Update~ What Looks Like #VoterSuppression on an Ordinary Day in #SweetHomeAlabama

#MediaDrivenNarrativeAlert:   Gov. Robert Bentley, left to right, Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., and Peggy Wallace Kennedy, daughter of former Gov. George Wallace, in a commemoration of the voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery (Julie Bennett/ jbennett@al.com)

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! Alabama get voter suppression right!  (pun intended).

Alabama has followed its voter ID requirement that went into effect last year with closing drivers license offices in eight of 10 counties with majority black voting populations. The voter suppression effect is complimented by raising the fee for driver license renewal from $23.50 to $36.25 earlier this year.

EYE don't know why the Alabama Media Group , EYE am look at Y-O-U, Kyle Whitmire, John Archibald, and Dale "Jackson", are acting all shocked and awed Alabama has figured out a way to remain the reddest of the red, Confederate Slave States... today, tomorrow and forever.

EYE don't know why some people are acting all shocked and ashamed to learn Alabama to stop issuing drivers licenses in counties with 75% black registered voters.  Didn't Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders (D. Selma) try to tell y'all?

Hank Sanders knew the red, republican, controlled House would pass the Voter ID bill to disenfranchise black/poor/brown voters.

The Alabama Legislature, under Republican control for the first time since Reconstruction, passed a voter ID law this year. The law takes effect in 2014.
Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin have passed laws this year that allow voters without the required photo ID to cast provisional ballots, but the voters must return to a specific location with that ID within a certain time limit for their ballots to count.
Indiana and Georgia already had such laws. Other states have photo ID laws too, but provide different way to verify a voter’s identity without a photo ID. Texas and South Carolina are awaiting approval for their laws from the Justice Department because of those are among that states with a history of voting rights suppression and discrimination.

EYE knew when the republican majority Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act because things had changed dramatically in the south,  clearing the way for republicans to gerrymander their way to a permanent majority,  this was going to happen.  And it's too late to call for a justice department investigation into the closings Mr. Archibald, Sir.

Maybe if the Alabama Democratic Party had joined with The Alabama Democratic Conference instead of fighting with the Alabama Democratic Conference we wouldn't be in this mess.

EYE am just saying...

Still think Voter ID laws aren’t meant to keep folks from voting? What other purpose can they possibly serve? Back in 2011, Alabama passed a voter ID law requiring Photo ID. For most Americans, that’s a driver’s license.
Unfortunately for folks living in Alabama’s “Black Belt” – the state’s 15 mostly Black counties – those driver’s licences are about to become a LOT harder to get. Why? Because on Thursday, October 1, the state’s shutting down a staggering 31 driver’s license offices, leaving only four open.
Officials claim they’re doing this because of budget cuts, but it looks a lot more like the GOP-controlled state legislature wants to keep Black people from voting. After all, this certainly isn’t the first time the state of Alabama’s tried to keep Black people from voting. And now that the majority -GOP Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, they’re free to do it again.

EYE Report.  YOU Decide. 

"Republicans say no fixes need be made in gutted Voting Rights Act", so let's go to #Selma for Photo Op with President Obama

H/T The Progressive Cynic

Let's recap:

In the summer of 2013, in a 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court eviscerated a key part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 requiring that several whole states and parts of several others "pre-clear" any changes in their voting laws.

Let's go back to  Bloody Sunday

On "Bloody Sunday," March 7, 1965, some 600 civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma on U.S. Route 80. They got only as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks away, where state and local lawmen attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas and drove them back into Selma.

The events of “Bloody Sunday,”  led Congress to enact the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA).

The voting rights bill was passed in the U.S. Senate by a 77-19 vote on May 26, 1965. After debating the bill for more than a month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 333-85 on July 9. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, with Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders present at the ceremony.
The act banned the use of literacy tests, provided for federal oversight of voter registration in areas where less than 50 percent of the nonwhite population had not registered to vote, and authorized the U.S. attorney general to investigate the use of poll taxes in state and local elections (in 1964, the 24th Amendment made poll taxes illegal in federal elections; poll taxes in state elections were banned in 1966 by the U.S. Supreme Court).

Fast forward to the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday

Rep. John Lewis said this year's 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march should reflect the dignity of the original event, which is why he arranged for President Obama to visit the day before local officials in Alabama hold their commemoration.
The result will be two marches in Selma — one on Saturday, March 7, with Obama, Lewis and a record number of congressional lawmakers, and one on Sunday, March 8, run by local leaders.
Local Alabama politicians have objected. They say the anniversary has always been held on a Sunday because March 7, 1965, when protesters marching for voting rights for blacks were clubbed and tear gassed by police, is known as Bloody Sunday.

Compromise Complete?

Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, one of the key proponents of the annual Selma events, said groups involved in planning the 50th anniversary of the historic day have agreed there would be one march this year and it would begin on the day it is traditionally held, Sunday.
Sanders said his initial concern was that there would be a march on Saturday or other competing marches.
"What I was trying to do was make sure the march on Sunday was sacred and that it is going on," said Sanders, who along with several other public officials raised the concerns in a State House news conference a month ago.

So what brings George W. Bush, and the GOP to #Selma after they've done everything they can do to keep minorities and women from voting?

Republicans have been working hard to drum up attendees for the Selma march. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. are not attending. Rep. Martha Roby, R-AL, said she is working to get more of the GOP to join her at the commemoration.
"My motivation is my love for the state and the importance and significance of this anniversary," Roby said in a recent interview. "I want as many of my colleagues (as possible) to be a part of that. The civil rights movement belongs to everybody. It's not a Republican or Democratic issue."

Mission Accomplished thanks to President Barack Obama and Representatives Terri Sewell and John Lewis.

Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell of Birmingham and GOP Rep. Martha Roby of Montgomery, are co-hosting the pilgrimage and helped recruit members to attend. Leaders in the Senate include Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Tim Scott, R-S.C.
The organization's annual trip to Alabama is led by Alabama native and Democratic congressman John Lewis of Georgia, who was among those beaten during the 1965 march.
Lewis, in a recent interview, said he was happy to see greater interest from Republicans this year.

This bill will strike down restrictions to voting in all elections, federal, state and local, which have been used to deny Negroes the right to vote.

This bill will establish a simple, uniform standard which cannot be used, however ingenious the effort, to flout our Constitution. It will provide for citizens to be registered by officials of the United States Government, if the state officials refuse to register them. It will eliminate tedious, unnecessary lawsuits which delay the right to vote. Finally, this legislation will insure that properly registered individuals are not prohibited from voting. I will welcome the suggestions from all the members of Congress--I have no doubt - See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/1965-president-lyndon-baines-johnson-voting-rights-act#sthash.76dsg6Zy.dpuf

 What a difference three years makes in Sweet Home Alabama.

This bill will strike down restrictions to voting in all elections, federal, state and local, which have been used to deny Negroes the right to vote.

This bill will establish a simple, uniform standard which cannot be used, however ingenious the effort, to flout our Constitution. It will provide for citizens to be registered by officials of the United States Government, if the state officials refuse to register them. It will eliminate tedious, unnecessary lawsuits which delay the right to vote. Finally, this legislation will insure that properly registered individuals are not prohibited from voting. I will welcome the suggestions from all the members of Congress--I have no doubt that I will get some--on ways and means to strengthen this law and to make it effective. - See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/1965-president-lyndon-baines-johnson-voting-rights-act#sthash.76dsg6Zy.dpuf

Tweet of the Week

Tea Partiers still really angry that black people can vote http://t.co/7IHPMbEl49
— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) June 26, 2014

 

 Parents are the First Teachers

"Alabama Secretary of State Errs in Poll Watcher Guide: Photo Voter ID Law Disenfranchises Elderly Voters in June Primaries"

H/T Warm Southern Breeze

The Alabama Secretary of State’s office produced this “Practical guide for Poll Watchers” for the 2014 statewide Primaries (held June 3, 2014), which mistakenly cites the OLD law, which allows numerous types of non-photographic voter identification, instead of the NEW law which MANDATES ALL VOTERS produce “valid” photographic identification. “Alabama Ballot Security Manual: A Practical Guide for Poll Watchers, Alabama Primary Election, June 3, 2014“

In a document entitled “Alabama Photo Voter ID Guide” available on the Alabama Secretary of State’s website - http://www.alabamavoterid.com/downloads/AlabamaPhotoVoterIDGuide.pdf – it states in a letter from the Secretary of State Jim Bennett (a Republican), that “Beginning with the 2014 primary election, the State Legislature has mandated that a voter present photo ID prior to voting.”

As well, on page 6 in that document it further states that: “Beginning with the June 3, 2014 primary election, Act 2011-673 requires an Alabama voter to have a specific type of photo identification at the polls in order to vote. If a voter does not have one of the approved forms of photo ID as stated in the law, then he or she may receive a free Alabama photo voter ID card from various locations.”
That information is contradicted, however, in a separate document also prepared by the Alabama Secretary of State’s office (as seen herein) which is entitled “Alabama Ballot Security Manual: A practical guide for Poll Watchers, Alabama Primary Election, June 3, 2014“
On page 19 (as seen herein above), it asserts to cite Code of Alabama 17-9-30 which, up to this year (2014) has allowed voters to produce various forms of non-photographic identification. However, it cites the OLD LAW, instead of the NEW LAW.
Why and how the Secretary of State could screw up in such grand fashion is unimaginable.

How and why indeed?

  Make it Viral

 My suggestion is that people start using a catchy hashtag, something like #nowimgonnavote, every time they see the Republicans do or say something outrageously stupid or insensitive. We need a viral campaign to turn people out to vote in November. If things play out the way they usually do, we're not going to be in a better place next year than we are in this year, and this year is pretty horrible.

People need to make the connection between stupid shit and the need to vote. If you see rampant hypocrisy or science-denial or racism or homophobia or a war on reproductive choice and contraception or a total lack of empathy for the poor or for a POW or for victims of crime and natural disasters, then note it with a #nowimgonnavote hashtag.
Maybe people will get the idea that the way to end this madness is to participate in the political process.

 #nowimgonnavote,

Throwback Thursday: It's voter fraud because Artur Davis say's it's voter fraud

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On Voter ID Law- Outspoken AL State Rep Hides Behind Blue Dog Dem turned Republican.

Politics Nation's Al Sharpton did a good job of hitting Alabama State Rep. Kerry Rich for just that during an interview this Wednesday on MSNBC and with pushing back at the notion that invoking Davis justified the impact of the law and the fact that it is designed to do exactly one thing, and that's keep people from voting. As Sharpton noted during the interview, actual cases of voter fraud are virtually nonexistent, but that didn't keep Rich from insisting repeatedly that it was a problem. Of course there's voter fraud going on, because Artur Davis told me so. Pitiful. And these guys claim to be the party of "personal responsibility." Except of course they never want to take responsibility for anything they do. Either blame it on someone else, deny the facts and if that doesn't work, just make up your own alternate reality.

Alabama Republicans are totally delusional.

Republicans say there is "something fishy" in Perry County because black folks showed up and voted on election day

Something smells fishy in Perry County all right.

My favorite right wing talk show host/blogger  is using a report by Montgomery based  reporter Dana Beryl, published in The Gadsden Times regarding voter turnout in Perry Couny as proof black voter fraud is alive and well, and justification for Voter Suppression Laws.

Sigh..

According to Beryl's headline and lead paragraph, the United States Justice Department should have sent Federal Election Monitors to Uniontown Alabama, which happens to be majority black, because they had more registered voters than people on election day, with an 55% turnout, representing 80.6% of the towns 2010 population.  Key words 2010 population.

The chairwoman o the  Perry County Board of registrars is quoted in the article saying 279 of the 2576 voters were "removable" because they were either dead or having been convicted of felonies.  So,  why didn't the board of registers "remove" them" prior to election?  Is there proof the dead and ex felons cast votes in the mayoral election? If so, produce it.

An unnamed election official is quoted in the article saying there were 650 absentee ballots cast (not to be confused with counted) in the Uniontown election. Beryl then  notes an absentee ballot is to given only to voters who say they will be out of town on election day.  Which naturally  leads republicans to conclude the high number of absentee ballots invite fraud.

Perry County Commissioner Albert Turner, Jr. said high voter turnout was the due to voters showing their appreciation to the Mayor and the City Council for the4.8 million dollar grant Uniontown received from the United States Department of Agriculture to repair and expand it's water treatment system, hopefully fixing decades of sewer problems.  

You think?

RedEye's Snark Attack

Artur Davis punk'd Left in Alabama big time remix.  You knew it was coming...I can't help but snicker like Mutely watching the Cats and other Critters over at Left in Alabama ,who kicked me out of the Liter Box because I tried to tell them Artur Davis was a Corporate Bull Frog and  Poo Pot Punk,  doing backflips in an attempt to renounce, reject and repudiate their ahem  Chief Dis appointee,  so I thought I would compose this Artur Davis, Then and Now at Left in Alabama big Snark.

Isn't it ironic the GOP aims to say "see we like black people" by having two African American sellouts from Alabama on the stage at during their We hate Obama more than we love ourselves and our country hate fest, I mean convention in Tampa?  Meanwhile, it looks like Mitt's got a Mutiny going on among the House Slaves, I mean Negro Republicans.

Speaking of the GOP convention, I see the governors of Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and maybe Louisiana, are skipping the event because of Hurricane Issac.  All I'm going to say is if Issac blows through any of these states this week,  I better not see none them with their hand out asking for federal aid from President Barack Hussein Obama.

On the all politics is local front, this is what happens when the Huntsville City School Board and the competent white Superintendent, who replaced the inept black superintendent, panders to the right and the Huntsville Times berates those taxpayers who dare criticize/complain about their policies.  Is the children learning?  I think not, so, now that we know, what can/are we going to do about it? Start by reading this.

While I'm on the subject of education, I can't let the fact the State that can't shoot Straight, much to the delight of the anti-Alabama Education Association, Mayor William Bell, and Frank Matthews gang, decided they could do a better job of educating poor/black/brown students with a takeover of  the Birmingham City School System.  Mission Accomplished. Charter schools here we come.

Alabama State Senator Arthur Orr,(r. Decatur) sponsored a bill last week to remove discriminatory language regarding poll taxes and segregated schools from Alabama's 1901 constitution. Sounds goods on its face, right?

NOT.

Today's Must Read
Voter ID Laws:  The American Coup de tat

The NAACP didn't Boo Mitt Romney,

The NAACP Booed WHAT Mitt Romney SAID.  As well they should have.  The mainstream media, led by the usual Lords of Loud are having multiple orgasms, reporting Romney was Booed when he spoke at the NAACP Convention, leading people who weren't there to believe he was Booed just because he was Mitt Romney, and an excuse to paint blacks as racist.  To quote The Field Negro, funny they didn't say that about  Joe Wilson.

It's true there were Boo's, but there was also applause, and a standing ovation for Mitt after his remarks.  The Boo's were as a result of his Lack of Respect for the President of the United States of America and his blatant display of condescending arrogance.

There are some who want to give Mitt credit for appearing at the NAACP Convention, but I'm not one of those.  I believe it was a calculated, political move, designed to raise money, and throw red meat at his base.  After all this is the same man who is friends with Donald "The Blacks" Trump, and is a member of a religion which excluded blacks, who said he saw his father marching with Martin Luther King, Jr.

