Could McCain steal a win?
Friday, October 24th, 2008I’ve written about the threat of Obama losing the election as a result of GOP voter suppression before, but the full extent of the Republican’s policy is only now coming to light. Rolling Stone magazine has the full story, but here’s a taster:
In the century following the Civil War, millions of black Americans in the Deep South lost their constitutional right to vote, thanks to literacy tests, poll taxes and other Jim Crow restrictions imposed by white officials. Add up all the modern-day barriers to voting erected since the 2004 election — the new registrations thrown out, the existing registrations scrubbed, the spoiled ballots, the provisional ballots that were never counted — and what you have is millions of voters, more than enough to swing the presidential election, quietly being detached from the electorate by subterfuge.
“Jim Crow was laid to rest, but his cousins were not,” says Donna Brazile. “We got rid of poll taxes and literacy tests but now have a second generation of schemes to deny our citizens their franchise.” Come November, the most crucial demographic may prove to be Americans who have been denied the right to vote. If Democrats are to win the 2008 election, they must not simply beat John McCain at the polls — they must beat him by a margin that exceeds the level of GOP vote tampering.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also recently appeared on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show to explain what it all means. If after you’ve watched it you’re not left with a profound mixture of anger and fear then you’re probably not backing Barack!
Find out more about these practices, and how to counter them, visit No Voter Left Behind and Steal Back Your Vote.
