"Voter ID" rollcall in House: Issue for new campaign ads against ... [View All]

[ProgressiveEconomist]

virtually all Republicans?

One of the winning strategies for Republicans six years ago was "chilling" the African-American and anti-racist vote by posing as smiling, not-so-bad alternatives to Big Government. "Faith-based" federal money for church programs was as much as promised to Black ministers who held off from condemning Republicans in sermons. Republican candidates such as Jim Talent in Missouri refrained from pushing any issues that would especially excite African-American voters into a massive turnout against Republicans.

Has yesterday's House vote to pass "Voter ID" vote suppression changed all that? Thousands of still-living African-Americans can attest personally to having spilled blood to get the right to vote. Millions of Americans--though perhaps smaller proportions of Gen Xers and Gen Yers than of Boomers-- remember vivid TV footage of the struggle for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Yesterday's HR4844 vote was a direct affront to all of them. Its cynical title, "The Federal Election Integrity Act of 2006", is a strong selling point against virtually ALL Republicans running for any statewide or national office in two months.

Is it time to break out footage from the sixties, of Bull Connor turning firehoses on people demanding the right to vote, and of Rep. John Lewis (D-GA getting his skull split open by a racist?

Will yesterday's roll-call in the House be useful in key Senate races in VA, NJ, MO, OH, FL, MD, and elsewhere?

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Incredibly, yesterday's vote to suppress the franchise for disproportionately minority, poor, elderly, and disabled REGISTERED voters was a rare kind of vote, almost strictly along party lines.

Among those who voted, only SEVEN representatives departed from the position of the majority of their party.

From http://clerk.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.asp?year=2006&rollnumber=459 :

"FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 459

H R 4844 YEA-AND-NAY 20-Sep-2006 4:00 PM QUESTION: On Passage

BILL TITLE: Federal Election Integrity Act of 2006

Party ............ Yeas ...... Nays .......... Not Voting

Republican ...... 224 ......... 3 ............ 3

Democratic ........ 4 ...... 192 ............ 5

Independent ... --- ......... 1"

For details about the "Voter ID" law, see http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2184544