As we write this the June 23 primary results still aren’t complete, and the General Election is about 5 months away. Kentucky looked like it would have a massive voting meltdown with confusion in absentee ballots and a 95% cut to polling places, but it went unexpectedly smoothly and set records for attendance. So what’s making us Furious these days? The voter suppression happening in plain sight. Whether it gets a candidate elected or not, it still means an American Citizen’s vote was intentionally stolen by the people most entrusted to protect it. So sit back and prepare to be disgusted with your disenfranchisement, apoplectic at your absent absentee ballot, choleric at your candidate, and ferociously fuming at the fraud to make you 
Furious… all happening right before your bulging eyes.Our president isn’t elected by a vote of the people (Popular Vote) but by a vote of the states (Electoral College). Given candidates’ limited campaign resources, it makes sense to ignore the states where they’re too strong to lose or too weak to win and concentrate on the states actually in play. This is a reasonable conclusion, and ‘both sides’ quite sensibly follow this strategy.
What? “Declared campaign of disenfranchisement” is going to far? Listen to Paul Weyrich, “father of the right-wing movement” and co-founder of the Heritage Foundation, lay it out in a speech to the ‘Religious Roundtable’ in 1980…
But that’s where the ‘both sides’ BS ends. While Dems have concentrated on get-out-the-vote campaigns, Reps have built an intentional, coordinated, and (increasingly) declared campaign to make voting impossible or difficult for as many ‘likely Democratic voters’ as they can… essentially meaning everyone who isn’t white, male, or straight. Not even the Reps would pretend (or at least admit) that ALL the people they’re disenfranchising would vote Dem, but that makes it even worse… they’re willing to screw over their own likely voters if it reduces the CHANCE of someone voting for a Dem.
The 2020 election will undoubtedly be close; reports are already preparing us for the likelihood that we won’t have a result for days, weeks, or (with legal challenges) months after the election. Once again, the results will come down to a handful of battleground states. To make you Furious this month we’ll start with a look at voter suppression techniques nationwide, but then zoom in to look at how they’re being employed in the Swing States that will choose our President.
Not Furious enough? Want more resources to spread the bile to your friends? Call Tom Dwyer Automotive Services at 503-230-2300 and ask for Charles (or email Charles@tomdwyer.com). We’ll send you a FREE copy of Greg Palast’s documentary on voting gone bad… maybe more if you need ‘em.
The Big Picture
Voter Suppression Archives GregPalast.com
The Many Varieties of Voter Suppression, Brittany Gibson in American Prospect, May 2020
‘Tidal wave of voter suppression’ washes over states, lawyer says, Janell Ross in NBC News, Feb 2020
Block The Vote: Voter Suppression In 2020, Florida ACLU, Feb 2020
Seven Ways Alabama Has Made It Harder to Vote, Maggie Astor in NY Times, Jun 2018
‘It’s going to be an angry mob’: Kentucky cuts number of polling stations by 95 percent ahead of primary voting, Chris Riotta in The Independent, Jun 2020
A look inside the Swing States
Where Biden, Trump stand in key swing states, Jonathan Easley in The Hill, May 2020
Biden Builds Polling Lead in Battleground States, With Strength Among White Voters, Nate Cohn in NY Times, Jun 2020
Arizona
Appeals Court Finds Arizona Intended To Suppress Nonwhite Votes, Mark Joseph Stern in Slate, Jan 2020
Voter-suppression efforts means we have to work harder to get out the vote, Page Gardner and Montserrat Arrendondo in AZCentral, Aug 2019
Arizona Republicans discriminated against minority voters, court rules, Sam Levine in The Guardian, Jan 2020
How the Native American Vote Continues to be Suppressed, Patty Ferguson-Bohnee in American Bar, Feb 2020
Restrictive election laws, lack of polls hamper Native American voters, leaders say, Deagan Urbatsch in Cronkite News, Oct 2019
Florida
Former Florida GOP leaders say voter suppression was reason they pushed new election law, Dara Kam in Palm Beach Post, Nov 2012
Florida Republicans’ Voter Suppression Scheme May Backfire, Mark Joseph Stern in Slate, Jan 2020
A judge says the GOP can’t keep Florida felons from voting. But lawmakers will keep trying., Washington Post, May 2020
We can’t let voter suppression win in 2020, Andrew Gillum in the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Jan 2020
Florida’s latest iteration of voter suppression — parking on college campuses, Sean Pittman in South Florida Sun Sentinel, Jul 2019
Michigan
Voter Suppression In Michigan, State Rep Barb Byrum in Progress Michigan
Michigan clerks swamped as state rolls out voter reforms, Riley Beggin in Bridge, Mar 2020
Republicans defend Michigan voting laws challenged by Democratic PAC, Malachi Barrett on Michigan Live, Feb 2020
Long lines, hour-long waits prompt criticism at Michigan polls, LeBlanc, Rahai, and Chambers in The Detroit News, Mar 2020
Bernie Sanders criticizes long lines at Michigan polling locations, Cassidy Johncox in ClickOn Detroit, Mar 2020
North Carolina
Corruption, Gerrymandering, and Voter Suppression: How North Carolina’s GOP Made a Great Big Mess, Jacob Rosenberg in Mother Jones, Apr 2019
North Carolina’s Election Fiasco Is About Voter Suppression, Not Voter Fraud, Kevin Morris and Myrna Perez, Brennan Center for Justice, Dec 2018
‘The astonished war’: Panel discusses voter suppression in North Carolina, Kate Carroll in the Daily Tarheel, Mar 2020
Did North Carolina Admit to Targeting Black Voters with a ‘Voter ID’ Law?, Arturo Garcia on Snopes, Oct 2018
Pennsylvania
Fight over purging vs. accuracy of voter rolls arrives in battleground Pa., Bill Theobald in The Fulcrum, May 2020
Pennsylvania’s governor just stopped the latest Republican voter suppression scheme, Danielle McLean on Think Progress, Jul 2019
Pa.’s election system is on the verge of the largest changes in decades — in time for the 2020 election, Jonathan Lai in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct 2019
How The PA Democratic Party Is Fighting Voter Suppression, Kay Yu, PA Democratic Party
Pennsylvania’s Shameful Record of Voter Suppression and the Partisan and Sometimes Racially Charged Motivations of Those Administering Its Elections, Allied Progress Pennsylvania, Oct 2016
Wisconsin
‘Voter Suppression At Its Finest’: Wisconsin Citizens Say Missing Ballots, Lines and Coronavirus Kept Them from Being Counted in Election, Chen, Robiou, Mulvey, Cherry, and Cross on Frontline, Apr 2020
Report suggests Republican voter suppression tactics failed in Wisconsin, but the GOP has plenty more tricks up its sleeve. Ian Millhiser on Vox, May 2020
Wisconsin Showed How Voter Suppression Efforts Can Backfire, Ed Kilgore in New York Intelligencer, May 2020
Voter Suppression in Wisconsin Could Go Nationwide in 2020, Ruth Conniff in The Progressive, Apr 2020
Thousands Of Voters Are Caught In A Legal Battle Over Wisconsin’s Election Rolls- Ahead Of The 2020 Election, A Lawsuit Seeks To Purge Over 129K Registrations Of People Deemed To Have Moved, Parsky, Phillips, and Munro in WisContext, Jun 2020
Voter Suppression Is Still One of the Greatest Obstacles to a More Just America, Jesse Jackson and David Daley in Time, Jun 2020
On Racism, Voter Suppression, and Democracy, Matthew Rothschild in Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, Jun 2020
