Civil & Human Rights

Arizona GOP all-in on ‘states’ rights’ voter suppression

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

AZConfederacyWell isn't this special. Governor Jan Brewer, who supported the U.S. Supreme Court striking down the preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder, nevertheless is still smarting from that same court striking down Arizona's Prop. 200 proof of citizenship requirement to register to vote in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona.

While it is a certainty that Governor Brewer does not support amendments to the Voting Rights Act which would reinvigorate its preclearance provisions, she does support an amendment to federal law to require proof of citizenship to register to vote for all Americans, not just Arizonans. Arizona's GOP voter suppression knows no limits. Brewer
backs Salmon’s voter-ID bill:

Gov. Jan Brewer wants Congress to allow states to require citizenship
documents from all prospective voters before they can cast a ballot.

Brewer sent a letter Wednesday to U.S. Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz.,
expressing support for a bill the Mesa congressman introduced in
response to a recent Supreme Court decision on the issue. The court
ruled Arizona could demand proof of citizenship from would-be voters
only when they register using state registration forms, not federal
ones.

“The responsibility of state and local governments to protect the
integrity of the voting process is essential to maintaining the
democratic process and protecting the freedom and power of every
citizens’ vote,” Brewer wrote. “I commend your efforts to improve federal law so that only United States citizens are voting. … As a
Governor, I particularly appreciate the respect for states’ rights
inherent in this legislation.”

House GOP demonstrates its hostility to the Voting Rights Act

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

You know the game is rigged when the House GOP invites the guy notorious for GOP voter suppression efforts, Hans von Spakovsky, as its chief witness to Thursday's House Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice committee hearing on the Voting Rights Act. See Hans von Spakovsky: A familiar face behind voter suppression, and Hans Von Spakovsky 101: How To Suppress The Vote Like A Pro for a quick background.

Ari Berman at The Nation reports, Rep. John Lewis: 'The Voting Rights Act Is Needed Now Like Never Before':

The House Judiciary Committee just concluded its first hearing
on the VRA, where it was clear that no consensus exists between the
parties on whether to fix the VRA or how to do so. The Republican
congressmen and witnesses maintained that existing parts of the VRA,
notably Sections 2 and 3, were sufficient replacements for Sections 4
and 5 and thus, in the words of Hans von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation: “there’s no reason for Congress to take any action.”

Ornstein: time for a new Voting Rights Act

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Political scientist and high priest of Beltway centrism, Norman Ornstein, has an important opinion in the Washington Post today advocating for A new Voting Rights Act (posted in full):

Imagine an intersection with a long history of high-speed car
crashes, injuries and fatalities. Authorities put up a traffic light and
a speed camera — and the accidents and injuries plummet. A few years
later, authorities declare “mission accomplished” and remove the light
and speed camera. No surprise, the high-speed crashes and fatalities
resume almost immediately.

This is the logic that animated Chief Justice John Roberts’s decision to fillet the Voting Rights Act and that had conservative pundits, including George F. Will, praising the act as they simultaneously exulted in its demise. The predictable result took less than a day: Texas reinstated its racially tilted gerrymandered redistricting plan and moved to implement its highly restrictive voter ID law,
under which voters can be required to travel as far as 250 miles to get
identification. The real intent, voter suppression, is clear in the
legislation’s provision that a concealed-weapon permit can be used to
vote but a valid student photo ID cannot.

North Carolina
has moved to follow with its own restrictive voter ID law. Other states
and localities surely will do the same. With expensive, slow and
complex lawsuits the only real recourse for voter discrimination and
voter suppression actions, the floodgates are open to an array of legal
efforts designed to suppress or diminish the votes of minorities,
students and others.

As Roberts undoubtedly knew, the chances are
slim that our highly polarized Congress can reach agreement on a new
formula for the Voting Rights Act (even if lawmakers did, the Roberts
court may not accept it). But the decision in Shelby County v. Holder
should serve as a springboard to something more ambitious: a drive for a
new Voting Rights Act that would go beyond the scope of the original to
make voting more universal and accessible to all eligible Americans.

The right to vote is sacrosanct – now defend your right to vote

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

2305hb11Petitions for the referendum (citizens veto) to block the Voter Suppression Act, HB 2305, are circulating throughout the state. You can sign the petition at your County Democratic Party offices, and you can also pick up a petition to gather signatures.

For more information here in Pima County please call Shasta McManus, Executive Director of the Pima County Democratic Party, at 520-326-3716 or you can pick up petitions at 4639 E 1st St. in Tucson. In Cochise County please call Pat Fleming, Chair of the Cochise County Democratic Committee, at 520-249-5228. You can also call Barbara Lubin with the Arizona Democratic Party at 602-234-6800 and pick up petitions at 2910 N. Central Ave. in Phoenix.

Below is a letter from Arizona Democratic Party Chair, Bill Roe:

Voter ID on trial in Pennsylvania

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The attempt by Pennsylvania Republicans to use voter ID to suppress Democratic voter turnout in the 2012 election was thwarted by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which enjoined the new voter ID rules for the 2012 election. The case has now proceeded to trial on the merits.

The Huffington Post has a reporter, Saki Knafo, covering the trial. Voter ID Trial Opens In Pennsylvania – Huffington Post:

On the first day of a
voter
ID trial in Pennsylvania on Monday, the liberal-leaning
plaintiffs got a boost from an improbable ally — a voter who called
former Republican presidential candidate John McCain "my man"
and noted she herself had twice been elected to a local office on the
Republican ticket.

Marian Baker was one of two witnesses who offered videotaped
testimony to start
a trial that will determine the constitutionality of
Pennsylvania's voter ID law, a subject of controversy since it was
passed last spring by a Republican legislature and governor. The law,
blocked by the state Supreme Court until the trial reviews its
constitutionality, requires voters to present photo identification at
the polls.

A grandmother of eight who lives in Reading, Pa., Baker testified
that the law caused her to recently miss an election for the first
time since 1960. Under the new law, she said, she would have to get a
special state-approved photo ID at a drivers' license center, where
lines often stretch down the block. (Her driver’s license recently
expired.)

"I'm never going to be able to go there and stand," she
said, alluding to medical complications that have impaired her
ability to get around.