Republican-controlled legislatures across the nation are planning to enact legislation that would have the effect of suppressing the vote. Georgia passed a law to restrict access to voting, known by its critics as the Jim Crow law. More states in Republican hands will do the same. Republicans in the Senate are likely to block a bill passed by the House to protect voting rights.
Why are Republicans afraid of a large turnout? Twenty years ago, Republican leaders insisted that every qualified voter should vote and that every vote should be counted.
In the aftermath of the highly disputed Presidential election of 2000, which was decided by 537 votes in the state of Florida, many of our most prominent political leaders recognized the need for reform of the voting system.
A prestigious commission was created called the National Commission of Federal Election Reform. The co-chairs of the commission were former President Jimmy Carter and former President Gerald Ford. Its composition was bipartisan. I had the honor of serving on the commission.
The commission held several meetings, debated the issues of voter I.D., got a report of the reliability of different voting machines (strangely enough, the most reliable machine was the one used in New York City, which involved pulling a lever to close a curtain, then opening the lever, which punctured the ballot–but that machine was considered obsolete as compared to the new electronic touch-screen machines).
Moving at warp speed, the commission produced a report in August 2001. The heart of its recommendations was that every eligible citizen should be assured the right to vote, and every vote should be counted.
This recommendation, on page 6, was at the heart of our discussions:
The methods for funding and administering elections—from investments in equipment through voter education to procedures at the polling place—should seek to ensure that every qualified citizen has an equal opportunity to vote and that every individual’s vote is equally effective. No individual, group, or community should be left with a justified belief that the electoral process works less well for some than for others.
I have been reflecting on the work of the commission because there were no partisan differences. Republicans did not claim that mail-in balloting was wrong. They did not look for ways to tweak the state systems to suppress the votes of African-Americans. They agreed with their Democratic peers that everyone of voting age should exercise the right to vote and their vote should be counted.
Everyone understood that the voting process needed to be modernized and that there should be both fairness and a perception of fairness.
Now we live in a time when it is hard to imagine Democrats and Republicans collaborating on a report about election integrity without descending into acrimony.
Something very fundamental has been lost in our civic life: a sense of shared purpose; a commitment to fairness and integrity; trust. The well of democracy has been poisoned by spurious claims of fraud that have no evidence to support them.
Some have foolishly blamed the schools (as usual) for not teaching civics. So, we are now to believe that grown men (and some women) run about threatening people they disagree with by brandishing Glocks and AR-15s. We have to look deep into our culture to try to determine the wellsprings of this rage and bitterness and hatred. It didn’t start in the schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
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On Sun, 28 Mar 2021 at 10:01, Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: ” Republican-controlled legislatures across the > nation are planning to enact legislation that would have the effect of > suppressing the vote. Georgia passed a law to restrict access to voting, > known by its critics as the Jim Crow law. More states in Republi” >
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I notice that this blog has been saturated with comments like that one lately. So before anyone gets to thinking about blog unsubscribing too much, Chris, I have a couple questions to ask you. What is 2 + 3? Also, why does the title of the last visited 2010 blog you linked as your website refer to a psychological cult?
The “wellsprings of this rage and hatred” is racism. Since Kennedy, no Democratic candidate for President has received a majority of the white vote but the Black vote was small enough not to be seen as a threat to Republicans. As the Black vote has grown, so have the attempts to suppress it.
Mark,
You are right about that. When I was in high school and college, the demonstrations against the Brown decisions were fierce, and racism was raw. Over the years. I wondered where those people had gone. They didn’t go anywhere. They were under a rock, biding their time. Now they are out in the open again, controlling the new GQP.
And then Obama was elected, the fruition of the nightmare that began when LBJ freed the slaves with the Civil and Voting rights act. Although I would argue that they realized after the 2000 election that suppressing the minority vote was the only way they could win a National Election.
Another “wellspring of rage and hatred” is the radicalization of the Republican party. Due to shifting demographics the Republicans are appealing to people’s baser instincts like racism, xenophobia, sexism and mistrust of public institutions. Republicans are trying to mobilize people through hate and division. They know unless they cheat or suppress the vote their days of power are numbered.
In addition to the state-by-state Republican assault on voting rights, about 65 House Republicans have signed on to H.R. 322, 117th Congress.
This bill continues Trump’s lie that there was widespread election fraud. This bill “amends” (meaning nullifies) the National Voter registration Act of 1993 and the Help America Vote Act of 2002. To add insult to injury, this bill is called the Save Democracy Act. The title is a fraud.
H.R. 322, 117th Congress, markets the idea that voter registration is a big problem. The bill requires the repeal of a federal privacy law, mandates the use of social security identification or a passport for verification of voter identity, reduces federal oversight of federal elections, and more. The repeal and amend sections of the bill, if enacted, would have the effect of giving election officials in each state a data-base of personal identifications now off-limits for political use.
