( B b g e r U C t ________________________ Page9
November21,2012____________________________£ J’1
GOP Voter Suppression Backfires
seniors) from voting. One GOP offi
cial in Ohio said early voting cuts
were necessary to check the power
of "the urban — read African-Ameri
can - voter-turnout machine."
A leader of the Tea Party group
"True the Vote" said he wanted to
make the experience of voting "like
driving and seeing the police fol
lowing you." The Republican House
speaker in New Hampshire said re
strictions on college students vot
ing were needed because "voting
as a lib eral... that's what kids do."
To reduce turnout among these
groups, Republican officials de
ployed a variety of tactics. Ohio
Secretary of State Jon Husted and
Florida Gov. Rick Scott slashed
the amount of time available for
early voting, which is dispropor
tionately utilized by m inority and
low-incom e voters. GOP legisla
tors in Pennsylvania enacted a
photo ID law, and then failed to
establish adequate procedures for
allowing more than 700,000 Penn
sylvanians who lacked photo ID
to obtain one.
Voter purges attempted by Gov.
Scott and Colorado Secretary of
State Scott Gessler targeted thou
sands of lawfully registered vot
ers. "True the Vote" — surely a
Marching to polls
as never before
D onna B razile
and W ill C rossley
For more than two years Repub
licans have campaigned and legis
lated against the right of certain
groups of people to vote. On Elec
tion Day, Republicans suffered the
consequences.
The very groups the GOP tar
geted - among them African Ameri
cans, Latinos, and young people --
turned out in record numbers, pro
pelling to victory the president and
Democrats across the country. The
Republicans' strategy failed be
cause it awakened the most power
ful force in a democracy: the deter
mination of the voters themselves.
Republican lawmakers and con
servative activists undertook a con
certed effort to keep minorities, stu
dents and those with lower or fixed
incomes (including many of our
by
le a d in g c a n d id a te fo r th e
Newspeak Award - challenged
m inority voter registrations on an
unprecedented scale.
T he O bam a cam p aig n , the
Dem ocratic National Com m ittee,
and other voting rights advo-
‘ cates responded by challenging
many of these restrictionsin court.
The courts blocked many o f the
w o rst m e a s u re s , in c lu d in g
Pennsylvania's photo ID law and
the bulk o f Florida's voter purge.
The O bam a cam paign and the
DNC successfully litigated to re
store the final three days o f early
voting for all Ohioans, and de
fended this right all the way to the
Supreme Court.
Yet the untold story o f the 2012
election is not the efforts o f law
yers or activists, but the unyield
ing determ ination o f everyday
ordinary citizens determ ined to
cast their ballots. They won on
Tuesday. Here's why.
When Secretary Husted tried to
change election rules last year,
Ohioans responded by gathering
300,000 signatures toward a refer
endum that successfully suspended
the law. After we successfully re
stored access for the last three days
of early voting, the African-Ameri
can com m unity participated in
record numbers, aided by a massive
turnout for Souls to the Polls on the
Sunday before Election Day. Over
all, the African-American share Of
the Ohio electorate was more than in
2008.
In Florida, 150 black pastors
organized "Operation Lemonade"
— named for the "lemon" they were
handed when Gov. Scott cut early
voting. A lthough the state re
duced the num ber o f early voting
days from 14 to eight, and elim i
nated voting on the Sunday be
fore Election Day, nearly as many
voters — 2.4 m illion in all — voted
early as in 2008.
On Election Day, voters stood
with determination in unconsciona
bly long lines, some that stretched
for up to seven hours. Though some
voters were elderly, frail, missing
work, or simply exhausted, they re
fused, undeterred by the line and in
fact galvanized by the bad intent.
Voters and activists used social
media to stand in solidarity as the
hashtag #StayInLine quickly began
trending on Twitter. People were so
determined to vote that many poll
ing places ran out of provisional
ballots.
