Donald Trump’s strategy for minority Americans? Don’t let them vote.

[babylonsister]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-strategy-for-minority-americans-dont-let-them-vote/2016/10/11/c3c509ac-8fe9-11e6-a6a3-d50061aa9fae_story.html?utm_term=.b3c9a52868ba


Donald Trump’s strategy for minority Americans? Don’t let them vote.
By Editorial Board October 11 at 7:08 PM


WITH DONALD Trump’s polling numbers in a tailspin, he has doubled down in calling on Republican vigilantes to take matters into their own hands to thwart what many of them are primed to regard, without proof, as a rigged election. The Republican nominee’s rhetoric, inciting white rural and suburban voters who fear the voting clout of black urban Democrats, is a recipe for voter intimidation and even violence on Election Day. It also lays the groundwork for his followers to believe, if he loses,that his defeat was a historic swindle.

Starting in August, and accelerating this month, Mr. Trump has stood before rallies attended overwhelmingly by his white backers and urged them to go to “certain areas” on Election Day. “Go and vote and then go check out areas because a lot of bad things happen,” he said in Pennsylvania, where lax state laws allow poll watchers to challenge voters as they arrive at precincts. “You know what I’m talking about,” he added. On Monday, he told his followers that they must watch “other communities.” “I hear these horror shows, and we have to make sure that this election is not stolen from us and is not taken away from us,” he said. “And everybody knows what I’m talking about.”

Yes, everyone knows what Mr. Trump is “talking about.” Mr. Trump’s odious gambit is a punch to the gut of American democracy that all but ensures charges of Election Day fraud, no matter how flimsy the evidence. It’s also in keeping with long-standing voter-suppression schemes in state legislatures, where white Republican lawmakers have used the concocted threat of voter fraud as an excuse to enact voter ID laws whose main purpose is to disqualify and discourage minority voters, who disproportionately lack the required documents.

This Republican project is racially intentional, as a recent federal court ruling in North Carolina said explicitly. It dovetails with other, similarly racist tactics in other states, such as the disenfranchisement of felons long after they have completed their sentences — a rule that has left 1 in 5 black adults ineligible to vote in Virginia.

Elsewhere, GOP vote suppression is even more transparently hostile to mass and minority turnout. In Florida, Republican Gov. Rick Scott last week refused to extend the deadline for voter registration even as Hurricane Matthew menaced his state, disrupting a surge in 11th-hour registrations. Mr. Scott, chair of a pro-Trump super PAC, said Floridians had had plenty of time already to register. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker disagreed, ordering the deadline extended on his authority Monday and expressing contempt for what he called the governor’s “wholly irrational” decision. He added: “This case is about the right of aspiring eligible voters to register and to have their votes counted. Nothing could be more fundamental to our democracy.”

That’s exactly right. And it should pose a basic question for Republican leaders, including House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), as they contemplate a post-Trump future. Will the GOP embrace the novel idea of attracting more voters to its side, or will it continue trying to win elections by discouraging people from exercising their right to vote?

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Actually I think it's a twofold strategy:

1. Prevent minority voters from voting (unless they bypass the issue by voting by mail), and

2. Tie up the election results in court while the provisional ballots (if minority voters get that far) are in litigation.

[babylonsister]

4. Yes, it could get ugly, and I fear he will

never go away but until he does, he doesn't care how much damage he causes or who he hurts or insults. That is mind-boggling when you think about it.

[Coyotl]

2. Challenging voters creates long lines, suppressing voting. It makes a big "targeted" difference.

They know exactly which wards have a history of 90-100% Dem voting and that is where they want to create such long lines that voters have to go back to work or children, etc,. are directly prevented from voting.

[MineralMan]

3. Station an armed black police officer at the door of every precinct

in those "certain areas." He can smile and greet voters. That will keep away Trump's white power minions.