back for electing its first minority president, we appear to have progressed very little from the days of Grandfather Clauses and absurd literacy tests. Its a sad realization.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Psst...Jim Crow...
Wisconsin, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Alabama are only a few of the states which set new voting regulations in place this year. These laws do things such as require photo ID to vote, change requirements for proof of citizenship, change regulations on voting drives and limit early and absentee voting options. The states in which these laws were passed all have legislatures which are newly controlled by the GOP. While the writers of these bills claim they are to cut down on voter fraud, the Democrats have other suspicions. Because these laws tend to affect minorities such as the elderly, disabled, and the younger voting demographic more harshly, and because these minorities tend to be largely Democratic, the new voting laws appear to be a concerted effort by the Republicans to get the upper hand in the upcoming elections.
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3 comments:
Personally, I think that this post might be slightly biased towards the left and I think of myself as a Democrat. In the recent years, voting fraud has been a huge problem. I cannot seem to recall my source,but there have been instances where dead persons names have appeared on current voting ballots. And I believe this might be one of the articles or the article you drew from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/27/us/politics/27fraud.html.
Similarly, in India, a census is taking place that aims to register everyone in order to prevent stealing from people and people taking social security (or the Indian version) unnecessarily. It is not a perfect parallel, but it does show that with larger populations today, more forms of identification are/ may be necessary to prevent fraud. http://www.economist.com/node/18233732
-SWienbar
I fail to see enough evidence that would suggest that these new voting regulations are specifically targeting Democratic voters. Perhaps the article itself has more proof? However, currently you stated that the new laws target "the elderly, disabled, and the younger voting demographic". Is that to say that there are no elderly, disabled, and young Republican voters in these states? It seems unfair to criticize the GOP without having substantial evidence. These regulations could very well be applied in democratic states and have the same effect there. I don't think that this set of new voting laws screams Jim Crow as much as you'd like it to, but then again maybe a link to the article could shed more light on the subject? For now though, I'm not convinced that these anti-fraud laws are fraudulent :0
These laws claim that they will limit voter fraud, and I have no doubt that they certainly will. However, is voter fraud such an issue that politicians will disenfranchise thousands of people? While inexcusable, there has been a singular lack of fraud cases (diametrically opposed to the media frenzy warning us of voters fraud). Yes, there have been occasional, valid cases of individuals seeking to defraud the US's election system. However, individual voter fraud is a wholly risky and inefficient way to achieve such means, as defrauding a federal election could land the perpetrator in prison for five years confronted with a fine of up to $10,000. All of that for a vote? (http://www.truthaboutfraud.org/pdf/TruthAboutVoterFraud.pdf)
Please refer to http://www.truthaboutfraud.org/image/matson041607.jpg for an accurate, graphical summation of my argument above (i.e. a political cartoon)
Ultimately, while the photo ID requirements might seem a good idea to those afraid of fraud, their negative implications far outweigh the positive. Nevertheless, such requirements are a far cry away from the disenfranchising Jim Crow laws of America's racist past.
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