Tag Archives: voter suppression

August 16, 2012 · 4:42 am

THE BIG LIE:IF YOU REALLY WANT TO VOTE YOU'LL FIND A WAY LIKE I DO, By Louise Annarino, August 15, 2012

THE BIG LIE:IF YOU REALLY WANT TO VOTE YOU’LL FIND A WAY LIKE I DO,By Louise Annarino, August 15, 2012

I was once a Legal Aid Attorney who helped those poorest among us, many of whom worked 2 part-time jobs and still were income eligible for our services because their income fell below the poverty line. Many of our clients were people of color;most were not. Most were first or second generation migrants to Ohio from West Virginia and Kentucky looking for a better life in the urban “north”. Many of my clients, African-American and white were born at home because they lacked health insurance and could not afford to buy it. Because they were born at home the only record of their birth might be their name entered in the family Bible. Some did not even have that. When I became Managing Attorney of the Senior Citizen Unit I often had to assist claimants for social security retirement who lacked the requisite birth certificate to prove their identity and age. We were able to provide the family Bible, or an affidavit from someone present at the birth as evidence. This was deemed sufficient proof. This effort took months, not days. Life lived in poverty means longer hours and more effort to accomplish what is easily done when one has sufficient income. Obstacles are everywhere and multiply in geometric progression for the poor,working poor, disabled and elderly.

Below is the link to the official Pennsylvania site for information on Voting ID requirements. It is too long and complex to include entire piece within this blog. Click to see what I mean. Notice it may take a person 2 visits to accomplish the task. While the cost for the ID may be waived when sought for voting purposes, the cost for substantiating documents is not waived, and they cost more than the photo ID does.( SEE full requirements at http://www.dmv.state.pa.us/voter/voteridlaw.shtml ) One might also need to bring a second resident to the location if they do have a mortgage, current dated rental lease, or utility bill; requiring the cost of transportation and scheduling coordination for two persons. Easy to get one of your children to go anywhere with you? What if you are a single working Mom and your children are too young to swear to the truth of your claim of residence? There is no one to affirm your residence.

How does one know where to go and what the hours of operation are? This,too is unclear and requires time to explore. What if the person in need of voter ID has no computer, nor access to one to get answers to such questions about the process.  Census data shows that 9.9% of Pennsylvanians do not speak English at home. Will they understand the complex instructions even if they are able to use a computer?(See more at  https://www.dot4.state.pa.us/locator/locator.jsp#top?20120815232903273=20120815232903273 ) Please note that the site stresses:

PennDOT Driver License and Photo License Centers only accept payment by check or money order. No cash or credit cards are accepted.

What if you do not have a checking account? What if you cannot convince a bank to provide you customer service  for a money order when you are not a customer? How much does a money order cost at a Pay-Day Loan ?

What if the person cannot travel by bus to the locations listed? Are cabs available and/or affordable? What if the person needing voter ID is disabled? Elderly? Blind? Nine locations in Pennsylvania have no such sites. Those which do are open 1 day a week.Pennsylvania has the fewest state workers in the nation. Who will be there to help move this process forward? (see Rachel Maddow 8-15-2012)

The judge in PA  found no discriminatory impact by the PA voter ID law even though evidence indicated more than half those affected are African-American. The African-American population of PA is only 11.3%, not more than 55%. Obviously, African-Americans are unfairly bearing the brunt of this law. 12.4% of all Pennsylvanians live below the poverty level. Per capita income is $27,049. ( see more at http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/42000.html ) How can people with such income levels have time to take away from work and afford the cost of so doing? How?

The State’s attorneys who asked  Judge Simpson to refuse to block the voter ID law admitted “that they are ‘not aware of any incidents of in person voter fraud.’  Instead, they insisted that lawmakers properly exercised their latitude to make election-related laws when they chose to require voters to show widely available forms of photo identification.” Others argue that the same ID required to vote is required to buy beer. Really? Passports? Mortgage statements? Utility bills? One can buy a beer in numerous locations, even grocery stores. Voter Photo IDs are not so readily or easily available.(see more from Pennsylvania’s Republican viewpoint at http://www.humanevents.com/2012/08/15/pennsylvania-judge-refuses-to-block-voter-id-law/ )

The standard for an injunction is that the plaintiff  must establish that he is likely to succeed on the merits [i.e., win at trial], that he is likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary relief, that the balance of equities tips in his favor, and that an injunction is in the public interest. Judge Simpson found no irreparable harm even though 15% of Pennsylvanians lack voter ID, and it seems unlikely they will be able to obtain it before the November election. This is about more than the November election however. This is about the losing the RIGHT to vote and replacing it with the PRIVILEGE of voting, if one can afford it. That seems to place the issue squarely in the public interest,and in violation of the constitutions of  Pennsylvania and the United States of America.

