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View Full Version : NAACP petitions UN: US states engage in "massive voter suppression" of minorities.



MountainOkie
12/8/2011, 05:35 PM
From the UK's Guardian:


The largest civil rights group in America, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), is petitioning the UN over what it sees as a concerted efforted to disenfranchise black and Latino voters ahead of next year's presidential election.

The organisation will this week present evidence to the UN high commissioner on human rights of what it contends is a conscious attempt to "block the vote" on the part of state legislatures across the US. Next March the NAACP will send a delegation of legal experts to Geneva to enlist the support of the UN human rights council.

The NAACP contends that the America in the throes of a consciously conceived and orchestrated move to strip black and other ethnic minority groups of the right to vote. William Barber, a member of the association's national board, said it was the "most vicious, co-ordinated and sinister attack to narrow participation in our democracy since the early 20th century".In its report, Defending Democracy: Confronting Modern Barriers to Voting Rights in America, the NAACP explores the voter supression measures taking place particularly in southern and western states.

Fourteen states have passed a total of 25 measures that will unfairly restrict the right to vote, among black and Hispanic voters in particular.

The new measures are focused – not coincidentally, the association insists – in states with the fastest growing black populations (Florida, Georgia, Texas and North Carolina) and Latino populations (South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee). The NAACP sees this as a cynical backlash to a surge in ethnic minority voting evident in 2008.

In that year, black and Hispanic voters turned out in record numbers, partly in a wave of enthusiasm for Barack Obama. More than 2 million extra black voters turned out over 2004, an increase of 15%.

Among Hispanics, the upturn was even more pronounced. Two million additional voters attended the polls – a rise of 28% on the previous presidential election.

The scale of the assault on voting rights is substantial, according to experts on electoral law. The Brennan Center for Justice, based at New York University law school, estimates that the new measures could bar as many as 5 million eligible voters from taking part in choosing the occupant of the White House next year.

The 14 states that have embarked on such measures hold two-thirds of the electoral college votes needed to win the presidency. Put another way, of the 12 battleground states that will determine the outcome of the presidential race, five have already cut back on voting rights and two more are in discussions about following suit.

Ethnic minority groups are not the only sections of society at risk of losing their voting rights. The Brennan Center warns that young voters and students, older voters and poor income groups are also vulnerable.

The NAACP says voting rights are being whittled down at every stage of the electoral process. First of all, the registration of new voters is being impeded in several states by moves to block voter registration drives that have historically proved to be an important way of bringing black and Hispanic people to the poll.

Four states – Florida, Iowa, Kentucky and Virginia – continue to withhold the vote from anyone convicted of a criminal offence. In Florida, offenders who have completed their sentences have to wait at least five years before they can even apply to restore their right to register to vote.

Across the US, more than 5 million Americans are denied the right to vote on grounds that they were convicted of a felony, 4 million of whom have fully completed their sentence and almost half of whom are black or Hispanic.

Other measures have reduced the ease of early voting, a convenience that is disproportionately heavily used by African-Americans. Even more importantly, 34 states have introduced a requirement that voters carry photo ID cards on the day of the election itself.

Studies have showed that the proportion of voters who do not have access to valid photo ID cards is much higher among older African-Americans because they were not given birth certificates in the days of segregation. Students and young voters also often lack identification and are thus in danger of being stripped of their right to vote.

In Texas, a law has been passed that prevents students from voting on the basis of their college ID cards, while allowing anyone to cast their ballot if they can show a permit to carry a concealed handgun.

Benjamin Jealous, the NAACP's president, said the moves amounted to "a massive attempt at state-sponsored voter suppression." He added that the association will be urging the UN "to look at what is a co-ordinated campaign to disenfranchise persons of colour."


This wins my vote for the biggest load of horse manure peddled this year.


Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/05/civil-rights-naacp-voter-warning

Ton Loc
12/8/2011, 05:41 PM
The NAACP really needs to get rid of the CP in their name. Not a lot of advancement is associated with the phrase colored people, not even if you spell in the fancy british way = colour.

Serge Ibaka
12/8/2011, 06:45 PM
The NCAAP is certainly reaching; instead, the discussion should be if the laws, themselves, are racist.

Lil Wayne (for what it's worth...not much):

You see, one in every 100 Americans are locked up
One in every, nine black Americans are locked up...
Our jails are populated with drug dealers
You know Crack Cocaine yeah, stuff like that
Meanin’ due to the laws we have on Crack Cocaine and regular Cocaine
The police are only…
I don’t want to say only right, but ****
Only logic by riding around in the hood all day
And not in the suburbs
Because Crack Cocaine is mostly found in the hood
And um, you know the other thing that is mostly found…
You know where I’m going

Merp. Merp. I just don't see the logic in restricting the voting-rights of ex-cons (regardless of the crime). If schools and private-companies do not want to employ ex-criminals, that's their business, but why subjugate their basic roles in society? I say: if you do your time, I am happy for you to rejoin society, pay your taxes, and vote.

