Voter Suppression Efforts Anger Minority Voters

The corrupt and unpatriotic efforts by Republicans across the country to stifle the vote of people of color through various voter suppression tactics is fueling anger among the communities they're targeting. In Texas, where a nervous and crooked Republican Governor Greg Abbott sees a purple tinge to his state coming, he has ordered ballot drop boxes be limited to one per county, meaning a Dem-dominated county like Harris Co. (Houston) has one drop box for its 2.4 million registered voters. Not surprisingly, Abbott's move was backed despicably by Texas' Republican-dominated state Supreme Court.

Black voters have noticed the attempt to disenfranchise them and, according to a report from Reuters, are angry and going to the polls in record numbers. Looking at Waco, Texas, in particular, black voters are responding:

"In the historically black neighborhoods of Waco, Texas, the usual get-out-the-vote activities in this presidential election year were upended by the pandemic. [snip]

Still, longtime political organizers in the African-American community in this central Texas city said their efforts have gotten a boost from President Donald Trump. He and other Republicans have called for poll monitoring and sought restrictions on mail balloting in Texas and elsewhere this year to prevent alleged voter fraud. Black voters, say residents and activists, have interpreted those actions as an attempt to disenfranchise them. Their response has been to turn out in record numbers in early voting in parts of Waco.

'Based on what I’ve seen, it pisses Black voters off,' said Linda Lewis, director of political engagement for the local chapter of the NAACP, the country’s largest civil rights organization. At that former campus in the East Waco neighborhood, 7,571 people had cast ballots in the first two weeks of early voting - more than the 5,155 who showed up in all of 2016, voting records show."  (our emphasis)

Still, there is a segment of the community that doesn't fully grasp the danger posed to them by racist demagogue and con man Donald "Very Fine People" Trump, who has refused to repudiate the support of groups like the Proud Boys and extremist white supremacy militias (and that's with a black woman on the Dem ticket). Specifically, some African-American males are unbelievably aligning with white supremacist Trump either out of regard for his toxic, fake masculinity, or some belief contrary to reality that he's going to create economic prosperity for them. Whether the unprecedented turn out by the majority of African-Americans will be enough to overwhelm the clueless Trumpers among them will decide the election in some close states.