Robert Reich - Hundreds of thousands of Americans are being denied the right to vote because they are poor.
In nine states, Republican legislators have enacted laws that disenfranchise anyone with outstanding legal fees or court fines. For example, in Alabama more than 100,000 people who owe money – roughly 3 percent of the state’s voting-age population – have been struck from voting rolls.
This is unconstitutional. In 1964, the 24th amendment abolished the poll tax, a Jim Crow tactic used to bar poor blacks from voting.
These new laws are a modern reincarnation of that unconstitutional system, disproportionately disenfranchising people of color.
Income and wealth should have no bearing on the right to vote. Many Americans are struggling to make ends meet. But they still have a constitutional right to make their voices heard.
Preventing people from voting because they owe legal fees or court fines muzzle low-income Americans at a time in our nation’s history when the rich have more political power than ever.
These state laws are another form of voter suppression – like gerrymandering, voter ID requirements, and bars on anyone with felony convictions from voting.
3 comments:
Gee, it costs money to get a license and drive a car too.
Since some people can barely afford a car, should we just allow them to drive without a license, registration, and insurance?
No, we make them register their car and take a driver's test - and get a license - with a photo ID. We also require that to fly on a commercial plane.
So it's an unbearable burden to have to have a photo ID to vote? BS
1:15,
There are plenty of people who do not own a car, so they don't need a drivers license. Should a citizen be barred from voting because they use public transit, walk or bike, and don't own a car and don't have any need to fly? The difference between driving and voting is, driving is a privilege, but voting is a right.
My mother is 89, she doesn't drive anymore or need a car, her health and age make her no longer want to fly, and she only has a drivers license because it doesn't expire until next year. Next year should she be barred from voting because her driver license expired? She has voted in every election since she went in college in the late 1940s, and should be allowed to vote as long as she is alive.
Pity Huey isn't still alive. He would have had quite a lot to say about such tactics.
The two acts of his that are probably remembered with the most gratitude by working people were both "leveling" ones: providing all kids with textbooks paid for out of taxes, and eliminating the poll tax.
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