Sunday’s column: Virginia voter suppression, circa 2016
Shot by Dan on Election Day, at the Villa Heights precinct
M E M O
To: All Virginia Republican Party officials
From: Your election-analysis consultants
Subject: Voter turnout in 2012 and 2016
Dear Red-state stalwarts,
We know, many of you thought Virginia was in the bag for Romney this year, and that you are still distraught that President Obama took Virginia once again. But please stop licking your wounds for a few minutes to read this.
Alas, the voter suppression efforts our General Assembly carefully instituted since 2009 weren’t enough to overcome demographics that are shifting in the other side’s favor.
Fret not, though. We are hatching many new suppression schemes in preparation for future elections. They will assure the stain of defeat won’t visit this once proudly “red” commonwealth for three presidential elections in a row. Who knows? They may even get George Allen elected again.
As an example, we offer the city of Roanoke, which has 32 precincts. Some voters there, like at Forest Park Academy, waited three hours or longer to vote. That’s because it took so long to check their names in those laptop computer poll books our State Board of Elections has been pushing since the 2008 debacle.
Believe it or not, we’ve already persuaded some Star City election officials that voting will go quicker and more smoothly if they cut the number of precincts almost in half, to 19 (wink, wink). On average, that’ll almost double the number of voters in each precinct.
READ THE REST OF THIS COLUMN HERE
November 25, 2012 - 6:00 AM
editorial today
“Lea suspects black voters forced to wait in long lines on Nov.6 were disenfranchised ”
OH BROTHER, they got to vote didn’t they, everyone stood in long lines why are the blacks complaining…another racist thing we have done to these poor poor black people…get a grip
But if all that fails we will sublease our electronic voting machines to Karl Rove’s organization, ORCA,to erase all those votes from suspicious voting precincts.
No pammal, it’s not just our African-American citizens you and your ilk discriminate against. Women, children, poor people, gay citizens, Hispanic citizens, non-Christians, public service employees, all feel the sting of your bias. Luckily, these folks and many others interested in the equal rights guaranteed us in this country move forward and champion inclusion in our workplaces, neighborhoods, churches, and political parties. I encourage you to join us!
I think ORCA has been beached.
Any comments concerning Karl Rove OR James O`Keefe should probably be directed to Dan Casey….OR not.
I’m sick of the ongoing list of excuses for people that are to sorry to take the necessary steps to exercise their voting priveledge. And before you liberals start bashing me think about what I am saying. In Roanoke, we have the bus system, RADAR, cabs and many other means of transportation to get to the DMV and spend $6 for a photo ID. I imagine a MoveOn.org member would be happy to give them a ride too. The big question is, how many people are there that are capable of getting poles, standing in-line for up to an hour to vote, that are not capable of getting proper, picture ID? The number has to be very small. I long for the days of personal responsibiliy!
Another Chuck:
“The big question is, how many people are there that are capable of getting poles, standing in-line for up to an hour to vote, that are not capable of getting proper, picture ID?”
No, that’s not the question at all! One doesn’t need a photo ID to vote. The ID I used to vote doesn’t have a photo. Dan used an unopen water bill. In most cases, it’s even lazier than you’re thinking… hard to believe as that is.
JW,
Implicit in Another Chuck’s comment — at least the way I read it — is that state-issued photo IDs SHOULD be necessary to vote, and that folks ought to have to go to the DMV to get them. Hey, if that takes a couple of bus rides and half a day and $6 (plus bus fare) too bad. (And if they’ve lost their birth certificate, it will cost them even more, because they’ll have to get a copy that that first). He seems to be saying, “If they aren’t responsible enough to get a photo ID (and pay for it) by themselves, then they aren’t responsible enough to vote.”
Which, btw, was exactly one of the column’s chief points — the lengths that conservatives will go to, to justify in their own minds how and why the vote should be suppressed.
Dan is ranting and raving again. I didn’t need a photo ID to vote. I voted early as I always done. But I would not have stood in line for hours to vote for nobody. I always thought that the parties had people to go pick up people that wanted to vote and had no way to get to the polls. If not thats what I get for thinking. The election is over so Dan pick another subject as I am tired of hearing about politics. Have a nice day and go pick on your wife and kids.
Dan, you forgot to answer my question. How is it possible for people to get to the polls, stand in line for an hour or so and not be able to make a one time trip to the DMV?
