Chuck Klosterman Quotes

It is clear that the photo ID requirement is not a solution to a problem but is instead a political ploy to prevent traditionally disenfranchised populations from voting for the candidates of their choice.

Voting is a Constitutional right. Absent any evidence of fraud, all Americans have a protected right to vote, be they rich or poor, black, Hispanic or white, people who live in a big city or in remote rural areas.

Officials who wish to deny minorities the right to vote adopt one tactic. When a lawsuit finally gets decided that the tactic is unconstitutional or otherwise illegal, the official just switches tactics…. Election enforcement lawsuits are different and demand more [than typical lawsuits.]

It is a travesty for anyone who is elected to office, who serves in an elective office, to engage in voter suppression.

We have a problem with our democracy when you have election officials deliberately trying to take away the fundamental right to vote in this country in the 21st century.

The failure in Ohio to have adequate voting capacity for the people who were registered and eligible to vote was an absolute denial of their right to vote.

Voter caging and voter ID laws exist to disfranchise voters.

What we say is that democracy means that you have the right to vote without intimidation and undue burdens. But if you stand in line for six hours, technically, today there is no document, no standard, no law that says that that's wrong.

I was quite upset because the political consultants and staff were talking about voter suppression and keeping Blacks from voting. They talked about not letting Blacks vote.

Without Section 5 Preclearance, Section 2 [normal lawsuits] of the Civil Rights Act, it is open hunting season for those who want to use discriminatory voting practices.

The most significant civil rights problem is voting. Each citizen's right to vote is fundamental to all the other rights of citizenship and the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 make it the responsibility of the Department of Justice to protect that right.

During my time in the Texas State Legislature, I witnessed firsthand the lack of evidence behind the rampant claims of voter fraud and the obstacles voters would face if the 2011 photo Voter ID were put in place.

I believe there should be political consequences for politicians who commit voter suppression.

Part of the reason voter suppression works is we've created this culture that says you don't challenge the outcome of elections unless the act is so egregious as to be absolutely clear on its face.

Supporters of tough voter ID laws are not afraid of vote fraud - they are afraid of democracy.

When public access to voting is impaired or when public confidence in voting is diluted, democracy suffers and our freedom is less secure.

To make it hard, to make it difficult almost impossible for people to cast a vote is not in keeping with the democratic process.

Voting the names of the dead, and the nonexistent, and the too-mentally-impaired to function, cancels out the votes of citizens who are exercising their rights - that's suppression by any light.

I don't think everyone should vote. If you have to be dragged into the polls, carried into the polls and smelling salts have to be used, you probably shouldn't be voting. However, we shouldn't be putting up barriers to voting that target certain groups.

Parts of the Voting Rights Act are due to expire next year if Congress doesn't extend them, including the section that guarantees that voting rights will be protected by the federal government.

So here we are, just two months away from the election, with more and more examples that modern day Jim Crowe laws are alive and well in the state of Florida.

Elections shall be open, free and equal, and no power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere to prevent an un-trammeled exercise of the right of suffrage.

The voting business in the South will regulate itself.

The Voting Rights Act is a voter protection act, not a candidate or incumbent protection act.

It seems to me there has been some systematic disenfranchisement of voters … because people haven’t cared enough to spend the money to have good voting systems and voter education.