Though this has already happened for over 100 years now and isn't unusual, Republican election officials are lying to especially minorities that they know might vote democratic. In this way Democratic voting rights are being suppressed right now. The comment that Trump is yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater is a good way to put this. The result we all know is many get trampled to death or worse. We are seeing white racism against minorities help create a Trump dictatorship under Putin here in the U.S. already. This is already happening in Early voting through absentee ballots across the U.S.
begin quote from:
America Is Already in the Midst of a Voter Suppression Crisis
| Slate Magazine | - |
Voter
suppression doesn't only happen on Election Day. America is already in
the midst of a voter suppression crisis. Voters attempting to cast an
early ballot are being thwarted and lied to by Republican officials—a
problem that will likely escalate ...
America Is Already in the Midst of a Voter Suppression Crisis
We didn’t even need to wait for Election Day.
Screenshot via WNCT
Voter suppression doesn’t only
happen on Election Day. America is already in the midst of a voter
suppression crisis. Voters attempting to cast an early ballot are being
thwarted and lied to by Republican officials—a problem that will likely
escalate into chaos on election day. This crisis is not unexpected;
indeed, it’s been carefully planned by Republican politicians since the turn of this century.
In recent months, federal courts have attempted to restore voting
rights in states where Republicans restricted or revoked them. But early
voting has already proved that these efforts cannot turn around years
of careful strategizing and disenfranchisement. The only remaining
question is how many qualified voters will have their ballots refused or
nullified under illegal Republican regulations.
Mark Joseph Stern
In North Carolina, Grace Bell Hardison, a 100-year-old black woman, felt the sting of voter suppression.
Hardison’s voter registration was challenged in a scheme designed to
disenfranchise Democrats in Beaufort County. The county was once
required to submit all voting changes to the federal government due to
its history of discrimination against minority voting, but the Supreme
Court revoked this requirement in 2013. Since then, four individuals, led by Republican Shane Hubers,
have attempted to purge 139 voters (most of them black Democrats) from
the rolls in Beaufort County by challenging their registration. Voters
whose registration is challenged are informed via mail and must appear
at a county board of elections or return a notarized form. Otherwise
their voting rights are nullified.
In Wisconsin, Zack Moore, a 34-year-old black man, faced voter suppression head on. (The linked piece, like the above piece about Grace Bell Hardison, is by Ari Berman of the Nation, who’s been doing remarkable work reporting on voter suppression.) As required under Wisconsin’s stringent new voter ID law,
Moore went to the Division of Motor Vehicles to obtain a photo ID to
vote, presenting a photo ID from his previous state of residency, a
Social Security card, and a pay stub addressed to his home in Wisconsin.
It wasn’t enough: The DMV demanded his birth certificate. When he told
them it was lost, DMV officials told him to drive to Illinois and obtain
a new one. As an alternative, Moore entered the ID Petition
Process—which would not provide him an ID before Election Day.
Eventually, a federal judge had to intervene to ensure that Moore could acquire the necessary ID. At least 2,200 other Wisconsinites are still waiting on the IDPP to provide them an ID. Countless other Wisconsin voters have already been denied the requisite ID because they lack a birth certificate.
In Texas, Molly E. Neck saw voter suppression in action.
When Neck went to vote in San Antonio, she saw a sign declaring that
all voters must present a valid ID before casting a ballot. That was
simply false: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit struck down that requirement in August, allowing voters with no ID to sign an affidavit attesting to their identity instead. Texas officials have already been caught
violating this ruling by misleading voters about ID requirements in
official voting materials, leading a judge to place the state under
court supervision. But individual counties continue to falsely inform
voters that an ID is necessary to vote. A federal judge ordered Neck’s county
to comply with the order and remove the false signs. But there are 254
counties in Texas. Judges and voting rights advocates will not win this
game of whack-a-mole; it is inevitable that some voters will continue to
be lied to by election officials.
In Indiana, police raided a black voter registration drive on the flimsiest of pretexts and indefinitely halted its operations, blocking as many as 45,000 votes. In Georgia, Republican officials refused to process
as many as 100,000 voter registration applications and moved a
predominantly black county’s polling precinct from a gym to a sheriff’s
office. In Ohio, a federal judge blocked the state’s efforts to purge 2 million people from the rolls—but officials are now refusing to reinstate many of the purged voters.
Of course, it’s not just states and counties unlawfully planning to
disenfranchise voters. Political operatives and Donald Trump are currently colluding to intimidate minority voters; the Trump campaign has explicitly boasted of its “major voter suppression” efforts to drive minorities away from the polls. Trump has urged his supporters to become “election observers” at minority-heavy polling places, and they’ve taken the hint: In Ohio, one man explained his plans to engage in “racial profiling” and stop “people who can’t speak American” from casting a ballot.
Democrats have filed a lawsuit
to stop this illegal voter intimidation. But even should the lawsuit
succeed, why would we expect anyone to obey the ruling? Republican
officials have already proved that officials can violate clear court
orders with near-total impunity. They can ignore rulings they dislike
and suppress minority votes with ease. They can mislead voters, purge
them from the rolls, nullify their ballots, and deprive them of IDs.
That is a crisis and an outrage. It is also the simple reality of the
2016 election.
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