Republicans losing the battle to deny (certain) Americans their right to vote

The struggle over who can vote on Election Day is becoming more heated in courtrooms, judges’ chambers, and statehouses across the country, paralleling the intensity of the presidential race. And at the moment, the side that wants fewer voting restrictions seems to be winning.

The battle began in earnest after 2010, when several Republican state legislatures began tightening identification requirements on voters. It has reached a new level in the 2016 election, when voters in 17 states faced new restrictions that ranged from photo ID requirements to cutbacks on early voting and same-day registration. Republicans said the laws were necessary to prevent fraud; Democrats and voting rights advocates said the restrictions were really designed to reduce participation by minority groups and young voters who traditionally support Democrats.

“It’s the biggest rollback of voting since Jim Crow,” said Jonathan Brater, an attorney at NYU Law’s Brennan Center for Justice, which compiled the list of restrictions.1

But in just the past few weeks, several of these laws have been blocked or overturned by federal judges. On Monday, a district court judge issued a preliminary injunction against a voter ID law in North Dakota. In the previous 10 days, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the ID law in Texas violated the Voting Rights Act, a panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a law in North Carolina, and a federal district court judge in Wisconsin ruled that elements of the law there were unconstitutional. There is also major voting-law litigation ongoing in Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Ohio and Virginia.

Things are taking such a rapid turn that, while we were on the phone early this week, Brater was still deciphering the ruling fresh from North Dakota.

The legal fight has become a significant issue in the presidential race. Hillary Clinton has spoken forcefully against the voter ID laws in speeches and op-ed articles. “They’re doing everything they can to stop black people, Latinos, poor people, young people, people with disabilities from voting,” she said in Houston earlier this year.

On Tuesday, Donald Trump warned that the election would be “rigged” against him, and he cited as an example the court decisions throwing out voter ID laws. “If you don’t have voter ID, you can just keep voting and voting and voting,” he told The Washington Post. (As the Post pointed out, however, that kind of fraud almost never happens.)

If you want to quantify the distance Republicans have traveled since its “party of Lincoln” days, look away from Donald Trump long enough to read the federal court ruling that struck down a North Carolina voting law. It’s as damning a document as you will ever encounter.

The evidence shows the state party as an institution that conspired — OK, schemed — to suppress the votes of one particular race. We are not talking about a few bad apples, a few hyped up white supremacists, or a single erratic presidential nominee with no brakes on his mouth.

We are talking about a legislature that requested racial breakdowns on various aspects of voting behavior, noted which were most common among African Americans, then amended a voting bill to eliminate or restrict them. We are talking about a governor who signed that bill into law. And we are talking about people who obviously did not cover their tracks. In their circles, perhaps, what they did was acceptable and reasonable, and they didn’t realize how it would be perceived outside their backwards bubble.

Republicans have been accelerating their march to demographic suicide since Trump blared his hostility toward Muslims, Hispanics and immigrants on the first day of his campaign. The 4th circuit ruling, with its crystal clear tracing of not just impact but intent, drags African Americans into the circle of fire.

4EVER2 wrote:Knobloch, here in KS. got his arse handed to him too and despite the mega bucks he's wasted "HUNTING DOWN ALL THOSE SCRUPULOUS CHEATERS" he's found 3!
None of them illegals - none of them Democrats - 3 Republican's that are so well financed they have 2 property addresses that they own and had voted on local politics issues only!  Yes, indeed ...Ceder Creek  wealthy home owners - dual property titled homes at lake locations in KS. 
BOOK'EM DANO --- high crimes & misdemeanors