Saturday, September 13, 2014

Voter Suppression, Peach State Style



Attempts by Republican officials to suppress voters that will likely vote Democratic have been rampant in recent years.  The basic idea is that the Rethugs are losing voters with each election, as the populace becomes more diverse, younger, and better educated.  So their solution is:  instead of letting the voters select us, let's select them.  It can be onerous voter ID requirements that target minorities and the young, restrictions on early voting and voting hours that discriminates against working women, and other tricks.

In Georgia, Rethuglican Secretary of State Brian "Democracy? F-ck It!" Kemp has decided that vigorous voter registration among minority groups can't be tolerated, so he's launched a bogus "voter fraud" investigation looking at the registration forms for typos, blanks, etc.  Here's what he had to say to a group of KKK fellow Rethuglicans this past July:
"...Democrats are working hard, and all these stories about them, you know, registering all these minority voters that are out there and others that are sitting on the sidelines, if they can do that, they can win these elections in November." (emphasis added)
 Exactly.  That's why it's so important to register as many of the estimated 700,000 African-American voters in Georgia, as civic groups are doing now.  If just half of that number gets registered and turn out to vote, Mr. Kemp and his ilk can pack their bags.

(hat tip for the story to blog fave P.E.C.)