Not since the days of widespread suppression of black voters in the South has Jim Crow seen such popularity and regular employment within a political party.
Only this time it’s the Republican Party suppressing votes.
Only this time it’s in every state they can get away with it.
And this time it’s not just blacks whose votes are suppressed, but educated whites, young people and, of course, any minorities unlikely to vote for Republicans.
In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott became the poster child for the GOP’s National Voter Suppression Movement. Abbott’s executive order to limit ballot drop-off boxes to only one per country flies in the face of logic, geographic reality, the needs of Texans and political fairness.
In Harris County, Texas, a county with almost 4.5 million citizens in an area of 1,777 square miles, which is larger than the entire state of Rhode Island, Abbott ordered the county’s usual 11 drop-off boxes be reduced to one.
In a recent North Carolina election, GOP Congressional candidate Mark Harris was caught using a political consultant, a known GOP vote-rigger, to collect and fraudulently alter mail-in ballots.
In California, just two days ago, Secretary of State Alex Padilla issued a cease and desist order to the state’s GOP Party for placing fraudulent ballot drop-off boxes in three counties. The fake drop-off boxes were all labeled “OFFICIAL.”
That’s just the most obvious tip of the iceberg. For years, in election after election, Republicans have used their positions of power to make voting near impossible in non-Republican districts. In 2016, Arizonans had to wait 3-5 hours in line to vote, many to only discover their voter registrations had been misfiled, lost or mysteriously non-existent.
In Florida, thousands of felons have been wiped off the voter rolls, ostensibly because they owed some nuisance fine or fee.
The examples run on and on, like a sad litany of woes that shout “Lie!” to any claim America makes to being a democracy.
A reasonable person might ask, what price Republicans pay for disenfranchising Americans as part of their national strategy?
Yes, what is the punishment for trying to reduce the voter rolls or, failing that, to exhaust voters’ patience and desire to vote with insufficient poll locations, faulty equipment, poorly trained poll workers, and hacked voter registration rolls?
Nothing.
Just think, if a runner wins a race by tripping his or her opponent, would they ever be declared the winner? If the owner of a racehorse crippled the favorite in a race, would he or his his horse ever walk in the winner’s circle?
Only in American politics can such unfair, illogical and, yes, un-American behavior result in the candidate who should be disqualified end up winning all the spoils.
It’s time we sent Jim Crow out to pasture for good.
And time that any politician—Republican or Democrat—who cheats the system or disenfranchises the other guy’s supporters be sent to a place where he’ll get a free orange suit for his troubles.
Even if that means no Republicans are left free to run for office.
