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Thousands of New Yorkers experienced problems at the polls which they’ve attributed to voter suppression, with the number of those barred from voting altogether being referred to as “more than alarming,” and in Arizona a lawsuit is now underway “to reverse Arizona’s culture of voter disenfranchisement prior to the 2016 election.” Many are demanding a recount of 5 percent of paper ballots in New York to determine the truth as to who won, and whether or not you live in New York, here’s why you should take to the media or write your State Representatives and demand a recount as well.
As reported in the New York Times, Republicans are more than aware that their prospects go up as the number of voters go down, and Conservatives are aware of this as well. It’s the reason why they intensify their “efforts to make it harder to vote, or to eliminate large numbers of people from political representation entirely.”
New Yorkers reported malfunctioning voting machines, polling places that opened later than advertised, and many voter’s names didn’t appear in registration lists, or they were removed completely. 126000 Brooklyn Democrats were removed from the list of registered voters, and Democrats were targeted in Arizona as well.
Among the defendants in the Arizona suit are Arizona Secretary of State, Michele Reagan, and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and Maricopa County Recorder, Helen Purcell, who stated that the Republican election officials who decided to reduce polling locations by 70% in the State simply, “never considered the impact these actions would have on black, Hispanic or Native American communities.” In total, there were only 60 polling places in Phoenix, a city with 1.3 million voters.
Another form of voter suppression has been the voter ID laws that became popular in quite a few States, probably none more than Texas. Voter ID laws also tend to inadvertently have a higher impact on African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and low income individuals, many of which are Democrats.
Politicians argue for voter ID laws with the claim that they are meant to prevent Voter Impersonation Fraud, but are they? In a statement from co-sponsor of Texas’s ID law, State Representative Debbie Riddle (R-TX):
“The very freedom of our nation is based on the integrity of our ballot box, and if things are so lax that fraudulent voting can occur, that means your vote can be stolen.” She continues, “…and simply showing identification is not too much to ask.”
For some people, it is too much to ask though, especially when States like Pennsylvania were requiring citizens to provide not only an ID, but an original birth certificate, an original social security card, and in one woman’s case, her husband’s death certificate too. But the fact is, Voter Impersonation Fraud is literally not a problem in the first place. According to researchers, from 2000 to 2013 there were 31 incidents in the entire country out of more than 1 billion ballots cast (source in video below).
Now get ready to go from irritated to pissed-off: Representative Debbie Riddle, Mrs. “Integrity,” was later caught on camera at the Legislature (video below) committing Voter Impersonation Fraud by casting votes for other representatives who were absent, and apparently this is a common practice amongst politicians everywhere. They refer to it as “ghost voting,” and the issue has arisen in the media before. In a report from 2009:
“There was a whole lot of [ghost voting] going on. It’s not perceived as a problem to us as much as it is a people’s perception about us,” said Representative Harold Dutton, D-Houston.
Some might consider it an issue when people who are deceased are somehow casting votes, as happened with the late Representative, Larry Evans (D-TX) who died on August 7, 1991, and later that day managed to cast three votes.
Politicians claim this practice is done out of necessity, however that argument seems rather weak. When later confronted, Debbie Riddle gave this explanation for her and her colleague’s actions:
“We have a lot of votes, we have a lot of amendments, and there’s times where we don’t break for lunch, and we don’t break for dinner, we don’t have bathroom breaks…”
So some citizens are forced to produce three or more forms of ID to make one vote, this is after standing in line after work for two- to five-hours at the only voting booth in a however-many-mile radius, all because there have been 31 cases of voter fraud in a 13-year period. And that’s if their name hasn’t inexplicably been removed from the registered voter list for various bunk reasons. Meanwhile, Representatives can cast as many votes for their colleagues as they like—dead or not—because they don’t often get bathroom breaks. Only in America.
While Twitter has been ablaze with citizens claiming voter suppression, those whose candidate won claim the rest are sore losers and “conspiracy theorists,” which has become every critic’s favorite term when they encounter an issue they don’t like. However, as pointed out by Tony Brasunas at the Huffington Post, Hillary’s only two wins over the last month, which were New York and Arizona, came in States that had numerous voting problems and are now under investigation. Kind of hard to pat yourselves on the back for a job well done.
Vote tampering is serious, and it is being stressed that citizens need to look at the reality of the situation rather than turning their backs because they’re happy their candidate got the vote. In the name of actual integrity, all candidates, including both Clinton and Sanders, should be calling for an entire re-vote, however even a manual recount of paper ballots in both New York and Arizona would determine whether or not machines were hacked, according to sources.
The fact that mistakes have been made on voting ballots and voter registration should automatically merit a re-vote, and yet Hillary’s accepting this victory as though it were an actual win. Meanwhile, citizens continue to grumble about their sham-of-a-voting-system, acknowledging that elections in America are rigged, but then they accept it, like it’s just the way things are.
Voting is the only direct way the people of America have a voice or can express an opinion, and it’s the only way they have an influence on the choices that impact their lives every day. Since Bush’s rigged elections, it seems that voice is rapidly being crushed. Some might consider this an act of civil war on the American people.
We are urging citizens; take to the media, take to the streets if you must, figure out who your State Representatives are, write them, and tell them you’re pissed off. Enough is enough. With every election comes scandal, and our nation has become the joke of the world. Whether or not Sanders becomes the next president, a revolution is long overdue.
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This Article (Extreme Voter Suppression in New York and Arizona – Demands for Recount) is a free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and AnonHQ.com.
