January 8, 2020
Page 9
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O PINION
Preserving Power at the Expense of Others
GOP tactics to
suppress the
black vote
by r ev . s usan
k. w illiams
s mith
As
Presi-
dent Trump’s
imp ea c h me n t
unspools, news
coverage
is
buzzing about conspiracy theories
and geopolitical rivalries. But at
the root of Trump’s effort to ex-
tort Ukraine was a simple motive:
Trump hoped to influence our
elections to preserve his power
and that of his associates.
That has a lot in common with
something closer to home: Our
long and ugly history of voter sup-
pression, which likewise aimed
to preserve the power of some at
the expense of others — primarily
people of color.
In Give Us the Ballot, Ari Ber-
man notes the U.S. has always had
a “split personality when it comes
to race and political power.” Ef-
forts to get African Americans the
right to vote in “a nation simul-
taneously founded on liberty and
slavery,” he writes, have always
been “met by equally intense ef-
forts to roll back that progress.”
Especially after the Civil War,
the political and racial schizophre-
nia of white America could not en-
dure even the thought that former-
ly enslaved Africans should have
the right to vote. Efforts to stymie
the ability of black people to vote
— from outright prohibitions to
artificial barriers — began in ear-
nest then, and continue in various
forms to the present day.
Brutal, often violent voter sup-
pression prevailed in the 20th
century. But a new wave of more
sophisticated tactics surfaced after
the 2008 general election, when
Republicans realized the power of
the resurgent black vote that had
helped elect President Obama.
Carefully studying what the
Obama campaign had done, they
constructed laws to combat the
reasons for its success. States be-
gan passing laws that curtailed
early voting and mandated the
shuttering of polling places that
made it easier for blacks to vote.
They instituted techniques like
voter purging (including purging
by postcard) and imposed restric-
tive voter registration policies.
More recently, Trump campaign
workers studied the techniques
that made the Obama coalition
successful and greatly increased
clear that the Trump team learned
much about Obama’s operation and
sought to emulate it.
Meanwhile Republicans have
doubled down on efforts to keep
black people from voting in key
races. The marquee example is
Georgia, where Democrat Stacey
Adams ran for governor against
Fortunately, voting rights
advocates are fighting back.
Voters in states like Georgia
are fighting — successfully
— to get polling places
reopened.
their efforts to strengthen their
own grassroots organizing.
A Time magazine article reported
that the Trump Victory Leadership
Initiative, said to be modeled on
the Obama campaign, had by 2016
trained 700,000 volunteers — and is
aiming for 2 million in 2020. While
they consistently attack Obama, it is
Republican Brian Kemp in 2018.
There, polling places in poor
and rural districts were closed.
“Exact match” laws resulted in
the exclusion of 53,000 votes cast
by Democrats because of slight
differences in what their photo ID
said and what was on voter rolls.
Many Georgians were forced to
cast provisional ballots, which ac-
cording to data collected after the
election were not counted.
Fortunately, voting rights ad-
vocates are fighting back. Voters
in states like Georgia are fighting
— successfully — to get polling
places reopened. And Florida ac-
tivists supported the passage of
Amendment 4, which restores
voting rights to people with felony
convictions.
Trump, ever dishonest himself,
calls the American political sys-
tem rigged. He is correct, though
not in the way he is communicat-
ing it. His party’s intense effort to
negate the African American vote
is still keeping black and brown
people, students, the elderly, and
immigrant citizens away from the
polls.
It will take all of us working
together, harder than ever, to over-
come those obstacles. But we can
and must do it.
Rev. Susan K. Williams Smith is
director of Crazy Faith Ministries
in Columbus, Ohio. She is a mem-
ber of African American Ministers
in Action with the People for the
American Way Foundation.