Well, this is blatant:
Doug Preisse, chairman of the Republican Party in Franklin County, which contains the city of Columbus, admitted in an email to the Columbus Dispatch that black voters would now have a more difficult time voting:
“I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine. Let’s be fair and reasonable.”
Preisse was one of the board of elections members who blocked Democratic efforts in Franklin County to expand voting hours to evenings and weekends. According to the [Columbus] Dispatch, he called claims of unfairness “bullshit. Quote me!”
That’s about as partisan as you can get, no?
It seems the place to start with election reform is to take control of them entirely out of the hands of politicians. Figure out a way to put these matters into the hands of citizen selected individuals who are beholden to no political party. Once upon a time that’s what being a “civil servant” was all about. It needs to be again. Heck, I’d be in favor of the League of Women voters state organizations being in charge of our elections.
Nice idea, but the problem with that is the fight would just shift to who’s in power at the League of Women Voters, or whatever other 3rd party org you choose. Direct election of people to these sorts of government offices is still the best tool we have – they’re still beholden to the public, even if they belong to a political party. Maybe nonpartisan elected/election officials would be better?
But no, the main problem is that the modern GOP has no shame about their incredibly shameful behavior on this (and so many other) issues. The vote suppression movement may well be the most disgusting thing they have ever done.
Or individuals.
Random citizen gets elected.
Company: “Hey, you have 2 kids right? They’re bright but not too smart. How about we create a scholarship for them? Oh. No? Well we bought your internet browsing habits. All legal. Your wife would be quite interested in all those fetish sites you go to at night. Yeah. We thought so.”
The good news from Ohio is that last week, state officials had to back down on their scheme to extend early voting hours in Republican-leaning large counties (eg Hamilton) and curtail them in Democratic-leaning ones (eg Cuyahoga). The public outcry forced their hands.
Hopefully something can happen with this Franklin County stuff as well. Given the nonsense that happened there in 2004 and 2008, I’m not optimistic, but with a quote this blatant and attention already on the state-level suppression, perhaps there’s a chance.
it was a partial backdown at best.
While Ohio will no longer have better voting hours for Republican areas, they also will have no early voting on the weekend before the election.
Two Democratic Board of Election officials in Montgomery County, who tried to extend voting hours in their county beyond what was decreed by Husted have been suspended and now face removal.
I’m clueless as to the legal procedures here, but don’t blatant statements like this and that other one from that guy re PA’s voter purging provide some kind of pretext for intervention from the Justice Dept? I mean, are they just going to get away with it barring local action?
It has to be in a state that got busted for Jim Crow back in the day. States that have never been busted for that get more leeway by law.
I wouldn’t say he was “admitting” it, he was bragging about it. Apparently unless the residents of Ohio can muster up some simple decency, nothing will change no matter how blatantly their “leaders” work to subvert what’s left of American democracy.
Yeah, I have some relatives who sound just like this guy. They are racist assholes, they vote Republican, and they just LOVE this kind of public in-your-face racist crap, because its just what they are say to each other in private.