I want everyone subjected to the same set of rules as I am. I have to show my license or other supporting ID or my voter registation card. Otherwise, I have to cast a provisional ballot that may or may not need to be counted.
I am not encouraging voter surpression, but I am encouraging personal responsibily and the elimination of these ridiculous excuses being made for people who do not cherish their right to vote enough to get simple indentification. What you seem to want is for the irresponsible to be able to just walk up and pull the D lever without going through the proper steps to vote. Your article is another example of dumbing down the voting process for the “give me more free stuff” crowd.
Another Chuck, they ARE subject to “the same set of rules” as you are! What you want is for “them” to have to do more, show more, make more of an effort; in essence a “poll tax” because they do not need your specific ID to do anything else they appear to be doing. You folks are just not comprehensive thinkers. And you are just making crap up to satisfy your victimization.
I think anyone willing to stand in long lines for hours is more than dedicated to their right to vote.
Sandi, I asked the voting official at Wasena 5 how can I vote without an ID? I was told I could vote with a provisional ballot that may or may not be counted at a later date. If they were counted, my ballot would have to be vetted at that time. Is that information incorrect?
Please don’t call me a victim, because I’m not one. Obama’s entire campaign strategy was to identify or create victim groups such as women, gays, blacks, hispanics and the poor and to explain to them how evil Mitt Romney was. Since you are in the “woman” victim group, how does it feel that Obama thinks so little of your individual fortitude that he (the government) has to do special things for you? I am a compasionate conservative….so if there is anything I can do to assist your awful plight forced upon you by folks that believe in personal responsibility, please let me know and I’ll see what I can do.
How is it possible for people to get to the polls, stand in line for an hour or so and not be able to make a one time trip to the DMV?
Maybe because there are a lot more polling locations than there are DMV offices? For most people who don’t live in a town or city with a DMV office and/or don’t drive for whatever reason, it’s much easier to get to a polling place than it is to a DMV.
Also, what if a person is homeless? To get a photo ID, you have to provide a mailing address for the DMV to send the card to. (For a voter registration card, you just have to describe where you live.) Some homeless shelters will allow you to use their address, but not all do, and not all homeless people have access to those kind of services. What happens then? Do we shrug our shoulders and say, “Sucks to be you?” Is a mailing address – and the $10 it costs to get an ID card – the new poll tax?
Another Chuck,
Until this year, you could vote without ID, and if there was no record or your registration at the polls when you went to vote, you could vote provisionally. In that case, you could go to your registrar’s office, obtain proof of registration, then present that when your provisional ballot was being considered, in which case it would be counted.
This year, the law changed. Now you have to have proof of ID to vote, period. But that proof of ID is NOT necessarily a state-issued photo ID. You can use that, or a utility bill with your name and matching address, or work photo ID or a student photo ID, or a voter registration card. If you don’t have an approved form of ID under the law, you will be allowed to vote provisionally, but you later have to show up when they count the provisional ballots with your ID for your vote to count.
Sandi is correct: The rules are the same for everyone. I hope that you’re NOT arguing that because you have a state issued photo-ID, that should be the rule for everyone. Because that is an invalid argument.
This column posits, in a tongue-in-cheek way, that Virginia Republicans will seek to further tighten the requirements as to what kinds of ID can be used, and that the Republicans will seek to make state-issued photo IDs the minimum standard.
Perhaps that will happen — there is ample precedent for this in other states in which the GOP has control of the governor’s mansion and both chambers of a legislature. If it does, it’ll be designed to reduce turnout among people who don’t have those state-issued photo IDS, because these things can be a hassle to get, particularly for someone who doesn’t own a car or have their birth certificate in hand. Republicans routinely pass these laws absent any actual evidence that voter fraud occurs. Pretty much all they can point to is some James O’Keefe stunts that it COULD occur, if somebody wanted to risk being charged with a felony. In elections this year, the only people we know did it was O’Keefe operatives and a one or two Republicans who got caught trying to vote more than once against Obama.
Ok Dan, thanks for the clarification on the current voting requirements. I do want to point out that I could potentially get a utility bill from a neighbor and vote for them, then come back later and vote for me. Is that scenario likely on a large scale, of course not. But it could happen. I contend a photo ID should be required as a Federal law in federal elections.
