Ramona E. F. Arnett Quotes

They were voting on ignoring the fraudulent vote count in Dallas County, Alabama. The counter argument was that it would disenfranchise those honest voters of the country whose votes would not then be counted.

This quotation from Judge Posner was particularly meaningful because previously the judge had ruled that Voter ID was constitutional. Subsequently, Voter ID laws were passed by a number of states where many of the sponsors were found to intend voter suppression. Also, it was the case that there were so few voter fraud cases in the entire country that it was highly unlikely that for the prevention of a handful of improper votes all the money would be spent by the states to implement the Voter ID laws. The real motivation was most experts concluded was voter suppression. Posner had come to that conclusion also as this quotation demonstrates.

Zt the time he made this statement, some Russians—probably with the blessing of the Russian government—had been hacking the e-mail computers of the Democratic National Committee and making embarrassing e-mails public through Wikileaks. Many Americans were concerned at the possibility that Russia, another nation, or a non-state group could hack into the voting machines and the computers that tally the votes. This statement was made to reassure them. There are 9000 different polling places where Americans can vote in a Presidential election. There is no single entity that anyone could hack to rig the vote counts. And there is no uniformity in the voting machines used, the tabulating and aggregating methods and machines, and the software that is used to tally the vote in cities, counties and states. And no voting machines are connected to the Internet.

More than 80 voting machines in Detroit malfunctioned on Election Day resulting in ballot discrepancies in 59% of precincts that raise questions about the reliability of the 2016 Presidential Vote in Michigan. The state of Michigan, like many other states, would not approprate sufficient funds toi keep election equipment properly maintained. What was an irony about the 2016 Election errors in Detroit, the Michican State Law actually forbade doing manual recounts. Polioticans throughout America during that decade had been passing all kinds of legislation to prevent voting by people why were ineligible (a problem which was almsot non existant) and would do very little to get their own election commissions the equipment and personnel that they needed to avoid vote counting errors.

The Black community and the Democrats had conducted a very successful voter registration drive and Preisse didn’t want them to have any further advantage. It is much easier for middle class and wealthy people to adjust their work schedules so that they can vote during the voting hours. Saturday voting, extending the voting hours and other means that would help the working person who cannot control his own time schedule would help voter turnout a great deal. But of the voters who would be assisted, the belief is that most would vote Democrat. As a result, Republicans tend to oppose making voting any easier and support any steps that can make it more difficult for the poor or the working class. However, the admission that the motivation was to keep Blacks from voting was terribly embarrassing to the Republican Governor and other party leaders. However, it was not embarrassing enough to extend the voting hours.

The voting problems we have had are managerially and technology solvable but politically each solution is perceived as favoring one of the political parties in the particular jurisdiction and therefore there is resistance to the change.

In the beginning of the 21st century, many republican state legislatures attempted to change the voting laws to eliminate the possibility of voter fraud which was not a serious practical problem in America. However, a consequence—some argue indented and some argue unintended—was that it was harder for certain groups of people to meet the new requirements and therefore was a de facto voter suppression for some people such as the very elderly, the homeless, and the poor. Many of these efforts were declared unconstitutional by the courts.