MountainOkie
12/8/2011, 07:27 PM
The NCAAP is certainly reaching; instead, the discussion should be if the laws, themselves, are racist.

Handling it in-house and discussing things like this as Americans if fine, that's what it's supposed to be about right? While I disagree with you I'll still talk to you about it and we'll have a political discourse.

But accusing people willy-nilly of being involved in a intentional racist conspiracy to take away people's rights is WRONG, especially if you don't have proof. They've given none that I can see. That goes far beyond "reaching". It's normally called slander.

soonercoop1
12/8/2011, 07:42 PM
They are irrelevant and so are those that follow them...

soonercruiser
12/8/2011, 09:43 PM
From the UK's Guardian:

This wins my vote for the biggest load of horse manure peddled this year.


Yes Sir, Yes Sir, 3 bags full....of it!

badger
12/8/2011, 10:50 PM
I was actually quite happy to stand in line to vote for once at my polling place. Usually that place is dead except for the polling place volunteers and I'm barely into the double digits for number of voters when my ballot gets accepted.

People were asking questions about their ballots and actually brought their voter registration card... who ever does that? First time voters.

I was happy first timers were there, even if they didn't vote for the same candidates as me.

I don't find Oklahoma laws too restrictive with voting, but even if they were, so few people turn out to vote these days that most probably wouldn't notice if we did.

KantoSooner
12/9/2011, 09:50 AM
I kept on reading and reading to find out what the perfidy was. Maybe I misread the article but it seemed to be:

1. Making people actually go through a sign up procedure.

2. Making people present ID.

Wow. I'm shocked. Absolutely shocked that this could have been going on under our noses and we didn't even know. I'm so thankful to the Europeans and their gimlet eyed dedication to the principles of democracy.

The NAACP has officially joined with labor unions as an organization whose time has passed.

soonercruiser
12/9/2011, 12:19 PM
I will be posting my vote for sale on eBay soon.
Waiting for a response from Chicago......:greedy_dollars:

cleller
12/9/2011, 07:39 PM
Still trying to figure out how the NAACP plans to get some money out of this. It seems to be their only real motivator.

Dale Ellis
12/10/2011, 01:47 AM
National Association for the Advancement of Liberal Colored People.
If you're Herman Cain or Clarence Thomas, they could give two hoots in hell whether or not you "advance".

yermom
12/10/2011, 10:48 AM
The NCAAP is certainly reaching; instead, the discussion should be if the laws, themselves, are racist.

Lil Wayne (for what it's worth...not much):


Merp. Merp. I just don't see the logic in restricting the voting-rights of ex-cons (regardless of the crime). If schools and private-companies do not want to employ ex-criminals, that's their business, but why subjugate their basic roles in society? I say: if you do your time, I am happy for you to rejoin society, pay your taxes, and vote.

maybe if black people didn't love crack so much, they wouldn't be in prison so much

Dale Ellis
12/12/2011, 05:48 PM
but why subjugate their basic roles in society?

they subjugated their basic roles in society, when they chose to violate the laws of that society.


I am happy for you to rejoin society,

Great, when a convicted sex offender moves in next door, I trust you'll be the first to greet him with a firm hand shake and a hardy "welcome to the neighborhood".


If schools and private-companies do not want to employ ex-criminals, that's their business,

the only thing you said that made any sense.

badger
12/12/2011, 06:41 PM
If the NAACP wanted a cause to fight for closer to home...

link (http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20111210_16_A1_Tulsas787391)

The way that one of the worst events in Tulsa history has ended up is kind of sad. With the backing of Johnny Cochran before his death, hope for getting some sort of reparations or repayment or anything for the survivors of the Tulsa Race Riot was once a lot higher. Since that time, the state legislature considered offering scholarships to the families of survivors, but that was turned down due to lack of funding. Then, a documentary tried to get donations for the survivors and the families just so they could have something for what they once had to endure... my guess is that it isn't going very well since nobody's heard of it since... and now, the Greenwood Cultural Center might close due to lack of funds.

It's not all doom and gloom though... when they put the new downtown ballpark in, they put in a memorial park for what the Greenwood area once was next door. Even if the center closes, the park won't.

It's a nice center. I've been there a few times. Alas, it's the wrong economy to expect people to keep their donations up. This might be one of those things where people beg their resident billionaire to save it.

TheHumanAlphabet
12/13/2011, 10:53 AM
Oh My God, people actually have to prove who they are and not dead to vote...What a concept???

MountainOkie
12/13/2011, 02:45 PM
Dear NAACP, these are the people who may truly complain of suffering human rights violations:

Since March of this year 12 Tibetan monks have SET THEMSELVES ON FIRE to protest the brutal torture, subjugation and murder of the Tibetan people by the Chinese government.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/12th-tibetan-self-immolation-occurs-amid-harsh-repression-153617.html

Dale Ellis
12/13/2011, 05:15 PM
Oh My God, people actually have to prove who they are and not dead to vote...What a concept???

I know, right?