From: Ann Jones
Columbus
A major concern of mine is maintaining our efforts at democracy.
Democracy has become more difficult over the years — especially during this particular election.
Gerrymandering biased boundaries around voting districts is causing problems for candidates and voters alike.
Surging the purging could also make the election unfair. Targeting certain groups who may have missed previous elections may no longer be considered voters and may be purged from the polls; such as the young, the poor, and immigrants. Indiana is last among the states for including young voters.
Another tactic that could be used is the “No Match, No Vote” law, which disqualifies ballots based on missing a middle initial or hyphen, or not using the inner envelope. In 2018, Georgia’s secretary of state used the exact match pretense to place a hold on 53,000 voters Eighty percent were in minority groups.
This week our president called the voting process “a disaster." His administration has sued all 67 counties in Pennsylvania to allow out-of-county “poll watchers” to be present. They also sued California and Nevada to keep those states from mailing ballots to all eligible voters. This appears to support President Trump’s statement to Politico in June – “if we don’t win…I think it puts elections at risk.”
Other suppression tactics have been put in place to eliminate polling places, poll workers (especially due to COVID-19), and early voting precincts.
In 1982, a federal judge imposed a decree to stop voting intimidation methods. In 2018 that ban was lifted, so the poll patrol programs will be much larger this year. The GOP has been training up to 50,000 partisans to work at the polls in key states.
The recently appointed postmaster general has cut postal workers’ hours and removed mail sorting machines and street-side letter boxes in addition to slowing the mail delivery. The post office has been America’s globally admired mail system, and the recent events are bizarrely close to the election date – a possible suppression effort.
In 2013 the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was changed in a Supreme Court ruling that stated it was no longer needed because “our country has changed.” Every state subject to the law raced to pass new voter restrictions while also closing 1,688 polling places making it much harder for African Americans to vote.
Just before he died, Rep. John Lewis wrote: “The vote is the most powerful non-violent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it, because it is not guaranteed.”
I urge everyone to vote, even if it poses a struggle in this year of 2020.
I believe America’s democracy is at risk. A majority of our social, political, and economic leaders appear uncommitted to the egalitarian principles of "one person, one vote." It is up to all of us who really believe in grassroots democratic government to realize America’s full democratic possibilities.
Cast your ballot!