And the competing interest to protect against voter fraud ? The “Brennan Center’s exhaustive research revealed that there is little to no reliable evidence of impersonation fraud. And, of course, this form of fraud is the only misconduct that the new voter identification requirements in HB934 will address.” (see more http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/testimony_on_pennsylvania_hb_934/ )

Of course this case will be appealed and the Justice department may file further action to protect African-American voters’ denial of equal protection. The uncertainty lies in the time it will take to correct the problem. Time is of the essence;not because those likely to vote for the Democratic party candidates and President Obama are being disenfranchised, but because hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens are being disenfranchised.

Leave a comment

Filed under POLITICS

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

August 9, 2012 · 6:19 pm

ROMNEY'S ON A ROLL-TWO LIES IN TWO DAYS,By Louise Annarino, August 9,2012

ROMNEY’S ON A ROLL-TWO LIES IN TWO DAYS,By Louise Annarino,August 9,2012

 

LIE#1

TANF(Temporary Assistance to Needy Families),signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996 is the basis for welfare-to-work requirements. States must follow regulations meant to place welfare recipients in jobs. It includes a provision allowing waivers of state plans. The Obama Administration is the first in 16 years to listen to concerns from state officials, Republican and Democratic, that the work requirements are so rigid they actually create bureaucratic blocks to job placement. A memo from HHS (Health and Human Services)  one week ago stated it was open to experiments allowed by waiver to help states “find more effective mechanisms for helping families succeed in state employment.” The memo to the states reinforced that waivers would not be granted which could reduce access to employment,the same time limits would remain in place, and the waiver would be revoked if the experiment failed. “If states are not meeting their performance targets,their authority to test new ideas will be terminated,” said George Sheldon who oversees the program at HHS. (see more at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=156741426 ).

 

In Romney-speak this translates to “I hope you understand that President Obama in just the last few days has tried to reverse that accomplishment by taking the work requirement out of welfare. That is wrong. If I’m president I will put work back in welfare.” See video at (http://www.mittromney.com/news/press/2012/08/mitt-romney-we-must-restore-work-welfare ). This video is now part of his political ads, is repeated as a factual account of what occurred on FOX news and elsewhere. This distortion of an effort to recognize the unique needs of individual states to put more welfare recipients to work should have been well-received, not falsely attacked, by those who so often argue for “states’ rights”.

Posted August 8, 2012 on Romney’s official website:

-Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison today made the following statement on President Obama’s dismantling of bipartisan welfare reforms:“President Obama’s push to eliminate welfare to work requirements goes against everything Republicans and Democrats—including President Bill Clinton—fought so hard for more than a dozen years ago.

  • Former Speaker Newt Gingrich today made the following statement on President Obama’s dismantling of bipartisan welfare reforms:“As an architect of the historic and bipartisan 1996 welfare reform bill, I am disturbed and angered that the Obama administration is undoing the act’s central concept of a welfare-to-work requirement. The hugely successful reform saved billions for taxpayers

This lie is particularly disheartening when tied to his comments to NAACP, and subsequent speeches wherein he uses racial code talk “people who want to get free stuff”, “big bucks who won’t work”. His lies reinforce negative racial stereotypes, and foster racial and class division. These lies do more harm than costing one’s opponent an election.

LIE#2

After some Ohio voters faced hours-long lines at polling places during the 2004 presidential election, the state adopted reforms designed to prevent similar problems in the future. Those reforms included allowing voters to cast ballots at county boards of elections for an extended period before elections.

