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New
voter
integrity
laws
threaten
millions'
right to
vote in
elections
as the
country
pauses
to
commemorates
‘Bloody
Sunday.’
OpEd- by
Rev. Dr.
Wendell
Anthony,
President,
Detroit
Branch
NAACP
 DETROIT
– 56
years
ago,
March 7,
1965,
Bloody
Sunday
occurred
at the
foot of
the
Edmund
Pettus
Bridge.
Civil
rights
activists,
led by
John
Lewis,
crossed
the
bridge
from
Selma to
Montgomery,
Alabama,
to
demand
the
right to
vote.
This
march,
like
others
before,
was held
to
prevent
discrimination
by
voting
laws
designed
to stop
Black
people
from
voting.
It led
President
Lyndon
B.
Johnson
to sign
the
Voting
Rights
Act of
1965. It
reinforced
voting
rights
guaranteed
to
African
Americans
by the
15th
Amendment
to the
U.S.
Constitution.
This act
was not
signed
into law
with the
ink of a
pen.
This act
was
signed
into
history
by the
blood of
a
people.
The
right to
vote is
not a
gift
that is
given by
warm-hearted
politicians.
The
right to
vote is
a
constitutional
guarantee
fought
for and
won by
the
relentless
determination
of
committed
citizens.
On
June 25,
2013, in
Shelby
vs.
Holder,
the U.S.
Supreme
Court,
by a 5-4
ruling,
struck
down
section
4(B) of
section
5 of the
Voting
Rights
Act.
This
section
required
that
jurisdictions
with a
history
of
discrimination
and
voter
suppression
against
ethnic
minorities,
particularly
African
Americans,
would
have to
obtain a
pre-clearance
before
making
any
voting
changes
in their
jurisdictions.
Pre-clearance
led to
increases
in
minority
representation
and
voter
turnout.
Five
years
after
the
ruling,
nearly
1,000
polling
places
had
closed,
mostly
in
African
American
communities.
There
were
cuts to
early
voting.
There
were
purges
and
voter
rolls
were
reduced.
The
explosion
of
strict
voter ID
laws
ignited.
Jurisdictions
previously
under
pre-clearance
mandates
increased
their
voter
registration
purges
after
the
Shelby
ruling.
Many of
these
changes
were
made
under
the
false
claims
of voter
fraud.
Claims
were
made of
illegal
ballots
being
cast,
dead
folks
coming
back to
vote,
and
illegal
aliens
participating
in the
electoral
process.
As a
result,
the call
for
voter
integrity
laws
were
being
heard
throughout
the
nation.
Former
President
Trump
called
for a
Presidential
Advisory
Commission
on
Election
Integrity.
It was
called
the
Voter
Fraud
Commission,
led by
former
Vice
President
Mike
Pence
and
former
Kansas
Secretary
of State
Kris
Kobach.
The
commission,
unfortunately,
was a
fraud.
As a
result
of
finding
no
significant
evidence
of voter
fraud in
the
nation,
it
folded
up and
went out
of
business.
Former
U.S.
Attorney
General
Will
Barr,
certainly
no
friend
of the
right to
vote in
minority
communities,
when
speaking
of the
2020
election
said,
“To date
we have
not seen
fraud on
a scale
that
could
have
effected
a
different
outcome
in the
election.”
Christopher
Krebs,
Director
of Cyber
Security
and
Infrastructure
Security
Agency
(CISA)
for the
Department
of
Homeland
Security
indicated,
“The
2020
election
was the
most
secure
in
American
history.
There is
no
evidence
that any
voting
system
deleted
or lost
votes,
changed
votes,
or was
in any
way
compromised.”
Last
December,
former
Senate
Majority
Leader
Mitch
McConnell
introduced
legislation
that
would
increase
COVID-19
checks
from
$600 to
$2,000
for
individual
Americans.
It
included
two
provisions
not
related
to the
pandemic.
One was
a
special
commission
to
investigate
alleged
voter
fraud.
The
Brennan
Center
for
Justice,
which
has
conducted
numerous
studies
concerning
the myth
of voter
fraud
and its
virtual
non-existence,
spoke
against
such a
commission.
