Millions of African Americans Will Be Disenfranchised on Election Day

When Election Day arrives in November, the state of Virginia will likely play a huge role in determining whether Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain is the next President of the United States.Unfortunately, the vote tally from the Old Dominion will be illegitimate because the state will disenfranchise nearly 350,000 individuals who are barred from voting because of felony convictions.

[Bludge]

Good, crooks should not vote. I am OK with that. Similar laws exist in many democratic countries.

[Trufax]

The State isn't disproportionately disenfranchising blacks from voting. Blacks commit violent crimes at a far higher rate than any other race. Their inability to vote due to felony convictions is PROPORTIONATE to their crime statistics. No story here!

[GoodGrief78]

Typical of a commonwealth!

[AAMech]

No story at all.

[EarthTone]

If a person has done his time, and is back in "society", he/she should be afforded the rights that the rest of us have.

When we take voting rights away from citizens, any citizens, we are making it impossible for them to fully engage with the rest of society. Beside being unfair, it adds to the many issues that isolate and cause despair among ex-offenders. That makes society as a whole worse off, not better.

Ex-offenders have as much a stake in the society as any of us. They should be allowed to vote. End of story.

[beyond obama]

Why not let the dead vote...well, grandpa WOULD HAVE VOTED....

[blackinjun]

create situations of poverty and ignorance, dangle the carrot and make a "criminal" for life, just another way to kill the competition for resources and life..

Black people are really ignorant to fall for white supremacist tactics. We should be stronger and not crave their materialism to the point of getting us a record. That's the game we fall for over and over and over...

[Preppy]

Let’s be honest. This is what happens when you break the law. It is illegal and against the law to use drugs. Felony disenfranchisement laws are not potent examples of structural racism.

Life lesson, don’t break the rules. If you don’t break the rules you won’t get a felony conviction and if you don’t get a felony conviction, you will not be barred from voting.

Excluding unusual circumstances, it really isn’t that hard to be a law abiding contributing member of society.

[Morrison73]

Bludge wrote:

Good, crooks should not vote. I am OK with that. Similar laws exist in many democratic countries.

this is a republic dude.

[Anndee]

Illegals aren't suppose to vote either and they do.
Go to any international fest and you will see people that can't even speak english being registered to vote.
I was witness to this very thing. A hispanic family was shuffled over to a registration table.
When the women said in very broken english" NO speak english", the girl at the table said no problem I'll fill it out for you.
She had the lady sign something that she couldn't even read...
No voter fraud there right?

[Preppy]

Anndee wrote:

Illegals aren't suppose to vote either and they do.
Go to any international fest and you will see people that can't even speak english being registered to vote.
I was witness to this very thing. A hispanic family was shuffled over to a registration table.
When the women said in very broken english" NO speak english", the girl at the table said no problem I'll fill it out for you.
She had the lady sign something that she couldn't even read...
No voter fraud there right?

All of those people who engage in vote fraud should be punished.

[Anndee]

VOTING IN WISCONSIN>>
What just a little fraud can do.

1. You can register to vote on election day in Wisconsin.

2. Just In Milwaukee alone, 10,000 votes cannot be verified - ie, they cannot locate a voter at the address given at the precinct.
Thanks to International Fests!

3. Kerry won Wisconsin by 11,384 votes.

4. On election day in Wisconsin, a Bush GTV headquarters was vandalized when vehicles that were to take Bush voters to the polls had all their tires slashed.

5. If Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes had gone to Bush, it would have taken Bush's electoral total to 296, which is beyond the margin that Ohio's 20 EVs would have made any difference.

[DobyTheDoggy]

More lies by the uneducated ones. Fact is that if convicted of a felony, after serving any jail time other imposed sentence, the individual can request to have his or her right to vote reinstated. It is at the discretion of the pertaining state whether or not to reinstate.

Education is key!

[Stuipd Citizens]

DobyTheDoggy wrote:

More lies by the uneducated ones. Fact is that if convicted of a felony, after serving any jail time other imposed sentence, the individual can request to have his or her right to vote reinstated. It is at the discretion of the pertaining state whether or not to reinstate.
Education is key!

EXACTLY that law doesn't apply to Indiana and these are some rednecks up in here! they can vote all day long!

[blackinjun]

Anndee wrote:

VOTING IN WISCONSIN>>
What just a little fraud can do.
1. You can register to vote on election day in Wisconsin.
2. Just In Milwaukee alone, 10,000 votes cannot be verified - ie, they cannot locate a voter at the address given at the precinct.
Thanks to International Fests!
3. Kerry won Wisconsin by 11,384 votes.
4. On election day in Wisconsin, a Bush GTV headquarters was vandalized when vehicles that were to take Bush voters to the polls had all their tires slashed.
5. If Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes had gone to Bush, it would have taken Bush's electoral total to 296, which is beyond the margin that Ohio's 20 EVs would have made any difference.

so you are glad W went back to the white house?

