When it
comes to
the
vote,
we're
fighting
a second
Civil
War
Op-Ed By
Jesse
Jackson
Tell Us
USA News
Network
CHICAGO
- The
talk
shows
are
filled
with the
latest
rumor
about
WikiLeaks
and
Russian
interference
in our
elections.
What was
done
still
remains
a
mystery.
But
Republican
tricky
leaks —
the
systematic
efforts
to
suppress
the vote
— are an
established
fact,
and a
far
greater
threat
to free
elections.
The
facts
are not
in
dispute.
A recent
report
by the
United
Nations
special
rapporteur
on
extreme
poverty
notes
that in
addition
to
suffering
the most
extreme
inequality
in the
industrial
world,
the U.S.
ranks
among
the
lowest
for
voter
participation.
Voter
registration
levels,
for
example,
are 64
percent
in the
U.S.,
compared
with 91
percent
in
Canada
and the
United
Kingdom
and 99
percent
in
Japan.
This
isn’t an
accident.
As The
New York
Times
reports,
conservatives
have
openly
stated
for
years
that
they do
better
when
fewer
people
vote. In
the
South
under
segregation,
the
power
structure
used any
number
of
tricks —
poll
taxes,
and
special
quizzes,
intimidation
and just
plain
murder —
to keep
blacks
from
voting.
Now,
Republicans
are
clear
that
they
must
suppress
the vote
if they
are to
keep
power.
As
professor
Donald
Jones
stated
at a
Florida
hearing
of the
National
Commission
for
Voter
Justice,
“When it
comes to
the
vote, we
are in
the
Second
Civil
War.”
The
National
Commission
for
Voter
Justice
was
launched
by
RainbowPush
early
this
year to
undertake
a 2-year
mission
of
documenting
the
status
of
voting
rights
in the
U.S.,
educating
the
public
about
ongoing
threats
and
inspiring
reforms
to
reaffirm
the
right to
vote.
The NCVJ
has held
hearings
in four
states —
Michigan,
Georgia,
South
Carolina
and
Florida
— and
produced
research
from six
states.
The
NCVJ
found
that
systematic
efforts
are
underway
to make
voting
more
difficult
in state
after
state.
Voter
purging
and
voter
caging
is being
conducted
on a
much
larger
scale
since
2016
than is
popularly
recognized.
In
Georgia
in 2017,
320,000
voters
who had
been
purged
from the
voter
rolls
had to
file a
lawsuit
to
regain
the
right to
vote. In
Florida,
black
voters
are
being
purged
after
being
labeled
“inactive,”
by not
responding
to a
mail
request
for
confirmation
of
address.
The
Interstate
Crosscheck
System,
invented
by
Republican
attorneys,
is used
by 27
states
and is
estimated
to lead
to the
wrongful
purging
of
hundreds
of
thousands
of
voters.
States
also
work to
make
voting
harder.
They
limit
the days
of early
voting,
reduce
the
number
of
polling
places,
leading
to long
lines
and
frustrated
voters,
and
relocate
polling
places
to
distant
communities.
Georgia
is
notorious
for
moving
polling
sites
from
black
communities
to
inaccessible
locations
with
poor
advance
notice.
Ex-felons
who have
served
their
sentence
are
still
disenfranchised
in
Florida
and
other
states;
student
face
more and
more
barriers
designed
to keep
them
from
voting.
Republican
state
legislators
have
pushed
to pass
voter ID
laws
across
the
country;
34
states
now
enforce
these
laws.
Eleven
percent
of U.S.
citizens
— 21
million
people —
lack a
governmental
issued
photo
ID, the
ACLU
reports.
One in
four
African-Americans
lacks
this
form of
ID. The
Government
Accountability
Office
found
that
strict
photo ID
laws
reduce
turnout
by 2 to
3
percent.
Open
voter
suppression
laws had
a far
greater
effect
on the
2016
election
than
whatever
the
Russians
did.
Wisconsin’s
right-wing
Gov.
Scott
Walker
had
previously
signed
into law
new
voter ID
requirements,
some of
which a
Federal
District
Court
had
found
discriminated
against
minority
voters.
Conservative
judges
at the
appellate
level
upheld
the law.
Republicans
openly
bragged
that
this
would
make the
difference
in the
election.
The
result,
by the
state’s
own
records,
was that
300,000
eligible
voters
lacked
the
proper
ID.
African-American
turnout
was down
dramatically
and
Hillary
Clinton
lost the
key
state by
only
22,700
votes.
We
should
take
steps to
ensure
that no
foreign
power
can
interfere
with our
elections,
but we
should
also act
boldly
to
ensure
that the
right to
vote is
not
undermined
by
zealous
partisans
at home.
Voter
registration
should
be
automatic.
Voting
should
be
facilitated,
not made
harder.
Early
voting
days
should
be
extended;
polling
booths
easily
available;
hours
extended.
No one
should
have to
wait for
hours in
a line
to cast
a vote.
In
the end,
we
should
amend
the
Constitution
to
specifically
establish
the
right to
vote.
This
basic
democratic
value is
now
contested.
We have
public
officials
openly
bragging
about
their
schemes
to
suppress
the
right to
vote.
There is
no
greater
threat
to a
democracy.
Now it
is up to
patriots
to
defend
the most
basic
right of
all.