After Stunning Democratic Win, North Dakota Republicans suppress the Native American Vote w ID laws

[Demovictory9]

Last edited Thu May 3, 2018, 12:45 AM - Edit history (1)

https://www.thenation.com/article/after-stunning-democratic-win-north-dakota-republicans-suppressed-the-native-american-vote/

After Stunning Democratic Win, North Dakota Republicans Suppressed the Native American Vote
A district court ruled against the state’s voter-ID law in April—but with midterms looming, the fight for Native voting rights isn’t over yet.

Richard Brakebill voted in nearly every election of his adult life, a point of pride that began with his return from the Navy more than three decades ago. But in November 2014, when Brakebill drove through the open farmland of the North Dakota countryside to the Rolla City Hall, a poll worker refused to let him vote.

Elvis Norquay was another reliable presence at the polls, despite being a Vietnam War veteran who bounced between homeless shelters for years. Norquay often hitched a ride into town to vote at the local Knights of Columbus Hall, where poll workers would vouch for him—that is, until November 2014, when he, too, was turned away.

Lucille Vivier had no driver’s license, let alone a car, but she almost always found transportation to her nearby polling place. In November 2014, Vivier was denied a ballot, even though one of the poll workers was someone she knew since she was 5-years-old.

---

Over the last six years, Republicans in North Dakota adopted a flurry of legislation that effectively revoked the right to vote for thousands of Native Americans and other Democratic voters, according to an investigation of court records, internal emails among state officials, as well as interviews with voters and lawmakers on both sides of the issue.

[Me.]

1. Shameful

doesn't even cover it

[Varaddem]

2. Rat bastards

Rat bastards need to have their voting rights taken away as felons for civil rights violations. We have to make them pay For playing games that have cost us so much as a country

[dae]

23. Agree 100%!

[Scurrilous]

3. K&R

[SunSeeker]

4. K & R for exposure.

[PaulX2]

5. Republicans Can't Earn People's Votes By Making Their Lives Better

Then need to keep "others" from voting.

God I Hate Republicans.

[beachbum bob]

6. the democratic party in ND needs to help all voters have proper IDs, problem solved

[keepleft101]

11. thats what I was thinking

democratic party needs to help get people the proper ID's. They should be doing this in every state. I cant think of a better way to use their money

[Demovictory9]

14. nonprofits exist to help people get IDS. I recall the repubs in one state was trying to outlaw them

https://www.voteriders.org/get-involved/voter-id-clinics/voter-id-clinics-guidelines/

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/restrictive-voter-id-laws-are-no-match-group-n845291

[DBoon]

29. I contribute to Voteriders

They deserve support

[Salviati]

31. I just donated to them after reading this.

For anyone else moved to donate to them, here's the link:

https://www.voteriders.org/

[Demovictory9]

32. ..

[klook]

41. Thank you!

Excellent resource, and a great organization.

Piss off a Republican: Vote!
Really piss them off: make it easier for a disenfranchised citizen to vote!!

[moose65]

7. It just boggles the mind

What "rationale" do they give for these kinds of laws? Voter fraud? Nonexistent. Surely, please God, somebody tell us that they don't think a Native American can be an "illegal," do they? I wouldn't put it past them!

[Demovictory9]

16. No pretense of any kind. First they pass the voter ID laws. then they try to block those who

help people register or help with IDs.

[geardaddy]

8. Deplorable!

[DFW]

9. Republicans, even stupid ones, have calculators

They know that in fairly held elections they tend to lose.

They therefore have no interest in fairly held elections. What did we THINK they were going to do about it?

[47of74]

10. Voter suppression and electoral fraud should be capital offenses...

....and punished the same as treason. The punishment needs to be so awful that no one will even think of taking one for the team.

[IronLionZion]

12. I hope our party is doing something about this

fighting it in the courts and helping these Americans get the proper documents so they can vote.

[Demovictory9]

15. Restrictive voter ID laws are no match for this group

As the midterm elections approach, a small army of organizers will be answering calls and knocking on doors in hotly contested districts around the country with a simple question: Do you have what you need to vote?

Plenty of groups, including the ACLU, have used the judicial system to take aim against the growing number of strict voter identification laws, attempting to convince the courts they unfairly target certain groups, particularly low-income voters, minorities, senior citizens and people with disabilities.

But VoteRiders, a nonpartisan nonprofit based in California, takes a different tack.

Since 2012, the organization has led a grassroots operation to help voters adhere to each state's individual requirements — rather than fight them through lawsuits. And it is beefing up its operation ahead of November's elections, deploying hundreds of staff and volunteers across the country as Democrats, targeting over 100 seats in Congress, look for a wave and Republicans try to maintain control.