Ironically, here’s some things that require a photo ID that we don’t have a problem with:
- Board airplane
- Get Driver’s license
- Apply for welfare
- Apply for food stamps
- Cash a check
- Purchase a firearm
- Open a bank account
- Rent an apartment
- Be admitted to a hospital
- Get a marriage license
- Buy alcohol
- Buy cigarettes
I hope you see my point.
Laura, how can homeless people even vote. Do they go in and describe where they live without an ID or even a utility bill, then cast their ballot? If so, a homeless individual could vote multiple times by doing this in many different precints, right? Voting is a right but it is a priveledge also. I believe a picture ID should be part of the minimum requirement to vote without a provisional ballot.
I must be the luckiest voter in the whole USA. I went to vote in Salem with just my voter registration card. Left my house at 2:20 pm, voted, picked up a ‘scrip at Walgreen’s, bought gas at Sheetz, and was pulling back into my driveway at 3:25 pm. True story.
“Ironically, here’s some things that require a photo ID that we don’t have a problem with:
- Board airplane
- Get Driver’s license
- Apply for welfare
- Apply for food stamps
- Cash a check
- Purchase a firearm
- Open a bank account
- Rent an apartment
- Be admitted to a hospital
- Get a marriage license
- Buy alcohol
- Buy cigarettes
I hope you see my point.”
The list above is incorrect.
OK, so the rules are NOW the same for everyone, and Another Chuck believes the rules should be changed to require the kind of ID THAT HE POSSESSES for everyone. That’s no incovenience for him, but a potential inconvenience for many.
Note: someone who votes with a work photo ID, or a military ID, is NOT claiming Another Chuck should have the same kind as they have. He is saying they need to have the same kind as he has.
Note 2: Photo IDs aren’t any more foolproof, necessarily, than any of the others. In fact, there’s a big market for fake photo IDs out there — much moreso than fake utility bill, fake bank statements, fake voter registration cards, etc.
I don’t know about the other things on Another Chuck’s list, but you definitely do not need a photo ID to be admitted to a hospital.
Rest assured Another Chuck, we see your point loud and clear. We just disagree with you.
Plenty of elderly, urban, minority, and transient people do not have a photo ID, nor need one in their daily lives. I have a 90-year-old aunt who does not have one and cannot even get a birth certificate the “normal” way. You and many others who see this issue so clearly, truly do not see the issue at all. It IS a poll tax to ask voters to go above and beyond what has been done in the past with no evidence of any real problem. It is purely, deliberate voter disenfranchisement by “compassionate conservatives” like you who do not trust certain populations to vote “responsibly” according to you.
Well Dan, you’re brilliantly identifying another victim group for the Dems to woo. I say we call them the “I can almost prove I’m me” voting block.
I had lunch with a group of folks yesterday which included a highly educated couple from DC who happen to work for government contractors. They voted for Obama and were happy to see him win in spite of the fact that they thought he was doing a terrible job as President. The wife said, and I quote: “Our lifestyle is dependant on big government contracts, and Obama was more likely to continue them.” And yet another Democratic voting block identified. However, these folks are not victims.
And which one of the list I posted that require a photo ID is incorrect? I’m sure some exceptions are made for food stamps and welfare due to extrordianary circumstances. But, I know you can’t buy a 6-pack or smokes without a picture ID.
I do not need a photo id to buy alcohol, or pass a cheque, or to buy cigarettes. I don’t necessarily need one to board an airplane or to buy a firearm. That list is getting shorter!
Sandi, is your 90 year old Aunt an illegal immigrant? I just don’t understand how the situation you described could be accurate. So, I must assume she can somehow manage to get to the polls to vote, but does not have the ability to get a BC or photo ID?
The people that post on this board are passionate about their right to vote and like me, I’m sure you will do whatever you have to do to prove who you are so you can vote, and vote only once. You make excuses, based upon implausible scenarios for people who don’t share our passion. The reason is because they will most likely vote for the Democrat.
If you’re obviously over 21 you don’t need a photo ID to buy alcohol. Young people however do need a photo ID to buy alcohol. Restaurants can’t just take a young persons word that they’re 21 or older, unless they want to risk losing their liquor license.
Dan, you made a very misleading about the alcohol and cigs regarding a photo ID. You don’t get asked to show your photo ID because you are old (me too)and that is the only reason. Unless you know something I don’t, I’m sure commericial airline flights require a photo ID.
