1960s voter suppression was appalling. Have we learned nothing?
[ad_1]
Marie Riley, brother Louis Palmer and their mother Nakia Riley watch as great-grandmother Ella Riley tries out Jefferson County’s new ESS voting machines during a forum held Thursday in the Jefferson County Courthouse. Photo made Thursday, October 13, 2022 Kim Brent/Beaumont Enterprise
Kim Brent, Photojournalist / Kim BrentVoter suppression
Regarding “Minority voters 50% more likely to have ballots rejected under new Texas voting law, study finds,” (Oct. 20): In the 1960s my husband, Gerald Larson, was an investigator for the federal Civil Service Commission. His primary duties were to do background investigations for security clearance for NASA personnel. We were based in San Antonio but he spent a lot of time in Houston. After the Voting Rights Act was passed he was assigned to the first team of election monitors tasked to register Black citizens to vote in southern Louisiana. Other teams did the same job in Mississippi, Alabama and other Deep South states. As a young, white man growing up in Amarillo, he began his assignment with no knowledge of the barriers these citizens faced as they attempted mostly unsuccessfully to register and later to vote. He came back appalled at the harassment and abuse these people faced. We were under the impression that the primary barrier was the poll tax. He soon learned that there wer e many more. Threats, literacy tests, misinformation regarding where and when they could register and later vote, among others. He later monitored the actual elections and witnessed the same harassment and intimidation as during the registration process.
The new voting laws appear to be “same song, second verse.” They are clearly intended to suppress voting among minorities and the elderly. I’m sad to see how as a country we have failed to do better. In the ’60s there seemed to be such promise for a more equitable society. Sadly here we are in 2022 going back to the bad old days. We haven’t learned a thing.
Sammye Larson, Houston
It is abundantly clear that Texas Republicans will continue to suppress the Black vote until we vote them out of office in November. Texas is the worst of the worst Republican states in its abandonment of our precious democracy. Put both your driver’s license and your Social Security Number to identify yourself on your mail ballot application and on your mail-in ballot before sending. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us for not paying attention. You can track the status of your mail ballot by calling your county election bureau.
If Democrats can increase their control of Congress in the upcoming election, they will be able to enact federal laws for universal voter registration and open elections to stultify states’ anti-democratic suppression of voter rights. Democracy will again prevail in this current Republican war on the right to vote.
Britt D. Davis, Katy
As a retired teacher, I wonder if the “racial gap” has more to do with the voters and not just with the voting laws?
Jane Barnhill, Brenham
[ad_2]
Source link