When the dust settled, the very
Ending the Partisan Gridlock
by M arc M orial
You might ex
pect that one of the
longest and most
intense presiden
tial campaigns in
American history
should be followed
by a period of rest and celebration.
We cannot afford that luxury at this
time.
While we congratulate President
Obama and Vice President Biden on
their decisive victory last week, we
believe that urgent issues like the
approaching fiscal cliff, the educa
tion of our children, continuing high
unemployment and a still sluggish
economic recovery require immedi-
ate action.
The American people not only
voted to make President Obama a
two-term president, they voted
for the end of partisan gridlock in
Washington and a government
that gets things done. That is why
on the day after the election I sent
a letter addressed to President
Obama, Rep. Nancy Pelosi and
Speaker John Boehner, urging them
to immediately get to work on four
critical priorities for the next four
years:
A comprehensive jobs program
executed through a partnership
among government, the private sec
tor and the nation's non-profit com
munity.
**’* jportlani) tObseruer
Established 1970
Charles H. Washington
EDiroR.Michael L eighton
A ssistant to P ublisher , P ubuc R elations : M ark W ashington
C reative D irector : P aul N e u feld t
A ssistant to P ublisher , O ffice M anager /C lassifieds : Lucinda Baldwin
A ssistant P ublisher : Leonard Latin
A dvertising M anager , P ublic R elations : Tony Washington
S taff W riter /P hotographer : Can Hachmann
E ditor - in -C hief , P ublisher :
An intense focus on children and
youth, with a national policy to move
the nation toward universal early
childhood education, an expansion
of the effort to make post-second
ary education affordable, and an
emphasis on job training and skills
retraining for those who did not
finish high school on time.
A comprehensive new approach
to community safety and crime re
duction, with a stronger enforce
ment of existing gun laws, re-enact
ment of the assault weapons ban
and a thoughtful examination of dis
parities in the criminal justice sys
tem.
And finally, a fair and sensible
deficit reduction plan that includes
-----------------
Donna Brazile is vice chair
woman and Will Crossly is voter
protection director for the Demo
cratic National Committee.
American people want
to get things done
one dollar in revenue enhance
ments for every dollar in spending
cuts.
In my letter I emphasized that the
devastation of Superstorm Sandy
exposed the desperately slim mar
gin to which our most vulnerable
citizens cling. Even before the storm
hit, African American and Latino
unemployment had been over 10
percent for the past four years. It
currently registers at 13.8 percent
and 9.7 percent respectively.
In addition, if Congress and the
President fail to reach an agreement
by New Year’s Day, $ 1.2 trillion in
automatic across-the-board cuts
will be made to domestic and de
fense programs, including draco
USPS 959-680 ---------------------
groups targeted for suppression and
intimidation had voted in record
numbers. Compared to 2008, Afri
can Am ericans, Hispanics, and
people under age 29 all represented
a greater share of the national elec
torate.
In September, Georgia congress
man and civil rights icon John Lewis
told the Democratic National Con
vention:
I've seen this before. I lived this
before. Too many people struggled,
suffered, and died to make it pos
sible for every American to exercise
their right to vote. And we have
come too far together to ever turn
back... [WJe must not be silent. We
must stand up, speak up, and speak
out. We must march to the polls like
never, ever before.
On Election Day, we marched to
the polls, and persevered lines as
long as necessary to cast our bal
lots. We marched and stood for
many reasons—not least among
them, the refusal to let others trample
on our hard-won rights. Those seek
ing to do so would be wise to heed
this lesson in the years to come.
nian cuts to education, nutrition
programs for women, infants and
children and low-income heating
assistance.
Avoiding the so-called “fiscal
c liff’ of sequestration and reducing
the deficit in a way that is fair must
be the first order of business.
The National Urban League will
soon convene an Urban Ideas Fo
rum with policy and program ex
perts, private sector executives and
analysts to elevate the discussion
of income inequality, disparities in
education and workforce invest
ment.
Marc Morial is president and
chief executive officer o f the Na
tional Urban League.
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