[Pdamerica org]

Jeb Bush blamed for unfair Florida election
Civil rights commission says minorities were disenfranchised by governor's 'gross dereliction' in ignoring problems
June 6, 2001 http://tinyurl.com/2qr9sn
Thousands of black electors in Florida were disenfranchised in last November's election by an electoral system tainted by "injustice, ineptitude and inefficiency" a leaked report by the US civil rights commission says.
It accuses Governor Jeb Bush, the president's brother, and his secretary of state, Katherine Harris, of "gross dereliction" of duty, saying they "chose to ignore mounting evidence" of the problems.
The eight-strong commission, whose report will be published on Friday, found that black voters were "10 times more likely than white voters to have their ballots rejected", and pointed to the use of a flawed list of felons and ex-felons to purge the voting rolls.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/US_election_race/St...

==========

Election Suit Goes Forward
Civil Rights Groups Seek Changes In Florida Voting
MIAMI, Aug. 17, 2001 http://tinyurl.com/2qsthd
(CBS) A lawsuit filed by civil rights groups who contend black voters were disenfranchised last November won't come to a quick resolution.

U.S. District Judge Alan Gold has denied motions by Secretary of State Katherine Harris to dismiss the suit and by a county elections supervisor for a summary judgment. The judge's order was filed Tuesday.

The lawsuit, which included complaints from the Nov. 7 presidential election, asked the judge to eliminate punch-card ballots used in 25 counties, fix the state's system for purging voter lists and monitor Florida elections for 10 years. There was no effort to overturn the results of the presidential race won by George W. Bush.

"We're pleased the court ruled the way it did," said Anita Hodgkiss, an attorney with the Lawyers' Committee For Civil Rights Under Law. "All of these were important steps for us."
Harris, state elections chief Clay Roberts and county election supervisors were named in the suit. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/01/11/pol...

[Pdamerica org]

Has Bush v. Gore Become the Case That Must Not Be Named?
August 15, 2006 / http://tinyurl.com/qbx2s
At a law school Supreme Court conference that I attended last fall, there was a panel on “The Rehnquist Court.” No one mentioned Bush v. Gore, the most historic case of William Rehnquist’s time as chief justice, and during the Q. and A. no one asked about it. When I asked a prominent law professor about this strange omission, he told me he had been invited to participate in another Rehnquist retrospective, and was told in advance that Bush v. Gore would not be discussed.
The ruling that stopped the Florida recount and handed the presidency to George W. Bush is disappearing down the legal world’s version of the memory hole, the slot where, in George Orwell’s “1984,” government workers disposed of politically inconvenient records. The Supreme Court has not cited it once since it was decided, and when Justice Antonin Scalia, who loves to hold forth on court precedents, was asked about it at a forum earlier this year, he snapped,“Come on, get over it.”
There is a legal argument for pushing Bush v. Gore aside. The majority opinion announced that the ruling was “limited to the present circumstances” and could not be cited as precedent. But many legal scholars insisted at the time that this assertion was itself dictum — the part of a legal opinion that is nonbinding — and illegitimate, because under the doctrine of stare decisis, courts cannot make rulings whose reasoning applies only to a single case.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/15/opinion/15t...

[Pdamerica org]

No other future Supreme Court or any court is allowed to use Bush v Gore as precedent./ Bush is truly an illegitimate President.
http://tinyurl.com/2ps3e3
http://yalelawjournal.org/2006/11/07/flanders...

First, the law.
George W. Bush's January 20, 2001 inauguration was unconstitutional. This isn't because Bush lost the popular vote. Nor is it because he lost Florida and thus the electoral vote. The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to hear the Florida recount lawsuit, Bush v. Gore, violated the U.S. Constitution. It's a states' rights issue. Elections fall under state law; the highest court that may resolve a legal challenge about an election is a state supreme court. The U.S. Supreme Court--a federal body--didn't have jurisdiction in the case.

[Pdamerica org]

Lott, Reagan and Republican Racism
Dec. 14, 2002 / http://tinyurl.com/d9w75
Southern Strategy: The race question has haunted Reagan and the GOP for decades
The same could be said, of course, about such Republican heroes as, Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon or George Bush the elder, all of whom used coded racial messages to lure disaffected blue collar and Southern white voters away from the Democrats. Yet it's with Reagan, who set a standard for exploiting white anger and resentment rarely seen since George Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door, that the Republican's selective memory about its race-baiting habit really stands out.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,859...

==========

Reagan, White As Snow
http://tinyurl.com/6lujee
Last week, as we’ve heard, the Republican presidential candidates praised the name and heritage of Ronald Reagan 40 times during the televised Show and Tell at the Reagan Presidential Library. That none of them mentioned Reagan’s legacy of white supremacy and support for apartheid is a little like invoking Jefferson Davis and not mentioning treason or slavery. Actually, a lot like it.
Ronald Reagan was a white supremacist to his very core, and left enough traces over his lengthy political career so that it’s evident for anyone who cares to look—which apparently few do.
Domestically, he opposed every legislative remedy for African Americans, betraying a meanness of spirit and an open racism. As Sidney Blumenthal wrote in The Guardian in 2003:/ http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/05/08/r...

[Goombah]

Felonies bar voting by 350,000.
.
Don't stop doing crime - change the law.
.
Typical black logic.