How the GOP’s War on Voting Backfired

[Lakhota]

By Ari Berman

Since the 2010 election, Republicans passed new voting restrictions in more than a dozen states aimed at reducing the turnout of Barack Obama’s “coalition of the ascendant”—young voters, African-Americans and Hispanics.

“This is not rocket science,” Bill Clinton said last year. “They are trying to make the 2012 electorate look more like the 2010 electorate than the 2008 electorate.” By pushing voter suppression laws, Republicans wanted the 2012 electorate to be older, whiter and more conservative than the young and diverse 2008 electorate.

But the GOP’s suppression strategy failed. Ten major restrictive voting laws were blocked in court and turnout among young, black and Hispanic voters increased as a share of the electorate relative to 2008.

Take a look at Ohio, where Ohio Republicans limited early voting hours as a way to decrease the African-American vote, which made up a majority of early voters in cities like Cleveland and Dayton. Early voting did fall relative to 2008 as a result of Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted’s cutbacks in early voting days and hours, but the overall share of the black electorate increased from 11 percent in 2008 to 15 percent in 2012. More than anything else, that explains why Barack Obama once again carried the state.

I spent the weekend before the election in black churches in Cleveland, and there’s no doubt in my mind that the GOP’s push to curtail the rights of black voters made them even more motivated to cast a ballot. “When they went after big mama’s voting rights, they made all of us mad,” said Reverend Tony Minor, Ohio coordinator of the African American Ministers Leadership Council. According to CBS News: "More African-Americans voted in Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida than in 2008."

The same thing happened with the Latino vote, which increased as a share of the electorate (from 9 percent in 2008 to 10 percent in 2012) and broke even stronger for Obama than in 2008 (from 67-31 in 2008 to 71-27 in 2012, according to CNN exit polling). The share of the Latino vote increased in swing states like Nevada (up 4 percent), Florida (up 3 percent) and Colorado (up 1 percent). Increased turnout and increased support for Obama among Latinos exceeded the margin of victory for the president in these three swing states.

We’re still waiting on the data to confirm this theory, but a backlash against voter suppression laws could help explain why minority voter turnout increased in 2012. “That’s an extremely reasonable theory to be operating from,” says Matt Barreto, co-founder of Latino Decisions, a Latino-focused polling and research firm. “There were huge organizing efforts in the black, Hispanic and Asian community, more than there would’ve been, as a direct result of the voter suppression efforts.” Groups like the NAACP, National Council of La Raza, National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, and the Asian-American Legal Defense Fund worked overtime to make sure their constituencies knew their voting rights.

As Andrew Cohen of The Atlantic wrote:

If there is one thing this election has proven, if there is one thing I have come to know, it is that Americans don’t like it when their right to vote is threatened. The very people whose votes the Republicans sought to suppress came out to vote. In places like Akron and Orlando and Denver and Milwaukee, they came. They waited in long lines and endured the indignities of poll workers. Yet they were not cowed. Today is their day. A day when they can look at one another and appreciate that they are truly a part of the history of civil rights in this country.​

More: How the GOP’s War on Voting Backfired

 

[Lakhota]

If only white people had voted on Tuesday, Mitt Romney would have carried every state except for Massachusetts, Iowa, Connecticut and New Hampshire, according to the news media’s exit polls. Nationally, Romney won 59 percent of the white vote, a towering twenty-point margin over Obama.

More: The Bad News About White People: Romney Won the White Vote Almost Everywhere | The Nation

 

[Lakhota]

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) is standing by his decision not to extend early voting hours, despite the fact that some voters said they waited as long as nine hours to cast a ballot.

Rick Scott On Decision Not To Extend Early Voting: 'The Right Thing Happened'

 

[Lakhota]

Voter Suppression And Swinging The 2012 Election For Romney

 

[Stephanie]

Frikken people, everything to them is a war with their fellow Amercians..

No wonder they get so violent when things don't go their way

what garbage, but consider the sources

 

[Lakhota]

The war on voting continues...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Friday it will consider eliminating the government's most potent weapon against racial discrimination at polling places since the 1960s. The court acted three days after a diverse coalition of voters propelled President Barack Obama to a second term in the White House.

Supreme Court Will Take New Look At Voting Rights Act

 

[Mr. H.]

Legitimate voter "expression" has no obsticals in this country. You are pissing up an imaginable rope in pursuit of justifying your Liberal fantasies. Go back to your sandbox and Leggos.

 

[BreezeWood]

Mr.H: Legitimate voter "expression" has no obsticals in this country [sic]


oh really, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) is not an obstacle to Legitimate voter "expression" - more like Romney, that dog's days are over.

 

[Mr. H.]

Mr.H: Legitimate voter "expression" has no obsticals in this country [sic]


oh really, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) is not an obstacle to Legitimate voter "expression" - more like Romney, that dog's days are over.

Rope pisser.

 

[Annie]

Seems to me the OP should be happy and celebrating the results he wanted. He won. Let the opposition decide their own analysis and moves. If he's lucky, they'll do the wrong thing. Then Apostle Barack and his minions will rule for a long time.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008TKFWDS/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1468587021&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1JPBA5ANN8SHYABG5APZ]The Gospel According to Apostle Barack: In Search of a More Perfect Political Union as "Heaven Here on Earth": Barbara A. Thompson: Amazon.com: Kindle Store[/ame]

Barack has time to finish his work. Then comes the woman, Hillary. Then the gay, that candidate isn't clear yet.

 

[Mr. H.]

Mr.H: Legitimate voter "expression" has no obsticals in this country [sic]


oh really, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) is not an obstacle to Legitimate voter "expression" - more like Romney, that dog's days are over.

You are one [sic] puppy.

 

[Lakhota]

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted was also a major obstacle.

 

[Mr. H.]

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted was also a major obstacle.

Is that why you haven't been able to shit for 4 weeks?

 

[Lakhota]

 

[konradv]

It certainly doesn't help to have your candidate insult 47% of the electorate, many of whom happen to be Republicans.

 

[Cowman]

Frikken people, everything to them is a war with their fellow Amercians..

No wonder they get so violent when things don't go their way

what garbage, but consider the sources

Look at your own side.

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Frikken people, everything to them is a war with their fellow Amercians..

No wonder they get so violent when things don't go their way

.....But, if you're a Republican, just roll-out some freshman-dickhead to.....​

.....change all the rules!

 

[PredFan]

If Liberals didn't have strawman arguments, they'd have nothing to say.