#82 Intimidation

Today, from Reuters:

"Black Americans could vote in record numbers for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, potentially giving him an edge in some states that are tightly contested with Republican rival John McCain. Blacks make up around 12 percent of the voting population and are the Democratic Party's most reliable ethnic constituency, although historically they have voted in lower numbers than other groups. This year, opinion polls show that more than 90 percent of blacks who vote could cast a ballot for Obama, in part because of racial solidarity with a candidate who would be the first black president in U.S. history."

We know that, in past elections, black voters in particular have been the victims of voter intimidation, sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly.

The overt intimidation has taken the form of threats and outright beatings, physically and emotionally preventing black voters from going to the polls. In the past, however, such actions have occurred primarily in local and statewide elections. This year, however, is the first time a national election has featured an African-American running for the most powerful position on the planet. Excuse me: as Senator Jim Webb would prefer us all to recognize, "the thirteenth Scotch-Irish to run for president."

The subtle form of intimidation has been practiced more recently, more often in the South but not entirely there. It occurs when black Americans go to the polls, only to be told that they're in the wrong polling place and have to go, instead, to...somewhere else. They are then sent on a wild-goose chase. Or, more accurately, on a missing-poll chase. The hope of the folk practicing this more subtle form of intimidation is that people will tire of running from one place to another and will just give up.

This year, the subtle intimidation has so far taken at least two other forms. In one, local Republican officials have developed lists of foreclosed homes, in order to challenge voter registrations: if your home has been foreclosed, you don't live there anymore, and hence are not eligible to use that address as your place of residence. This form of intimidation is definitely NOT limited to any one region of the country. It is terribly ironic that the very politicians whose deregulation policies have contributed to loss of homes, to the horror of homelessness, may actually profit from their malfeasance.

The second form of subtle intimidation this year is the challenge to voter registration drives conducted, for example, by ACORN. Some of the folk registered by ACORN have listed false names. By law, the good people conducting the registration drives are required to turn over all names, but what they do is identify and separate into different groups those names they could verify, those names about whom there may be some small concern (typographical errors, for example), and those names that are clearly questionable. "Mickey Mouse" may be an American icon, but he/she/it may not actually be a person's name...although one minor party candidate for president or the senate has legally changed his name to "Pro Life." [I hope his VP running mate (if he's running for president) is named "Anti-Choice."]

So far, at least the Ohio state supreme court has sided with Governor Ted Strickland that the governor's office does not have to provide support for the Republican challenge to voter registrations in that state.

If blacks are able to vote in this election, they may indeed move the "swing" states to Obama. As my electoral projections indicate, Colorado or Virginia should be enough (if indeed I'm correct that Pennsylvania is not really in play) to elect President Obama.

Voter intimidation is a violation of a fundamental American right and duty. I find it ironic that the party that claims to be the party of patriotism is so active behind this most unAmerican action.

-- triton --