The extent of blatantly racist voter suppression is starting to become clear as courageous news organizations uncover the details. In one recent case, billboards like this started popping up around Cleveland:
People who are not racially sensitive may think that this a benign billboard, promoting honest elections. But those in the racial grievance business know that this is nothing but ugly racism. Civil rights activists were immediately indignant :
Cleveland Councilwoman Phyllis Cleveland said,
“When you have the words ‘felony,’ ‘voter,’ and ‘fine’ all in the same message, and by placing it where it is, the only message that you are intending to send is that this is a threat to you if you vote,” “It’s just a blatant attempt to keep people in this community, particularly black people and poor people, from voting.”
You can watch Ms. Cleveland’s comments here:
Connie Schultz
Connie Schultz is the wife of Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown. Here are clips of what she wrote about the billboards:
Signs of trouble are rising like the ghosts of Jim Crow in the heart of Cleveland’s African-American community.
The billboards’ written message: VOTER FRAUD IS A FELONY — UP to 3 1/2 YRS and $10,000 FINE.
The billboards’ unwritten message: We will do anything to keep you from voting.
The plan, of course, is to intimidate an entire community of innocent Americans accustomed to withering suspicions steeped in race.
Voter fraud is a myth.
Redemption may be the law, but it does not reside in the hearts of those who will go to extraordinary lengths to keep certain people down and out.
I am ever mindful of Michael Green, an African-American man in Cleveland who was falsely incarcerated for 13 years for a rape he didn’t commit. After I wrote a series about Green’s ordeal in 2002, he extracted one promise from me, kept to this day. Whenever I speak to classrooms with young black men, I share Green’s warning: Never run when a police officer shows up. No matter how innocent you are, stop in your tracks and put your hands in the air. [Huh?]
MSNBC raced to the scene. Sharpton and Ed Schultz were outraged. Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner told Schultz that when she saw the sign, ”tears welled up in my eyes at the sight of that. The fact that African-Americans have had to fight so hard to get the right to vote, and then you have groups who are putting billboards up like that.”
The billboards were taken down, but that story is just scratching the surface of this problem. There are people in favor of legal voting all over this country. I’m talking about nefarious organization like True The Vote which says its goal is to stop voter fraud so that we have honest and fair elections. They are trying to get dead people and fraudulent registrations removed from the voter rolls. I know, it’s pretty disgusting stuff, but there is hope that they can be stopped.
True the Vote is currently under an investigation prompted by Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD). Congressman Cummings says “If these efforts are intentional, politically motivated, and widespread across multiple states, they could amount to a criminal conspiracy to deny legitimate voters their constitutional rights.”
Another group fighting this voter suppression is The Georgia Coalition of the People’s Agenda. Helen Butler, the Executive Director, says, “They’re trying to stop certain people from voting – communities of color, poor white people as well.” This organization is led by Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, who gave the benediction at President Obama’s inauguration. Who can forget that poignant prayer when Lowery hoped for the day when a black man would have a chance in this country. He prayed, ‘Lord, …we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, … when white will embrace what is right.” Say Amen!
Still working in the fight against racism , Lowery was speaking at a get out the vote event last week in Georgia when he said, “all white people are going to hell“. Lowery went on to say, “I don’t know what kind of a nig___ wouldn’t vote with a black man running.”
Racism in this country will not end until we have more people like Joseph Lowery. At least he is working to instill anger in the next generation so we can continue the battle.
The Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, CNN and others are running stories about racist Republicans and voter suppression. We see headlines like, The Last Refuge of Scoundrels — Republicans and Voter Suppression” ,and ”GOP’s Push to Suppress Vote Threatens Democracy”. If Obama loses the election, this will be a big story for a long time. We all know that racism is the only reason he could lose.
Don’t be fooled into believing that voter fraud is a problem. You may hear, for example, that ACORN was in the business of creating voter fraud all around the country. Or you may hear that in many cases when registration lists are carefully checked large numbers of fraudulent names are found. Connie Schultz told us that voter fraud is a myth. The whole issue is just created by racist Republicans so that their so-called efforts for fair elections can somehow keep black people from voting.
James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas sent investigative reporters to the polls during the New Hampshire presidential primary on January 10. The goal was to show how easy it was for someone to obtain a ballot using the name of a deceased person. They attempted this at more than a dozen polling places, and were successful in obtaining ballots in all cases except one. That was one where an alert poll worker personally knew the deceased person. This must have just been a fluke, like when O’Keefe successfully voted as Attorney General Holder:
Our Attorney General is, in fact, very concerned about voter fraud. He strongly believes that asking for ID for this most important act of voting is simple racism. He says it is like a Poll Tax. Asking for ID’s is good for things like checking out library books, but certainly not for voting.
Holder knows intimidation when he sees it. For example, when Holder saw that some Black Panthers were being harassed for standing at the doorway of a polling place and simply waving billy clubs and yelling threats at white voters, he knew that this was not voter intimidation. Not at all. He intervened to make sure these scurrilous charges were dropped against the fine, Panther voting assistants.
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In an unrelated story, once again this year, thousands of ballots won’t reach military people in time for their votes to count.