Posted on May 19, 2020

We Need a Whole New Plan for Black Voters in the South

Nsé Ufot, New York Times, May 19, 2020

I talk with black voters every day, and what I hear keeps me up at night. Their faith in the political system is being eroded by voter suppression and the government’s negligent response to the pandemic. It breaks my heart that even black women at church — unfailing voters who rally their friends to turn out for every election — have asked me, “Will our votes even be counted?”

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This is a treasure trove of gettable voters. They could overwhelm the political system if we persuade them that voting will get them power to build the kind of state and country they want. But that’s not what the Democrats are doing. Unless we address our shortcomings, I fear we are on track for another catastrophic Election Day.

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Black people, who make up one-third of the population of Georgia but represented 83 percent of coronavirus hospital patients in March and half of deaths, will continue to be disproportionately harmed. {snip}

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Republicans in Georgia and other Southern states are weaponizing the virus against black people while ramping up efforts to suppress the vote.

Another part of the problem for November is that we haven’t addressed the sins of elections past. Southwestern Georgia is also where, long before anyone listened, black people sounded the alarm that Mr. Kemp would try to steal the race for governor in 2018 from his Democratic rival, Stacey Abrams (disclosure: my organization was founded by Ms. Abrams). As secretary of state overseeing his own election, Mr. Kemp served as umpire, player and scorekeeper.

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If Jim Crow laws suppressed votes by forcing black voters to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar, Dr. James Crow, with a Ph.D. in data science, has erected a more sophisticated suppression apparatus — sophistication we have to match.

 

But I have not seen any campaign, political party or elected official address voters’ pain at having their voices silenced. I know that pain has also spread to Alabama and Mississippi, where people were looking at Ms. Abrams’s candidacy as a glimpse into what was possible. They also saw the theft. And they saw the world move on as if a major crime against democracy had not been committed. That’s a problem.

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Action is even more urgent because the pandemic is being used as cover for more voter suppression.

At the national level, the Republican National Committee doubled its litigation budget to file even more lawsuits to limit vote by mail access. Republicans aim to recruit up to 50,000 volunteers in 15 key states to monitor polling places and intimidate voters. Those efforts are aided by Donald Trump, who appointed a top Republican fund-raiser to serve as postmaster general, and is withholding a $10 billion loan from the Post Office, which desperately needs the money.

Georgia may be the center of all this. The state has created an absentee ballot “fraud” task force made up of mostly prosecutors and mostly Republicans to hinder voting by mail. “If a county official says my signature doesn’t match,” Cathy Cox, a Democrat who is a former secretary of state for Georgia, asked a reporter, “is this task force going to show up with guns and badges at my office or my home?”

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These are monumental challenges that require a monumental response. We need the courage to act on a scale we’ve never seen before.

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Campaigns never balk at investing significant resources to court moderate white men. But when all the data is laid out about black people, why does the political industry hesitate? Black people have long been the most loyal supporters of the Democratic Party — indeed, no other major voting bloc is as loyal to a political party as black people.

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We have to address voter suppression head on, identifying the hurdles and offering solutions now, not in October. My organization is suing Georgia over its practice of throwing out absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day but received after 7 p.m. that night. And for imposing a poll tax by sending absentee ballot applications to voters without prepaid returnable envelopes. This creates obstacles for people unwilling to go out during a pandemic to buy stamps or vote in person.

Vote-by-mail is not a panacea. While it is the safest option we have and it provides a paper trail, some states are using it in a way that creates hurdles.

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The next federal coronavirus legislation package must include $3.6 billion so states can expand their vote-by-mail initiatives and make voting easier. States should mount public education campaigns that include infographics and videos in multiple languages about how to cast ballots during the pandemic. In Georgia, the secretary of state must urge elections officials and lawmakers to increase funding and hire and train more staff members to deal with the increase in absentee ballots.

A vibrant, robust democracy is our greatest weapon against authoritarian rule. And black people have been at the vanguard of fighting for that democracy. This year, more than ever, we need overwhelming participation in our elections to neutralize voter suppression and halt the rise of despotic, unaccountable leaders. Our liberty and our lives are at stake.