Posted on 02/19/2012 2:30:12 PM PST by Libloather
Voting Rights Act under siege
By JOSH GERSTEIN | 2/19/12 7:06 AM EST
In a political system where even the most trivial issues trigger partisan rancor, the Voting Rights Act has stood for several decades as a rare point of bipartisan consensus.
Until now.
An intensifying conservative legal assault on the Voting Rights Act could precipitate what many civil rights advocates regard as the nuclear option: a court ruling striking down one of the core elements of the landmark 1965 law guaranteeing African Americans and other minorities access to the ballot box.
At the same time, the view that states should have free rein to change their election laws even in places with a history of Jim Crow seems to be gaining traction within the Republican Party.
“There certainly has been a major change,” said Rick Hasen, a professor of election law at the University of California at Irvine. “Now, you have a whole bunch of credible mainstream state attorneys general and governors taking this view. … That would have been unheard of even five years ago. You would have been accused of being a racist.”
Some of the shift appears to be driven by resentment of what tea party members and others perceive as an overgrown, out-of-control federal government, as well as by widespread concern among Republicans about claims of voter fraud at the polls. Part of the change could also stem from more vigorous enforcement of voting rights laws by President Barack Obama’s Justice Department.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
In response, we Republicans should get out our pocket-size copies of the Constitution and read them the Fifteenth Amendment, Section 1: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. And we can add that it was a heavily Republican Congress that passed that Amendment with the required super-majorities and sent it on to the states for ratification.
Furthermore, anyone who thinks he or she is denied the right to vote by a state simply because of skin color has every right to file suit in federal court on the basis of the Fifteenth Amendment as well as the "equal protection" clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
I was just thinking about that local law you mentioned: wasn't it discriminatory because pigs got a raw deal compared to other animals? Real pork-barrel legislation!
I like your thinking.
The VRA has outlived its usefulness.
What we need is an act that prevents states from leaving dead and illegal voters on the rolls. Voter registration lists need to be renewed as often as every 4 years. I would prefer that a person have to register for each and every election separately and in person.
Jeepers. Thanks for the ping!
Our DL now has a picture that can be used for facial recognition. No glasses and no smiles.
Good news is there are no more buses coming from Chicago and traveling to numerous stops. (Which is why they've created a new way to beat the system: Our university students.) College Republican groups are working hard to stop that loophole this election.
Thanks justiceseeker93.
Thanks for your help.
I'm guessing that's because the Chicago people can't get the photo voter ID card?
I've been under the strong impression that voting fraud made the difference for Obama to win Indiana in a close race (<1% difference vs. McCain) in 2008. Similar for North Carolina.
...they've created a new way to beat the system: Our university students.
I presume that would be out-of-state university students for the most part, who would vote both in Indiana and in their home state by absentee ballot? Or could in-state students beat the system and vote both in their college towns and their home residences with different ID cards?
A 4473 is the form that is filled out by a buyer who wishes to purchase a firearm through a Federal Firearms Licensee. The form is used to positively identify the purchaser and allow the FFL (seller) to give the appropriate information to the FBI for...
The NICS check... (National Instant Check System) is a result of the Brady law that allows the Government to assess the status of the buyer of the firearm. If the person is prohibited, they are denied the purchase. this system could easily be used to verify status for voting and to verify if the person has voted already or not. It would also be able to be used to assess the status of life of the person... Or keep the dead from voting.
RKBA is Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Since it has been deemed acceptable for a background check and form for purchasing a firearm which is a Fundamental Civil Right, there should be absolutely no issue with it being used for the Civil Right of Voting.
Anyone who has a problem with it for voting must support voter fraud. If they don’t like it, then they need to get rid of it for purchasing a firearm.
Out of State students voting...If you look at the election map of Indiana the areas BO won were the state college towns where students could use their university IDs as their photo ID. SInce ID had to have current address, it was techinically legal. Our state Universities are not building housing. Students live off campus in apartment or rental properties. We have many students coming from the coasts as our out-of-state fees are cheaper than their local colleges at home. My answer raise the fees.
Actually, the VRA is unconstitutional on its face.
The only constitutional basis for acting against a State on voting laws is the 14th Amendment, which supplies only one remedy and spells out what it is -- there is no language in 14A enabling Congress to "roll your own".
I like your "sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose" reasoning and brio, but it may be that the Brady checks, on inspection, might fail the 2A smell test: "shall not be infringed".
Actually, RKBA is more protected and fundamental than the exercise of suffrage, since the latter was only gradually extended to outgroups. It's quite possible, as it was in the past, to be said to enjoy the full BoR without being given the franchise. Children and incompetent persons are modern examples of such persons.
This has already happened in Texas. Faculty of Prairie View A&M University, a "traditionally black university", have encouraged resident students to register to vote in Waller County, Texas, and turn the "excessively white" government officeholders out of office and take over the county. Waller being a small county, this is feasible.
Even if they did not have an actual majority, by voting as a coherent bloc (as per a 1994 study by three Michigan State academic poli-sci professors published in the peer-reviewed journal of their discipline) they can "capture" 100% of the officeholders and compel them to gee and haw to the students' (faculty's) political leanings.
This threshold is usually reached when a bloc-voting minority reaches 20% of the electorate. When that level is reached by any bloc, all elective officeholders become the bloc's playthings -- unless the rest of the electorate openly began to vote as if they were all in the Klan, just to knock down the minoritarian bullies.
We had the same situation in VA in ‘08. And similar circumstances to IN.
In our case, students from NY/NJ and all of New England who attend VA colleges were encouraged to register and vote here. Their votes aren’t needed to carry the electoral votes at home, but certainly help to sway ‘purple’ states in the D direction. I imagine students from IL attending IN schools did the same thing.
That’s exactly why I bring it up. See, if the Dems scream about it over voting, they have to agree to get rid of it over the 2nd. If they can’t do that, then we push to have it passed for voting. Then one way or another, it’ll end up in front of SCOTUS and we begin the deconstruction of the 1968 Gun Control Act. It’s a win/win for us all around.
Certainly, the Obama DOJ would use the Voting Rights Act to reject as "racist" any attempt by the Texas legislature to encourage the Prairie View students to vote in their home towns.
Actually ours were from the same area NY,NJ and the states around that area. Some thought they were organized and registered while they were still at home.
Over state voter fraud?
Their grandparents (snow birds) vote twice, why shouldn’t they.
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