How conservatives invented “voter fraud” to attack civil rights

[hue]

http://www.salon.com/2013/04/14/how_conservatives_invented_voter_fraud_to_attack_civil_rights/

Phony complaints of voter fraud are the essence of a decade-long effort by the right to reverse civil rights law.

Excerpted from "Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy"

Just when it seemed that the democratic process had reached its apotheosis with the election of America’s first black president, a political earthquake occurred in 2010 that threatened all that had been accomplished since 1965. Two years after Obama’s election, the midterm elections saw a conservative backlash that swept Republicans back into office in droves. As the media focused on the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives and increases in the Senate, more important developments were occurring closer to home. Republicans now controlled both legislative bodies in 26 states, and 23 won the trifecta, controlling the governorships as well as both statehouses. What happened next was so swift that it caught most observers off guard — and began surreptitiously to reverse the last half-century of voting rights reforms.

All across the country following the 2010 midterms, Republican legislatures passed and governors enacted a series of laws designed to make voting more difficult for Obama’s constituency — minorities, especially the growing Hispanic community; the poor; students; and the elderly or handicapped. These included the creation of voter photo-ID laws, measures affecting registration and early voting, and, in Iowa and Florida, laws to prevent ex-felons from exercising their franchise. (Florida’s governor, in secret, reversed the policies of his Republican predecessors Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist, policies that would have permitted one hundred thousand former felons, predominantly black and Hispanic, to vote in 2012.) Democrats were stunned. “There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all the Jim Crow burdens in voting, the determined effort to limit the franchise that we see today,” said President Bill Clinton in July 2011. Once again, the voting rights of American minorities were in peril.

The newly elected Republican officials were able to act so quickly because they had the help of an ultraconservative organization known as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Its founder was the late Paul Weyrich, a legendary conservative writer and proselytizer who founded both ALEC and the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank dedicated to limited government, an economy free of federal regulations and the sanctity of traditional marriage. Backed by conservative corporations such as Coca-Cola, Philip Morris, AT&T, Exxon Mobil and Walmart, among many others, and funded by right-wing billionaires Richard Mellon Scaife, the Coors family and David and Charles Koch, ALEC provided services for like-minded legislators and lobbyists. ALEC wrote bills and created the campaigns to pass them. Its spokesmen boasted that “each year, more than 1,000 bills based on its models are introduced in state legislatures, and that approximately 17 percent of those bills become law.”

[elleng]

1. Thanks. More discussion, provided by Cliff Arnebeck:

For those in this forum who have not been following the discussion of our problem with Republican election theft and political assassinations, being so nicely portrayed on ABC TV's Scandal series, here are the links:

Karl Rove, Architect of the biggest bribe in history! http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022628229

How Karl Rove fixed the FBI investigation of his theft of the 2004 Presidential election in Ohio http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022560634

And for those interested in combatting criminal election fraud, more:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022661110

[Thinkingabout]

2. They can continue to attack but we have to be strong, get our grass roots campaigns in high gear and

Just beat them every where. There are more on our side than with them so be strong and vote. The angry old white men numbers are going to start down, the Dixiecrats does not have the numbers to beat the Democrats.

[elleng]

3. Yes. Our grass roots campaign is discussed here:

Cliff Arnebeck's work combatting criminal election fraud

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022661110