Minority voter suppression isn’t anything new. When I read the story on WNYC about a Bedford-Stuyvesant church getting misleading voter registration information, my initial thought was disbelief, but not at the tactics. I was more shocked that anyone would consider this a unique development in politics.
In terms of getting fake, inaccurate or misleading voting information, black voters in Maryland, my immediate neighbor to the north, are usually up to their ankles in it. Alice got more solid information at the Mad Hatter’s tea party. Every time there is an election, Prince Georges County and Baltimore County, which are the two Maryland counties with the highest concentration of black voters, are swamped with fliers, chain e-mails and whisper campaigns designed to keep them away from the polls.
Prior to the 2002 gubernatorial election, fliers were turning up in black and Hispanic neighborhoods which claimed that once you paid any parking tickets, back child support, overdue rent and unpaid utility bills, then you were free to come out and vote on November 6. None of this was actually true, and aside from that, November 6 was a Wednesday, which was the day after the election. The Onion actually did an all-too-accurate spoof about this two years later, and like all Onion articles it was meant to be a joke, but nobody in Maryland laughed very hard.
In 2006, when Bob Ehrlich was looking for a second term, Election Day saw fliers in black neighborhoods claiming that Ehrlich had received a ringing endorsement from both Kweisi Mfume, the former head of the NAACP, and Jack Johnson, who at the time was a well-respected P.G. County executive. Dogs are more likely to endorse squirrels than Kweisi Mfume is likely to endorse Paul Ehrlich, and Jack Johnson wasn’t much of a fan of the Governor, either.
In 2008, the old standby of being unable to vote unless all of your bills were up to date was used, but this time the new wrinkle of being threatened with arrest was added in. Other e-mails were sent out saying that it was illegal for voters to wear t-shirts or buttons supporting one candidate or another when they went in to vote.
In 2010, when Ehrlich was taking another shot after getting replaced by Martin O’Malley, black Maryland voters started getting robocalled at around 1 PM on Election Day, and were thanked cordially for their support for Governor O’Malley. They were then told that the election was in the bag, so they should relax, put their feet up and congratulate themselves on a job well done. No need to go to the polls, fellas. It’s a landslide.
This robocall was the one thing that Ehrlich’s campaign couldn’t distance itself from. If it’s just flyers, you can claim it was some random wacky prankster with a political bent and a Xerox machine. Robocalls, not so much.
The guy who ended up taking the hit for this was Paul Shurick, who was Ehrlich’s campaign manager. He got 30 days home arrest and 500 hours of community service, and how I hope he was required to perform that service at a youth center in Baltimore or PG County. I’m sure his views on trickle-down economics would be well received there.
I want to clarify that I don’t believe that Maryland Republicans are racist. I truly don’t. They’re just practical. If black voters had a tendency to vote in a manner that pleased the Maryland Republican Party, they would do everything in their power to help them get to the polls. But they don’t, so it’s flyers, e-mails and whisper campaigns. Up until Shurick’s conviction that sort of thing was business as usual.
The “Watch Me Trick Fred Out Of His Right To Vote” stuff is actually pretty low percentage in terms of it working. I’m sure that there have been a few people who have been bamboozled out of going to the polls, but not enough to alter an election. So now it seems that the plan is to get really serious about voter suppression, not just in Maryland but nationwide, and not with bush league practical jokes.
This time Republicans are selling the narrative that the first priority of every convict doing time is to get out there and vote, or that a few idiots with a nightstick in between them are magically altering the outcomes of elections, or that millions of people named Donald Duck, Hugh G. Rection and Amanda Huggenkiss are the only reason Barack Obama is currently the President of the United States.
None of this is actually true, but there isn’t a politician on the planet that has been afraid of throwing out election year fictions to confuse people. Why would they stop now, particularly with the White House at stake? Freak everybody out, create a solution (making it difficult for democratic leaning voters to vote) in search of a “problem” (rampant voter fraud) and it’s off to the races. E-mails, whisper campaigns and flyers are for amateurs, Maryland. Let the real pros show you how it’s done.
Adam Dawson has lived and worked in and around Washington, D.C. for most of his life. He does communications work for law firms and advocacy groups and writes freelance contributions for law firms and advocacy groups. He lives right over the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia.