Brennan
Center
President
Michael
Waldman
said,
“The
idea
that
America
needs to
spend
its
money on
a futile
search
for
systemic
voter
fraud in
the 2020
election,
slanders
voters,
election
officials
and the
courts.
It would
waste
taxpayer
dollars
on a
debunked
conspiracy
theory.”
At least
60 court
rulings
have
rejected
these
claims.
As of
February
19,
2021,
Republican
led
state
legislators
have
introduced
253
bills
with
provisions
that
restrict
voting
access
in at
least 43
states.
These
bills
are
designed
to
eliminate
automatic
voter
registration,
absentee
voting,
enhance
the
purging
of voter
rolls,
increase
voter ID
requirements,
criminal
disenfranchisement,
reduce
same day
registration
and
voting,
eliminate
transportation
to and
from the
polls,
eliminate
drop
boxes
and
access
to
mail-in
balloting,
reduce
the
number
of
polling
locations
in urban
centers,
and even
prevent
water
and food
from
being
provided
as
voters
stand in
line to
cast
their
ballots.
The
state of
Georgia
House of
Representatives
recently
passed
House
Bill 531
which
also
seeks to
eliminate
the
Soles to
the
Poll’s
campaigns
of
churches
on
Sundays.
Former
President
Barack
Obama
said,
“Republicans
are
introducing
election
integrity
bills as
the
antidote
to voter
fraud.
These
misnomers
and the
false
narratives
around
them are
a part
of a
coordinated
scheme
to
formalize
vote
suppression
tactics.”
Historically
it
should
be noted
that
whenever
there
has been
a move
to
increase
voter
participation
in
African
American
communities,
changes
to the
voting
process
occurs.
Right
after
the
Civil
War and
Blacks
got the
right to
vote,
Black
codes,
Jim Crow
laws,
night
riders,
and Klu
Klux
Klansman
erupted
on the
scene.
They
were
attempting
to
suppress
the vote
and
eliminate
African
American
empowerment.
The
Civil
Rights
Movement
was
largely
fought
over the
right to
vote,
access
to equal
opportunity,
and an
end to
racial
inequality.
Gerrymandering,
which is
the
manipulation
of
voting
boundaries
to favor
a
particular
party,
was also
a tactic
designed
to
reduce
and
eliminate
the
Black
vote.
Redistricting
or the
re-drawing
of
congressional
lines,
which
allows
politicians
to
select
their
voters
rather
than
allowing
the
voters
to
select
their
political
leaders,
is
another
tactic.
Following
the
election
of
President
Joe
Biden
and the
two
Democratic
senators
in
so-called
red-state
Georgia,
many
Republicans
do not
believe
it
possible
to win
another
election
without
cheating
or
fudging
the
process.
Senator
Lindsey
Graham
said,
“If
Republicans
don’t
challenge
and
change
the U.S.
election
system,
there
will
never be
another
Republican
president
elected
again.”
Cities
like
Detroit,
Atlanta,
Philadelphia,
and
Milwaukee
have
been
falsely
called
out for
voter
fraud
due to
the high
number
of
African
Americans
voting.
This
level of
turnout
in urban
centers
is
unacceptable
to many
who wish
to
eliminate
the
Black
vote.
These
new
voter
laws
help
them to
corrupt
the
election
process.
If you
cannot
increase
your
vote,
then you
decrease
your
opponent’s
vote.
Rather
than fix
your
policies
to draw
more
people
to your
party,
you
choose
to
maintain
the
status
quo.
This
enables
you to
offer
the
false
claim
that
other
people
are
taking
advantage
of you
and are
taking
advantage
of the
voting
process.
These
laws are
no more
than
ravenous
wolves
creeping
into
state
legislatures
disguised
as
sheep.
They do
not come
to bring
integrity
and
voter
participation.
They
come to
destroy
and to
setup
voter
suppression.
We must
reject
these
wolves.
The
Senate
must
pass
H.R.1,
the For
the
People
Act, and
the John
Lewis
Voting
Rights
Act. We
must
fight
until we
win. In
the
words of
John
Lewis,
“Your
vote is
precious,
almost
sacred.
It is
the most
powerful
non-violent
tool we
have to
create a
more
perfect
union.”
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