There is not a single documented case of substantial voter fraud. Sure, AC could theoretically get a neighbors utility bill and vote in his stead. He could also go to prison and meet lots of new friends. Virginia’s law is adequate. To those seeking a federal law requiring photo ID to vote, feel free to write your Congresscritters.
gee, I now find myself between a rock and a hard place…kinda like ol’ dano was last week with Maurice Jones.
It seems that ol’ dano is at odds with the RTs editorial page writers as far as the proposed new voting precints changes are concerned. sheesh, I’m with the RTs editors…which I never saw coming… Sorry, ol’ dano, but, I’m not a color-oriented racist like you appear to be.
By the way dano, if’n you’d bothered to check with your learned editors, you’d have know’d that Roanoke City can chose to up-date it’s computers, purchase more polling books, and pay their poll-workers more money. Sheesh, who’d a thought that good ol’ Roanoke City could fix their own, self-created…aaah, let’s call it a “fiasco”…one which is entirely in their own hands to fix.
Who’d a thunk it? Not Dol’ dano,..nor, for that matter, Sherman Lea.
I was carded by a Kroger clerk years ago when I bought a carton of IBC root beer. She didn’t look at the carton, just the brown glass bottles that looked like beer bottles. She was very embarrassed when I told her it was root beer.
“Gee, I now find myself between a rock and a hard place…kinda like ol’ dano was last week with Maurice Jones.”
No, Frank. You’re still all wet, is all.
The folks at the RT who want 19 precincts are (along with you) wrong, IMHO. If you want to to some REALLY effective work on the precincts, keep the same number but realign the districts so that each has a roughly equal number of voters. And THEN add some workers and poll books to each. OR, go back to the paper pollbooks, which were cumbersome by more efficient as a system.
And regarding Maurice Jones: You’re all wet about that, too. Presumably, if the Roanoke Times publisher was appointed assistant undersecretary to something, you would BE ALL OVER the Virginian Pilot, if they didn’t have a big story about it. Which they would not.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
You know why, Frank? Because the editors in Norfolk are smart enough to know that their readers DON’T CARE if the publisher of a paper 300 miles away gets appointed assistant undersecretary to whatnot. That doesn’t mean squat in Norfolk or Virginia Beach.
YOU, however, would think it’s a big big scandal. That’s because you have no common sense.
Art, I plan to doing just what you suggested. I will contact my representatives and lobby for photo ID. That system is the most reasonable way to avoid voter fraud. Why should that be a threat to you? I assume you want fair election results. Those without photo ID have 4 years to get this task done so they can vote for the next President. I know, the clock is running, but you have to believe they can get this done!
AC, the instructions for conducting voter registeation drives clearly explains what to do in the case ohlf homeless people (I dis mis-speak above: though they need only describe the physical location where they sleep to establish polling site and candidates they’re eligible to vote for, they still have to provide a mailing address for the card to be sent to).
Many homeless are veterans. Are you going to sit there and argue that they don’t deserve the “privilege” to vote if they don’t have photo ID?
This article blaming anyone, but in your rantings presumably ONLY republicans, for any form of voter suppression is comical at best.Anyone of qualified legal age should have the personal resposibility prior to an election to figure out how they can vote in a timely manner that day or early on and produce an ID which satisfies the law.It’s not like any person has less than 24 hours notice to prepare for the most significant contribution they get to make as a citizen-the right and privledge to vote, If they are not savvy enough in todays information technology to get this accomplished,then that’s self imposed voter suppression.Blame the individual for lack of accountability, not the process or any political party.
Who knows Obama is a communist better than these folks.
http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/19-11-2012/122849-obama_soviet_mistake-0/
“Art, I plan to doing just what you suggested. I will contact my representatives and lobby for photo ID. That system is the most reasonable way to avoid voter fraud. Why should that be a threat to you? I assume you want fair election results. Those without photo ID have 4 years to get this task done so they can vote for the next President. I know, the clock is running, but you have to believe they can get this done!”
–Comment by Another Chuck
AC, first, tell us how the election results are unfair, and if you’re accurate in that regard, we’ll diagnose the problem and come up with solutions. All you’re offering is a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. It’s unreal. I suggest that you would do better to deal with the REAL — just like one hell of a lot of conservatives should have done in the last campaign, rather than oohing and ahing like the villagers did at the Emperor’s new clothes.
Dan:
“AC, first, tell us how the election results are unfair, and if you’re accurate in that regard, we’ll diagnose the problem and come up with solutions. All you’re offering is a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist”
But then when it’s about guns or the CHP process, you’re all for creating solutions in search of problems.
