A Plea to the Attorney General: Please Make Voting Rights Act Enforcment a Priority

[McCamy Taylor]

From 2001 to 2008, Americans did not have the right to vote or the right to have their vote counted. It started in 2000, in Florida, where then Secretary of State Katherine Harris and then governor Jeb Bush hired a private firm to create a phony felons’ list compiled of African-Americans likely to vote for Al Gore. Had Gore been sworn in anyway, his Department of Justice would have been able to prosecute the state of Florida for violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965. However, this act of voter suppression made the election close enough that the GOP was emboldened. They staged the so called Brooks Brothers Riot, in violation of the Rico Act, to keep Democratic votes from being counted. They persuaded the Supreme Court to step in with Bush v. Gore---a ruling that violated the basic principle that the identity of the parties in a case should not affect the court’s judgment in the case.

I am sure there were some tense moments in the last days of 2000. If their gamble did not work, a whole lot of Republicans faced the prospect of federal prosecution. But Bush stole the election that Al Gore won. And for eight years, his Department of Justice rubber stamped Civil Rights Act violating laws all across the south. Laws like the Georgia “Poll tax” which career DOJ lawyers called illegal---and which the Supreme Court struck down. The Justice Department looked the other way when Ohio GOP Secretary of State Blackwell illegally purged Democratic voters from his state’s rolls and when voting machines were not made available in minority precincts. When GOP strongholds locked out the public and counted their votes in secret, Ashcroft did not say a word. Karl Rove even replaced federal prosecutors with political appointees whose job was to interfere with Democratic get out the vote efforts and prosecute prominent Democrats in order to affect the outcome of elections.

Voter suppression is one of the most cherished political tactics of the modern Republican Party, but I have never seen them go as far as they did during the Bush administration. They knew that they were safe. The only voting rights cases the Bush DOJ were likely to pursue were against Blacks, for so called “reverse discrimination.” If you tell criminals that they can rob banks and jack cars with impunity, they will do so. Tell a bunch of Republicans that they can deprive Americans of their right to vote---

But I don’t have to tell you what the GOP will do in that situation. You saw what happened.

There will be illegal election activity this November. There will be voter suppression. Folks who notice it happening should not do what they did during the Bush administration. Do not sigh and turn away. Turn the bastards in to the federal government.

And Attorney General Holder, please forget “bipartisan politics” for however long it takes to restore the rule of law to this country.

[mod mom]

1. Note how little has been corrected nationally on this issue despite

control of congress & the presidency. It's pathetic that a party wouldn't put having their votes counted as a top priority. I wonder if the elites are afraid to allow a verifiable election.

Here's a flashback to some of the dirty tricks used by the GOP in '04:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/mod%20mom/1

[madrchsod]

2. if we get 50% of the voting age to actually vote it would be a miracle.

[Michigan-Arizona]

3. K & R n/t