Ocassional Thoughts of an Independent Progressive Atheistic Humanist
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted decided to support recent GOP talking points to justify suppressing the vote. In a letter sent to President Obama, Husted claims the President’s executive action to protect millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation will lead to voter fraud. Too bad Husted’s previous comments and actions contradict his letter. I guess he hopes we all have brain damage and won’t remember what he said before.
It seems like every recent election season there are the stories of Republicans trying to make it as tough as possible to vote. I mean if you can’t win on the issues the best alternative it to prevent as many of people from voting as possible. Did you know the US Constitution has no affirmative right to vote in its text? Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) want to change that. Aside from the Equal Rights Amendment, this is probably the best idea for an amendment since the Bill of Rights.
In a press conference Thursday morning, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted gave the results of a request he made to all 88 Ohio counties to investigate allegations of voter fraud and suppression at the polls during the 2012 Presidential election. 625 voting irregularities were found and of those 115 were referred to prosecutors and a vast majority of those weren’t prosecuted further. While he said there was not one single case of suppression, he admitted that requiring Photo-IDs didn’t prevent the irregularities.
Leading up to the 2012 General Election, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted blathered on about how there must be election uniformity. For the Republican that meant doing his part to suppress votes for Democrats. Eventually the federal courts forced him, kicking and screaming, to stop being such a dick. This year the primary election is Tuesday May 7th. So has Husted turned over a new leaf? The Ohio political blog Plunderbund says not so much.
During oral arguments today over Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, Justice Antonin Scalia uttered probably the most racist comment ever heard in the US Supreme Court in 50 years. He complained about how Congress keeps passing renewal of the Voting Rights Act even if it might not be needed. He claimed that the act of Congress is a “perpetuation of racial entitlement.” Of course Scalia is wrong.