Department of Justice Refuses to Let NC Town Hold Nonpartisan Elections

[Just_A_Guy]

Story here. Apparently, the Administration thinks blacks can't figure out how to vote for candidates who will represent their interests unless those candidates have a "D" after their names.

[it's a long article, and I'm sure some would argue it's more nuanced than I've made it out to be. Read the whole thing, if you have the time.]

[talisyn]

Story here. Apparently, the Administration thinks blacks can't figure out how to vote for candidates who will represent their interests unless those candidates have a "D" after their names.

[it's a long article, and I'm sure some would argue it's more nuanced than I've made it out to be. Read the whole thing, if you have the time.]

OMGOSH it's like an opposite Idaho!!!! Here you can't get elected unless you have the little 'r' behind your name. Totally true story, a few years ago the incumbent Minidoka county prosecutor decided that justice is blind and so she was going to run as Independent. The local Republican party officials carpetbagged some guy just out of law school from Pocatello to Minidoka just in time for him to get his residency, slapped an 'r' behind his name, and he killed the formerly praiseworthy incumbent by a landslide.

[Just_A_Guy]

Seems to me (just to kick-start the thread) that Sarah Palin similarly politicized the hitherto nonpartisan elections in Wasilla, no?

That said, the situation in NC seems slightly different than what you describe in Idaho. In NC, the town decided they didn't want their elections to be partisan. Washington told them they had to be.

[bytor2112]

How degrading.......Black people have been used and abused by the political system since the Reconstruction period. The Democratic Party is just the latest. Sad and despicable.

[annewandering]

Another lets hate democrats thread? When will the vitriol ever end? Dont bother answering. The answer is clear.

[Just_A_Guy]

The problem isn't the Democrats; it's Washington. I'd like to think I'd still have posted the story if it were a Republican administration doing this and the black vote tended to tilt to the right.

[sixpacktr]

Another lets hate democrats thread? When will the vitriol ever end? Dont bother answering. The answer is clear.

Not dems, per se. The party itself. It has been hijacked by radicals that worship Mao, Che, Hugo and the like. The dems I know locally are nothing like this, but they don't like repubs, so they vote dem. Much like a lot of repubs I know are fed up with the gutless wonders we have 'representing' us.

So I don't see it as a 'hate dem' thread, but rather another thread to show how the current administration is controlling how we live...

[talisyn]

The problem isn't the Democrats; it's Washington. I'd like to think I'd still have posted the story if it were a Republican administration doing this and the black vote tended to tilt to the right.

I think you would have posted it too

[talisyn]

The problem is there is a history in places like this, a history of voter suppression and intimidation where such laws were necessary. Are 40 years long enough that such policies are not needed? Is there still gerrymandering? Is there voter apathy from people who should know better? Is there 'discouragement' to vote? This isn't such an easy problem to solve.

[Hemidakota]

It goes to show, bad lawyers make bad judges.

[Just_A_Guy]

The problem is there is a history in places like this, a history of voter suppression and intimidation where such laws were necessary. Are 40 years long enough that such policies are not needed? Is there still gerrymandering? Is there voter apathy from people who should know better? Is there 'discouragement' to vote? This isn't such an easy problem to solve.

Indeed. The only alternatives I can see are:

1) let the states determine their own policy and hope that they become enlightened over time (Jim Crow and its appurtenant history notwithstanding);

2) let the federal government determine the policy for each specific state on a situational basis, trusting that the feds won't abuse their power for the benefit of the currently-reigning party; or

3) Have the federal government impose a demonstrably non-partisan one-size-fits-all solution with uniform benchmarks for "success"; which wouldn't work perfectly anywhere.

As Yul Brynner would say:

Eees . . . a puzzlement.

[annewandering]

Education might be the answer. Teach people their rights. In the end it is all that will or can help.

[annewandering]

One thing that confuses me here is why is anyone stepping in at all. My own town's elections are nonpartisan and no one told us we could not do it that way. What makes their's different?

[talisyn]

One thing that confuses me here is why is anyone stepping in at all. My own town's elections are nonpartisan and no one told us we could not do it that way. What makes their's different?

from the article, page 3 I think..

Kinston is one of the areas subject to provisions of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act, which requires the city to receive Justice Department approval before making any changes to voting procedures. Kinston is one of 12,000 voting districts in areas of 16 states, almost exclusively in the South, that the Voting Rights Act declared to have had a history of racial discrimination.

