Andrea Miller for BuzzFlash: When It Comes to Massive Voting Rights Suppression, Will Virginia Emulate Texas, Which Has "Run Out of Paper" for Voting Registration Forms?
Will Virginia follow the massive voter suppression put into place under Repug Governor Greg Abbott of Texas? (Gage Skidmore)
January 20, 2022
By Andrea Miller
If you don’t understand that voting rights are under attack let’s take a look at what is happening in two states that a few months ago looked very different: Texas and Virginia. It was hard to vote in Texas in 2020 but old rules are now being strictly enforced and new rules are complicated. And then there’s that darn paper shortage.
In Texas, failing to vote in two Federal elections (not voting for 4 years) is enough to get you removed from the voting rolls; we call this de-registered because you were formerly registered and now your county registrar has removed you. In Texas you can no longer register to vote online; you can complete the information using the online form, but then you must print the form, sign it and then mail it. That’s NOT online registration. Here’s a question for you. How many people do you know that have a working printer in their home? Now let’s consider that Texas has 276 counties and most of them are rural and poor. Yes, that number begins to go down significantly. If you don’t have a printer, you can always call your county registrar and ask them to send you a paper one; however, I just read that Texas has run out of registration forms. Seems they are out of paper. Now that’s effective voter suppression.
If you have ever been convicted of a felony, the registration form itself contains a semi-threatening message:
Texas has 482,000 people currently on probation or parole; when their supervised release is complete, they are technically eligible to register to vote. According to the Sentencing Project felony disenfranchisement impacts approximately 138,000 Black Texans and 175,000 Hispanic Texans (in prison/on probation or parole/in jail). (Reference: https://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Locked-Out-2020.pdf#page=16)
Knowing whether you have actually completed all requirements to register and vote is complicated. Crystal Mason was convicted of felony voting and sentenced to 5 years for casting a provisional ballot that was never counted. So you have a past felony conviction and you were thinking about registered to vote or not.
Now let’s say that you are a registered voter in Texas and you have consistently voted and you’re dealing with changing life circumstances so you’re considering vote by mail. Texas has new laws regarding absentee voting by mail. So new in fact that counties are reporting that 40% (and in Bexar 50%) of the ballot applications are being rejected. Texas requires an excuse to vote by mail. Only people who are over 65, sick/disabled, expecting to give birth within 3 weeks of the election or out of the county during early voting and election day are qualified to request an absentee ballot; in short the most vulnerable voters in Texas.
So the most vulnerable are trying to vote by mail; here are why applications are being rejected:
· using the old form from 2020; the new form requires a Driver’s License number or the last 4 digits of your Social Security Number
· not getting a new Driver’s License number (the new one has more numbers than the old one) so they can’t find you in the system
· not doing business before with your Social Security number (no longer driving) so no driver’s license so they can’t verify you in the system.
Even if you manage to meet all the new qualifications; it can take up to 30 days to actually receive your ballot which gives you very little time, if any, to actually mail it.
As I said, you need to be a determined voter to vote in Texas; a Texan once told me, “Texas isn’t a red state, it’s a non-voting state).
Virginia is a case study in why elections and candidates matter. At the end of the Virginia General Assembly legislative session in March 2020, Virginia legislators had continued expanding voting rights so similarities with Texas (Excuse Absentee Voting and no permanent absentee voting list) no longer existed. In 2020 the first bill in the General Assembly (HB1) allowed Virginia voters to vote early or by mail with no excuse required.
Also in 2020 Virginia passed legislation that further expanded voting rights:
· created a permanent absentee voting list,
· allowed Student ID to be used as ID for voting,
· allowed automatic voter registration,
· created a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Director position.
In 2021 voting rights expansion continued with passage of a Constitutional amendment allowing people with past felony convictions to have their voting rights restored upon release from prison.
