The Corona virus has provided the Republicans with new ways to suppress minority voting, which they automatically assume will be Democratic. GOP leaders have openly said that if everyone in the United States got to vote, it would be the end of the Republican Party, as the Democrats would win every major election.
In two of the last three presidential elections won by Republicans in 2000 and 2016, the Democrats won the popular vote though the GOP won the Electoral College. Trump lost the popular vote in 2016 by nearly three million votes. Is it any wonder Republicans do not want to abolish the Electoral College and elect presidents by the popular vote.
It is only going to get worse for the GOP in the future, which is why Republicans are doing everything possible to skew the vote in their favor (except of course appealing to minorities.).
Gerrymandering has been the favorite way for Republicans to make white votes count for more than those of minorities, helping them control state legislatures and acquire extra seats in Congress. But numerous other tricks has been used to suppress the votes of minorities.
Voter ID laws have allowed Republican state officials to disqualify minority voters and students if the IDs and state records do not match exactly. Even a comma out of place can cause a person to forfeit his or her vote if he or she is the wrong color. Republican Secretaries of State in many states have purged voters from the voting rolls if they did not vote for two elections. In some states, hundreds of thousands of voters have been removed from the rolls, overwhelmingly minorities. Kemp won the Georgia election for governor over Stacy Abrams because of these dirty tricks, as he was the Secretary of State while running for Governor against Abrams. Was that fair? Of course not.
The latest move by Trump and the GOP is cutting back on mail delivery so absentee ballots won’t arrive on time. They removed mail boxes, mail sorting machines and cut back on work hours for people in the postal service to try and destroy voting by mail. The Republicans believe that more mail-in ballots are posted by Democrats than their own adherents. And if the mail service becomes chaotic with poor delivery of medications and Social Security checks because of Republican cut backs, so be it.
Trump claims that if voting by mail is allowed, the election will be rigged against him. No proof, but that doesn’t matter for the president. Postmaster DeJoy, a Trump donor and groupie, was appointed by Trump to make the postal service less efficient to make sure that mail-in ballots are all screwed up. So far, he’s doing his job well.
One question that Republicans are asking is will rural residents who depend on the mail system accept its demise to help Trump get re-elected. Thus far, the answer is unclear. I wouldn’t bet on it. The mail service has been a part of American life for far too long to allow its destruction to back Trump’s re-election bid. Be wary of what you ask for.
The Uninformed Voter- available on Amazon.
Illustration 172231236 © Robwilson39 – Dreamstime.com
Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020