To: Detroit/Seattle
Workers' Voice mailing list
April 27, 2021
by Pete Brown, Detroit Workers' Voice
Since last year’s election the Republican Party has launched a new campaign of voter suppression. Heeding Trump’s claim that the election was fraudulent, state legislators in 40 states are sponsoring hundreds of bills to supposedly "enhance security" and "protect the integrity" of elections. But in reality these bills are aimed at suppressing voter turnout, especially among poor and minority voters. This calls for an angry response from working people, who have fought and died for the right to vote. Few Black people in southern states were even allowed to register to vote until the 1960s, when mass demonstrations finally forced the federal government to intervene. So far the movement against this new voter suppression has been small, but working people, especially blacks, insist, "We will not go back to Jim Crow!"
Voter suppression and the movement against it have been highlighted lately in Georgia and Michigan. The loss of these two states in 2020 was a major setback for Trump and the Republicans. Trump personally lobbied state officials in both states to overturn the election results. (1) Afterwards, in Georgia, Republican legislators sponsored bills designed to reduce voter turnout among minority and poor residents. These included things like shortening voting times and days; allowing counties to further reduce voting hours; shortening the runoff period after an election from nine weeks to four; restricting the time a voter can request and return an absentee voter application; requiring photo ID to apply for an absentee ballot; and allowing the Republican-dominated state legislature to take over local election boards. (2)
Voting activists demonstrated against the Republican bill at the Georgia state capitol and tried to get statements of opposition to the bill from the state’s prominent corporations like Home Depot, Coca-Cola, and Delta Airlines. But the statements from corporate heads were mealy-mouthed declarations of support for the right to vote, and Republican legislators paid little heed as they went ahead and passed the bill. Afterwards, as a storm of criticism came down on the corporations, some of them issued revised statements critical of the law, but it was too little, too late. Professional baseball did cancel the All-Star Game scheduled for Atlanta, but the law remained. Further mass demonstrations have been held outside the capitol and at the Masters golf tournament, which shows voter activists have not given up, but for now the reactionary law stands.
Meanwhile, in Michigan, Republican legislators put forward a raft of 39 bills aimed at voter suppression. These included proposals requiring picture ID to apply for absentee ballot; prohibiting clerks from doing a general mail-out of applications for absentee ballots; prohibiting absentee ballots from having prepaid postage; requiring surveillance cameras on election drop-boxes; limiting early voting to one day; prohibiting early counting of ballots before election day; not even pre-processing ballots until the day before election day; requiring all votes to be counted and announced by noon the day after election. The latter proposals would put intense pressure on local clerks to process and count all the ballots on time, which would open the door for Republican legislators to claim mail-in and other votes were late and therefore fraudulent. And of course the Republican legislature is not likely to appropriate more funds for local clerks to hire more election help.
These bills have aroused opposition. A rally at the state capitol was organized in mid-March by the Michigan Poor People’s Campaign. Another was organized in mid-April by the Detroit branch of NAACP. Opponents drafted a common statement from corporate leaders advising legislators to take it slow on election reform. This statement was read at the April rally and cheered by the rally organizers, but, as in Georgia, the capitalist corporate heads didn’t say much. They merely expressed support for the right to vote (Wow! Isn’t that progressive!). They refrained from criticizing or even mentioning the Republicans and their bills, only expressing the hope that any bills passed would be bipartisan. The statement is so weak, in fact, that a Republican legislator pushing the bills says he agree 100% with the corporate leaders’ statement. (3) This shows the need for working class leadership that would stand up against voter suppression, call out the Republicans and demand an end to their campaign.
One way to cut off the Republican campaign has been proposed by the Democratic Party. They are sponsoring two bills in Congress that would nullify some of the provisions in these state laws. These are the John Lewis Voting Rights Act (HR4) and the For the People Act (HR1). Both bills have been passed by the Democratic-led House but are unlikely to pass the Senate, with its filibuster rule.
The John Lewis Act provides an updated version of “pre-clearance”, a provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act which required some states – especially those in the South -- to get pre-clearance from the U.S. Justice Dept. before they could enact changes to their voting laws. This provision prevented a number of discriminatory laws from being passed, but it was judged outdated by the Supreme Court in 2013. Since then some states have passed reactionary laws on voting, and now Republicans have gone on a nationwide campaign. The updated version of pre-clearance would supposedly put a stop to that, but actually it would only slow it down at best. A state would qualify for pre-clearance only after its laws had been judged to be discriminatory by a number of lawsuits brought against it over a period of years. In the meantime the laws would be in effect –- turnout would be suppressed, and gerrymandering would go its merry way.
The For the People Act is a combination of many bills previously passed by the House containing a number of proposals favored by liberals. The provisions on election procedure are reasonable updates and generally positive, and if passed into law would put a stop to some of the Republican bills in state legislatures. For example, the Act would require states to set up independent redistricting commissions, to try and stop gerrymandering; would require states to allow automatic voter registration at DMVs; would allow same-day registration on election day; would prevent voter roll purges; would allow ex-felons to vote; would require backup paper ballots, to allow accurate recounts; would make mail-in ballots postage-free; would provide federal grants to states for hiring more poll workers. Some states have already enacted some of these reforms; these updates to election procedures are reasonable attempts to standardize more efficient procedure.
But other parts of the Act are more controversial and only make the positive parts of the bill impossible to pass. The parts on campaign finance revise the system of public financing for campaigns that was begun in 1974, but these will only make it more difficult for minor candidates to qualify and receive publicly-funded matching funds. (4) Candidates would receive matching funds at a 6:1 ratio instead of the previous 1:1 ratio, which sounds like that would be better for minor candidates; but the major candidates would also be able to receive those funds and so would better be able to smother the minor candidates. Also, it’s unlikely this bill will do anything about the massive influx of dark money into campaigns, which surpassed a billion dollars in 2020. Democrats received twice as much dark money as Republicans, so they’re not likely to be interested in any reform here. (5)
With these provisions on campaign finance, it’s unlikely the Act will even win approval by all Democrats in the Senate. And the Republicans are dead set against reforms that would stop their campaign for voter suppression. So the Act will probably die in the Senate.
It's more important to the working class than the Democrats to stop the Republican campaign of voter suppression dead in its tracks. For the Democrats, it's only a matter of how many will get elected, and when push comes to shove, both Democrats and Republicans appeal to different factions of the same ruling bourgeoisie and even to the same large corporations. For the working class, it's a matter of whether the ruling class is allowed to use racism and prejudice against the poor to split the working class and disenfranchise large sections of it. And it's a matter of whether the working class can have a say on the major economic and political changes that are coming one after another. All signs are that this is going to be a protracted struggle.
Down with voter suppression!
We will not go back to Jim Crow!
Don't rely on corporate statements, but demonstrate and organize for our democratic rights!
(1) In March a formal criminal investigation into Trump’s attempts to subvert the election was launched. See Richard Fausset and Danny Hakim, "Georgia Prosecutors Open Criminal Inquiry Into Trump’s Efforts to Subvert Election".
(2) Caitlin O'Kane, "Stacey Abrams' response to questions about 'racist' Georgia voting law goes viral", April 22, 2021.
(3) Paul Egan and Clara Hendrickson, "GOP elections bills blasted by corporate leaders, Mayor Duggan, head of NAACP", April 13, 2021.
(4) See this article by the Green Party US, "Stop the poison pills in HR1".
(5) Anna Massoglia and Karl Evers-Hillstrom, "'Dark money' topped $1 billion in 2020, largely boosting Democrats", March 17, 2021, at the Center for Responsive Politics.<>
Back to main
page,
how to order CV,
write us!