Earlier this year the Republican-controlled Ohio Legislature passed an Election Reform Law (HB 194)under the guise of stopping non-existent voter fraud. “The…closely-analyzed 2004 election in Ohio revealed a voter fraud rate of 0.00004%. National Weather Service data shows that Americans are struck and killed by lightning about as often.” (see more at http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/policy_brief_on_the_truth_about_voter_fraud/ ).

 

In reaction to the more than 300,000 signatures on a petition by Ohioans to place a referendum to repeal the law on the Nov. 6, 2012 ballot, Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted convinced the legislature to repeal the law. Two weeks after HB 194 passed, another law (HB 224) affirmed a rolled back early voting three days before an election, except for active military and overseas voters whose prior rights had been overlooked when HB 194 was passed.

 

This seemed redundant for other voters already denied under law (HB 194). HB224 was passed as an emergency measure and super majority to protect the early voting rights of active military and overseas voters who were not considered when passing HB 194. It was meant to correct an oversight but in effect It continued the suppression of voting the 3 days before an election except for active military and overseas voters.

Although HB 194 was repealed HB 224 remains, including the restrictions on week-end voting repealed in HB 194. Clearly what appears to be a technicality is suppressing votes.In the last presidential election 93,000 Ohioans voted on that week-end.

 

 

The Obama campaign filed a lawsuit to restore the right of all Ohioans to vote,as they did in 2008, during the three days before the Tuesday election. It does not seek to disenfranchise military and overseas voters.”Plaintiffs seek to restore for all voters access to early voting through the Monday before Election Day,” the Obama campaign’s brief said. “Neither the substance of its Equal Protection claim, nor the relief requested, challenges the legislature’s authority to make appropriate accommodation, including early voting during the period in question, for military voters, their spouses or dependents. The question before the Court is whether, in the circumstances of this case, the State of Ohio may arbitrarily and without justification withdraw from all other Ohio eligible voters the same right they previously had to vote the weekend and Monday before election day.”

 

The lawsuit argues that all Ohio voters should be permitted to cast ballots that weekend, as members of the U.S. military are permitted to do. The complaint alleged that Ohio’s legislature failed to justify the disparate treatment between military and nonmilitary voters, and contended the “unequal burden on the fundamental right to vote violates the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution.”

 

In Romney-speak this translate to “President Obama’s lawsuit claiming it is unconstitutional for Ohio to allow servicemen and women extended early voting privileges during the state’s early voting period is an outrage,” the Republican candidate’s Facebook message proclaimed. Next came a statement from the campaign: “We Must Defend the Rights of Military Voters.” Right-wing bloggers took it from there, and the outraged headlines came pouring forth. ( see more at http://prospect.org/article/red-white-and-untrue-romneys-big-lie-about-military-voting ).

 

The Romney campaign asserts that military personnel are losing the extension of time to vote they deserve, and have historically had, while serving overseas. But the voters in question are not voting absentee; they are voting in-person on absentee ballots. Absentee ballots filed from overseas are not created by the law being challenged.

The government already assures extra efforts for military voters—thanks in part to President Obama. He signed the Military Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act, which made a number of extra voting guarantees to servicemen and women overseas. For example, military bases now must have voter-registration services, and those serving overseas are allowed to send and receive their applications for voter registration and absentee ballots by email or fax as well as through the mail. Diane Mazur, a law professor at the University of Florida and a former Air Force officer, told Buzzfeed that the groups’ argument is “extremely misleading.” Mazur says there’s no history of of special privilege for military voters casting a ballot in person. “The idea that service member are fuller citizens than the rest of America is a disaster for military professionalism,” she says.

The problem with lies is that they must be sustained. Surrogates like Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison,campaign advisers, newscasters become pawns used to sow distortion and division. Voters are made needlessly fearful. Fifteen military organizations pumped up by team Romney intervened in the Ohio law suit believing they face a loss of voting privileges. Jon Stoltz, who heads the group VoteVets, and supports the Obama campaign’s lawsuit said in a telephone call to reporters “What appalled me so much about the narrative in Ohio is that the Romney campaign is supporting legislation that actually denies 900,000 veterans in the state of Ohio the right to vote early…In short, Mitt Romney supports efforts to make voting more difficult for the very people who have put their lives on the line,” Soltz notes.

The facts show that Romney’s claim about restricting military voting is a blatant distortion. The purpose of the lawsuit is to ensure that every Ohioan—including military voters—has the right to make their voices heard at the polls.

