OK. This time I signed it. When it first came to my inbox, I didn't bother
because I just don't know that petitions will help and one of my Democratic
senators and my Democratic congresswoman are really hopeless when it comes to
most issues. But I've been writing revolutionary posts on the ACBNY listserv
all day because I'm so furious and because some people really need to be
stirred up, so I signed it.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bonnie L. Sherrell
Sent: Saturday, May 27, 2017 2:04 PM
To: Blind Democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Trump's proposed voter suppression commission
I just received the following message from Credo. Please read it, and then my
thoughts on this petition that follow it:
----
Tell Democratic officials: Refuse to serve on Trump’s voter suppression
commission
The petition to Democratic elected officials reads:
“Donald Trump’s ‘Presidential Commission on Election Integrity’ is an
extreme right-wing political assault on voting rights and an attempt to
suppress the vote at the national level. Refuse to serve on it.â€
Add your name:
Dear B.L.,
Donald Trump just made his move to rig elections for Republicans. He recently
announced the creation of a sham commission on ‘election integrity’ led by
one of the worst perpetrators of voter suppression in the country, Kansas
Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
Trump and extremist right-wing Republicans relentlessly perpetuate the myth of
voter fraud to cast doubt on the electoral process, reinforce racism, undermine
the voting power of communities of color and justify laws that suppress the
vote. And it is working – a recent report on the 2016 election indicates that
suppression efforts kept 200,000 people from voting in Wisconsin, a state Trump
won by less than 23,000 votes.1 Similar suppression in North Carolina, Florida
and Ohio helped hand those states to Trump.2 Trump’s voter suppression
commission will supercharge those efforts at the national level.
Trump has stacked his commission with right-wing Republican extremists but, in
an effort to give the commission “bipartisan†validity, he has invited
Democratic elected officials to join. There is no way that any Democrat should
lend legitimacy to Trump’s attempt to assault voting rights and undermine our
democracy.
Tell Democratic officials: Stand up for voting rights and refuse to serve on
Trump’s voter suppression commission. Click here to sign the petition.
Kobach is one of Trump’s loudest surrogates promoting the fake problem of
voter fraud. He is also notorious for his attempts to keep Kansans from voting.
He pushed a harsh voter ID law that requires people to present a birth
certificate or passport in order to register to vote. Since it was implemented,
it has kept one in seven Kansans from being able register.3 When his efforts to
block so-called “motor voter†registrants, including purging 18,000 Kansans
from voter rolls, were declared unconstitutional by the courts, he refused to
give up.
Kobach instituted a two-tiered system to let people vote in federal but not
state elections, which was also blocked by the courts.4 Republican officials in
states across the country have used Kobach’s Interstate Voter Registration
Crosscheck program to purge tens of thousands of young people and
African-American, Latinx and Asian-American voters from the rolls.5
Kobach is leading the commission with Mike Pence. When Pence was governor of
Indiana, his state had some of the lowest voter participation rates in the
country, fueled in part by a strict voter ID law and extremely early cut-off
times for voter registration.6 We have to make it clear that there can be no
collaborating with or normalizing this partisan attempt to suppress the vote
and disenfranchise communities of color and low-income communities.
Tell Democratic officials: Stand up for voting rights and refuse to serve on
Trump’s voter suppression commission. Click here to sign the petition.
Two other notorious voter suppressors also sit on the commission. Indiana
Secretary of State Connie Lawson oversaw a massive raid on a voter registration
operation focused on African-American voters last year. Former Ohio Secretary
of State Ken Blackwell, who served both as secretary of state and as George W.
Bush’s re-election chair for Ohio in 2004, used all the tools at his disposal
to make it harder for African-Americans and low-income people to vote, an
effort seemingly designed to hand the state to Bush.7,8
Trump has invited the Democratic secretaries of state of Maine and New
Hampshire to join his sham commission.9 Maine’s Secretary of State Matthew
Dunlap has even admitted that the Trump-Pence administration likely selected
them to “[add] some gravitas to it.â€10 Shockingly, they both seem willing
to participate.
This is simple. No Democrat should serve on this Trump’s voter suppression
commission to rig the elections for Republicans. Period. The more of us who
speak up, the greater the pressure on Democratic elected officials to stay off
the commission will be.
Tell Democratic officials: Stand up for voting rights and refuse to serve on
Trump’s voter suppression commission. Click the link below to sign the petitio
https://act.credoaction.com/sign/Voter_Suppression_Commission?t=8&akid=23269.4322
369.AK0tPS
Thanks for helping protect the right to vote,
Heidi Hess, Senior Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets
----
Okay, I agree that this commission is a bad idea, but the idea of insisting
that Democrats not join it I see as a worse one. By handing the whole
commission to the Republicans, it practically guarantees that this sham of a
commission will further voter suppression beyond what it is today. No, I think
we should insist that a large majority of Democrats should insist on being part
of the commission so as to stop its intent.
Anyone else agree?
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large
"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very
wise cannot see all ends." LOTR
"Don't go where I can't follow."
We gave the Goblin King control of our nation!
