Voter suppression 10-9-2017

9, October 2017                          Voter suppression

While much of the media is focused on Russia’s hacking of the 2016 election, voter suppression has largely gone unnoticed.

Rev Barber is spearheading efforts to heighten people’s awareness of Voter suppression and offers the following statistics.

There were fewer than 868 voting sites in 2016 for black, brown and poor communities.22 states passed voter suppression laws since 2010. These are states which make up 50% of the House of Representatives. Without voter suppression the 2016 results would likely be radically different. 

1,562 days has elapsed since the Supreme Court decision gutting Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act McConnell and Ryan have filibustered efforts to reinstate the Voting Rights Act.

Trump won in Wisconsin by a mere 30,000 votes. 250,000 votes were suppressed in this state and in North Carolina 150 fewer sites offered early voting.

Districts are gerrymandered to render poor, Hispanic and black voters largely irrelevant.

Gerrymandering in North Carolina, voter suppression and denying same-day registration, early voting are prime examples of systemic voter suppression.

Trump nominated Tom Farr, a lawyer in Northern Carolina who responsible for voter suppression, to a coveted federal position.

58 % of black voters reside in 34 states that now have serious voter suppression laws.