[statecom-discuss] Re: Fw: [peace-coalition] Voter Suppression

[Mike Heichman]

>
>  
> Dear Friend,
>
> I've learned from ColorOfChange.org that the Senate is about to vote 
> on whether to confirm Hans von Spakovsky--one of the worst 
> perpetrators of voter suppression in recent history--to the Federal 
> Election Commission (FEC), an agency charged with enforcing election 
> law. For far too long, the Republican party has suppressed the votes 
> of Black people and other minorities, while the Democratic party has 
> stood idly by and done nothing.
>
> I've signed on with ColorOfChange.org to tell my senators that I 
> expect them to reject von Spakovsky and condemn what he represents. 
> Will you join me?
>
> http://www.colorofchange.org/vonspak/?id=1866-300053
>
> Republicans have been fighting for months to get von Spakovsky 
> confirmed, and, last week, most Democrats in the Senate – including 
> some who've spoken out against him -- were ready to cave to Republican 
> pressure and let his nomination through without a fight. Thankfully, 
> Senators Barack Obama and Russ Feingold stepped up and took a strong 
> stand against his nomination, blocking a procedural move that would 
> have tied von Spakovsky's nomination into a package with three other 
> FEC nominees, guaranteeing his appointment. Now, Obama and Feingold 
> need our support to convince their colleagues to take a stand against 
> voter suppression.
>
> It's sad that they should need any convincing at all, given von 
> Spakovsky's history.
>
> *A long history of undermining our vote*
>
> During his first term, Bush installed von Spakovsky in the Justice 
> Department's (DOJ) voting rights section, which enforces the Voting 
> Rights Act. There, von Spakovsky undermined the DOJ's historic mission 
> of protecting minority voting rights, and actually transformed the 
> department into a tool to suppress the vote.
>
> When long-term, career employees at the Justice Department unanimously 
> recommended rejecting Tom Delay's infamous Texas redistricting plan 
> because it discriminated against minority voters, von Spakovsky led 
> the charge to overrule these voting rights experts, and approved the 
> plan. The Supreme Court later ruled that the plan violated the Voting 
> Rights Act. Similarly, von Spakovsky overruled career attorneys to 
> approve a discriminatory Georgia voter ID law---a law that even the 
> Republican governor said would disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of 
> Georgians. Again, the law was later struck down by the courts, with 
> the ruling judge likening it to a Jim Crow-era poll tax.
>
> Von Spakovsky's career in suppression didn't start at the DOJ. In 
> 1997, he set the stage for Florida's 2000 voter purge when he wrote an 
> article that called for purging felons from voter rolls. Serving on 
> the board of the "Voter Integrity Project" (VIP) he quickly put his 
> ideas into action -- VIP met with the company that designed Florida's 
> purge to disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters, most of whom 
> were Black. During the recount, von Spakovsky was in Florida as a 
> volunteer for the Bush/Cheney campaign.
>
> *Does the Senate support voter suppression?*
>
> As shocking as these examples are, they only scratch the surface. Hans 
> von Spakovsky has built a career solidifying Republican control by 
> disenfranchising untold thousands and subverting our most fundamental 
> democratic right.
>
> Republicans wants von Spakovsky on the FEC so much that they 
> threatened to block *all FEC nominees* unless the Democrats let von 
> Spakovsky through. But last week, instead of fighting, the Democratic 
> leadership gave the Republicans what they wanted -- a vote on all four 
> FEC nominees as a package, which would have guaranteed Von Spakovsky's 
> appointment. By blocking that vote Senators Obama and Feingold went 
> against the leadership and thwarted its compromise with Republicans. 
> That gave us the fighting chance we need to defeat his nomination.
>
> A vote for von Spakovsky is a vote for voter suppression. Anything 
> less than the strongest condemnation of his nomination sends the 
> message that the Senate will turn a blind eye to Republican attacks on 
> our voting rights. Let's demand that our senators send the opposite 
> message -- that they will fight tooth and nail to defend the right to 
> vote, and that their rejection of von Spakovsky's nomination is only 
> the beginning of a much needed reckoning for the assault on voting 
> rights over the last six and a half years.
>
> Will you join me?
>
> http://www.colorofchange.org/vonspak/?id=1866-300053
>
> robert knowles
>
>
>
>
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