I was watching the PBS Newshour this evening and they showed parts of the Supreme Court’s telephone hearing with the lawyers for the appellants in this suit about voting rights in Arizona. My jaw dropped to the ground when the Republican’s lawyer replied to Coney Barrett’s question. He said, “Because it puts Republicans at a competitive disadvantage.”
Here is a short article about this hearing.
So basically the Republicans found that giving minorities unrestricted voting at the multi-precinct site or wrong precinct put them at a competitive disadvantage!
To remove this disadvantage the Republicans passed a law that disqualified a ballot cast in the wrong precinct. Before the law the voter would be able to vote out-of-precinct with a special ballot. This was consistent with the Voting Rights Act that is supposed to promote voting equality for all citizens regardless of who they are. Republicans have found that people of color vote more for Democrats and less for Republicans. So in order to tilt the playing field in their favor the Republicans have passed laws that make it more difficult for people of color to vote!! This is the opposite of what they _should_ be doing, which is to find out what causes the people to vote more for Democrats and then make changes to the Republican Party to regain the lost voters.
In the 60s the Voting Rights Act was passed (with full bipartisan support) to overcome the highly discriminatory laws that were passed in the southern states, such as literacy tests in order to vote. The states where there were widespread discrimination were put in a compliance list that was to be monitored by the Federal Election Commission to make sure they didn’t break the voting rights laws. But in Shelby County v. Holder the Supreme Court declared that Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is unconstitutional.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelby_County_v._Holder
The 15th Amendment bans voting restrictions on the basis of race or color. Still somehow the states passed laws that do effectively discriminate indirectly, such as this Arizona law that disqualifies voting out of precinct.
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Addendum Mar 4 – I heard more about voting access today on PBS Newshour. The Republicans in most state legislatures are introducing bills that restrict voting by requiring voter identification. They are using Trump’s false claim that the election was fraudulent to make it more difficult for voters to vote by requiring an ID. Many people of color do not have a valid ID, like a driver’s license or state ID, even though they are a legal citizen. This affects the poorest parts of the states and country. This is another attempt by the Republicans to tilt the playing field in their favor.
The special runoff election in Georgia where two Democrats won showed that the election could be influenced by the very large amount of money spent by the Democratic and Republican Parties. I found this quote:
<< David Lauter of the Los Angeles Times wrote the following on December 25:[29]
“
This week, alone, more than $87 million has been spent or booked in television, radio and digital ads in the state, according to AdImpact, a firm that tracks ad spending. That’s more than most Senate campaigns spend in an entire year. All told, some $365 million already has been spent for advertising in the two races, with another $110 million already booked, AdImpact’s figures show.
Control of the Senate rides on the outcome of the two races, and with it a large part of President-elect Joe Biden’s agenda.
…
That prospect has driven the huge outpouring of contributions, including large sums to four political committees controlled by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. The four groups have spent or booked more than $132 million in advertising in support of the Republican candidates. That spending has given the Republicans an advantage in the ad wars.
While outside Democratic groups are spending less than their Republican counterparts, they have still raised considerable sums. Fair Fight, founded by Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic candidate for governor in Georgia, reported raising $22 million, with most of it being spent on voter turnout operations. Two groups controlled by Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer of New York have spent or booked roughly $30 million in advertising. >>
So hundreds of millions have been spent in these two Georgia senate seats. The two Democrats won both seats. It said that Fair Fight spent most of $22 million on voter turnout. Apparently this was effective in getting the voters of color to go vote.
I’m pointing this out: that money talks and the Democrats will have to beat the Republicans at their own game by raising money to be spent on voter turnout. This seems to be the best way of leveling the playing field.
However HR1 has been passed by the House. This has to be passed by the Senate.
HR1 requires that districts be reapportioned by an independent commission. The Republicans have used gerrymandering to give them a political advantage.
HR1
Heard on Sunday Morning 6:30 AM, Mar 7, 2021 article about the Oathkeepers
“When the RaHoWa…” = Racial Holy Wars