Civil & Human Rights

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.”

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.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Petitions 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: