THE ACLU WINS ITS VOTER PURGE CASE IN OHIO

Feeling Rebloggy

BACKGROUND First, similar stories of voter purges happening in Texas and in Georgia too. Then read about Ohio where the ACLU won a reversal today.

BACKGROUND 1: THE TEXAS PURGE

Lane was one of 4,000 voters whose registrations were personally challenged by a single Republican, Alan Vera, who chairs the Harris County GOP’s “Ballot Security Committee.” 

This sort of individual challenge is illegal in some states, but Texas law permits it. Republicans blamed the county’s election registrar, a Democrat, for automatically suspending the registrations of 1,700 of those voters — but not before Vera boasted on his Facebook page about what he was up to: 

Voters whose registrations were suspended for failure to return a confirmation postcard would have to cast provisional ballots, which are “reviewed by the Ballot board,” he wrote, “and I appoint all Republican members of that board.” His “project,” he added, “could make a big difference in the November election results.”

Stories like Lane’s are becoming all too familiar to a growing number of American voters, who are being dropped from the rolls at a rapid clip, particularly in states with histories of voter discrimination. 

Such purges are the new face of voter suppression, civil rights advocates say. Unlike the Jim Crow laws of yore, which blocked access to the rolls with tests and taxes, voter purges take registered voters — often, voters of color — and make them disappear. And unlike voter ID laws, which at least give voters advanced warning, purges can be sudden, silent, untraceable, and irremediable.

Read More: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/feature/the-amazing-disappearing-voter

BACKGROUND 2: THE GEORGIA PURGE
(by a man now running for governor)

Even by Georgia standards, the voter purge of late July 2017 was remarkable. In a single day, more than half a million people — 8 percent of Georgia’s registered voters — were cut from the voter rolls. Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp, an avid supporter of President Donald Trump who has described himself as a “politically incorrect conservative,” oversaw the removals eight months after he’d declared himself a candidate for governor.

Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp are competing in a potentially historic toss-up race to become Georgia’s next governor.

The purge was noteworthy for another reason: For an estimated 107,000 of those people, their removal from the voter rolls was triggered not because they moved or died or went to prison, but rather because they had decided not to vote in prior elections, according to an APM Reports analysis. Many of those previously registered voters may not even realize they’ve been dropped from the rolls. If they show up at the polls on Nov. 6 to vote in the heated Georgia governor’s race, they won’t be allowed to cast a ballot.

https://www.wabe.org/georgia-purged-about-107000-people-from-voter-rolls-report/

TODAY'S HEADLINE IN OHIO 

Federal judges order Ohio to allow purged voters back in

Federal judges on Wednesday ordered Ohio to allow voters who had been purged for not voting over a six-year period to participate in this year's election. 

A divided 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel granted an emergency motion sought by voting-rights groups. The ruling overturned in part an Oct. 10 ruling by a federal judge that said voters haven't been illegally purged from Ohio's rolls. 

Plaintiffs led by the A. Philip Randolph Institute in June lost their broader challenge to Ohio's election administration process as unconstitutional when the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of Ohio's practices.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/federal-judges-order-ohio-allow-purged-voters-back-n929526

• At issue is a method Ohio uses to identify people who have moved and are no longer eligible to vote. The state sends notices to those who fail to cast a ballot during a two-year period. People who do not respond and don't vote over the next four years, including in two more federal elections, are dropped from the list of registered voters. 

In other words, if you miss a single midterm election in Ohio, you're warned about being dropped. If you then miss a presidential election, then another midterm, you're dropped of the registered rolls. 

In other words, people in Ohio who only vote in presidential elections? If they're sick and skip a single election, they'll no longer be registered in Ohio because there will have been an 8 year gap -- and all you are allowed 2 before  you get a warning in the mail and a total of 6 years is all you are allowed, as far as not voting goes, in Ohio.

The republicans rejoice every single time less people are able to vote.

Gee, I wonder why that is?

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-appears-likely-approve-ohio-s-voter-purging-n836501

However, today, the ACLU won a temporary battle in time for next week's election because voters weren't notified properly that this was happening.

Jim Crow style laws are mostly after black and brown people, but a bunch of white people are going to get caught up in this too. Because now that the Supreme Court has said that this voter purging is legal if the notifications are right, voter purging is going to spread across the country

...unless we flip state governments out of republican hands too. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/federal-judges-order-ohio-allow-purged-voters-back-n929526

Lesson 1: Vote in all midterms

Lesson 2: Vote in all local elections

We need to change the democratic party for the browner and bolder. That means we need Stacy Abrams to win in Georgia and Andrew Gillium to win in Florida so they can be part of leading that change.  

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