Friday, October 10, 2008

How the GOP Will Suppress Minority Votes on November 4—Legally



Earl Ofari Hutchinson

News reports that state officials in the crucial battleground states of Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina were purging thousands from voter rolls illegally drew a flurry of media and public attention. The crude, dubious, if not outright illegal, stuff to suppress votes such as the absence of polling places in minority neighborhoods, ballot and vote machine irregularities, using lists of foreclosed homes to challenge voter’s residences, rigid time lines for filing voter applications, the lack of information, misinformation or deliberate disinformation about voter registration forms and materials has also drawn plenty of media attention over the years.

Yet, the main ploys the GOP will use to damp down minority votes on November 4th have drawn virtually no media attention. They include letter writing challenges, residence and citizenship challenges of non-native born Latino voters, and reliance on a provision in the Help America Vote Act on provisional ballots. Worst of all, these tactics are all perfectly legal.

Federal court rulings flatly prohibit Republican organizations from sending letters to newly registered voters in solely low income, black and Hispanic neighborhoods to verify their address. If those letters aren’t returned, the GOP contends that the recipient's address on their voter registration form is incorrect and the registration is fraudulent. When the voter shows up at the polls they are challenged. Republicans insist that the legal prohibition against this tactic applies only to the Republican National Committee and not to state and local Republican organizations and “volunteer groups.” Since GOP groups have declared themselves exempt from the court rulings against the tactic, they fully intend to use the letter writing ploy to challenge the registrations of people in certain designated zip codes. The zip codes just happen to be those in predominantly black and Latino neighborhoods.

In April the Supreme Court handed the GOP an even more powerful weapon to water down minority votes. It upheld Indiana’s rigid voter registration law which requires government-issued identification, such as a driver’s license, a passport, or a state or military ID card. Though Indiana got much of the media attention when the court ruled, it’s hardly the only state to require rigid proof of identity. Florida and Georgia require photo IDs. Eighteen other states require either photo or non-photo IDs. In four states polling workers can demand that voters produce a photo ID. Many will. And they’ll likely have the blessing of nearly several dozen state election officials who were chosen in sharply partisan elections.

It’s a stretch to think that many will rein in their political biases when it comes to making the narrowest interpretation of the Byzantine tangle of state voting laws that allow election officials wide latitude to disqualify or assign to provisional ballot anyone with even the slightest real or perceived registration glitch. Polling workers will take their cue from state officials and tightly scrutinize the IDs and registration cards of voters at countless numbers of local polling places. If the election is close the over scrutiny of minority voters will almost certainly ignite an endless and bitter round of legal and court challenges with little certainty that they’ll be successful.

The other tact is to challenge non-native born Latino voters, mostly newly registered voters. They now make up about 10 to 20 percent of the Latino population in the Western battleground states of New Mexico, Nevada, and Colorado. The states have nineteen electoral votes. In a close contest their votes could be the make or break votes for Obama or McCain. Anti-immigrant rights groups with active or tacit support from local GOP organizations could station monitors, poll watchers, and volunteers at polling places in heavily Hispanic neighborhoods. Their presence would be a powerful disincentive for many non-native born voters to turn out. Polling officials will be on the lookout for any hint of impropriety in their registration.
Then there’s the Help America Vote Act passed in 2002. It’s supposed to help streamline the voting process and make registration easier. But the act is a two edged sword in that it permits voters who have been rejected for borderline legal reasons to cast provisional ballots. But these ballots are set aside and it could take days or weeks, not to mention court and legal challenges before determinations can be made which ballots can be counted. There will be thousands of these ballots and the overwhelming majority will be from black and Hispanic voters.

The aim of vote suppression is the same as it’s been for a half century and that’s to whittle down the vote total for the Democratic presidential contender, in this case Obama. Democrats will pull out all legal stops to fight voter suppression. They will nail the more blatant, patently illegal tactics. But their success in stopping them still won’t prevent untold thousands of black and Latino voters from being shoved out in the election cold on November 4th. Unfortunately, the law will be on the side of those who shoved them out there.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book is The Ethnic Presidency: How Race Decides the Race to the White House (Middle Passage Press, February 2008).

1 comment:

梁爵 said...

