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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTennessee's Vengeful Lawmakers
After enormous black turnout in the 2018 midterms, Republicans are advancing a bill that would penalize voter registration drives.
By Cliff Albright
April 24, 2019
The Tennessee legislature will soon vote on a bill that is deliberately intended to suppress black turnout, even though Tennessee is among the five states with the lowest voter participation.
The bill in the senate would create some of the most aggressive regulations on large-scale voter registration in the nation like civil penalties for groups that unintentionally file incomplete voter registration forms. It would impose criminal sanctions on organizers who dont attend training sessions run by local officials and on groups that fail to mail in voter registration forms in a short 10-day window.
Things like typos and missing entries are inevitable. Thats why there are already checks and balances; the election commission verifies voter information against state databases. This doesnt create an unmanageable burden on state officials, nor does it require a draconian bill. Why dont lawmakers make voter registration automatic, instead of making it much more difficult?
This is a clear attack on the successful efforts to mobilize black voters during the 2018 midterm elections. Close to 90,000 black voters were registered by the Tennessee Black Voter Project, led by the activist Tequila Johnson and the Equity Alliance, which partner with my organization, the Black Voters Matter Fund.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/opinion/tennessees-voter-registration-drives.html
And just think the John Roberts right wing libertarian supreme court since he hates voters, he and his clan of libertarian cronies gutted the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, which is to prevent this kinda of crap....................Shelby vs Holder
And now there is state openly attacking voters and registration, ......................
alwaysinasnit
(5,062 posts)efforts. The only way they can stay in power is to cheat.
corbettkroehler
(1,898 posts)Too many of us, including me in an earlier life, think that universal suffrage guaranteed the right to vote. It merely expanded it. Voting is not a constitutional guarantee. That's why slimy, racist policies such as the sickening legislation you cite continue to grow.