Al’s Loupe

A presidential election reminiscent of 2000

By Alvaro F. Fernandez
alvaro@progresoweekly.com

About two months left for Election Day. Are you registered to vote?

It is not mandatory in the United State that you vote. But too many states around the country are making it more difficult for U.S. citizens to register and vote. Let me repeat that. A country that prides itself as being the most democratic, and whose main tool for that democracy is the vote, has for the last couple of years attempted to keep some of us from voting.

Shocked?

Don’t take my word for it, check out the Brennan Center for Justice and you’ll better understand what I am saying. The Center, part of New York University (NYU) School of Law, is a non-partisan public policy and law institute that focuses on the fundamental issues of democracy and justice. Their work ranges from voting rights to campaign finance reform, from racial justice in criminal law to Constitutional protection in the fight against terrorism.

And what some of their studies have found going on around the country is, well… shocking!

After the debacle that was 2000 and that presidential election, one would have hoped that the possibility of stealing elections would become that much more difficult. I guess we didn’t learn our lesson. Or, maybe, some of us have learned to be better at it…

I mean stealing elections.

And it can seem, oh so legal. Yes, it appears at times to be the system working to deny certain citizens their rights. Remember, just because it is law does not make it right. The example I’ve always used is the fact that before August 18, 1920, women did NOT have the right to vote in this country. That was the law. It didn’t make it right.

Sadly, what we are seeing around the country are too many republican governors (yes, they are Republicans) attempting to make it difficult for African American, Hispanic, young and elderly voters to cast ballots. I don’t think I need to explain why. In most polls, each group favors the president. And obviously republican governors would like to see a new president in 2013.

Just to give you an idea of some of what has happened in 2011 and 2012 state legislative sessions:

• There have been 180 restrictive voting bills introduced since the beginning of 2011 in 41 states.
• Of those, 16 states have passed restrictive voting laws that have the potential to impact the 2012 election.
• Included in those 16 are places like Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and others. Swing states, we call them. Votes there will decide who is our next president.

What do I mean by restrictive? Here are some examples:

• At least 17 states have introduced legislation that would require proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate, to register to vote. (I bet if I asked you for your citizenship papers, or your birth certificate, some of you would have a hard time coming up with those papers…) (Some older Black voters have never had a birth certificate.)
• At least 16 states (and this includes Florida) have made it much harder to stage voter registration drives. (Something done very successfully by the 2008 Obama campaign – especially with young and African American voters.)
• At least nine states introduced bills to reduce their early voting periods. (This one also includes Florida.) Voting records demonstrate that in Florida, for example, during early voting, Barack Obama blew away John McCain in 2008. Black voters and many working people who might be busy on election day, Tuesday, are prone to early vote. No wonder Florida Governor Rick Scott and the Florida legislature has done everything possible to curtail it. He’s eliminated the last Sunday before the election for early voting – a time when Black churches have bused many of their parishioners to the polls.
• Also, and this one deals with Florida too, republican politicians have made it much harder for felons WHO HAVE SERVED THEIR TIME AND PAID THEIR DEBT TO SOCIETY to get their voting rights restored. In Florida, for example, ex Governor Charlie Crist took a step in the right direction by making it easier for these persons to regain their rights. Rick Scott undid Crist’s good work…

Steve Bousquet, of the Tampa Bay Times, wrote in a recent column that “Hispanics and blacks account for more than half of the people in Florida whose voter registration forms [have been] rejected … under the state’s controversial new voter verification law.” And that “Democrats were four times as likely to be tripped up by the law as Republicans, and more than half of the people affected are 30 years old or younger.”

Folks, this election may be a tight one. It’s eerie how much it’s starting to remind me of 2000. And in 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote in this country. George W. Bush, with the help of a Florida governor, managed to finagle a victory by hook or by crook, the Electoral College formula and a final push by the Supreme Court – whose members then (as a group) were not as conservative as the current group.

Let’s not allow history to be repeated.

Register. And make sure you vote.