While we struggled nationally to re-authorize the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (renamed the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act), Virginia passed its own Discrimination Prohibited in Voting and Elections Administration law stating,
“Prohibits any voting qualification or any standard, practice, or procedure related to voting from being imposed or applied in a manner that results in the denial or abridgment of the right of any United States citizen to vote based on his race or color or membership in a language minority group. The bill further prohibits at-large methods of election from being imposed or applied in a locality in a manner that impairs the ability of a protected class, defined in the bill, to elect candidates of its choice or to influence the outcome of an election, by diluting or abridging the rights of voters who are members of a protected class. Prior to enacting or administering a covered practice, defined in the bill, the governing body of a locality is required to publish the proposed covered practice and accept public comment for a minimum of 30 days on the proposed covered practice; after the public comment period, a 30-day waiting period is required. During this period, any person who will be subject to or affected by the covered practice may challenge the covered practice as (i) having the purpose or effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on the basis of race or color or membership in a language minority group or (ii) resulting in the retrogression in the position of members of a racial or ethnic group with respect to their effective exercise of the electoral franchise. The bill permits the local governing body to instead submit the proposed covered practice to the Office of the Attorney General for issuance of a certification of no objection and, once such certification is issued, to enact or administer the covered practice. Certain unlawful actions, including knowingly communicating false information to voters, that are currently subject to criminal penalties will create civil causes of action under the bill. The bill authorizes the Attorney General to commence civil actions when there is reasonable cause to believe that a violation of an election law has occurred and the rights of any voter or group of voters have been affected by the violation. Civil penalties assessed as a result of such action are payable to the Voter Education and Outreach Fund, established by the bill. Current provisions related to language minority accessibility are moved to a newly created chapter relating to the rights of voters. reform in its history.
Learning from Texas, legislation was also passed that required each County/City at least provide one (1) dropbox for each 20,000 registered voters in that jurisdiction.
Additionally, Virginia expanded No Excuse Absentee Voting to 45 days requiring all jurisdictions to offer Saturday voting and funded jurisdictions to implement Sunday voting.
And finally since so many returning citizens found out late that their rights had been restored by the Governor and they were eligible to register and vote, Virginia passed Same Day Voter Registration. We estimate that 85% of people who have had their rights restored are NOT aware that they can register and vote; many people no longer lived at the address on file nor did they have the same phone number. While the Secretary of the Commonwealth sponsored phonebank sessions a week before the voter registration deadline there were never enough volunteers to reach the impacted 260,000 people. In Virginia there are people who have been living in the community with convictions from 40 years ago who have no idea the rules changed in 2016 and their rights have already been restored.
With the exception of the Constitutional amendment for Restoration of Voting Rights, the legislation went into effect in July.
In the November 2021 Virginia election we lost all three statewide races (Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney General) as well as 12 seats in the Virginia House. All of the Democratic House incumbents had more than three times the campaign funds of their Republican opponents. The top of the Virginia ticket was toxic and had a huge negative impact on House seats. The real lessons to be learned from Virginia are that top of the ticket candidates need to actually “run” for office, tell voters what they plan to do and be inspirational. The Democratic candidate for Governor received 10,000 votes less than the Lt. Governor candidate. Another lesson is voters can easily look up the past performance of a candidate on issues that are important to them. Having a Democratic candidate that brought pipelines into Virginia alienated voters in Northern Virginia the largest pocket of Democratic voters. Having a Democratic candidate that pushed aside three Black candidates alienated many Black voters. Having a Democratic candidate that pushed aside two Black women alienated women who had just fought for and won the Equal Rights Amendment. In other words, candidates must have a constituency that’s willing to vote for them, not stay home or vote against them.
Elections Results Matter! In November 2021 Republicans had won all three (3) statewide offices (Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney General) as well as 12 House seats giving them the majority. By December 2021 legislation in the House attempted to overturn all the gains made from 2020 and 2021.
Republican legislators introduced the following legislation:
· Re-instate Photo ID (HB24, HB46, HB121, HB779, SB118, SB127, SB168)
· Prohibit drop boxes (HB34, SB236)
· End No Excuse Absentee Voting (HB35)
· Reduce Early Voting to 14 Days (HB178)
· Repeal Same Day Registration (HB185, HB187, SB167, SB235)
· Repeal Permanent Absentee Voter List (HB175, HB196, SB234)
· Absentee Ballot Add SSN (HB149, HB177, HB310)
· Verification of SSN before Registration (SB162)
Based on the legislation introduced in the 2021 session, Virginia looks a lot like Georgia. Governor Youngkin has selected Kay Cole James, former president of the Heritage Foundation to be the new of Secretary of the Commonwealth, this is the Office responsible for administering Restoration of Rights. There are currently more than 100 appointment openings on Virginia boards and commissions that will fall under her purview– ranging from the Maternal Mortality Review Team, School Readiness Committee, Clean Energy Advisory Board, Virginia Lottery Board and education boards. Attorney General Jason Miyares fired the entire Office of Civil Rights making it clear that civil rights are NOT a priority of the new Administration.
20 bills have been introduced in the Virginia General Assembly in the past 45 days to overturn voter expansion in a State where Republicans won the majority of offices. Was the election fraud that Republicans won the majority of Virginia offices or was election fraud non-existent? Wait, there was attempted election fraud; the Governor’s 17-year-old son attempted unsuccessfully to vote twice!