The Republican Party Emerges From Decades of Court Supervision

[demmiblue]

After being bound by a consent decree for 35 years, the Republican National Committee is now free to continue its “ballot security” campaign.

Source: The Atlantic

Thirty-five years after it was first imposed, a judge has lifted a consent decree barring the Republican National Committee from pursuing “ballot security” measures.

In their 1981 lawsuit to stop the RNC from engaging in certain practices at the polls, the Democratic National Committee attested that in a New Jersey gubernatorial election, the RNC had sent sample ballots to communities of color, and then had the names for each ballot returned as undeliverable removed from voter rolls. Democrats also alleged that the RNC hired off-duty cops to patrol majority-minority precincts, wearing “National Ballot Security Task Force” armbands. These details were enough to secure a consent decree between the two party organizations and the court in 1982, stopping the GOP from engaging in such voter-intimidation practices.

Except, Democrats alleged, they didn’t stop. The consent decree was updated in 1987 after Republicans created a voter-challenge list of black voters from whom letters had been returned as undeliverable, with an RNC official saying that the list could “keep the black vote down considerably.” The decree was modified again in 1990 after a court ruled the RNC had violated it by not telling state parties about its provisions, which had led to the North Carolina GOP sending 150,000 postcards to potential voters listing voting regulations, in an apparent attempt at intimidation. The GOP violated the court order again in 2004 after yet another voter-challenge list targeted black voters.

With that history of behavior in full view, federal courts moved to allow the decree to expire in December 2017, a decision that was finalized Tuesday by a federal district court. For the first time in three decades, the RNC can pursue ballot-security measures without court preclearance.

Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/the-gop-just-received-another-tool-for-suppressing-votes/550052/?utm_source=atltw

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

1. In California during the mid-90s, Rep. Robert "B-1 Bob" Dornan posted signs around polling stations

which said in Spanish that voters would be required to produce identification (which was and is not a requirement here). He then hired off-duty policemen to hang around the polls, not to do anything but intimidate the Latino voters by their mere presence.

In the end, it was all for naught. Loretta Sanchez went on to win by a margin of less than 1,000 votes. She represented various Congressional Districts in Southern California from 1996 to 2017. She was resoundingly beaten by Kamala Harris when she ran for Senate in 2016.

I just wanted to point out that it's not just the Red states where the Repukes play voter suppression games.

[Scarsdale]

2. Cheating by the

gop, BIGLY. Sad! Seems this is the only way they can win, by cheating. Having a fair contest is not in their DNA.

[CrispyQ]

3. Lie, cheat & steal is the only way they can win. -nt