“Your place for all the information you need about voting rights, voter suppression, and voting trends to prepare you to fight in the 2022 election.”
August 16, 2021
Welcome to the second issue of the Voting Rights Gazette. We’re sending this because you have expressed an interest in voting rights. We hope to educate, engage and activate during a time that our democracy faces nationwide voter suppression. Our goal is to read as many articles being written about voting as we can, and then synthesize and summarize them for your review. We will distribute our newsletter on a bi-monthly basis. Your feedback is appreciated. Please also reference our companion Voting Rights Gazette Facebook page (link below) which will cover time-sensitive voting rights information. Why? Because knowledge is power! Special thank you to Terry Maher for her invaluable contributions.
–Voting Rights Gazette editors
Official Census Data Being Released Today
The US Census Bureau today released its in-depth demographic statistics from the 2020 Census that will be used to redraw legislative voting districts.
The data show that the non-hispanic white alone population dropped by 8.6% since 2010, the non-hispanic white population fell below 60% of the entire US population for the first time, and that almost all of the population growth over the last decade was in metro areas, which grew by 8.7%. Micro areas grew by .8%. Places not in a metro or micro area declined by 2.8%.
“While the primary purpose of these data is for states to redraw their districts, these statistics will also tell us how many people live in each county, in each city and in each block,” said James Whitehorne, chief of the Census Bureau’s Redistricting and Voting Rights Data Office.
Republicans have a huge advantage in the redistricting process because of the number of state legislatures and governorships they control. A study has found that in the last two decades, when Republicans controlled a state’s redistricting process, they benefited from a 9.1 percentage point increase in seat share. When the Democrats had control? Zero percent (https://bit.ly/3fYqKPr).
Survey: High Levels of Voter Registration, Voter Turnout Needed in 2022 &2024
A survey of 2020 presidential voters by the progressive data firm Catalist, shows that almost 40% of Joe Biden’s total votes were cast by people of color (POC), and despite the white suburban vote dropping from 2018, the overall suburban vote increased because suburbs have become more diverse.
Further, 30% of all 2020 voters were new in their state and significantly favored Biden over Trump. Of this group, a third voted in swing states like Georgia, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Nevada and Arizona.
A main takeaway: Democrats need high levels of new voter registration, well-organized voter turnout operations, and streamlined, constitutional and equitable access to the ballot box for voters of color in order to win elections. The survey is at https://catalist.us/wh-national/.
Ossoff, Padilla, & Jones Introduce Bill to Counter Voter Suppression
(l-r: Sen. Jon Ossoff, Sen. Alex Padilla, Rep. Mondaire Jones)
Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Alex Padilla (D-CA), along with Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY), have introduced a new bill to counter Republican efforts to restrict voting rights. Called the Right to Vote Act, the bill would be the first congressional guarantee of the right to vote in federal elections.
“This Act will for the first time enshrine the right to vote in Federal statute and allow U.S. citizens to challenge in court any policy that makes it harder for them to participate in elections,” said Ossoff in announcing the legislation.
Added Jones, “Jurisdictions up until this point have gotten away with murder in terms of positing voter fraud that they are never asked to substantiate.” This bill, if enacted, would require jurisdictions to provide such proof.
The Right to Vote Act originally was an amendment to the For the People Act, but when it failed to pass, Jones sought Senate sponsors to introduce it as standalone legislation.
For more information, go to https://bit.ly/2VGxdqO.
Illinois Ranks 2nd in Nation on Voting Rights Scorecard
The Campaign Legal Center recently scored all 50 states’ voting practices based on the following 10 voting practices. Illinois came in second, just behind Washington state:
- No-excuse absentee voting.
- A permanent mail voting list.
- Permission for election officials to send voters unsolicited mail ballot applications.
- A uniform mail ballot notice and cure process.
- No requirement for a state-issued driver license or ID to vote by mail.
- Acceptance of mail ballots postmarked on or before Election Day and received up to 10 days after Election Day.
- At least two weeks of early in-person voting.
- Online mail ballot tracking.
- Ballot drop boxes.
- Allowance for voters to cast ballots by mail without notary or enhanced witness requirements.
Where we lag? No permission for election officials to send voters unsolicited mail ballot applications. According to Champaign County Clerk Aaron Ammons, a group of county clerks pushed to include this provision in the recently passed voting laws but failed to get it included. There may be a push to get it enacted during the fall veto session.
You can see the whole voting rights scorecard at https://bit.ly/3s9hD2Y.
Critical Satire–The Best (and most fun) Weapon for Countering the Right!
When the entire GOP game is to offer up a distorted version of a position, then freak out about it, it won’t matter how many facts you throw out there–it will be like spitting in the wind.
There is, however, a way to defang this monster–irony and satire.
“Irony and satire do a better job of diving into the fray than reasoned critical discourse,” says Salon writer Sophia A. McClennen. “Satire can take the absurdity of these right-wing faux debates and expose their spectacle.”
Read this article for good (and fun) examples (https://bit.ly/3jCW4nR), then check out Indivisible Illinois’ own Truth Brigade on Facebook and on Wednesday nights at 7:30pm to learn how to do it!
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