Mitt couldn't wait to run to Fox News and claim many blacks support him....I guess it depends on what his definition of many blacks IS.

Today's Must Read
Romney Supports Voter ID Laws That Could Disenfranchise 25% of African Americans

The Department of Public Safety and Me

I consider myself a law abiding citizen who has never intentionally broken any laws, so you can imagine my surprise when I attempted to renew my Alabama drivers license to learn they were suspended.

What?!  
When?!
Why?!

The nice clerk at the Court House asked me if I had any unpaid traffic tickets?  I said not to my knowledge.  She  informed me I would have to go the local Department of Public Safety office for answers/reinstatement before they could renew my license. I said OK, do you know what time they close?   She replied they closed at 5:00 PM.  The clock on the wall in the court house read 4:15 PM.  The DVM is about 5-8 minutes away, so off I go.

I arrive in the parking lot at the Department of Public Safety at exactly 4:25 PM.  There are three cars in lot including mine.  The sign on the outside of door says the hours are  Monday-Friday 7:30 AM until 5:00 PM, except holidays.  Inside there are two young women waiting,  a boy and his father being served,  and 5 female employees.  I explain to the woman sitting behind the desk I need to reinstate my drivers license and she handed me a piece of paper told me to fill it out and bring it back tomorrow morning because they "stop working at 4:30 PM because they had to get ready to leave at 5:00 PM".


Excuse Me?
The sign on the door says you don't close until 5:00 PM?
They told me at the court house you closed at 5:00 PM?
How can you stop processing request 30 minutes prior to closing?
Why do I have to come back when I'm here now?
What if I can't come back tomorrow at 7:30?

Answer, and I quote- You don't think we can close at 5 and leave at 5 do you?  We have to set the alarm and lock up the building.  There is a sign on the inside of the building that says we stop processing Drivers License at 4:30.

So know we know.  Although they are being paid to work until to 5 PM they stop working 30 minutes early at the local DPS office. I could see if there were a line to be processed stopping people from getting in line at 4:30, but the office had more employees than customers. Our tax dollars at work.  On us.

I proceeded to use my cell phone to take a picture of the clock on the wall to document the time but was informed I didn't have permission to take their picture and I could be sued.

Oh really?  
Please sue me for taking pictures!


 I explained I wasn't taking their picture, I was taking a picture of the clock but since they had on official State Trooper Uniforms I acquiesced.


RedEye Roll

At approximately 4:29 PM I placed a call to the State Department of Motor Vehicles in Montgomery.  I explained to the nice lady who answered the phone my drivers license had been suspended and I wanted to know why and to reinstate them if necessary.

Did she tell me to call back tomorrow because they stopped processing request at 4:30 PM because they had to get ready to close the office at 5:00 PM?  Nope.  She asked for my DL number and the last four of my SS#.  I gave them to her and learned my license were suspended because I didn't respond to a random request for proof of insurance I never received, because it went to my old address, and they do not forward.  I was told when I presented proof of insurance my DL would be reinstated immediately.   Thankfully I don't have to return to the local Department of Public Safety.  I'm pretty sure I'm on their sh#t list.

Let's play What If and What About?

What if I had been stopped by police, or involved in an accident and discovered my license were suspended?

What if I needed a valid Drivers License to board an air plane for work or an emergency?

What if I needed a valid Drivers License to register to VOTE?

What if I couldn't come back to my local DPS the following day?

What about the time and resources already spent?

What about the people who work from 7:30 AM until 5:00 PM M-F?

Why is it so hard for tax payers to get basic services?

I wonder if I had been a white male/female tax payer would I have been told by the female African American Alabama State Employee to come back tomorrow because they stopped processing 30 minutes prior to closing?

The reason I'm asking is because the two young women waiting to be served, and the boy and his father being served  where white,  3 of the 5 State employees were African Americans, with the two African Americans doing the fussing, I mean talking.

Wondering why we are required to have proof of liability insurance to have a Drivers License but not required to have proof of health insurance if we get sick and have to go to the Doctor/Hospital.  Oh wait....


