Un-American: Voting Rights

Most Americans think our basic right to vote is sacrosanct. Most Americans are wrong.

If you are a minority, you already know this, but Republicans have been driving hard to remove voting rights for minorities. Remember, voting rights were not protected in this country for minorities until 1963 with the passage of the Voting Rights Act. This outlawed a number of different ways the many southern states (and a few counties outside) stopped minorities, especially African-Americans, from voting.

And it worked. 

Then, in 2013, the Supreme Court said since the Voting Rights Act worked, it could be removed. And, since then, Republicans - who depend on an older white majority, have attacked the voting rights of minorities.  ALL of these changes below have been since 2013!

When these things happen in other countries, we call it what it is, electoral interference. Here it is just a good old legal Republican Power Grab.

These are in the order I find most repellant.

 Above: Strict Voter ID Laws.

This are horrible because they seem innocuous, but the are not.
- Approximately 10% of Americans do not have a government issued photo ID
- 25% of African Americans do not have a government issued photo ID

Who wouldn't have a driver's license? Older people, rural dwellers. They law is "intended" to stop undocumented people voting, but the number of undocumented people voting is less than 50.  FIFTY out of 300,000,000 people. A solution looking for a problem.

You Cannot Vote

Over 800,000 voters have been purged from voter roles. You can be purged from a voter role, supposedly, by not voting (depending on state by a time of 2 to 6 years).
- In Texas over 16% of purged voters were incorrectly flagged as illegal aliens. They were not, but still couldn't vote and would have the authorities call on them as being illegal.
- In Wisconsin the League of Women Voters found massive disparities of people who "hadn't voted in 3 elections".
- In Georgia, in the election were Stacy Abrams,  a black woman, ran for governor and lost by 50,000 votes, Georgia purged 300,000 (mainly African Americas) from the voting roles. They purged people with names that "sounded" black - and didn't tell them. So when they went to vote, they weren't on the rolls.

You Can Vote, If You Can Find It

The states above all closed multiple voting locations. South Dakota (which closed stations on Native American Reservations) is not included.

Where Is This Happening?

It is easy to question my conclusions (not the data, it's on the net), saying I might be a Democrat out to slander Republicans. I don't need to, they slandered themselves.

These are the states that are run by Republicans or were when the laws were passed. Republicans don't want everyone to vote, because they are afraid that if minorities vote they will lose. This is relatively new. Under Presidents Reagan and both Bushes, they tried to expand their electorate (and did a reasonable job with Latinx voters). But since 2013, and President Obama, they have gone crazy out of their way to disenfranchise voters of color.