Re: Contrasuzie @ 6:08 pm
Add me to that list.
As I posted on election day, I voted at 1:15 and was in and out in 10 minutes. No wait at the check-in table. One person ahead of me in the “line” at the voting machines.
#35 Oh please, maloof.
FWIIW, as to folk who would have difficulty standing in line, there is early voting and at my polling place they will bring arrange for you to vote out at the curbside — as they should Statewide:
**
§ 24.2-649. Assistance for certain voters.
A. Any voter age 65 or older or physically disabled may request and then shall be handed a paper ballot or a mark sense ballot by an officer of election outside the polling place but within 150 feet of the entrance to the polling place. The voter shall mark the paper ballot in the officer’s presence but in a secret manner and fold and return the ballot to the officer. The officer shall immediately return to the polling place and deposit the ballot in the ballot container in accordance with § 24.2-646. The voter shall mark the mark sense ballot in the officer’s presence but in a secret manner and cover and return the ballot to the officer who shall immediately return to the polling place and deposit the ballot in the ballot counter in accordance with the instructions of the State Board.
SNIP
**
Laura, absolutely! Voting is a right and a privilege. The very lenient current requirements must be met. As “Mike” stated in his post, the people that are complaining have disenfranchised themselves.
I am a recent contributor to this blog but I am amazed at the priorities of the liberals on the board. You guys will argue all day about the voting rights of a homeless veteran, or the shut in citizen who is only capable of escaping their abode once a year to stand in line for hours to vote.
I have posed the question many times about how to deal with our national debt, but no one seems to care. What moves the needle on this board is homeless voting rights ,gay marriage and women’s reproductive issues. Come on people, we are 16t in debt with a president that could care less about spending cuts. May I suggest this board does a little common sense thinking on a macro level?
Dave Hicks, I witnessed handicapped voters at the senior center in Vinton on Election Day. There, they actually brought the voting machine (the ones they use on Roanoke County are portable) outside the curb, where folks voted in their cars.
Dear Santa, two to four years is not enough time to prepare for me to vote and get an ID, please help
“…no one seems to care.”
DING! DING! DING! We have a winner!!
Another Chuck:
“Come on people, we are 16t in debt with a president that could care less about spending cuts. May I suggest this board does a little common sense thinking on a macro level?”
I agree 100%, Another Chuck, but most of these bloggers absolutely could not care less. It will never happen and is sad. To them, there is no problem until the government checks start bouncing. They crucified mark Jurkevich for writing about the massive uncontrollable debt, spending, and how it helped him to a second term – things I thought weren’t even being disputed, but rather that the Obama voters knew and didn’t care…. like these folks, apparently.
#37: A self-declared perfectly objective thinker wrote: “But then when it’s about guns or the CHP process, you’re all for creating solutions in search of problems.”
But then when it’s about high capacity weapons and protection from machine gun murders and Malvo type sniper terrorism, you’re all for pretending problems have no solutions.
Prediction: some will attempt to say there are no problems in these realms, ignoring both extant examples and their own use of an argument of “potential” problems that has just been used to justify gun radicalism. And/Or they’ll invoke a gun militia that might “protect” us from totalitarianism, somehow ignoring both the likelihood of the U.S. military being cohesively enlisted to attempt such a violent takeover, or the efficacy of guns alone in the face of the realities of modern tools of war.
Any unbiased economist will tell you that you don’t cut spending in the middle of a recession. The debt was never a problem for Republican administrations, why so now? As for Mark, he lost me with his impassioned global warming denial.
AnotherChuck, k could name 10 things that interest and alarm me more than the deficit, Just because the current convenient GOP narrative is that we’re supposed to collectively be wetting ourselves over it – simply because they find it to be a facile cudgel to beat over Obama’s head (it has zero to do with principle) – doesn’t require me to fall in with the sheeple. The sky is not falling, the deficit will work itself out somehow as it always does (ask Reagan), and in the meantime there’s no reason to abandon civil rights and health care reform. None.
“I have posed the question many times about how to deal with our national debt, but no one seems to care. What moves the needle on this board is homeless voting rights ,gay marriage and women’s reproductive issues. Come on people, we are 16t in debt with a president that could care less about spending cuts.”
The right should let same-sex marriage “rock on” if they are truly ONLY concerned with the economy. We represent a huge “chunk of change” and are stereotypically notorious for spending money!
