Comments on: Voter Suppression: Uh-Oh, those Racist Florida Republicans are Purging Eligible Voters Again (UPDATE)

By: Brian Willis

Brian Willis — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 21:00:00 +0000

Rippa,

Don’t you worry either.
I’m used to the unfounded charge of racism using other unfounded charges
of racism as proof of a pattern which, of course, means that the current
accusation must be true. After all, once
anyone does anything (proven or not) that is racist, it means that all
others who do anything and are accused of racism, must be racist… right? Check your logic, my friend.

Attempting to remove non-citizens from the voter rolls is a
valid thing to do. If you’re not too
jaded, you should be able to admit that.
The approach taken should absolutely not impact anyone who legally has a
right to vote. Oh, how I’d love to hear
your opinion on this if the non-citizens primarily voted Republican. Regards

By: RiPPa

RiPPa — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 16:58:00 +0000

Here’s the thing: Republicans have already established a pattern of this type of behavior – they’ve done it time and time again in recent election cycles. What makes this racist, is the fact that the purge from an ethnic point of view, targets mostly Hispanics – in 200, they targeted African Americans, in 2004, they targeted African Americans not only in Florida’s, but also Cleveland, Ohio. And, in 2008, they targeted Hispanic voters in Arizona. I’m not making this up, it is all documented – in fact, there were court cases filed against these practices. What other evidence is needed to support the notion that this voter purge is not racist?

If you’re unable to understand why this is in fact racist, don’t worry; I’m used to the denial of claims of racism from people who are non-racial minorities.

By: Brian Willis

Brian Willis — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 15:45:00 +0000

Reggie,

I completely agree with you that it would be terribly unpatriotic
to try to deny voting rights to citizens who are legally eligible to vote. I’m just not convinced this is the case in
the above story. In 2008, I worked as a
Republican poll observer in what was easily a 90% Democrat precinct. I was accused by both poll workers and voters
who knew why I was there, of being there to try to stop people from legally
voting. However, that was never my
intent. I only wanted to stop illegal
voting practices that had been reported in the area. As it turned out, during the course of the
day, I pressed for a provisional (instead of regular) ballot for only 1 person
because he had no valid form of ID but, I SAVED at least 15 or 20 votes FOR
Obama. The poll worker I was observing
was friendly but inexperienced. He
frequently made mistakes that would have led to having voters’ votes not
counted. For example, when someone’s
name wasn’t found in the book, he’d tell them to just cast a provisional
ballot. But, I’d remind him to look the
person’s address up to find out if they were in the right precinct. He’d often find they were at the wrong place
and was then able to direct them to the right precinct (usually just in the
next room). Had they voted provisional at the wrong precinct, under my states’
laws, their votes wouldn’t have counted.
The people I know in the local GOP, and particularly those in the Tea
Party, are like me… They only want fairness.
And, keep in mind that every illegal vote disenfranchises a legal voter.

By: Reggie

Reggie — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 10:47:00 +0000

Yesterday in a church my wife and I visited the pastor spoke on the necessity of getting those that weren’t registered to vote registered. He also spoke on those “unpatriotic Americans” that strived to deny many of us the right to vote. I don’t remember ever hearing it put quite that way before………….but maybe that’s just the way to describe it. To me, people like that are unpatriotic.

By: Brian Willis

Brian Willis — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 15:52:00 +0000

RiPPa, Let’s assume the effort is partisan and not just trying to
do a non-partisan clean up. To believe
the partisan motive is racist, you have to believe that Republicans would not be
trying to do this if the group that was potentially voting illegally was
primarily comprised of a white/European group that happens to vote heavily
Democrat. Personally, I believe either
party would try to clear the voter rolls of anyone they thought would vote against
them, regardless of race, if they felt they had grounds (e.g. voter illegality) to do
so. If Hispanics voted primarily
Republican, you’d see the Democrat party doing this. I believe your perception on this is heavily biased toward a presumption of racism until proven otherwise.

By: RiPPa

RiPPa — Thu, 31 May 2012 12:12:00 +0000

Actually, I would be raising hell if Rick Scott was a Democrat. Perhaps with all my self-centered blogging rage, you missed the part where I’ve mentioned on more than one occasion or two, that I take democracy pretty seriously.

By: George

George — Thu, 31 May 2012 10:16:00 +0000

Here’s a question for you, my self-centered blogging friend, would you be hyperventilating if a Democrat was doing this? Or are you of the old adage that no Democrat can do no wrong and no Republican can do no right?