Alabama to stop issuing driver’s licenses in counties with 75% black registered voters

[UCmeNdc]

How is this fair or legal?

Why not close the white county DMVs and leave the black counties open for business?


The state of Alabama, which requires a photo ID to vote, announced this week that it would stop issuing driver’s licenses in counties where 75 percent of registered voters are black.

Due to budget cuts, Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said that 31 satellite DMV offices would no longer have access to driver’s licenses examiners, meaning that residents will need to travel to other counties to apply for licenses. The move comes just one year after the state’s voter photo ID law went into effect.

AL.com’s John Archibald asserted in a column on Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Justice should open an investigation into the closings.

“Because Alabama just took a giant step backward,” he wrote. “Take a look at the 10 Alabama counties with the highest percentage of non-white registered voters. That’s Macon, Greene, Sumter, Lowndes, Bullock, Perry, Wilcox, Dallas, Hale, and Montgomery, according to the Alabama Secretary of State’s office. Alabama, thanks to its budgetary insanity and inanity, just opted to close driver license bureaus in eight of them.”

“Every single county in which blacks make up more than 75 percent of registered voters will see their driver license office closed. Every one,” Archibald explained. “But maybe it’s not racial at all, right? Maybe it’s just political. And let’s face it, it may not be either… But no matter the intent, the consequence is the same.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/10/alabama-to-stop-issuing-drivers-licenses-in-counties-with-75-black-registered-voters/

[oldandhappy]

1. another 'kim' move

don't do your job

[Recursion]

2. I once predicted it would come to this

I'm sad I was right.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Our county is 43% black and losing the office.

What they have done is kept the license offices in the biggest cities..Mobile, Montgomery,Birmingham, Huntsville, Dothan area.

Anyone wanting to get their first state license has to go there.
License renewals can still be done at the county courthouses.

The counties mentioned in the article are around and mostly west of Montgomery, in what is called the Black Belt, so named because of the color of the rich soil. It was used for cotton planting, and some of the counties are high in African/American population.
But not all of the 67 counties are, many have 50% or less black populations.

[hueymahl]

13. What's your point?

Sure sounds like you are creating justification for a governmental action with a discriminatory effect in a state with a long history of state sponsored discrimination.

Please tell me you did not intend for it to come out that way.

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. I am saying the headline is mildly mis-leading.

[stonecutter357]

20. +1

[Major Hogwash]

23. This really pissed off Stephen Colbert.

There's a county in Alabama named after him, and now they are trying to take away the people's rights to obtain a driver's license in that county!!! Just because the county is named after Stephen!!

When informed by a local news reporter in New York City this week of what they were planning to do in Alabama in the county bearing his surname, Stephen Colbert at first appeared to be rather amused. But, just a few minutes later, he stopped giggling to himself as his apparent amusement turned to one of bewildered surprise. After he soon realized that it wasn't just a silly prank joke set up by his rival tv host, Jimmy Kimmel, as he first suspected, saying, "This is something that dog, Kimmel, would do, ya know."

As the shock and awe of the recent news began to sink in, Mr. Colbert, famously known for his sarcastic commentary, began to ponder the real world ramifications of this particular, if not peculiar, situation. The longer he pondered, the more he became disturbed. Soon afterward, actually displaying anger about the prospects of the absurdity of this news event becoming a new reality in his previously adopted state of Alabama. One that he had only recently gotten a divorce from, a standing of self-reliance issued by a court of appeals, and an annulment from the church, just to make sure.

While talking with this reporter, he was noticeably growing angrier by the minute. Claiming that he was now, at that very moment, beginning to have visions of many more unlicensed drivers barreling down the highways and byways of Alabama at high speeds, completely unrestricted by the law. Unless they were stopped, and then shot by the police.

In retaliation, Colbert claimed that he would immediately launch a campaign to overturn this decision to close driver's license offices in Alabama by the ADMV, the Alabama Department of Motor Vehicles, in his famously-monikered county.

Fuming to the point that he exclaimed that he would even start a petition to have that county renamed. After saying that the county was no longer worthy of bearing such a great surname as "Colbert", Mr. Colbert threw back his head and laughed uncontrollably. But, just momentarily, because then Colbert grew serious.

His visage visibly changed as he leaned in towards this reporter and said, "Who do they think they are fooling with, anyway? I'm Stephen Colbert! And whether they know it in Alabama or not, I'm sure they do, who doesn't, I'm the new host for the 'Late Show with Stephen Colbert'. Which is, of course, America's favorite tv program carried by America's favorite tv station, CBS.

Continuing on Colbert stated, "As everyone knows it currently is airing at 10:35 PM Eastern Daylight Savings Time, at 10:35 PM Central Daylight Savings Time, even in Indiana nowadays, thank god and all the Christians that live there. And at 10:35 PM Mountain Daylight Savings Time, except in McCain's state of Arizona. Where, for some unknown reason, it is broadcast at a later time of 11:35 PM John McCain Time. Apparently because Senator McCain has banned the use of wind up stems with which to change the positions of the hands on their clocks in his state of Arizona. And also broadcast at 10:35 PM Pacific Daylight Savings Time.

"God only knows when it is broadcast for that tiny island state belonging to America way out there in the middle of the great wide Pacific Ocean. However, I always include 'Aloha' in one of my openings during the week after my program is translated for those lucky people inhabiting the United States' own 'Fantasy Island'.

