These Three Lawyers Are Quietly Purging Voter Rolls Across the Country

[Arkansas Granny]

The Trump administration could soon follow their lead.

In June 2014, Miller and her four fellow election commissioners received a letter threatening legal action if they did not purge voters from the rolls. The letter came from the American Civil Rights Union (ACRU), a Virginia-based group that has fashioned itself in recent years as a conservative counterpart to the ACLU. The ACRU requested that the commissioners reduce the number of registered voters by the midterm elections that fall because, it claimed, there were more people registered than there were voting-age citizens in the county. The commissioners wanted to fight back, but lacking the funds to hire an attorney, they decided not to respond and waited to see what would happen next.

The letter they had received was one of many that the ACRU had started sending to small, rural counties across Mississippi, Texas, Kentucky, Alabama, and Arizona the year before. These letters were part of a legal campaign spearheaded by three former Justice Department officials from the George W. Bush administration to purge voter rolls across the country. The effort began in remote areas with few resources for legal defense, but recently it’s expanded to include population centers in key swing states. Voting rights advocates worry that the campaign is targeting minorities and likely Democratic voters.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/07/these-three-lawyers-are-quietly-purging-voter-rolls-across-the-country/

A long read, but well worth it. If this is not stopped now, the chances of free and fair elections will be a thing of the past.

[padfun]

1. I think free and fair elections have been a thing of the past for decades now.

And I mean that in many state and local elections as well.

[IronLionZion]

11. It probably started in local and state elections

to help them win state legislatures to affect voting laws and gerrymander districts

The other party has defeated over 1000 Dems at the state level and have absolute majorities of both houses of the majority of states now.

[Raster]

18. Yes! If you control the state legislatures, you can control the electoral process in that state.

Case in point: Florida. Cruella de Harris was first elected to Secretary of State. Then the Florida State Legislature led by Gov. Jeb "fucking piece of shit" Bush*, made the SoS an "appointed by the Governor" position, and also concentrated the oversight of the electoral infrastructure into the SoS role.... Ta-daa! Every freakin' advantage to put Florida in the Bush* win column, ever though it really probably was not. And no, no crap about Nader... he was just a convenient scapegoat with a big mouth and and ego to match.

[UCmeNdc]

2. Why is there no opposition to this?

[ProfessorPlum]

4. great question

the answer illuminates why our democracy is dead

[Arkansas Granny]

5. It appears that the counties that received the first letters were poor

counties that could not afford lawyers to represent them. In other, more affluent areas, the results were different.

[Cosmocat]

8. THIS has always been troubling to me - this romantic notion

of democracy in this country, the very foundational aspect of it is the right to vote.

But, the people of this country, collectively, have lost the fire in the belly relative to it.

I have never understood, but increasingly have come to accept, the complete indifference that the people of this country have for the republican party actively working to hamper the vote.

All this patriotic, get government out of my life bullshit they spew, while they continually and in so many ways work to get in way of the ability to vote, this is the most fundamental part of our "freedom."

BUT, end of the day, their 1/3 gleefully support what the republican party does, because they know what they are doing, trying to keep "them" from voting, and it is all about team R, even if it ends up getting them (see, supporting their blowing up health care in this country).

Our 1/3 sees it, hates it and do what we can, given the unending stream of disasters Rs create.

BUT, too many of the people who they are trying to get off the books don't have the fire in their belly to vote, and just give up and accept it.

So, it is our 1/3 trying to push mud ...

[Equinox Moon]

14. This is my outrage. What is the democratic party doing about this?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

3. The right thinks that they are so "clever" naming orgs

It seems like this would be a ripe picking for the ACLU (which I'm sure this org was trying to present itself as a facsimile of).

[Arkansas Granny]

6. Yes, you're right about that.

[smirkymonkey]

7. This is so depressing.

Why is nothing being done? This can't be legal.

[Cosmocat]

9. two things

1) they are like the Borg, they just are relentless, never stop and are driven to destroy everything. Look at healthcare reform - we battled like made in February and March and stopped the initial House bill. They simple acted like the cockroaches they are, hid from the light of day to get it out of the House and are following suit in the House.

2) there are SO many battles going on ... it is like Wack a Mole.

[smirkymonkey]

15. Yes, exactly. I am actually feeling physically and mentally exhausted from all of this.

It used to energize me to fight them, but now it just feels like we are drowning in corruption and evil. I don't know if I can take much more of it.

[Cosmocat]

19. Its really out of our hands

Not saying we should just stop doing what we do, but we are where we are now despite our efforts to this point.

The 1/3 supporting the GOP drives it all by letting them run amuck, and the "middle" 1/3 enables it by just sitting it out or falling into the "they are all the same" mindset.

Honestly, our 1/3 is pushing mud.

We are in a free fall now, and the bottom will not come until the 1/3 supporting the GOP realizes they are being used (not likely) or the middle 1/3 tunes in and gets into the game.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

10. The ACRU, not to be confused with the ACLJ (Jay Sekulow's group), not to be

confused with the ACLU.

[mountain grammy]

12. Bookmarked for reading later..

looking forward to another sleepless night..a madman is president and democracy is dead.

[Roland99]

13. ACLU and SPLC need to fight back against these one-party rule zealots!

[dlk]

16. My Friend's Husband Was Purged As Deceased When He Was Very Much Alive

There is ample evidence that Republicans cheat to win elections and have been doing so for quite some time. This latest ruse of voter fraud will be used for purging voter rolls It already happened in Texas where my close friend and her husband went to the polls to vote and learned his name had been purged due to being "deceased," when he was very much alive. My friend has an entire file relating to this purging and the extraordinary efforts it took to have her living husband reinstated to the voter rolls. This is by no means an isolated incident.

Republicans understand they do not have a majority of voters and so they use a variety of methods to cheat to "win" elections: voter suppression laws, purging voter rolls, hacked voting machines, reducing poll numbers and hours, and of course, gerrymandering. It has been glaringly obvious for quite some time that Republicans do not believe in democracy and they are largely responsible for the corporate autocracy that our country has become. Bit by bit, they are eliminating democracy as we have known it. It is imperative that those of us who love our country and love our democracy take action to counter these insidious tactics.

[Raster]

17. The rethuglicans only want those persons to vote...

...that will vote for them. Everybody else they will suppress, litigate, obfuscate... whatever it takes to make sure the will of the people is nullified.