The Voting Rights test of our time
There is a criminal conspiracy in Florida.
The National Voting Rights Act was put into place as part of the Civil Rights movement to put an end to racist and classist practices where active racists would use literacy tests and poll taxes as a pretext to deny non-white and poor citizens their legal right to vote. The NVRA was written with safeguards against clever new ways that criminals would use to circumvent it, such as a 90-day freeze on purging voter rolls before any national election. The point of the 90-day waiting period is that there is time to fix the registration of citizens who are incorrectly removed from the rolls as part of a trick by corrupt officials, or even just inept officials.
The Florida primary election is scheduled for August 14th, 2012, which means that the deadline for purging voting rolls passed back in the middle of May. Florida is in the middle of a registration purge right now, which violates the NVRA both in letter and spirit. The Department of Justice wrote Florida Govern Rick Scott a letter warning him that he is in violation of the law.
The NVRA has teeth. In 42 USC § 1973gg-10, there is a provision for up to five years in prison for anyone who attempts to violate the provisions above. At this time, the illegal purge against over 2700 registered voters has not been suspended. This is what voter fraud looks like.
It isn't enough to stop this particular attempt to illegally deny people their vote. If we allows the perpetrators of this crime to stay in office to try again and again, they will find ways past the watchers. There is wisdom in the law that provides for personal punishment for this sort of voter fraud. Let's follow the law and put these criminals on trial. Let's give those most responsible a stay in federal prison proportional to how heinous the illegal orders they gave were.
The National Voting Rights Act was put into place as part of the Civil Rights movement to put an end to racist and classist practices where active racists would use literacy tests and poll taxes as a pretext to deny non-white and poor citizens their legal right to vote. The NVRA was written with safeguards against clever new ways that criminals would use to circumvent it, such as a 90-day freeze on purging voter rolls before any national election. The point of the 90-day waiting period is that there is time to fix the registration of citizens who are incorrectly removed from the rolls as part of a trick by corrupt officials, or even just inept officials.
The Florida primary election is scheduled for August 14th, 2012, which means that the deadline for purging voting rolls passed back in the middle of May. Florida is in the middle of a registration purge right now, which violates the NVRA both in letter and spirit. The Department of Justice wrote Florida Govern Rick Scott a letter warning him that he is in violation of the law.
The NVRA has teeth. In 42 USC § 1973gg-10, there is a provision for up to five years in prison for anyone who attempts to violate the provisions above. At this time, the illegal purge against over 2700 registered voters has not been suspended. This is what voter fraud looks like.
It isn't enough to stop this particular attempt to illegally deny people their vote. If we allows the perpetrators of this crime to stay in office to try again and again, they will find ways past the watchers. There is wisdom in the law that provides for personal punishment for this sort of voter fraud. Let's follow the law and put these criminals on trial. Let's give those most responsible a stay in federal prison proportional to how heinous the illegal orders they gave were.