[sixpacktr]

It really gets down to: if people aren't sure of the candidate's positions, but only recognize 'I should vote D or R' then they have no business being in a voting booth in the first place. Too often people vote based upon a letter behind a name, or someone's smile, or their race, and NOT on what they stand for.

It would not be unreasonable to me to require some type of test before you can vote. What are the issues? Where do the candidates stand? You'd eliminate half of the stupid people there, and make people understand who they are voting for.

This ploy just makes a class of people dependent upon the gov't teat to feed them and tell them how to vote...

[talisyn]

The Constitution never said, even in any of the amendments, that you need to be smart to vote

[sixpacktr]

No, but it did say that you had to be a landowner...

Got crucified for even MENTIONING that here about 2 years ago, so I won't go down that path again...

[Just_A_Guy]

One of the more savvy things I've heard Glenn Beck say (not sure if he was quoting someone else) was that the US government was designed by geniuses to be run by idiots.

[sixpacktr]

If it was Glenn or someone else, he is right on. We seem to be testing that theory to the max these days...

[annewandering]

If you start limiting then you have to decide who has the right to limit. What criteria do you use?

We have amendments to spread the right to vote. We dont have any that put more restrictions on who can vote.

So, talisyn, does this regulation only apply to those areas who have had voting discrimination in the past or to everyone? I am pretty sure my town has changed the format since the Voting Rights Act was put into force. Not that it wold make a difference here since only heretics would vote other than Republican or run other than on Republican party ticket.

I am suspecting from the article that the same sort of situation exists in that city. Whether they put a party on the ticket or not they are all going to be the same anyway.

[Vort]

OMGOSH it's like an opposite Idaho!!!!

No, it's not. Based on what you have said, the problem in Idaho is the ignorance of the voters. The problem in Kinston is the legislating from the bench by the JD. What happened in Idaho is typical of, well, local people everywhere. What happened in NC is exceptionally disturbing and an attack on the freedoms of all people in the US (unless by "freedom" you mean "the ability to vote for a Democrat, and only for a Democrat").

[annewandering]

The freedoms of all of us is eroded first locally by ignorance then proceeds up the line.

This situation in Kingston was not legislating from the bench. It was following the law passed by congress.

[Dravin]

No, but it did say that you had to be a landowner...

Got crucified for even MENTIONING that here about 2 years ago, so I won't go down that path again...

Are we talking State or Federal? I ask because my understanding is that originally the U.S. Constitution left such things, just who could vote, up to the states (still does to a degree), so it certainly allowed landownership as a requirement for enfranchisement but it didn't mandate such. So unless I'm misunderstanding something, no the U.S. Constitution never said you had to be a landowner to be allowed to vote. Though certainly various state constitutions did so and did not violate the U.S. Constitution as it was originally written*.

* Does anyone know if land ownership requirements fall under a poll tax? If not the constitution (baring Supreme Court rulings I'm unaware of) still wouldn't be violated by such. I imagine a ruling against such would be forthcoming (or another amendment) if states started bringing it back. 'Course it'd never happen, talk about political suicide, but theoretically.

Edit: I know you said you didn't want to go down that path again, so if you wanted to PM me about it, or start another thread I'll understand. It's just I'm taking my history requirements for school and I'm smack dab in the middle of an American History survey course taught by a Professor who I think wishes was teaching political science. I'm not bringing this up to say, "I learned this in college, you is wrong!" but because it my help you understand that I'm curious, not looking to crucify you for speaking unorthodoxy.

Edited October 20, 2009 by Dravin

[prisonchaplain]

I did not understand WHY the Justice Department was doing this, until the Voting Rights act was mentioned. Apparently it does have the jurisdiction, under the guise guaranteeing voting rights, especially to minorities.

The irony is that those being protected in this case do not like it. Too bad. If they want to change this decision, they'll have to change who runs the Justice Department. Get all those non-partisans to start voting their own interests, and the interests of liberty...hey, maybe we should all do that?

[Moksha]

How degrading.......Black people have been used and abused by the political system since the Reconstruction period. The Democratic Party is just the latest. Sad and despicable.

Bytor, did you just forget lofty intention on your Coom By Ya thread?