Unless you are a rich and a member of the GOP, Republicans don’t want you to vote. Naturally, most Republicans assert that laws making it harder to vote really aren’t about making it harder to vote, but about protecting your vote. Occasionally, a Republican lawmaker, party official or commentator comes right out and admits it.
Take Chris Christie, for example. Christie has made his support for vote suppression known on several occasions. Last week, Christie told the Chamber of Commerce Republicans need to win this election cycle so they can “control the voting mechanisms” .
Christie went on to list several Republican governors who “controlled the voting mechanisms” with vote suppression laws.
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Would you rather have Rick Scott in Florida overseeing the voting mechanism, or Charlie Crist? Would you rather have Scott Walker in Wisconsin overseeing the voting mechanism, or would you rather have Mary Burke? Who would you rather have in Ohio, John Kasich or Ed FitzGerald?
Just a refresher. Rick Scott’s illegal purge the vote program disenfranchised so many eligible voters that election officials refused to help Scott control the voting mechanisms. Scott Walker’s methods include asking the Supreme Court to please let him change the rules after ballots have gone out. While three Supreme Court Justices were willing to accommodate Walker, the majority did not. Kasich’s method of controlling the voting mechanism involved limiting early voting hours in Democratic counties while expanding them and allowing weekend voting in Republican counties.
Christie also complained about same day registration in Illinois, calling it a “trick” that would create major “obstacles” for Republican gubernatorial candidates.
In a 2013 column for World Net Daily, Phyllis Schlafly made a similar claim about early voting in her defense of the North Carolina Republican method of “controlling the voting mechanisms”
The reduction in the number of days allowed for early voting is particularly important because early voting plays a major role in Obama’s ground game. The Democrats carried most states that allow many days of early voting, and Obama’s national field director admitted, shortly before last year’s election, that “early voting is giving us a solid lead in the battleground states that will decide this election.
Yes, Republicans believe that encouraging people to register and to vote early are sneaky under handed tricks. Of course, sending thousands of North Carolinians and a cat incorrect voter registration information is something that’s done in honest elections.
Republicans get very upset when people accuse them of racism and vote suppression. Then people like Georgia State Senator Fran Miller write an editorial to convey their displeasure with efforts to make voting convenient for black people.
Now we are to have Sunday voting at South DeKalb Mall just prior to the election. Per Jim Galloway of the AJC, this location is dominated by African American shoppers and it is near several large African American mega churches such as New Birth Missionary Baptist. Galloway also points out the Democratic Party thinks this is a wonderful idea – what a surprise. I’m sure Michelle Nunn and Jason Carter are delighted with this blatantly partisan move in DeKalb.
To be sure, Miller isn’t the only Republican who has an aversion to black people voting. There’s Chris McDaniel, who blamed black people and their “illegitimate votes” for his failed attempt to Tea Party challenge Thad Cochrane. Of course, McDaniel’s idea of a “legitimate” campaign tactic is breaking into a nursing home to take pictures of Cochrane’s ailing wife but hey, he had to do something when those Democrats do something underhanded like encouraging black people to vote.
Perhaps the most blatant admission came from Ohio GOP Chair, Doug Preis in 2012.
I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine.
Of course, if Christie likes the way Ohio controls the voting mechanism, you can be sure he applauded Fox’s effort to keep young women from going to the polls. According Fox News host, Kimberly Guilfoyle, young women are too busy with Tinder to “get” voting and likewise for jury duty.
Other Republicans favor “controlling the voting mechanism” so that voting is limited to property owners. Judson Phillips, then Tea Party Nation president, said this was a great idea back in 2010.
Rep. Ted Yoho [R-Fl] concurred with Phillips views earlier this year.
I’ve had some radical ideas about voting and it’s probably not a good time to tell them, but you used to have to be a property owner to vote.
The Republican Party’s war on the vote has nothing to do with protecting your vote, or keeping elections honest. It has a lot to do with the fact that they can’t win popular elections. It’s also about an ideology that asserts only propertied white men have the intellectual capacity to “get” voting.
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Former contributor.
