Come Saturday Morning: Shades of Jim Crow and Bill Rehnquist

[Joanne98]

Oh, lookiee here: The Republicans and their conservative allies are apparently planning to serve up a heaping helping of Jim-Crow-style voter intimidation and suppression in Minnesota. Minnesota Majority, a conservative group aligned with the Republican Party of Minnesota, is launching “Election Integrity Watch” to “monitor” voting and try to “prevent voter fraud.” Why do have a feeling that they’ll only be watching Democratic-leaning precincts?

Why are they doing this? Over at MNPublius, Jeff Rosenberg suspects it’s because it’s the only way they can keep Democrat Mark Dayton out of the Governor’s Mansion. Jeff Fecke of Blog of the Moderate Left points out that Minnesota Republicans don’t seem to see non-white and non-male people as persons who should be voting anyway. I’m reminded forcibly of the Jim Crow terror tactics used by one Billy Rehnquist of the local Phoenix, Arizona Republican Party in 1962. (Yes, this is the same HMS Pinafore Rehnquist that Nixon would appoint to the U.S. Supreme Court less than a decade later.)

The good news: Minnesota may well be among the worst states in the nation to pull off this sort of crap and get away with it. There are serious voter protection efforts underway. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is organizing the efforts this year. http://www.866ourvote.org is the place to go to volunteer, especially for you legal types out there. Enjoy the company of fellow civic-minded persons and have fun while you help to protect a basic right (and rite) of citizenship

http://firedoglake.com/2010/10/09/come-saturday-morning-shades-of-jim-crow-and-bill-rehnquist/

[Bitwit1234]

1. If DFL had any sense here they would send out scouts of their own

to surround and examine the ballot boxes in Hinkypinky county which surrounds Minneapolis and St. Paul. (Not so much in St. Paul tho). It seems that it is loaded with republicans and the governor candidate always manages to overcome the DFL's candidate lead no matter how large. That is BACHMANN THE WANTA BE QUEEN's district.