This is what groups like the ACLU and the NAACP want African-Americans and the rest of the world to believe. Throughout this site I have mentioned that yes, I do believe the possibility of voter diversion (Let’s face it, people will do just about anything to see their candidate win). However, as an African-American, I cannot conclude as do these groups that there is a nationwide conspiracy to trick just black people into not voting.
Fearing that efforts are under way to suppress the black vote in a way that could aid Republicans, a coalition of civil-liberties groups is undertaking a massive effort to educate election officials and prospective voters.
While Bush-Cheney campaign and GOP officials say the concern is baseless, a nonpartisan effort is moving to thwart tactics perceived to benefit Republicans by targeting black voters and other minorities.
The Election Protection Coalition plans to mobilize thousands of trained poll watchers and lawyers on Nov. 2. The coalition of more than 60 groups includes the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, the League of Women Voters, People for the American Way and the National Newspaper Publishers Association.(full article)
Some time ago, I mentioned that the voting problems that we saw in 2000 did not start in 2000. Because the race was so close, it only brought to light what was had already been going on for years: our use of an antiquated voting process. There are districts throughout the United States that have been using the same voting equipment for almost decades and have had their share of problems.
Among those seeking to educate, the ACLU of Tennessee is planning to make available a four-page, pocket-sized “voter-empowerment card,” explaining rights if voters find themselves stopped or challenged. (full article)
Translation: In an effort to help the dimwitted in our society, we are providing “how to” booklets to assist in voting. These people do not have the intelligence to vote by themselves, so we will hold their hands through the process.
This is very insulting, to say the least.
What is very interesting about this whole “voter suppression” thing is that these groups always focus on low-income communities, as though black people in the hood do not have the know-how to understand if they are being tricked. Have these groups ever seen voter suppression within a black middle-class community?
…RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie has proposed to Democratic Party Chairman Terry McAuliffe the creation of bipartisan teams of lawyers, with “embedded” reporters, to watch polls where either side believes problems might occur.
In a July 18 letter, Gillespie pledged that, “if any instance of voter intimidation or voter fraud by Republican supporters is brought to my attention, we will stop it immediately,” adding, “I know you will do the same if similar activities by Democratic supporters are brought to your attention.”(full article)
If Black voter suppression is the nationwide conspiracy that these groups want us to believe, then why is it they have not provided any names of those that are keeping Black folks away from the polls? In all of the literature that I have read on this topic, I have only seen the conclusions point to the Republican Party. It rarely gets any more specific than that.
Here are some excerpts from the report entitled “The Long Shadow of Jim Crow: Voter Intimidation and Suppression in America Today:
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, men with clipboards bearing official-looking insignias
were reportedly dispatched to African American neighborhoods. Tom Lindenfeld, who
ran a counter-intimidation campaign for Democratic candidate John Street, said there
were 300 cars with the decals resembling such federal agencies as the DEA and ATF
and that the men were asking prospective voters for identification. In a post-election
poll of 1000 African-American voters, seven percent said they had encountered such
efforts.
Who were these men? Did anybody get a license tag number?
In Philadelphia, prior to Election Day, campaign workers walked door-to-door in
Latino neighborhoods to convince or coerce voters to cast absentee ballots. According
to the Justice Department, the workers were “allegedly misleading the voters about the
documents they were signing, or steering or intimidating the voters into voting for the
Democratic candidate.†Voters reported that they were misled about the state’s
absentee voting laws and told they could vote at home as a “new way of voting.â€Â
Who were the people assigned to that neighborhood? Did anybody ask?
Question: If someone perpetrated a crime against you, or someone you cared about, wouldn’t you do all you could to get the identity of the criminal? Then why it that these highly financed groups seemingly are incapable to find out who exactly performed these crimes against minority voters? How can we conclude that Republicans were behind it? Did they identify themselves as Republicans?
African-Americans are way too intelligent to continue to fall for these ghost stories designed to scare us into voting a certain way.
Ghost stories belong in a book…
