Ross: It’s time to start working on a plan B to protect voting rights
Jan 19, 2022, 5:50 AM | Updated: 9:21 am
People walk across the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge during the annual D.C. Peace Walk: Change Happens with Good Hope and a Dream on Dr. Martin Luther King Day on Jan. 17, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
(Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
There is a lot of anger on the Democratic side over this voting rights issue.
“It all adds up to one thing and that is voter suppression and limiting people’s freedom to vote,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar said yesterday.
“And voter suppression aimed not at the general population, but at particular populations — particularly people of color, urban people, et cetera,鈥� Sen. Chuck Schumer noted.
And yet, everyone knows the Democrats鈥� effort to overrule these state laws is going to fail.
So, I鈥檓 going to suggest that everyone who is passionate about protecting voting rights before the next presidential election 鈥� start working on a plan B now.
And plan B is to channel that anger, and use it to show voters how to comply with all those repressive laws.
Think about it:
The Democrats allege that these laws are targeted at minority groups to prevent them from voting.
Targeted at groups that historically don鈥檛 have ID, or who live in areas far from the nearest drop box, or who can鈥檛 find the time to register, or who have been purged from the rolls for not voting.
And, the most insidious allegation 鈥� that some of these laws deliberately limit the number of poll workers, so voters have to wait for hours.
Well, these tactics are ALL based on one fundamental assumption: That voters will give up. That faced with these obstacles, they will surrender.
It seems to me that if Democrats really believe Republicans have targeted minority communities, they鈥檇 do some targeting of their own.
They鈥檝e got almost three years.
If they really think this is Jim Crow 2.0, send out the Freedom Riders.
Send out registration battalions to show people how to register. If voters have been purged from the rolls, show them how to get back on. If there aren鈥檛 enough poll workers, start training more of them. If the drop boxes are hidden, find out where they are, send out maps, and recruit people for Election Day carpools.
Because none of these laws physically stop people from voting. They just make it inconvenient. So, make it MORE convenient.
And start right now by targeting this assumption that voters are just going to give up. Instead of just yelling at the Republicans who passed these laws, show voters how to comply with them!
It is not impossible. Unless a state does something really crazy like making you prove you can juggle.
But even then 鈥� you have three years! Get busy.
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