Posted on 07/12/2011 5:47:05 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
When a voter ID bill passed in Rhode Island last week, longtime opponents were stunned. How could this happen in one of the country’s most Democratic and liberal states? Why did Democratic leaders and black legislators support it? And why did Governor Chafee sign it?
Some say black politicians were trying to protect themselves from Hispanics’ growing political power — two longtime black legislators were defeated by Hispanics in the 2010 elections. Some cite illegal immigration as a driving force. Some say voter ID is simply essential.
Whatever the reason, [ideologues] are still seething a week later. That includes many within the minority community, who chide Chafee for saying he was compelled by concerns from the “minority community” about voter fraud.
“Many organizations are deeply troubled by the governor’s erroneous comments that the legislation had the support of the minority community. In fact, there is not one organization from the minority community that supported this bill,” said Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union.
“Rather, groups like the NAACP and the R.I. Commission for Human Rights were among the strongest opponents of the legislation. In addition, groups that represent other vulnerable minority populations — such as the homeless, the poor and people with disabilities — also uniformly objected to the legislation and its potential impact on the right to vote.”
Brown said organizations are circulating a letter “expressing their concern about the governor’s stated justification for signing the bill.”
This year, voter-ID legislation was backed by a coalition of Democrats and Republicans, including two prominent black lawmakers: House Speaker Gordon D. Fox and Sen. Harold M. Metts. Sen. Juan M. Pichardo, the first Latino elected to a Rhode Island Senate seat and the first Dominican-American elected to a state senate seat in the country, also supported it. Fox, Metts and Pichardo are Providence Democrats.
Chafee signed the bill into law on July 2, despite opposition from minority and civil-rights groups. Rhode Island Tea Party members celebrated. The signing also heartened members of Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement, whose executive director, Terry Gorman, says he believes illegal immigrants have voted in Rhode Island, and “this will make them give up.”
At least one prominent Latino activist believes the black political establishment reacted to a growing Hispanic voting bloc.
“The only thing I can think about is that African-Americans are somehow feeling that the growth of the Latino community is a threat to their election,” Pablo Rodriguez said last week. “Any politician that lives in Providence has to feel the presence of the Latino community. It does not matter what district he or she is in. And they will feel it more in the next election.”
Rodriguez, a physician, helped found Latino Public Radio, as well as the Rhode Island Latino Political Action Committee, which supports candidates of Hispanic or Latino heritage seeking local and state office.
Black lawmakers deny race was a motivating factor.
Metts, who was the lead sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, said constituents –– both African-American and Latino –– have complained to him about voter fraud for almost two decades.
“I really had to look at myself and say, ‘If fraud is really happening, how long are you going to bury your head in the sand as to what is actually happening, as opposed to [worry about] the disenfranchisement that could happen?”
State Rep. Anastasia P. Williams, a Providence Democrat who also pushed strongly for the legislation, agreed. She argues that voter fraud, at the very least, exists in her district. She says she was a victim of voter fraud during the 2006 election.
“This has nothing to do with being African-American and feeling any pinch,” said Williams, who considers herself both African-American and Latino. “To take the issue and make it an African-American versus Latino-American thing is totally, totally a farce. It’s sad to even bring that up because there will be individuals that will use that as an excuse.”
That prominent Democrats were involved at all was surprising to some. Nationally, the Democratic Party has by and large opposed voter ID. But the Rhode Island Democratic Party, its state affiliate, did not take an official position on the issue.
Metts rejects national Democratic arguments that liken voter ID to the Jim Crow laws that denied Southern blacks the right to vote.
“I didn’t come into politics to be a ‘yes’ man. If I think something is right, I am going to support it. If it’s wrong, I’m going to oppose it,” he said. “I’m all for party loyalty, but God gave me a brain and I use it.”
Pichardo, a Democrat who formerly served on the secretary of state’s Voters First Advisory Commission, said he initially shared some opponents’ concerns. He believes new parameters address that, including that the state will provide free ID to those who need it.
“I think when we see a problem and we try to address it, we have to try to improve the system that the government has and if we find some solution and move forward, we ensure more people are aware of it and no one stays behind, and that they are voting.”
The question about whether voter ID unfairly targets Latinos follows an election in which at least two Latino candidates in Providence edged out black candidates in their traditional political strongholds.
In Ward 11, which represents Upper South Providence, Davian Sanchez, a 21-year-old of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent, fought through a four-way Democratic primary to claim a seat held for nearly 25 years by Balbina A. Young, a black councilwoman.
And Joseph S. Almeida Jr., a Cape Verdean-American, lost his bid for reelection as state representative from House District 12, which represents Washington Park and much of Providence’s South Side, to Leo Medina, who was born in the Dominican Republic.
Tony Affigne, a political science professor at Providence College, said he does not believe self-preservation was the primary motivating factor for black politicians to back voter identification. But he questions whether such a “Draconian” statewide response was needed.
“I do not believe that they are acting because they are trying to game the system,” Affigne said of Metts and Williams. “But they are mistaken about the extent of the problem and the solution that they have settled on is tragic.”
Determined people will find a way around even the new ID requirements, he argued. He said the solution is to increase penalties and boost the investigatory powers of the state Board of Elections and the attorney general’s office.
“This city is flooded with fake IDs. Who believes requiring them will actually prevent vote fraud?”
Imagine ads in Spanish such as: "I vote for Democrats because I believe that a man should be able to marry another man." Or "Homosexual men vote for the Democrat Party because they want to permit men to marry other men."
Perfectly factual advertisements - they would not run afoul of "activists" because they are supporting gay rights - after all, who could oppose that?
/s
The Democrat-infested state of Connecticut has a voter ID law.
Strange that you see all of the usual suspects having a conniption fit over states such as Wisconsin and Georgia instituting voter ID laws, but they are completely silent about places such as Connecticut where such laws have been in place for years.
This is NOT about "Hispanics", but legal vs. ILLEGAL voters. And, by the way, since 71% of illegal aliens receive some form of welfare, to expect them to vote for cuts in that welfare is to defy 80 years of the Democrat Machine.
Sounds like the community organizers aren't on the same page with the community. What's interesting is that the NAACP is taking the position of the white liberal elite rather than of its black members. Meanwhile, black politicians who are actually accountable to the community have supported the bill.
I voted in Rhode Island in November of 1980. I didn’t have to take ID out of my pocket but after I was checked in a woman shouted “James Kevin Wass” so all in the room could hear - the 18th century form of voter ID.
Well, that sounds like a law that would not pass in Illinois. That would disenfranchise several hundred thousand Chicago cemetery residents who cannot obtain a current picture id. Now if obituary photos were allowed ....
They should do the same in Kalifornia! Voter’s ID and matching driver’s license (or U.S. ID or passport).
Dems are going to have a hard time keeping blacks and hispanics in the same party. They string both groups along with promises of unconstitutional racial preferences and feed race pride (racism) into each group to keep them together and against whitey. However, racists don’t like any other race of people.
Me either. In fact, the next election I’m going to question the registrar as to why they didn’t ask for photo ID.
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