Voter suppression embedded in Constitution
If the new documentary, “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” were a lawsuit, it would be filed aswe the People vs. the United States of America.
The evidence so irrefutable, the crimes so nefarious, the United States would receive a crushing blow.
The ruling would say voter suppression was embedded in the U.S. Constitution; and that amendments to correct course were defied.
In states where people of color are overtaking whites, the lawsuit also would show that blatant suppression has given way to more covertmeans.
“All In” should be required viewing before you vote in November. It should be shown to students from middle school to college.
Filmmakers Lisa Cortés and Liz Garbus showcase Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who never conceded her loss in the 2018 governor’s race against an opponent who was also in charge of the election.
“All In” lays out the evidence — from a Constitution that gave only white men who owned property the right to vote to Jim Crow-era poll taxes and literacy tests that spread like wildfire.
After those tactics weremade unlawful, redistricting maps were devised to limit the power of growing minority populations, thus limiting their representation.
When voter ID laws began to pop up, specifically because they impacted the poor and voters of color, they spread across the country, too.
The federal government has had every opportunity to make voting easier by making Election Day a holiday, while states could expand early-voting periods and the number of polling places. The easier route has been the road less taken.
Instead, the Trump administration this year attempted to curtail the U.S. Postal Service’s ability to deliver ballots during a pandemic.
The crisis also has stained the reputation of the nation’s highest court. In 2000, the Supreme Court determined the presidential winner as a recount was left unfinished.
President Donald Trump and Republican congressional leaders are rushing to fill Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat, because an election controversy could reach the court again.
The Supreme Court also suppressed voting by ruling to invalidate parts of the Voting Rights Act. Those provisions prevented voter discrimination in places like Texas, with its history of bad actors.
The Electoral College suppresses voting, too. More voices are calling for a popular vote to determine presidential elections and ensure a fair fight. Republicans overwhelmingly oppose it.
Unfairness has been at the heart of voter suppression. It’s not hard to see why voter apathy exists. Suppression is undemocratic, unpatriotic and unamerican, and as plain as daylight.
On Tuesday, a panel on the 2020 Latino vote put on by the University of Texas at San Antonio’s University Relations Speakers Series added to the evidence.
Juan Andrade of the U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute in Chicago spoke, as did Domingo Garcia, national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, of Dallas; and Lydia Camarillo, president of Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project in San Antonio. Me, too.
Andrade talked of voter suppression in Chicago in the late 1970s through 1980, when years of registration drives left it with a net increase of just 17 Latino voters, he said.
The Chicago Board of Elections was purging 100,000 registered voters each year, including 12,500 Latinos, he said. A lawsuit was successfully won against the board.
Garcia castigated Texas for not allowing voters to register online, which he called especially egregious during a pandemic. He urged Latino voters to work harder — “ponte las pilas,” he said, “get your act together.”
Register by the Oct. 5 deadline, he urged.
Voting advocates are universally asking voters to vote early this year, from Oct. 13-30. Election Day is Nov. 3.
Camarillo decried a narrative she hears in the press about Latino voter apathy.
She has a point. Negativity doesn’t help, especially as campaigns refuse to invest in getting the vote out in Texas. It’s impossible to mask low turnouts, though.
The real problem is that those clinging to power don’t really want everyone to participate. If they did, they’d make registration automatic or allow people to register on Election Day.
In the 2016 general election, 1.9 million Latinos and 1.3 million Blacks voted in Texas. In the 2018 midterms, 1.2 million Latinos and 850,000 Blacks cast ballots.
Before the pandemic, Southwest Voter estimated 2.1 to 2.2 million Latinos would vote in Texas in November, along with 1.5 million African Americans.
Far more are on the rolls. Advocates say if they all voted the state would be more than purple. While many would celebrate that potential eventuality, others — those who believe most in free, fair elections — would call the greater turnout its own reward.