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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsVoter Suppression’s New Pretext
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/16/opinion/voter-suppressions-new-pretext.html?_r=0IRVINE, Calif. ITS the latest fad among state officials looking to make voting harder: Were not racist, were just partisan.
...
Unlike with race-based discrimination, which, if proved, could violate both the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution, the Supreme Court has refused to recognize a standard for policing even nakedly partisan gerrymandering. But now, supporters of strict voter-ID, registration and other voting laws are trying to use the same defense they have used to defend gerrymandering. They can claim ostensibly good reasons for their laws: preventing fraud or saving money. As a fallback, they can claim, like Texas, they are engaged in permissible partisan discrimination, not impermissible race discrimination.
But this is specious. First, it is artificial to separate race and party under current political conditions. When Don Yelton, a Republican official in North Carolina, recently told The Daily Show that if the states strict new voter-ID law hurts a bunch of lazy blacks, then so be it, it was easy to see old-fashioned Southern racism. But just as significant was Mr. Yeltons saying that the new law is going to kick the Democrats in the butt.
Second, courts should alleviate unnecessary burdens on voters whatever the states asserted motive. The Supreme Court has said that, in redistricting, it cannot distinguish between permissible partisan considerations (for example, grouping communities of interest) and unconstitutional gerrymandering. But outside redistricting, partisanship has no place. Our elections should be conducted such that all eligible voters (and only eligible voters) can easily register, and cast a vote that will be accurately counted.
...
Unlike with race-based discrimination, which, if proved, could violate both the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution, the Supreme Court has refused to recognize a standard for policing even nakedly partisan gerrymandering. But now, supporters of strict voter-ID, registration and other voting laws are trying to use the same defense they have used to defend gerrymandering. They can claim ostensibly good reasons for their laws: preventing fraud or saving money. As a fallback, they can claim, like Texas, they are engaged in permissible partisan discrimination, not impermissible race discrimination.
But this is specious. First, it is artificial to separate race and party under current political conditions. When Don Yelton, a Republican official in North Carolina, recently told The Daily Show that if the states strict new voter-ID law hurts a bunch of lazy blacks, then so be it, it was easy to see old-fashioned Southern racism. But just as significant was Mr. Yeltons saying that the new law is going to kick the Democrats in the butt.
Second, courts should alleviate unnecessary burdens on voters whatever the states asserted motive. The Supreme Court has said that, in redistricting, it cannot distinguish between permissible partisan considerations (for example, grouping communities of interest) and unconstitutional gerrymandering. But outside redistricting, partisanship has no place. Our elections should be conducted such that all eligible voters (and only eligible voters) can easily register, and cast a vote that will be accurately counted.
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Voter Suppression’s New Pretext (Original Post)
Scuba
Nov 2013
OP
Laelth
(32,017 posts)1. k&r for exposure. n/t
-Laelth
Mnemosyne
(21,363 posts)2. K&R for more visibility. nt
uponit7771
(90,335 posts)3. The KKKs original purpose was to intimidate blacks in the South From voting Republican.. it worked
...and after the KKK and other voter suppression efforts of that error were enacted conservatives in the democratic party ruled for generations.
I pray we don't make the same mistakes
dembotoz
(16,799 posts)4. k and r
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)5. Why would intent and effect be treated any differently under the law?
If it discriminates on the basis of race, it discriminates on the basis of race. Simple enough.