Rigged: How Voter Suppression Threw Wisconsin to Trump

[G_j]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/voter-suppression-wisconsin-election-2016/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social


You can’t say Andrea Anthony didn’t try. A 37-year-old African American woman with an infectious smile, Anthony had voted in every major election since she was 18. On November 8, 2016, she went to the Clinton Rose Senior Center, her polling site on the predominantly black north side of Milwaukee, to cast a ballot for Hillary Clinton. “Voting is important to me because I know I have a little, teeny, tiny voice, but that is a way for it to be heard,” she said. “Even though it’s one vote, I feel it needs to count.”

The poll worker gave her a provisional ballot instead. It would be counted only if she went to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get a new ID and then to the city clerk’s office to confirm her vote, all within 72 hours of Election Day. But Anthony couldn’t take time off from her job as an administrative assistant at a housing management company, and she had five kids and two grandkids to look after. For the first time in her life, her vote wasn’t counted.

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The impact of Wisconsin’s voter ID law received almost no attention. When it did, it was often dismissive. Two days after the election, Talking Points Memo ran a piece by University of California-Irvine law professor Rick Hasen under the headline “Democrats Blame ‘Voter Suppression’ for Clinton Loss at Their Peril.” Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said it was “a load of crap” to claim that the voter ID law had led to lower turnout. When Clinton, in an interview with New York magazine, said her loss was “aided and abetted by the suppression of the vote, particularly in Wisconsin,” the Washington Examiner responded, “Hillary Clinton Blames Voter Suppression for Losing a State She Didn’t Visit Once During the Election.” As the months went on, pundits on the right and left turned Clinton’s loss into a case study for her campaign’s incompetence and the Democratic Party’s broader abandonment of the white working class. Voter suppression efforts were practically ignored, when they weren’t mocked.

Stories like Anthony’s went largely unreported. An analysis by Media Matters for America found that only 8.9 percent of TV news segments on voting rights from July 2016 to June 2017 “discussed the impact voter suppression laws had on the 2016 election,” while more than 70 percent “were about Trump’s false claims of voter fraud and noncitizen voting.” During the 2016 campaign, there were 25 presidential debates but not a single question about voter suppression. The media has spent countless hours interviewing Trump voters but almost no time reporting on disenfranchised voters like Anthony.

Three years after Wisconsin passed its voter ID law in 2011, a federal judge blocked it, noting that 9 percent of all registered voters did not have the required forms of ID. Black voters were about 50 percent likelier than whites to lack these IDs because they were less likely to drive or to be able to afford the documents required to get a current ID, and more likely to have moved from out of state. There is, of course, no one thing that swung the election. Clinton’s failings, James Comey’s 11th-hour letter, Russian interference, fake news, sexism, racism, and a struggling economy in key swing states all contributed to Trump’s victory. We will never be able to assign exact proportions to all the factors at play. But a year later, interviews with voters, organizers, and election officials reveal that, in Wisconsin and beyond, voter suppression played a much larger role than is commonly understood.

..More..

[no_hypocrisy]

1. The issue is now how do you stop this from happening again in 2018 or 2020?

[DFW]

5. One way and one way only

Massive turnout in local and regional elections. So great as to negate voter suppression and elect state legislatures and governors that will change local regulations from ones that discourage voting rights to ones that promote them.

Both sides know what is going on, both know what the Republicans' goals are. When everyone's voice is heard, Republicans lose elections. This is not some great hidden secret. We know it. They know it. They did something about it. Only when we do something about it do we stand a chance to reverse the damage. Register as many voters as possible and GOTV as much as possible, and make it a mandatory five years at hard labor for deliberate voter suppression. See how many O'Keefe-like clowns tossing Democratic voter registrations in the nearest dumpster are willing to risk THAT.

[dalton99a]

10. +1

[karynnj]

12. In addition, NOW would be the good time for left leaning groups and minority organizations

to facilitate their people getting the required IDs. As odious as these extra requirements are, they are a fact of life unless (and until) they are removed. Something is wrong when a class of people need a form of id just to vote and NO government effort was ever done to make it easy for people to get them.

It might be good if when we register people, we keep contact information AND monitor whether the people are added and beyond that kept as voters in good standing. If we keep (with permission obviously) the contact information, we could check with those rejected and later those no longer there. If it is too much to do all of this, even doing it for a random sample, creates the data needed to prove what is happening.

[duforsure]

2. Crooks like these people and groups

Like putin, trump and the gop are very good at corrupting systems for themselves, as they've done our election process, working to do it to our justice system, and everything else they touch. Crooks are very good at this. These guys are very good at it.

[mountain grammy]

3. If mainstream media continues to ignore this

American democracy is over..killed in every red state in the cover of darkness.

[delisen]

4. We will never fully recover from Election 2016

as a nation.

Gore vs Bush in Election 2000 set the stage for 2016.

The attempt to legitimize Trump, like those to legitimize Bush, work against democracy.

[democratisphere]

6. Wisconsin is a hotbed of corruption; just look at weirdo Paul Ryan!

[rainin]

7. I wish someone at MSNBC would take this on.

I credit Rachel Maddow with building national public support for the Russia investigation. Obviously, there were many others, but she worked it night after night making it impossible to ignore.

I wish someone would take on voting in America as a national issue. Imagine if Chris Hayes or Ari Melber made this their issue, night after night, rather than just replaying all the news for that 24 hour cycle. They would be national heroes.

[padah513]

8. Ari might take it on.

Chris is a little iffy. He lets repugs on at times and doesn't challenge them when they are obviously lying.

[LisaM]

9. How did this not come up at the debates?

It's a subject extremely important to democracy.

[Gothmog]

11. The GOP is the party of voter suppression and relies on voter suppression to win races

[GaryCnf]

13. Quit making excuses

Start talking to black people.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/10/20/the-case-that-voter-id-laws-won-wisconsin-for-trump-is-weaker-than-it-looks/?utm_term=.b509e8740c9c

Those black Democrats who are respected in the black community talking to black people about black issues wins (like it did in Alabama). Whitesplaining low turnout DOESN'T.

[G_j]

15. just pointing out a reality is not whitesplaining

Rev. William Barber here in N.C. talks about this issue a lot. He was the head of the NAACP, and heading the new Poor People’s Campaign.
It’s for real.

[GaryCnf]

16. I know it's for real

I'm just saying that blaming suppression for us not turning out is not just making excuses for 2016, it gets in the way of needed change

[Persondem]

14. The Brennan Center for Justice has done some great work on voter suppression

The link below is to a list of links to research studies done on the subject.

https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/research-and-publications-voter-id

You are correct, this issue needs way more visibility. Voter suppression and gerrymandering are cancers on our democracy.

[GoCubsGo]

17. It screwed Russ Feingold, too

And, probably a few congressional candidates, as well.

[Control-Z]

18. Why not help all these people to get the proper ID.

The Democratic party in each of these states could raise money specifically to pay the fees for anyone who needs it to get a "valid" ID. And recruit people - be it to help people understand what they need or to help them with transportation.

If something like that was started now it could be a big help by 2018 elections and even more for 2020.