D.I.N.K, double income no kids. All the way to the bank!
http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/24/pf/gay-marriage-economic-impact/index.htm
#41 Come on, AC, I rarely see gay marriage discussed on this board, although we do call out right wingers when they get all homophobic on us.
“#41 Come on, AC, I rarely see gay marriage discussed on this board, although we do call out right wingers when they get all homophobic on us.”
AC, since you brought it up, it’ll get a mention on here Tuesday.
No Another Chuck, my aunt is not an immigrant! 90 years ago, she was born at home without a doctor present and she has never had an actual birth certificate so none is “on file” to send her. To get one, she has to fill out other forms and get a different kind of birth certification. She has never driven a car. She worked outside the home, has a bank account, receives dividends and Social Security checks and has maintained her entire life without one. I am not real interested in whether your brain can understand that she is not the only one. The fact is that to allow only one form of ID, a DMV issued photo ID, would disenfranchise her, cause her to jump through hoops she has never had to before and in that, it would be a poll tax. It is a deliberate attempt to prevent people from voting because people like her will simply not vote rather than submit to the tyranny of people like you suddenly deciding she is not worthy of the right she has had for so long.
No one has or should have any gripe with showing some form of ID, but to limit that to one specific ID, knowing that many people will not have it, is a modern day poll tax, and voter suppression of the worst kind, with virtually no evidence of need.
We have no need to discuss the debt or the deficits because we have no expectation whatsoever that the right wingers here are any more capable of honest discussions based in reality on those subjects than they have had on any other subject. Just the mentions you already made and the responses prove the futility of arguing with people whose arguments are based in right wing talking points, cherry picked statistics and incredible claims.
Pardon those of us who find this current worry over 16T to be BS when the previous worry over 10T was non-existent. “Deficits don’t matter” -Dick Cheney
Pardon those of us who find this current worry over the spending specious when the previous worry over the war spending, revenue cuts and insurance company boons was non-existent.
Pardon those of us who find this current worry over the troops and the longevity of the war to be BS when the previous worry was non-existent.
“No Another Chuck, my aunt is not an immigrant! 90 years ago, she was born at home without a doctor present and she has never had an actual birth certificate so none is “on file” to send her. To get one, she has to fill out other forms and get a different kind of birth certification. She has never driven a car. She worked outside the home, has a bank account, receives dividends and Social Security checks and has maintained her entire life without one.”
AC, the way the law is now, Sandi’s aunt can vote because her bank statement is allowed as ID (and she also has a new voter registration card, thank you Virginia taxpayers).
She has been voting for eons. Do you really believe the setup needs to be changed to make her jump through all those hoops just so she can keep the ability to vote?
This is real-world stuff, not theoretical, mind you.
I honestly wonder if you would be singing this tune if Romney had won.
Seems to me the obvious answer to much of these problems of access, decreasing polling sites, expense of running a polling place, etc…..is to move the country towards ELECTRONIC ONLINE VOTING. This is 2012 and why do we need to go to a place and stand in line, when probably 65% of voters could do it from home, work, or mobile device. The $4 million that Gov. Bob earmarked to send us those cards and a letter that the cards were coming, would have gone a long way towards implementing an E-VOTE system.
Think of the paper it would save from not receiving all those handouts outside and carrying them into the trash can!
From Raw Story:
“Jim Greer, the former head of the Florida Republican Party, told The Palm Beach Post that a new law shortening the early voting period in the state was intended to prevent Democrats from voting. Greer said that since at least 2009, GOP staff and consultants had discussed limiting early voting hours, which they believed helped Democratic candidates. He described current talk of eliminating voter fraud as a “marketing ploy.”
Former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida confirmed that GOP officials had sought to limit early voting in an effort to suppress Democrat turnout. He told the Post that the effort seemed to be aimed at ethnic minorities, a key demographic for Democrats.
“The sad thing about that is yes, there is prejudice and racism in the party but the real prevailing thought is that they don’t think minorities will ever vote Republican,” Greer said. “It’s not really a broad-based racist issue. It’s simply that the Republican Party gave up a long time ago ever believing that anything they did would get minorities to vote for them.”
“The sad thing about that is yes, there is prejudice and racism in the party but the real prevailing thought is that they don’t think minorities will ever vote Republican,’
Is he not making the connection? Ah republicans…clueless to the end.