Reports of Voter Suppression Tactics Pour In From Alabama Election

[Snakeseye0]

Source: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/...bama-election/

The Alabama Senate election is shining a national spotlight on Alabama, and not in the most flattering way.

Almost as soon as voting was underway on Tuesday, civil rights groups began receiving hundreds of complaints of voter suppression, and residents and reporters took to social media to report tactics used to intimidate minority voters or force them to cast provisional ballots.

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law had received 235 calls to its voter hotline as of 3:24 p.m. The group aims to provide live assistance to voters, and it’s unclear how many of the calls were to report voting irregularities rather than simply asking for assistance. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund has been collecting reports of voting problems in Alabama, some of them secondhand, including multiple reports of people being put on inactive status and erroneously prevented from voting.

“Some of these voters are told that they cannot vote,” Coty Montag, the director of litigation at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, wrote in a roundup on Tuesday afternoon. “Others are being given provisional ballots. The correct [procedure] is that voters who appear on the inactive list must be allowed an opportunity to re-identify and vote a regular ballot.”

The group also collected reports of very long lines at precincts where poll workers say they were unprepared for high turnout. Alabama’s secretary of state, Republican John Merrill, has repeatedly predicted low turnout in the special election. Election expert Michael McDonald of the University of Florida tweeted that it was “bordering on malpractice to give this guidance to local election officials who should prepare for higher turnout.” The group has also collected reports of people being prevented from voting by the state’s photo ID law because their IDs have expired.

The complaints coming to these civil rights groups mirror the reports coming from journalists and voters on the ground in Alabama. Here are some of the unconfirmed reports coming in from social media. They paint a portrait of a state that still appears to be wrestling with voter suppression after a long civil rights struggle seeking to end these practices in the state.

One Alabama voter shared her story of being placed on inactive status, even though she is a regular voter, and nearly being stopped from voting entirely:

9:42 AM - Dec 12, 2017
730 730 Replies 12,245 12,245 Retweets 16,612 16,612 likes
Twitter Ads info and privacy
She claims that the precinct was denying inactive voters the right to cast a ballot if they did not remember the county they were born in. If true, this would violate federal law. A spokesman for the Alabama secretary of state did not respond to a request for comment about this incident. “More disturbing (if true from anecdotal reports) is that the voter needs to name county of [birth],” election law expert Rick Hasen wrote on Twitter of the report about inactive voter issues. “Sounds a lot like the OLD Alabama.” Voters should not be put on inactive status unless they have not voted for four years, according to Alabama law.

ThinkProgress reporter Kira Lerner also received reports of voters on inactive status struggling to cast a ballot, which they are legally allowed to do:

Good Ole Alabama being racist. Who said racism was gone from this country?

[GennGreymane]

My friend voted in the last election. Was considered inactive.

[Wyrt]

They brought out the voter suppression and still lost? That's gold.

[Celista]

That's some dirty politics. Disgusted with our country (again).

[Moshots]

That's some dirty politics. Disgusted with our country (again).

You are that gullible that you believe every word that CNN and far left Media spoon feeds you huh??

[Stormspark]

Voter suppresion is very real sadly. And it's the republicans that are doing it.

[Celista]

You are that gullible that you believe every word that CNN and far left Media spoon feeds you huh??

I visit Fox News everyday. But Fox lost it's trust in me a long, long time ago. I'm not a Republican, but I'm fair-minded. Nail in the coffin was when they had senate and presidential approval ratings on their home page for eight years while Obama was in office, but took them down the minute Trump took office.

There was also this terrible op-ed on their website about why losing Utah national park land was actually a good thing. It's not. National parks are a treasure that we need to preserve for future generations. Much like this planet.

[PosPosPos]

You are that gullible that you believe every word that CNN and far left Media spoon feeds you huh??

Better than worshipping Nazis and sex predators.

[Sormine]

Better than worshipping Nazis and sex predators.

Cheers to that.

[Celista]

Better than worshipping Nazis and sex predators.

Probably should have just replied with that. GG

[Mormolyce]

You are that gullible that you believe every word that CNN and far left Media spoon feeds you huh??

It's Motherjones, get your left wing sites right. I mean, it's right there in the link...

[PACOX]

How do you suppress voters and still lose?

[Zaydin]

By having a loon that allegedly diddles children. Moore was batshit crazy. Nevermind the fact he got yanked from the bench not once. But twice!!!

Honestly pretty much literally any other candidate probably would have won comfortably tonight.

What I find delicious is that the Bannonites are allegedly threatening an even bigger civil war within the GOP since Moore lost, blaming the establishment for the child molesting theocrats loss.

[Xeones]

How do you suppress voters and still lose?

There are limits to how hard you can suppress voters. If they went too hard after it they are facing jail time. Racists are cowards, and thankfully they didn't win.

[satimy]

I read there was a massive minority turnout, so either the voter suppression is ineffective or fake news

[Drutt]

In this case, you don't have to believe any particular news outlet. You can look at firsthand reports on social media from citizens of Alabama. The stories speak for themselves.

Notice how all the areas impacted are black majority areas and the voters complaining are all African American. You don't need to be a brain surgeon to work it out. I accept that mistakes happen, but there's a point at which mistakes become patterns and more sinister explanations start looking likely.

[Jtbrig7390]

If true its amazing as hell they tried to cheat and still lost.

[PACOX]

I read there was a massive minority turnout, so either the voter suppression is ineffective or fake news

Not really because people were complaining about voting places the entire day. Alabama also overtuned a judges order not to destroy digital voting records on Monday.

[satimy]

Not really because people were complaining about voting places the entire day. Alabama also overtuned a judges order not to destroy digital voting records on Monday.

I read people complained that Obama was the anti christ and a secret Muslim, I wasn’t aware that it became true because someone tweeted it

[Elegiac]

I read people complained that Obama was the anti christ and a secret Muslim, I wasn’t aware that it became true because someone tweeted it

Key difference here is that there is a long track record of Republicans actively engaging in voter suppression; and by track record I mean the judiciary has had to step in several times in multiple states.