FORUM
On the 50th anniversary of the
voting rights act, Republicans make
zero references to voting rights
DNC
Press
Guest
Columnist
They are trying to
make voting
harder for minori
ties, women,
young people, and
seniors
Tonight (Aug. 6), on
the 50th anniversary of the
Voting Rights Act, not a
single Republican candi
date made a single refer
ence to the Voting Rights
Act. That's not surprising.
The fact is that
Republicans believe that
when fewer people vote -
especially minorities,
women, students, and the
elderly - they win more
elections, so they are doing
everything they can to
make it harder for
Americans to vote.
Jeb Bush and Marco
Rubio have both attacked
early voting in Florida.
Ted Cruz championed
voter ID laws. Rand Paul
belittled the need for the
Voting Rights Act noting,
"We have an African
American president."
Chris Christie vetoed
early voting legislation in
New Jersey. Scott Walker
not only signed into law
one of the nation's strictest
voter ID laws, he turned
around and fundraised off
of it.
Democrats continuous
ly fight to ensure that every
eligible citizen is able to
register, every registered
voter is able to vote, and
every vote is accurately
counted.
Democrats want to
make it easier to vote
because when more people
participate, everyone has a
voice - Republicans are
trying to make it harder.
How Republican candi
dates stark up on voting
rights
Jeb Bush signed a law
limiting early voting and
restricting voting loca
tions. "Early voting proved
to be so popular in its first
test in Florida last year that
election supervisors want
ed to expand the hours and
add more locations. But the
Re publican-control led
Legislature rejected both
requests, and on Monday
Gov. Jeb Bush signed a law
limiting the hours of early
voting and confining it to
election offices, city halls
and libraries. The new law
limits early voting to no
more than eight hours a
day, changing the old law
that allowed early voting at
least eight hours a day.
Early voting also cannot be
held more than eight hours
on any weekend, and it
must end the Sunday
before the election." [St'.
Petersburg Times, 6/21/05]
Rubio suggesting
slashing Florida's early
voting period in half -
removing the first week -
saying that first week
"was really not cost effec
tive." RUBIO: "But we
also know, for example,
that in the early stages of
the - of campaigns, we
used to have a two-week
voting period in Florida.
The cost-benefit analysis of
the first week of voting was
really not - was really not
cost effective. In essence,
the number of people vot
ing versus the cost to local
governments to comply or
to carry out that voting
were - the turnout just did
n't justify the expenditure
in the first week." [The
Buzz, Tampa Bay Times,
6/13/12]
Scott Walker signed a
bill requiring voters to
show photo identification
at the polls. "Ending a
decade-long quest by GOP
officials, Gov. Scott Walker
signed a bill Wednesday
requiring voters to show
photo identification at the
polls." [Milwaukee
Journal-Sentinel, 5/25/11 ]
Politifaet: Wisconsin's
voter id law was one of
the nation's strictest.
"Gov. Scott Walker has
signed a photo ID require
ment for Wisconsin elec
tions starting in 2012. . .
Even in its ' new form,
Wisconsin's law is one of
the most restrictive, based
on our research on accept
able IDs and voting proce
dures for those without
IDs." [Politifaet Wisconsin,
6/12/11]
Ted Cruz touted his
defense of voter ID laws.
"Voter fraud is a serious
problem threatening the
integrity of our democratic
process. Ted Cruz has suc
cessfully defended laws
requiring voters to show
identification and other
voter fraud prevention laws
that are vital to preserve the
integrity of our elections."
[Ted Cruz for Senate,
accessed 8/13/12]
Ted Cruz said he
would file an amendment
that would allow states to
require proof of citizen
ship to register to vote.
"In an effort to counteract a
Supreme Court decision
Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R
TX) said he intends to file
an amendment to immigra
tion reform legislation that
allows states to require
proof of citizenship to reg
ister to vote. He billed his
amendment as a response
to the 7-2 decision in
Arizona v. Inter Tribal
Council, which struck
down an Arizona law that
required people to prove
their citizenship in order to
register to vote. The Court
held that the state law was
in violation of federal law."
[Talking Points Memo,
6/17/13]
Rand Paul dismissed
the need for the voting
rights act, saying we're
"beyond that now"
adding: "we have an
African-American presi
dent." "The Supreme Court
on Tuesday struck down a
key part of the Voting
Rights Act ? the map that
determines which states
and localities must get fed
eral permission before they
change their voting laws. 'I
haven't seen the decision
yet so I can't give you a
thorough answer other than
to say it was a time in our
country when the color of
your skin did need to factor
into voting, but we've real
ly gotten beyond that now,'
Paul observes. 'We have an
African-American presi
dent. African-Americans
are voting at a higher per
centage in the last election
than whites. There doesn't
seem to be any sort of sys
temic problem like there
was in the South with pre
cluding blacks from voting.