You can follow him on Twitter @AdamDawson9681
Comments [8]
Hey Mike how about an intelligent thought instead of a odd one. With 12 million illegals already in the US wouldn't you say that's a hell of a voting block? Wouldn't you think the free medical they receive, amnesty, ect. could buy a vote for say a presidential election? Of course if I have to explain this then I am probably wasting my time. Your melting pot is no longer a slow cooker. Perris Island was a way to slow things down, do criminal checks, health checks, sponsors etc. You insult the memory of those that did it properly, legally, and officially. Now all you have to do is hop a fence claim your freebies and become a new voter, all at tax paying citizen expense.
Here is an odd thought...
I understand the secret and anonymous voting booths, (to keep voters free of persuasion by the gov't), but do we really have to worry about that? Isn't a more serious problem with secret ballot boxes the fact that they are secret, so that nobody knows what the real tally is? Why don't we video tape people voting so that anyone anywhere, assuming they wanted to take the massive amount of time required to do so, could count the votes themselves and know for a fact what the number of votes are? This seems like a more immediate concern than who is getting to vote and who is not. What difference does it make if person X is eligible to vote, if you never really know how they voted?
Well, I guess we'll just have to let the courts decide on this one, my friend, and then we'll wait for the results on election day. Be sure to get out there and exercise your right to vote on November 7th!
-Adam
Of course this is most important now, never have we had an administration so dead set on allowing illegal immigration to play such a huge part in our society. Oh and there is plenty of blame on both sides of the isle on this. Pandering is what government does best from vote buying with minority give a ways to billions spent on foreign aid. Have you not seen a single news report of the increased crossings at the borders? Non-English speaking foreign nationals crossing the border to become a voter? This makes sense to you?
Just look at the Al Franken case of voter fraud, and you will find that voter fraud was incredible in such a small election. I wonder which side of the isle went out and got 1099 felon votes to get him elected in a race that only needed 300 to win.
The urgency you ask? Call the union that represents the border patrol and ask them. They deal with the thousands of new voters crossing every month.
Tenn. is offering free ID to vote at the DMV. Hassle free. Of course if you feel $10.00 is not worth your right to vote then stay home. Iraq's public felt their lives were worth the chance to vote, and all it required was Taliban threats and purple finger print for ID. Maybe you could offer the same strength and appreciation for the right to vote.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/24/voter-id-laws-target-rarely-occurring-voter-fraud/
9 instances of documented voter fraud in 2005.
http://www.livescience.com/340-avoidable-lightning-deaths-mount-2005.html
More people were killed by lightning in that same year.
Why the urgency all of a sudden? Why is this a crucial, must be done, "common sense" issue that hasn't really been needed until now? What's changed?
And who said anything about free ID's? Texas isn't reaching into it's coffers for free anything for anybody. Nor is Alabama, Mississippi, or South Carolina.
This isn't about making it harder. This is about not allowing you to cast my vote, and not allowing me to cast yours. How hard can it be when the state provides free ID? This about protecting the publics right to vote on a individual level. How can you guarantee I am not voting 4 times instead of once? The next thing you know, some one will think it's not a good idea to extend voting days for the military.
Thanks for warning me against taking your vote, Rick. I'll certainly keep that in mind the next time I write an article about how making it harder for people to vote is a terrible thing.
Unfortunately Mr. Dawson is yet another clueless liberal hack that failed to mention that even our fabulous Attorney General has unknowingly voted when someone entered in without ID and voted under his name. For the life of me I just don't get why this is even an issue unless of course you can offer give a ways to minorities to garner votes. And why does Mr. Holder require ID when entering any function he speaks at?
If the African American voters of Prince Georges County and Baltimore County had even the slightest trouble why didn't they just call the Black Panthers and have them stand outside of the voting booths with bats for protection? This has worked for them before.
Voting is something special in today's world, we can do it without a purple finger, without ID and I wish we could do it without the fools that think just anyone can just walk in and vote as they wish anonymously. A person can't even leave this comment without ID (email and a traceable IP). The founders thought voting so important they gave me the 2nd amendment so some one like you can't take it away without a fight.
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