[Blue_true]

21. Vote riders is handling it in the most effective way time wise.

Republicans have proven that they can find a court that is willing to delay implementation of voter suppression remedies, or outright allow targeting of certain classes of voters. The best way to defeat that is get people registered, have them vote and change the legislature and governor. If this happens enough times, republicans will get the message that they need to appeal to every voting group to win.

[NewJeffCT]

25. Never heard of them before

but, glad there is somebody out there trying to help fight voter suppression.

[S.E. TN Liberal]

13. republican'ts can't win honestly or by telling the truth about their agenda.

[TheFrenchRazor]

17. f-ing nazis. nt

[MarcA]

18. Eventually enough people will refuse to recognize such governments

as legitimate. Then history tell us what happens. Not pleasant.

[Initech]

19. They can't win if they can't lie, cheat, and steal. Bastards.

[sellitman]

20. We need to keep spreading sunshine on topics like this.

Otherwise we will continue losing.

Bastards!

[Demovictory9]

22. Yep

[tclambert]

24. Their ancestors may have come to this country illegally

from Siberia or Mongolia or some other shithole country. Now, if they had come from Norwegian stock, or German, well, Republicans would be OK with that. And despite over a century of dedicated missionary work, not all Native Americans are Christian.

[Croney]

27. I'm trying to picture the ancestors of Native Americans

coming to this country illegally... before it was a country with immigration laws... having trouble. And since I'm not a Christian, the fact that other people aren't doesn't bother me much.

[tclambert]

28. Did they have papers? No! Paper wasn't invented yet. Therefore, they were undocumented.

Un-Christian apparently bothers the Republicans. Hardly any Native Americans are Muslim, though. That's a point in their favor . . . from a Republican point of view. I'm trying to channel Republican thinking, but it's hard. My self-talk tends to have proper grammar and complete sentences.

[nolabels]

34. They have been in the Americas more than ten millennium before any recorded civilizations......

found anywhere. Euro-Asian populations have just about wiped every other culture off the face of the earth at this time. The lemming mono-culture we are all sucked up into is going to be a bad option for the species. The food we eat is killing us, many other species from our era are already extinct and we are all just a few steps from some ecological disaster taking a major toll on us.

There's a New Theory About Native Americans' Origins

time.com › Science › Research
Jul 21, 2015 - The team found that Native Americans most likely had a common Siberian origin, contradicting theories that an earlier migration from Europe occurred. The timeline Rasmus and his colleagues propose goes something like this: About 23,000 years ago, a single group splintered off from an East Asian
http://time.com/3964634/native-american-origin-theory/

[Eliot Rosewater]

26. This is the same as shooting people as far as I am concerned.

[DBoon]

30. This quote from Bertolt Brecht comes to mind

"Some party hack decreed that the people
had lost the government's confidence
and could only regain it with redoubled effort.
If that is the case, would it not be be simpler,
If the government simply dissolved the people
And elected another?”

[ailsagirl]

40. That's a wonderful quote-- I didn't realize Brecht wrote about such things!

But then he was hardly a conservative artist:

German poet, playwright, and theatrical reformer whose epic theatre departed from the conventions of theatrical illusion and developed the drama as a social and ideological forum for leftist causes.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bertolt-Brecht

Bob Dylan was quite taken with him, I recall reading.

[Honeycombe8]

33. This is almost nationwide. It's time for everyone who wants to vote to get an I.D. in every state.

If they don't have or can't get driver's licenses, then the states SHOULD make available a state I.D. or accept something else.

It's a shame, because this costs, and takes time. Yu have to plan ahead to get this.

I had to do that, when I moved states. In order to get a driver's license here, I had to provide a certified copy of my birth certificate. This costs money. This is a small area, and I wasn't working, so I was able to find out where to go, and drive there during the week. Even so, it took a 2 or 3 hours, with travel time and wait time. I think it cost $16.00 for ONE certified copy (way too much!). But while I was at it, I got two original certified copies of my bc.

Everyone who wants to vote will have to do this. This voter ID thing is sweeping the nation. Everyone...absolutely everyone, needs to get a certified copy of birth certificate to get an ID.

Local Dems or the nat'l Party people need to start pushing for this now, in time for the mid-terms. Locals can assist them, by giving rides, telling them the fastest way, where to go, etc.

[ellie]

35. Sue, sue, sue

The only way to get repukes to do the right thing is to drag them through the justice system.

[blue-wave]

36. I agree with some of the others

The democratic party MUST send in teams of capable individuals who can register and supply the proper ID's for every legal democratic voter in the state. There is no reason in my mind, why we should not carry the Dakota's as well as any other "red" state out there. We just haven't been trying.

[pansypoo53219]

37. cheating AGAIN.

[jmowreader]

38. The only solution is to RICO that dangerous party out of existence

[bobGandolf]

39. IMPORTANT TO KEEP IN PUBLIC EYE

This type of maneuvering, by republicans, to suppress voters is horrible. The general public needs to see this.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

42. Kick for exposure!