2020.05.09八大行業酒店工作及舞廳業遭政府勒令停業近一個月,即使疫情趨緩,指揮中心仍未給出明確復業日期,讓酒店上班酒店小姐叫苦連天,她們有的因為繳不出房租被房東驅趕,還有單親媽媽不堪經濟壓力差點輕生,她們呼籲政府立即公告復業,並痛批紓困沒落實,很多公關想申請卻被打回票,感覺就像在耍他們。4月8日一名酒店S酒店公關確診,中央流行疫情指揮中心立即勒令八大行業隔日酒店業停業,約48萬酒店相關從業人員頓失生計。一個月來,酒店PT基層人員的近況到底如何?政府的紓困有沒有照顧到這些人的需求?我們追蹤訪問了酒店經紀人梁曉尊和禮服店酒店打工公關明明(化名)的說法。因受疫情和政府的政策影響,酒店公關明明在一個月前失業,她說,自己本來至少月入4萬,但現在只能靠紓困金過活。雖然明明有申請到衛福部的急難救助金2萬元,但是根本無法彌補她因為停業造成的薪資損失,現在她還申請了勞動部的紓困貸款,希望度過難關。酒店經紀梁曉尊/梁小尊則說,她現在做不成經紀人,兼職做別的工作,也申請了勞動部的紓困貸款。明明和梁曉尊都是政府一夕間勒令停業,卻沒有定出任何復業期限的直接受害者。除了她們以外,還有一些是更弱勢、處境更慘的酒店小姐。明明說,有公關因為繳不出房租,遭房東要求搬走;還有一位公關是單身媽媽,戶頭僅剩幾千元,卻有小孩要養,因不堪龐大壓力一度想輕生。因應疫情,政府看似推出多種紓困方案,但是對失業陷入困境的勞工來說,其實是杯水車薪。「我雖然拿到2萬,但是又貸了10萬,這不是倒虧8萬嗎?」明明無奈地說。梁小尊也質疑,政府近日推出「擴大急難紓困」方案,每戶發1萬元現金,但申請資格是以家戶為單位計算,全家人每人每月收入加存款低於最低生活費2倍才可申請,且每戶只能請領一次,但是每個家庭狀況不一樣,父母財產不一定會分給小孩,要求每戶共享這1萬元,不僅沒道理,幫助也非常有限。區公所申請紓困 竟只有六分之一成功由於絕大多數酒店公關沒有勞保,現在他們能申請的紓困方案,主要就是衛福部1萬至3萬元的急難紓困金,或者向勞動部申請最高10萬元的紓困貸款。透過各地鄉鎮市區公所申請的急難紓困金,成為酒店小姐失業後的救命管道。然而,儘管行政院打包票說放寬申請資格,要讓有生活困難的民眾都領得到,實際的申請狀況卻完全不是這麼一回事。由酒店公關和經紀人組成、積極協助同業申請紓困的「酒店經紀梁曉尊」就透露,近來有超過60名酒店從業人員向他們諮詢,但是根據回報,成功被區公所受理的案例,竟然只有10名,成功率僅六分之一。被打回票的,大多都是拿不出區公所要求的文件,例如停業證明、工作證明,或是切結書沒有蓋公司章等等。梁小尊指出,公關本來就很難檢附這些文件,例如現行業界店家與公關並非僱傭關係,沒有合約之類的僱傭證明,而基層也很難取得公司蓋章或是停業證明。「衛福部好像在耍我們。」梁小尊說,她雖然成功申請到急難紓困金,但也是跑了兩趟區公所才辦成,還另外去了戶政事務所和國稅局拿到相關文件,才獲得受理。由於申請急難紓困要求的資料過於繁雜,也引發民眾怒火,衛福部也趕緊在昨天(5/6)宣布,民眾只需攜帶身分證與簽切結書即可申請,其他證明文件可由政府代查。不過梁曉尊質疑,中央的政策說得「很好聽」,可是關鍵在於地方有沒有同步照做。她說,申請的狀況每間區公所都不一樣,有的會要求出示證明,有的比較寬鬆,所以重點是要中央地方統一程序,真正簡化申請流程,「像是八大行業,若沒有相關證明,應該只要簽一個切結書,就可申請。」酒店業遭關近月 小姐盼「立即復業」疫情至今,確診肺炎的病例遍布各行業,卻唯獨只有酒店、舞廳業被勒令停業,即使確診女公關和123名接觸者都已全部檢測陰性結案,全台疫情也趨緩獲得控制,酒店業復業仍遙遙無期。「很生氣…真的又累又生氣!」梁曉尊說,疫情既已趨緩,指揮中心應該立即公告讓酒店復業,業界都願意配合防疫指示及相關控管機制。明明怒批,政府僅針對酒店業祭出停業措施,且沒有復業期限,根本是「柿子挑軟的吃」,看準酒店業是被長期歧視和污名化的產業,不會有太多人關注,停業後政府也沒有像補助其他產業一樣提供紓困,很明顯就是大小眼。指揮中心昨日被問到酒店業何時復業時表示,只要酒店業者做好防疫管理,地方主管機關可以允許恢復營業,今天指揮官陳時中又說了一次「只要任何單位符合防疫標準,就沒有所謂禁止問題」,但都沒有說明確切復業日期,復業標準也令人霧煞煞。回顧當初的酒店停業決定,是指揮中心一句話就要全台酒店和舞廳停業,現在又把皮球踢給各地方政府,地方能不能和中央同調又成為一個未解問題。從4月9日酒店業停業至今,有的酒店小姐轉入地下化,有的繳不出房租,有的連紓困也領不到,她們只想問:何時才能見到復業的曙光?