Thursday, September 23, 2004

Millions Blocked from Voting in U.S. Election

And most of them are, surprise surprise, African-Americans. From Common Dreams courtesy of Dr. Menlo:

Millions of U.S. citizens, including a disproportionate number of black voters, will be blocked from voting in the Nov. 2 presidential election because of legal barriers, faulty procedures or dirty tricks, according to civil rights and legal experts.

The largest category of those legally disenfranchised consists of almost 5 million former felons who have served prison sentences and been deprived of the right to vote under laws that have roots in the post-Civil War 19th century and were aimed at preventing black Americans from voting.

But millions of other votes in the 2000 presidential election were lost due to clerical and administrative errors while civil rights organizations have cataloged numerous tactics aimed at suppressing black voter turnout. Polls consistently find that black Americans overwhelmingly vote for Democrats.

"There are individuals and officials who are actively trying to stop people from voting who they think will vote against their party and that nearly always means stopping black people from voting Democratic," said Mary Frances Berry, head of the U.S. Commission on Human Rights.

Click here for the rest.

This is very much along the same lines as the Jim Crow stuff in Florida that gave Bush the election back in 2000. It turns out, however, that the same thing has been going on nationally, on a much wider scale. Needless to say, this is an absolute travesty.

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