Let Me Vote - Count My Vote

Let Me Vote - Count My Vote (93)

African Americans have come a long way politically over the past half-century, but disparities remain.

In the five decades since the passage of the Voting Rights Act, blacks have made significant strides in registering and turning out to vote, according to a new study. Yet, the policies enacted tend to better represent the interests of white Americans and blacks continue to be underrepresented in elected office.

Electoral integrity has not improved in the U.S. over the past year, according to a new study. In fact, elections in Mexico now have more integrity than ours, the new survey, based on the observations of some 1,400 international election experts, finds.

While Republican state legislatures around the nation have been working to limit access to the polls over recent years, Democrats moved a non-partisan initiative forward over the weekend to help expand --- or, at least, to help protect --- the franchise for all Americans.

Thursday, 26 February 2015 00:00

The Next Attack on Voting Rights

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The last round of voter restrictions came after the 2010 Republican wave, when new GOP majorities passed voter identification laws and slashed ballot access in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida. Now, three months after the 2014 Republican wave, another class of state lawmakers are prepping another assault on voting rights under the same guise of “uniformity” and “ballot integrity.”

It’s the cusp of his 90th birthday, but civil rights icon Ferguson Reid is still gearing up for the long haul. “We have the races in 2015, 2017, and 2019 to get the majority,” he tells me, referring to the off-year elections for control of Virginia’s state government. “And this election will determine whether or not we’re able to get a House majority for 2021.”

Just weeks ahead of the 50th anniversary of the violent clashes in Selma that led to passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, lawmakers introduced a bill to restore that law’s power to protect voters against discrimination.

A plan to further slash the availability of early voting is rapidly advancing in Georgia.

A committee of state lawmakers voted along party lines last week to slash the state’s early voting days from 21 to 12. The full legislature could call a vote on the cuts at any time, and with Republicans holding a majority of the House seats, the measure would likely pass.

More than 15,000 Ohioans tried to cast a ballot but didn’t have their votes counted in the November 2014 general election. And that’s good news, says a report unveiled yesterday by the Ohio secretary of state’s office, because it’s fewer than those who had their ballots thrown out in the previous gubernatorial election four years earlier.

Congressmen Mark Pocan and Keith Ellison have made it their mission to answer threats to voting rights in America with a solution sufficient to a great democracy.



(The Root) -- In 1994 Kemba Smith was sentenced to 24 1/2 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a cocaine ring. The story of the harsh punishment dealt to a minor player -- who admitted to lying and breaking the law for her abusive boyfriend but never used or sold drugs -- caught the attention of criminal-justice advocates across the country.

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