So we're at a point in time
in our history where the
color of your skin should
not be taken into account
with voting.'" [Newsmax,
6/25/13]
Illustration by Ron Rogers for the Chronicle
Bush
Cruz
Paul
Rubio
Walker
A vision for Ferguson, Baltimore, L.A. and Everywhere
Gloria
Walton
Guest
Columnist
TTiis month, the nation
will acknowledge two
political milestones. On
Aug. 9, we marked the one
year anniversary of the
unrest in Ferguson,
Missouri. Two days later,
we marked the 50th
anniversary of the uprising
in Watts. A third civil dis
turbance, located in time
between these two, offers
lessons learned from the
failures of 1965.
It provides a blueprint
for how we might begin to
rebuild Ferguson and the
many American communi
ties that look like Ferguson.
That third milestone is the
1992 unrest in South Los
Angeles.
In April 1992, L.A.
erupted, sparked by the
acquittal of police accused
of beating an unarmed
Black man named Rodney
King. The violence that fol
lowed cast a national spot
light on South Los Angeles
and other impoverished
L.A. neighborhoods in
which liquor stores substi
tuted for supermarkets and
check-cashing joints served
as surrogate banks.
In the aftermath of the
unrest, it became clear that
government and private
sector responses would be
woefully inadequate to the
need. Grassroots communi
ty leaders working in
L.A.'s lowest income com
munities had little option
but to do for themselves.
That's when the organiza
tion I now lead, Strategic
Concepts for Organizing &
Policy Education
(SCOPE), was founded.
For more than 20 years,
L.A. community organiza
tions like ours banded
together with residents to
elevate the voices of people
of color and strengthen
their power. We have
forged strong" alliances
with labor and grassroots
groups that advocate for
people of color. We engage
sophisticated "inside/out
side strategies."
We understand that
elected officials have pow
erful forces pushing them
and often settle for what's
possible instead of what's
needed. Independent com
munity power helps keep
elected representatives
accountable to the needs
and interests of neighbor
hoods and residents.
As a result, community
organizations in L.A. today
are a force to be reckoned
with. That's why L.A.
recently became the largest
city in the country to raise
the minimum wage and
L.A. County, with 10 mil
lion residents, following
suit. The raise in the mini
mum wage is one of many
victories that could not
have been won without the
strength and power of
grassroots community
organizations, our partners
in organized labor and the
support of our allies.
In the last 20 years,
SCOPE has emerged as a
local laboratory for LA.
From day one, we were
pushing the envelope.
Experimenting. How do we
build community power
and influence? How do we
elevate equity in all poli
cies?
We believe if you start
by building a program for
people with the most bur
dens, facing the greatest
barriers, who come from
the poorest communities, if
you start there and build a
program for those commu
nities to succeed,then you
have a program that will
benefit everyone.
SCOPE'S 20-year-old
jobs model does that. Our
model couples entry-level
jobs with job-training and
apprenticeships to create
real career pathways into
good-paying union jobs in
entertainment, health care
and the green economy.
These programs go the
extra mile by providing
paid on-the-job training,
mentoring by experienced
senior workers and tutoring
to help pass certification
exams and tests.
SCOPE pioneered a
neighborhood-based
precinct model to engage
voters and turn out the
vote. We have neighbors
talk to neighbors on the
phones and at their doors,
because we know that's the
most effective way to
mobilize voters. We also
invested in predictive dial
ing, an automated dialing
program that allows us to
reach an exponentially
greater number of new and
occasional voters. We do
sustained engagement over
time, during and between
electoral cycles, because
that's what it takes to turn
"new and occasional vot
ers" to an "always voter."
Engage. Educate. Turn
them out.
We call it "integrated
voter engagement." With it,
SCOPE and our allies have
won two recent, tide-turn
ing initiatives. Proposition
30 generated $9 billion for
education and social serv
ices. Proposition 47 reclas
sified certain nonviolent
felonies to misdemeanors,
reversing decades of
investment in prisons and
redirecting resources to
treatment and support
There is still more work
to be done. The South L.A.
neighborhood where
SCOPE is located has a
high percentage of working
families struggling to make
ends meet and high rates of
*
violence. L.A.'s economy
is obscenely out of balance
with per capita income in
Bel Air topping $128,000
while comparable South
L.A. income is just
$13,243.
But we have made
progress and we will con
tinue. South L.A. didn't
always look like the neigh
borhood that's become
infamous in news stories
and movies. Sixty years
ago. South L.A. was a
vibrant middle-class neigh
borhood.
Many African
Americans bought their
first homes here. L.A. was
a major industrial center
for the country. South L.A.
was the heart of that indus
try. Men and women had
jobs that supported fami
lies. Children graduated
high school and many of
them went on to college.
That is SCOPE'S vision for
the new Los Angeles.
It is the vision that our
grassroots community
counterparts in Ferguson,
Baltimore and numerous
other American cities hold
for the future.
Walton is president and
CEO of Los Angeles-based
Strategic Concepts in
Organizing A Policy
Education (SCOPE), which
works on social and eco
nomic justice issues. This
op-ed first appeared in
Equal Voice News.
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