 

Everyone lies,so tey say.But, the complete misrepresentation of fact. The total reversal of an opponent’s credited position on an issue, the blatant change of historical fact, the warping of legal pleadings to serve a partisan political agenda are so overwhelmingly unique in their proportionality to past campaign lies they beggar description. This is something new. This is Romney-speak.

1 Comment

Filed under POLITICS

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

August 6, 2012 · 7:12 am

THE RING STILL FITS WITH A LITTLE LESS SHINE,By Louise Annarino,August 6, 2012

THE RING STILL FITS WITH A LITTLE LESS SHINE, By Louise Annarino, August 6,2012

 

The anniversary party differs from the wedding reception,but is no less filled with love. Oh, no rice is thrown,and no shoes nor tin cans are tied to the car bumper. But, the steady appreciation of guests for the shared commitment and sacrifice they have watched unfold since the wedding day several years ago is even more pronounced and certain. To be sure, there have been disagreements, arguments and bewilderment over the years. The wedding ring may be a bit tarnished. This has only awakened a more mature appreciation for the relationship and its ability to weather the storms of human nature and ego. No one expects to see the same innocent fervor on the faces of those who shared and witnessed vows 4 years before. It is enough that the parties still try to do their best, and stay committed to one another. We understand this. We family and friends share the responsibility with newlyweds to support their efforts; on their wedding day and every day after.

 

We have a similar relationship with political candidates with whom we affiliate. We stand as witnesses to their platform to serve our fellow citizens, and we support them, on inauguration day and every day after.This is why the 2012 Obama-Biden campaign looks different than the 2008 campaign. This is why the question, “Where is the enthusiasm we saw in 2008?” is a ridiculous one. It is the wrong question because it is fails to understand what grassroots community support is and how it operates.

 

In Columbus,Ohio, as in other states, those who worked so hard to elect Obama-Biden pressured Congress to pass The Lily Ledbetter Act allowing women to push for equal wages and moved right into a campaign in support of health care reform resulting in The Affordable Care Act. They collected signatures, lobbied Congress, attended fairs and rallies where they spoke out and educated fellow citizens, held a candlelight vigil, wrote letters to the editor and their representatives. As they worked on these campaigns they resisted the attack on pubic employee unions by Governor Kasich and Republicans in the State Legislature,collecting 1.3 million signatures (they needed only 231,000) to place a referendum on the 2011ballot where it was soundly defeated. The Columbus Dispatch reported [  http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2011/06/29/sb-5-referendum-coalition-to-deliver-more-than-a-million-signatures.html] a parade of more than 6,000 marched up Broad Street to Fourth Street, “where a 48 ft. semi-truck carrying the 1,298,301 signatures in 1,502 boxes collected was unloaded. The parade also included retired fire trucks, a drum line, bagpipes and loud motorcycles. It took about 15 minutes to pass.” Does this sound like a lack of enthusiasm?

 

With no time to rest local Obama supporters joined with others to start another signature-gathering campaign to supplant the gerrymandering redistricting plan passed by Ohio Republicans. They have collected 750,000 signatures to place a constitutional amendment creating a 12 member citizen commission not favoring any party on the November 2012 ballot. Simultaneously, they have fought off efforts to defund Planned parenthood, assure women’s reproductive health care freedoms, and continue to oppose voter suppression with some success. These have been massive efforts, by thousands of grass root volunteers, taking on very powerful interest groups. This has not been easy. It certainly makes one wonder how anyone could question the enthusiasm of grassroot volunteers, the same volunteers who worked on Obama-Biden 2008 election. They continue to man phone banks, canvass door-to-door, place yard signs, educate and recruit others at fairs and festivals, write letter-to-the-editor, and blog in support of the president and vice-president.

 

Dealing with the racism and bigotry has made the effort of these volunteers difficult and disheartening at times. Yet, they continue with renewed determination that such hatred will not be rewarded. They seek nothing short of absolute victory, on achy legs, with sore hearts and open minds, and the determination for a fair election which they know will result in the second Inauguration of President Barack Obama. They may look a bit more worn, sound a bit more tired, and have a few more scars; but, they are still enthusiastic where it counts…in their hearts.

Leave a comment

Filed under POLITICS

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,