A bill in the U.S. House of Representatives provides for $600 million in new affordable housing funds.
But there is a catch!
Non-profit organizations that provide voter registration or are affiliated with any organization that provides voter registration are barred from receiving and distributing the new money.
The anti-voter registration language was inserted at the request of the Republican Study Committee which has expressed the belief that low income housing groups are too liberal and are partisan in their voter registration activities. Here’s a link to the story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune from Friday.
The Bill HR 1461 is scheduled to come up for a vote Thursday or Friday of next week. Under normal House rules the anti-voter registration language could be taken out. It is not clear if House leadership will prevent that and force an up or down vote on the entire package.
What an outrage! So now the Repugs don’t want poor people voting – because that’s too partisan!! Shall we look into the voter registration efforts of Halliburton? Just what kind of democracy to these repugs envision?
The poor do not vote in large numbers, in fact voters tend to overlay more with the top 25% income tier.
System design is a factor, the polls are open for 12 hours on a working day.
People who are able to get from their workplace to their polling place and back within 2 hours are not really affected by that, but the reality of urban life, and the reality of millions of Americans who rely on public transportation to take them to jobs that pay minimum wage or a little above it is not really compatible with participation in the election process. The “early voting” in the last election could be seen as a slight threat, but not really enough to necessitate such worry. “Early voters” face the same logistical issues as “regular” voters. A few communities opened polls on Saturday, but the poor are less likely than their affluent brothers to have weekends off.
Those with the knowledge and resources necessary can obtain absentee ballots. Next time you are speaking with a single mom who makes $6/hour folding sheets or stacking plates or something and spends 4-6 hours a day waiting for and riding on buses if she has arranged for her absentee ballot.
But there is an even more fundamental reason why the Republicans do not need to be concerned. The poor are generally more politically sophisticated than many affluent realize. Few people in need of low cost housing are afflicted with delusions that any politician of any party is going to cause any significant decrease in their rent or increase in their paycheck. Even if they are fortunate enough to obtain housing through an NGO or other non-profit, they are not likely to confuse the praise for the program voiced by millionaires in fancy suits with a fantasy that the millionaire is going to forfeit his career by basing his campaign on a promise to institute a living wage by executive decree, which is how it would have to be done. The poor are also less likely to have a strong belief in the theory of a causal relationship between which candidate receives the most votes and who takes office, a popular tenet of affluent faith.
Those bright dreams may lurk in the well-coiffed heads of the meetup organizers and the peppy “incremental change” squad, but the grandsons of aging poor who voted for the War on Poverty have learned what pragmatism means, even as their elders have learned the safest spots to park the rickety shopping carts that hold their possessions.
The underclass and politicians, regardless of party, have nothing to say to each other, nothing to offer each other. The political actions of the poor will occur in a separate and independent orbit.
Independent even from Diebold.