If it's this hard to get my drivers license renewed I wonder how hard it's going to be for tax payers to obtain a state issued Voter ID card?  


RedEye tiptoeing away from the computer to go have my license renewed. 

A Texas Election Judges opinion of the Voter ID laws

I am sharing an email I received from a Texas Election Judge in response to my post, I sure do miss the good old days when we had fair and free elections in America too. I would like to thank the Judge for reading and their informative response.~Redeye

Let me preface this by saying that here in Texas, there has recently been passed a new "Voter ID" law ( :-( ) and I don't know yet how the courts will handle that, or how the details will work. So I'm basing what I'm saying below on the prior law and interpretation.

First of all, at least here in Texas, you DO have to provide SOME kind of identification in order to vote (at least to vote normally).

That said, there is a WIDE variety of identification you can provide. What we are trying to determine is that you are who you say you are, and that you are a registered voter in Dallas County (during early voting) and/or the precinct corresponding to the polling place to you are at (on election day proper). You can use a voter registration card (the preferred ID), Texas Drivers License, active duty military ID, pilots license, passport, concealed carry permit, or more. It's not limited to government issued identification: if it shows your photo and your name (and preferably also your signature) that's cool. I have accepted a Sam's Club card, or even a Six Flags season pass.

The one that bothers ME is that we can (must!) also accept a utility bill... and that has neither a photo NOR a signature. That has the further problem that if the utility bill is in the husband's name, the wife can't vote with it, even though she is also covered by that bill. (Theoretically, someone could go down the street and pull utility bills out of the mailboxes on the day they're being delivered, and then use that as ID to vote for all their neighbors!)

Personally, I'm (not surprisingly) an election integrity advocate (and that's a big part of why I work as an election judge).

I want to make sure that the voter presenting themselves at the poll to vote IS the person who they claim to be. Obviously, we check on the computer (during early voting) or in the poll book (on election day) to verify that the person is registered and their voter egistration is active. If the voter has not yet signed their voter registration card, I ask them to sign it in front of me, and I verify that signature against the signature on their driver's license (which
of course is always signed). After the voter signs the application for voting (during early voting) or the combination form (on election day) I check to make sure that the signature appears to be signed by the same hand as that which signed their reference ID.

Personally, I think a photo ID is much less good than a signature
verification... if I were to cut off my beard and long hair, I wouldn't look anything like my previous picture, but my signature would still match... or if someone had an identical twin, they might look EXACTLY the same, but their signature won't match. So I qualify the voters by always confirming their signature, if possible (again, under current law, I have to accept a utility bill, which doesn't have a signature on it). The important thing is that I as election judge am convinced that the person IS who they claim to be.

I will point out that I've been working as an election judge for more than ten years, and the supposed problem of people trying to vote as someone else simply DOES NOT OCCUR (or at least not in the numbers that would ever change an election's results). This whole Voter ID law initiative, I think, is an attempt to divert attention away from where the real problems are (or MIGHT be), to where they are not.

As I understand things, the new Texas Voter ID law requires that the name on the Drivers License or other official voting ID presented matches the name on the voter registration. Very often (and more often for women than men) the names on the two databases (drivers license database vs. voter registration database) are not styled the same way. It remains to be seen what allowances we will make for that.

Here in Texas, at least, if you do not adequately identify yourself (whatever that involves) you can still vote (if you insist) but that will be a "provisional" ballot, and if you did not present a satisfactory ID, it is safe to predict that your vote WILL NOT BE COUNTED. (The actual determination is officially made by the Ballot Board, but the rule is that voters not presenting proper ID is one sufficient cause for not counting their ballot).

There is some feeling that the newly passed Texas Voter ID law will be thrown out by the courts. That remains to be seen, too.

There are other things that we need to change to make the voting more reliable, auditable, and trustworthy. I've discussed those here before, but that would be off topic for THIS reply, at least.