Missouri's Black History Month gift: Voter ID bill
Lewis DiuguidThe Republican-heavy Missouri legislature’s Black History Month gift to the state resurrects old Jim Crow days and ways for African Americans.
Republican lawmakers in this former slave state are pushing a voter identification bill. The Missouri Legislative Black Caucus is right to oppose it, saying it will “disenfranchise and suppress” the vote from minorities, young people and disabled voters. Rep. Brandon Ellington compared the legislation to a poll tax, The Kansas City Star reports.
Blacks had to pay the fee to vote while whites did not. That was in addition to literacy tests and grandfather clauses that were used in the 19th and 20th centuries to keep African Americans away from the polls. That’s in addition to violence and lynchings.
On literacy tests, black people had to be able to prove they could read nearly impossible passages. White voters did not have to prove they could read at all.
Blacks also may have been asked to show that their grandfathers were free men and able to vote in order to cast ballots. Because many blacks’ grandfathers had been slaves, they were excluded from voting. Whites did not have to undergo such scrutiny.
What incredible black history lessons during Black History Month!
Courts have struck down voter ID laws in Missouri and some other states, saying they disproportionately and negatively affect minorities, the elderly and others because they impose an unfair hardship on them.
Reginald Thornton
3 months, 2 weeks agoOutlaw the Poll tax- agreed!
Otlaw Literacy tests- agreed!
Prove you are whom you say you are so law-abiding citizens can be assured of their vote counting and not being cancelled out-
Huh?
Recounting the history of Jim Crow laws does not reinforce your argument. You only make it laughable to compare them to Voter ID laws. What’s next- not extending unemployment checks is like the holocaust?
Matt Henry
3 months, 2 weeks agoThen Rep. Ellington is a top-grade fool. To compare the purposefully racist Jim Crow laws to the modern voter I.D. push is such a spit-in-the-eye to those who had to suffer through that period. For LWD, race-baiter par excellance’, to suggest that this even comes close to resurrecting “old Jim Crow days and ways for African-Americans”, well, I can’t imagine that those who had to sit in the back of the bus and in the back of restaurants and were forced to use separate bathrooms and attend separate schools and have members of their communities disappear and turn up dead in the most horrific ways can find that statement anything other than insulting.
Even if you believe that the motives of those pushing these laws is racist, to suggest they “bring back Jim Crow” is just unbelievably foolish and divisive.
Oh, and how come this is still called racist and “Jim Crow-like” when states look at taking steps to render the inconvenience and cost elements exceedingly minimal, like agreeing to wave I.D. fees for the poor and even come to the homes of the homebound? It’s almost like there are other motives in LWD and his ilk when they don’t want these laws to come to fruition. I wonder what they could be?
George Hunsucker
Northland
3 months, 2 weeks agoShow I’d to get booze, but not to vote… Good parody Lewis….
Phil Cardarella
3 months, 2 weeks agoOK, the total number of in-person, misrepresentation of identity voter fraud incidents (the ONLY kind this law addresses)is a tad low — ZERO being pretty darn low. So, when someone tries to pass a law for which there is ZERO need, but that will disproportionately impact those who traditionally vote for the other Party, you have to be suspicious.
Now, the fact is, it may not be technically racist in intent. The GOP does not care if it disenfranchises white folks likely to vote Democrat as well as black folk. In that way, they are actually equal-opportunity enemies of the democratic process.
And it is not just the expense involved. Many folks do not have a drivers license or state ID. Those of us who do know that post-9/11 it can be a hassle getting your birth certificate, getting to the license bureau, and sometimes waiting a good while. Time and trouble. It would be enough to discourage a lot of folks — and that is the actual point.
Reginald Thornton
3 months, 2 weeks agoThe actual number of proved voter fraud is not zero. In any event, it is far greater than the number of real (not imaginary) people who actually cannot get a government issued ID or any one of the many alternatives allowed by any Voter ID legislation.
Interesting that you lump whites who “don’t have ID” into the other group and assume them all to be Democrat voters. Do you have any data to back up that allegation, or are you just a racist?
George Hunsucker
Northland
3 months, 2 weeks agoalways with the question of racism Phillie… What would you libs do without it—no jobs, no causes, just global warming and guns then!!!
Matt Henry
3 months, 2 weeks agoHello. My name is Eric Holder. Can I have my ballot please?