Claims And Issues

IT HAPPENED ON 911.

(Tampa Bay Times)

It happened on 911.  Before then, a federal judge had blocked a modern-day poll tax in Florida.  But on 911, other judges temporarily occupying federal office ruled that a poll tax is not a poll tax.

Even further back, nearly 2/3 of Floridians who voted on it, voted in favor of a State constitutional amendment that when people convicted of certain felonies had served out the terms of their sentences, then they should be allowed to vote.  The exceptions were people convicted of felonies of violence whether related to sex or otherwise.  The people did not impose any more restrictions on the right to go to the polls.

The Florida Legislature intervened.  They could not allow that to stand.  They imposed restrictions on the right to go to the polls.  If the returning citizens want to vote, then the Florida Legislature ruled that they would have to pay a tax.  They would have to pay court costs and every other cost imposed by judges.  Even though Florida cannot tell them how much to pay because Florida is not set up to tell them how much.  They cannot vote if they cannot pay.

The first judge to address this ruled that the Florida Legislature's poll tax is unconstitutional.   The Florida Governor could not allow that to stand.  The Florida Governor appealed to the majority on the Federal Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals that overruled the Florida Constitution written by the voters.  (As the saying goes, you can't make this stuff up.)

The Federal majority of 6 outvoted the Federal minority of 4 in this case.  Ironically, they out-voted them just as millions of Florida voters thought that they had outvoted their opponents in 2018, the ones that represented about 1/3 of Florida.  And so the 6 outweigh the millions.  The current occupiers of the Federal government outweigh the people.

Here's hoping the plaintiffs appeal to the Supreme Court.  Not that the Gang of Five will declare a poll tax to be unconstitutional; they probably won't.  They are the kissing ideological cousins of the Pack of Six on the Eleventh Circuit, after all. 

Rather than expecting a reasonable chance of success on the merits of the case, the plaintiffs should appeal because of the risk of not appealing.  There is at least a chance of success, for one thing.  But most of all there's this:  There's no such thing as a free lunch.  To coin a phrase, the poll taxers should pay a tax for blocking the will of Florida voters.  There should be a penalty for voter suppression. 

This may be a country now in which voters are suppressed, but we can lessen the number of votes that are suppressed.  The people who do these things may have a right to rule if we let them.  But they have no right to call their rule the United States of America.

Read about the saga that runs through 911 at The Tampa Bay Times here.  Please read the disclaimer.  ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

This IS THE ELECTION THAT THEY ARE AFRAID TO LOSE BY MAIL.

One party is afraid of losing by mail. The Leader of the party in power says that if people vote by mail they will never elect a Republican again.

    Many people who respond to this include members of the party out of power. They respond in overwhelming numbers with historical arguments. They tend to point to the facts, that historically voting by mail does not generally favor one party or the other. They say that, further, although in some places voting by mail can make a difference for either party, historically the differences are a wash and the results turn out not to favor either party over the other.

    They miss the point entirely.

    In my judgment, what opponents of vote-by-mail are saying is that they are afraid of losing this election.

    Recent election results reveal that in 2018, the party in power was rejected in great numbers, numbers so great that some might call them "huge." On April 7 of this year in Wisconsin, where State supreme court justices apparently run on partisan lines on the ballot, the candidate for justice backed by the party out of power shellacked (to coin a phrase) the candidate of the party in power. The strength of her victory was provided by mail-in ballots although, giving due, the courage displayed by voters in person at the polls that day was enormous in its own right.

    Opponents of mail-in balloting look at these recent elections and see a coming tidal wave that will wash away their power. They see a tsunami that will sweep them out of office in very large numbers.

    In many ways both parties are driven by fear, and in many ways they are victims of opposite fears. The party in power is afraid of losing power. This party recognizes that they will not win the popular vote without restricting the popular vote. They are afraid that the coming election will be so devastating to their hold on power that their best chance to stay in power is to make it harder for voters to vote.

    The party out of power is moved by a diametrically opposite fear. Despite all evidence to the contrary, they are afraid that the party in power will stay in power. They do not recognize the fear that moves the party in power because it is so diametrically opposed to their own fear. They do not even recognize that fear permeates the party in power. Both fears cannot be right, so one consequence of the party out of power indulging their own fear is that they are blind to the fact that the party in power is afraid, too.

    The party out of power fails to see, in the end, that the party in power is like them: motivated by emotion and not by logic. They try to reason with the opponents of vote-by-mail when emotion, not logic, is what drives their opponents.

    So, do not ask for whom the mail-in ballot historically votes. Ask for whom the mail-in ballot votes today, now, in 2020.

Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.

THESE ARE NOT ORDINARY TIMES. 2020 IS NOT AN ORDINARY ELECTION.

Many people say wait till we vote to do anything.

That may be the way things were done back in the day:  Make change at the ballot box.  These are not ordinary times now.

Women's March 2017.

The 2020 election is not ordinary.

 

 

Women's March 2019.  (Jose Luis

Mangana / Associated Press).

 

 

 

                                                                                             

The harsh attacks on voting are so often reported that we can take one report and speak for them all:

    The F.B.I. has warned that the threat of Russian interference in American elections persists. Intelligence officials have said that Russia interfered throughout the midterm elections last year, and that those efforts are likely to intensify during the next presidential campaign.

Mihir Zaveri and Jacey Fortin, In 2016, Russians Worked to Discourage Black Voters, New York Times, Tuesday, May 7, 2019, p. A5.  And not just Russians worked to discourage voters:

    But domestic restrictions on voting, the vast majority of which are imposed by Republicans, proliferated in many states, the [National Urban League] report found.

Id.

To act as though ordinary ways will work in 2020 when they did not work in 2016 "is a recipe for disaster, and it's a lesson that should have been learned by now."  Dahlia Lithwick, The 2020 Election's Approach is No Reason to Avoid Impeachment / Democrats Are Repeating a Mistake They Should Have Learned in 2016, Slate, May 6, 2019.

More of the same old, same old.  Thinking that we are in a better place than 2016 has rightly been called "demented," even outright "insane."  Id.

Please Read The Disclaimer.  ©2019 Dennis J. Wall.  All Rights Reserved.