"I'm serious, you know. I'm not going to take this lying down. Or even standing up. I'm going to call the President. And I'm going to ask him to rename that county using one of his 'golden' Executive Orders. I mean, I know there are only so many golden Executive Orders left in his quiver. But, if he can rename an entire mountain in Alaska with just one of those golden orders, he can rename counties right here in the good part of America.

"And I don't want that county to besmirch my good name any longer than it takes to do some good, old-fashioned besmirching. No, this nightmare is no longer going to haunt the Colbert clan. What with its huge unlicensed driver population driving helter-skelter down the dirt roads of good ol' Alabama. Or speeding down any of the back roads going clear back in time. Because they would, you know. They would go clear back to the horse and buggy days, if they could. No, I think it is high time for that county to be renamed what it represents. Rename that county, oh, I don't know . . 'Racist County'. Because that's what it is now to me. It's just a racist county with unlicensed, law-breaking drivers pealing down the roads to nowhere in the near, or even distant, future. Or past. So, whenever people ask me that question, 'where are all the racists in this country', for future reference I will be able to state with a loud, if not clear conscious, 'Obviously, they live in Racist County, where else?'"

[KT2000]

3. this needs to be addressed

at the national level - Dept of Justice needs to step in.

[NightWatcher]

4. The DOJ needs to start taking over state offices all over the place.

Call it Reconstruction Part Two. Throw out the Cracker power structure and replace it with a representative government, guided by Feds.

[winstars]

6. Sorry but these fucking white boys are getting out of hand. Thanks to the SCOTUS

Voting rights act???

Our dreams of red states turning purple never mind blue are a freaking fantasy. These bastards will try and do every trick in the book to PREVENT people from voting.

[mdbl]

11. Don't worry, uncle Clarence is on the SCOTUS to protect everyone's civil rights

Unfortunately, he forgets most of the time.

[IHateTheGOP]

7. Hey South, please secede.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

22. Fuck that bullshit! What a stupid thing to say! nt

[dhill926]

8. not even trying to hide it anymore....

racist fucks....

[loudsue]

9. Obama needs to send in the national guard.

This is totally out of hand, and unacceptable to every true American.

[rladdi]

10. I pray that our Justice Dept and AG takes immediate action on this news. This is a direct

racial move by Alabama. The only reason not to issue licenses is to stop voting by blacks. This is how Republicans win elected. They are the FRAUD of America, but they get away with it.

[left-of-center2012]

12. Reading, listening to the news really depresses me

Are there any good caves left where I can just become a hermit?

[stuffmatters]

15. This is obvious and egregious voter suppression. I've always wondered why the DMV?

I don't think I've ever lived anywhere, and I've lived in many major cities, that the DMV is accessible to
transportation challenged citizens. Even for people who have cars & drive, it's usually still a time consuming pain in the neck to get to the DMV.

Why can't people register to vote, get IDs at a post office? There are many many neighborhood post offices easy to walk, bike or bus to for many people who cannot access a far away DMV. Of course, the Repubs are trying to shut USPS down, but that's another whole discussion, tho not necessarily with a different motive (anti democracy, anti Democrats voting)

[Plucketeer]

16. I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

glad I left the South.

[spanone]

17. they cheat. that's how they've won the house. gerrymandering on a grand scale.

Last edited Sat Oct 3, 2015, 10:32 AM - Edit history (1)

here in tn they've instituted voter i.d. pisses me off every time i vote.

but we have republican house, senate, governor.....

[Spitfire of ATJ]

18. Dr. King's "Give us the ballot" speech comes to mind....

Give us the ballot, and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights.

Give us the ballot, and we will no longer plead to the federal government for passage of an anti-lynching law; we will by the power of our vote write the law on the statute books of the South and bring an end to the dastardly acts of the hooded perpetrators of violence.

Give us the ballot, and we will transform the salient misdeeds of bloodthirsty mobs into the calculated good deeds of orderly citizens.

Give us the ballot, and we will fill our legislative halls with men of goodwill and send to the sacred halls of Congress men who will not sign a “Southern Manifesto” because of their devotion to the manifesto of justice.

Give us the ballot, and we will place judges on the benches of the South who will do justly and love mercy, and we will place at the head of the southern states governors who will, who have felt not only the tang of the human, but the glow of the Divine.

Give us the ballot, and we will quietly and nonviolently, without rancor or bitterness, implement the Supreme Court’s decision of May seventeenth, 1954. (Brown v Board of Education which ended segregation aka "separate but equal&quot

Full text and audio at the link:

http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/documentsentry/doc_give_us_the_ballot_address_at_the_prayer_pilgrimage_for_freedom/

[stonecutter357]

19. K&R!

I live in Alabama and only 35% or so even vote. I think that is a bigger problem.

[NonMetro]

24. Low Turnout Is A Problem Everywhere

Hillary Clinton wants automatic voter registration for everyone when they turn 18. Young people don't vote much, of course, but I think that's an idea worth supporting, anyway. It will help, and all a young person would then have to do is go vote, no hassle, no deadlines about registering, etc. if they don't think about it until the last minute, they can still go and vote!

[Marr]

21. This destroys every bullshit argument conservatives make for these voter ID laws.

They couldn't go one year without overtly using this to suppress minority votes. It's plain as day what these laws are really about.

[SummerSnow]

25. Oh really.

[pansypoo53219]

26. 'budget cuts'. welcome to the KKKonfederacy.

[kairos12]

27. Voter suppression is a time tested Reich Wing tactic