Disenfranchising Voters is Downright UnAmerican!
Posted: May 7, 2012 Filed under: 2012 elections, Voter Ignorance | Tags: voter disenfranchisement 23 Comments
Viviette Applewhite is set to be the face and voice of voter disenfranchisement. She’s a 93 year old grandmother who voted for JFK in her first election. Ms. Applewhite is suing Pennsylvania for its new restrictions on voters according to Think Progress.
She will be the plaintiff in the voter identification lawsuit being filed by the ACLU and the NAACP in the state, which claims that “the state’s voter photo ID law violates the Pennsylvania Constitution by depriving citizens of their most fundamental constitutional right – the right to vote.”
Applewhite no longer has a copy of her birth certificate, and she does not have a drivers’ license. Without either of these things, the new Pennsylvania restrictions say that she is ineligible to vote.
But her circumstances are not at all uncommon. African Americans, especially elderly African Americans, are disproportionately less likely to have a birth certificate.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice:
Twenty-five percent of African-American voting-age citizens have no current government-issued photo ID, compared to eight percent of white voting-age citizens.
Harsh voter ID laws, which former President Bill Clinton characterized as the most serious threat of disenfranchisement since Jim Crow laws, have been passed in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. Twenty four other states are trying to pass similar laws.
peej
Carissa
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Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
I read somewhere (maybe C&L) that Viviette was a riveter during WW2.
What a woman!
Why We Fight: Because GOP Wants To Keep Viviette Applewhite from Voting | Crooks and Liars
She looks feisty and determined in the video. I just can’t believe how our government is marginalizing so many people these days. It makes me very sad.
She’s amazing! She had a long interview with Al Sharpton yesterday. We need to find more cool old ladies to fight the new poll taxes.
I helped two old timer ladies get their State issued Birth Certificates and it is a looooooooooooooooooooooooong ROAD (years) to get it finalized, approved and then issued.
One couldn’t get her Social Security benefits because Social Security would accept the Church Baptismal Certificate as proof of birth!?! Yup, and all her brothers served in WWII (they used their Baptismal Certificates and their Service Papers).
The second case I had to hire a PI (Yup, can you find X-Racheria and farm camps)…and lucky for her he did and found a change of name…the Racheria is no longer, it is now a big city…modernization.
Any hoo, after many Affidavits and notarized letters, sent back and forth, they were able to finally get a Birth Certificate. Here is the kicker, the first lady who’s brothers served in WWII, well her husband was in the Second Wave in Normandy in WWll and he watched the whole debacle his wife was put through, but I must give credit to the State, once ALL the proof was in they did issue both certificates and sent a nice letter to boot.
Yup, life was hard for many folks and I do give the Armed Service credit for issuing the men’s (some women too I imagine) service records as proof (Armed Services did accept their Baptismal Certificates as proof of Citizenship of the United States of America) of Service men/women being Americans with all the Rights and Privileges that they fought for.
ooops “wouldn’t accept” …long day.
Good for you for helping, WV!
That is some story WV…
It seems to me like the GOP are using the same tactics with abortion and welfare assistance…put up enough barriers to make people give up.
You are correct as if they had paid an attorney it would have cost them thousands in legal fees, I did it for free by reading all the legal requirements and the PI reduced his fee to cost which was under five hundred dollars as he thought it was hard for anyone to find such records, beyond what the churches had.
The Democrats should do clinics for people caught up in this mess and maybe put forth a bill to expedite the process due to age, as some of the affidavits have to come from people who knew of your birth, give details and attest to the facts they say/present (photos too).
One case I couldn’t get done was from someone who was born in Hawaii despite the fact that her father died in WWII and thus she was denied some State benefits and I couldn’t afford to travel to Hawaii (Couldn’t find a PI via the internet there and the legal cost was prohibitive.). I imagine she still has her Baptismal and school records as proof (That I was able to get in this State, along with some photos.).
Nice post DAK! 🙂
I just really couldn’t believe after all she did in her life that state just turned around and he did her wrong like that. I’m glad she’s not taking it lying down.
We really need to find a way to reclaim/rebrand the term “voter fraud,” not as this fantasy that somehow in-person voter fraud is any type of actual concern, but taking account of the real concern that it is fairly easy to prevent large numbers people from voting or from having their votes counted. Those tricks go back to the beginning of time.
Amazingly, Chris Mathews covered this really well today I think. This ladies lawyers were his guests.
Not one of my grandparents had a birth certificate. In rural areas where all kids were delivered by midwives — this is not unusual or rare. My grandfather served in WWI — and I’d say that the vast majority of men who served didn’t have birth certificates. That generation has passed — but they would all be caught up in the stupidity of the GOP.
The idiots in the state houses are so removed from the real world.
There are a lot of feisty senior citizens who are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it.
There really needs to be some thing done for people from areas where be it for cost of travel or simply lack of knowledge of the legal system were not properly registered and birth certificates issued.
Social Security has new regulations and anyone now becoming of age to qualify to Medicare or Social Security must provide a birth certificate. There really has to be an awareness effort for people in this dilemma as it is a problem once they show up and can’t get their benefits…even though they will receive the benefits retroactive, it doesn’t help them while the case is being resolved.
It is quite a shocker when they have had generations of their family members in the service and her they aren’t allowed to vote. 😦
My mother didn’t have a birth certificate, and she was scared to death of driving. She was born when women couldn’t vote, and could only hope to become a housekeeper. Like this good citizen is saying, these states are not in full compliance with the civil rights acts. We aren’t going back to the cave days.
Like her I remember more than a thousand cities across this county, out demostrating and marching for their civil rights. I remember when they unleashed all those hoses, and all those dogs, and started shooting. I remember all those christians killing the civil rights workers in Philadelphia, Ms.
I stand in sisterhood with this good citizen, how dare the brotherhood of man take her freedoms away.
Check this out: Fox News contributor laments ‘mistake’ of letting women vote
Poor poor babeee. He probably walked up to a woman with his issue about how she should stay in her place. Hey Rev, maybe if you don’t say stupid things to women they won’t need to come back at you with righteous anger. I don’t ave any love for you either.
“No patience…not in their nature” — has this person ever tried raising a kid?
he’s far worse — he calls women whores – he is just plain full of hate.
need to find the link —
LINK — http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/hannity-hijacked-angry-kirsten-power
This creep is a nasty piece of bantam rooster posing as a human. Check out the links — at the above link. He has a long nutcase history of misogyny.
The tree of liberty must occasionally be kicked in the balls by patriots
Onion: Obama Makes Deal With Republicans to Get Kicked in Balls
The so-called Voter Fraud laws is one of ALEC;s model legislative bills. Al Sharpton has been on this issue since the very beginning. He’s gone around the country protesting with citizens in states that passed these laws. Frankly, I think if he hadn’t made this a major issue many months ago, it might never have been on anyone’s radar. This is the earliest video that I could find: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/now-with-alex-wagner/45614735#45614735 It’s from Dec 9th.
Here’s another from October of last year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dJTfATg14I