Stifling the vote in Troy
Sevenscore and 15 years ago the Civil War ended, and even now those of us in the old Union states often seem smug that it was our side, after all, that freed the slaves. Racism is a shame, we say. You see it down South all the time.
The shame is when we don’t recognize racism’s presence closer to home, and don’t call out clear efforts to deny some people — most notably Black and indigenous people, and other people of color — the full benefits of American citizenship.
Nothing is more fundamental to a democracy than the right to vote. But we’re deluding ourselves if we think that it’s only in the South where hurdles to voting are being erected with the obvious goal of limiting the vote in minority communities.
Take Rensselaer County, for example. It can’t be accidental that neighborhoods that are home to most of the county’s people of color will find it difficult this fall to take advantage of early voting options.
This will be the first presidential election in which New York will join
39 other states that allow so-called “no excuses” early voting. New Yorkers can cast ballots over the course of nine days before Election Day at designated polling places. An early voting season, like mail-in voting, increases the likelihood that people will vote. You would think we might all favor that.
But Rensselaer County initially set only two early voting sites: in the suburban towns of Brunswick and Schodack, where — surely coincidentally — your neighbor is unlikely to be a person of color (or a Democrat). Imagine the outcry if early voting was barred in the cities of Albany or Schenectady but approved in suburban Loudonville and Niskayuna.
Troy, the county seat, had no early polling place until Sen. Neil Breslin, D-bethlehem, and Assemblyman John Mcdonald, D-cohoes, introduced a bill requiring an early voting site in each county’s largest municipality. It awaits Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s signature to be law.
Now Republican-controlled Rensselaer County has arranged for one early polling place in Troy — at the Holy Cross Armenian Apostolic Church, on the city’s east side. It is inconvenient for bus service or voters who must walk, far from the city’s center and minority neighborhoods.
It’s hardly surprising. The county legislature’s Republican majority has balked at a nonbinding resolution citing continuing racism in America, insisting on language acknowledging only that “parts of America were once steeped in racism.” Not everywhere? Not still?
President Donald Trump is even more blunt. When Democrats in Congress earlier this year proposed reforms to facilitate voting by mail and other options, the president told Fox News that it would have enabled “levels of voting that if you’d ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.” Translation: If more Americans vote, Mr. Trump is less likely to be re-elected.
Stifling the vote is emerging as this year’s top Republican campaign tactic. It’s an assault on democracy. In some places — and not just in Dixie, mind you — it’s also a mark of racism.