At last check, thirty-three states have introduced, pre-filed, or carried over to this year, 165 bills to restrict voting. Most of these bill are written to: (1) limit access to voting by mail ; (2) impose stricter voter ID requirements; (3) radically reduce opportunities for voter registration; and (4) make it easier for states and local election officials to purge voters from their current eligibility lists. See more at https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-february-2021
See whether the state and local officials in your state are elected or appointed by the governor. These variations are documented by the National Conference of State Legislatures. https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/election-administration-at-state-and-local-levels.aspx
Thank you for the links.
“So, we are now to believe that grown men (and some women) run about threatening people they disagree with by brandishing Glocks and AR-15s. We have to look deep into our culture to try to determine the wellsprings of this rage and bitterness and hatred.”
As long as gun manufacturers can make money off of selling AR-15s and Hollywood can make billions producing oodles of unnecessarily violent, in your face – “I have a gun, I have power” movies…… and there is money to be made off of this “culture” it will flourish.
These violent video games that are part of the Microsoft brand:
https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/12/5-most-violent-video-games/index.htm. While many adults may play them to relieve stress, they are used by vulnerable youth, including the Sandy Hook Shooter – who was addicted to violent video games. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/25/sandy-hook-shooter-adam-lanza-report
Just as alcohol manufactures make their biggest profits from heavy drinkers and exploit alcoholism for profit, I am sure video game companies know that addicted consumers are key to their profits as well – and exploit this.
And of course….. Facebook et al., spreading misinformation and sewing seeds of bitterness and hate through click bait that drives profits.
Look the other way at schools – they are the problem. Meanwhile what is really happening and who is profiting?
Diane While civics education, or education at all, is no guarantee that cultural forces will maintain their democratic political ground, I think the lack of education is key to our present problems, especially insofar as education is aimed at a modicum of thoughtfulness and maturity and not only at “skills for jobs” or an accumulation of wealth.
Holding on to that democratic political ground, at the very least, requires that those who people its culture understand WHAT IT IS and how we can lose it, and who are capable and responsible enough to maintain it . . . or if WE decide to let it go, to have good reasons to so do.
Whatever else education does, including our institutions and programs of adult education, educators have to see ourselves as at least part of the problem . . . and that more-of-the-same is not an option . . . if we want to keep our democratic ground.
Also, as this site has long regarded, the greater WE of education needs to break with our political naivete and understand the consistent forces that are at work against our providing an education that correlates with the freedoms and responsibilities that living in a democracy affords.
Education isn’t the only source of the problems that culminated in Trumpism or January 6. But we cannot take education or the lack of it out of the mix.
My view is that the slippery slope we’ve been on for over 50 years . . . that has systematically drained education of the fullness and complexity of human meaning . . . is a big part of that problem.
I won’t even go into the philosophical problems that have emerged . . . except to say that MINDLESSNESS, BELIEF, TRUTH, FALSITY and LIES are fundamentally philosophical concerns that go back to Plato and before. CBK
Well – I agree that we need to teach civics, and even better, history, as a mandatory multi-year high school requirement. But schools reflect problems – they don’t create them. If we’ve lost touch with civics, it’s because social & economic pressures (deliberately orchestrated & funded, btw) are squeezing schools into a different shape, and pushing different values into the curriculum. We have to turn the tide outside school walls.
Madeleine murphy ” . . . squeezing schools into a different shape, pushing different values into the curriculum,” and, I would add, ignoring or even erasing others. CBK
“But schools reflect problems – they don’t create them.”
I agree, so how do we make sure that they are more than just a reflection?
I would start by largely replacing multiple guess tests with short answer and short essay assessments. Learning and understanding of civics and history require critical thinking, more than right and wrong answers.
In Utah, we have used mail in ballots successfully for many years. But we have a smaller population in which all signatures can be checked. I failed to sign my ballot the first time I voted by mail and was contacted by the counting committee. We have a law which requires all ballots must be received by the close of in person voting. I was running late one time and dropped my ballot at the post office within the required time frame. I found it distressing as the ballot box was an unattended open linen box. Anyone could have removed ballots, altered ballots or stuffed ballots in the box. This to me was insecure. I have no idea if my ballot was counted or even delivered on time. If we are to vote by mail or personally deliver our ballots to a polling place, there needs to be a modicum of security in place. When I drop a ballot to my polling place, there is a secure box with polling personnel watching the steel locked box. I think Georgia goes too far in banning food and water to those waiting to vote. But I understand the need for greater security in the system itself. Lack of security is one of the reasons so many claims of fraud could be launched. It is clear that we need to tighten the process to insure this circus doesn’t happen again.
I think you would be hard pressed to find an unattended, open linen box used to collect ballots in most places. I would say that anyone who would trust such a method was pretty sure of the outcome before the vote or very sure of the integrity of the voting population.
Yes, Utah has been quite successful in mail in ballots. And we are reliably Republican.
HOWEVER, I chafe at your comment that Utah, by virtue of its smaller population, can check signatures, where other larger states can’t.
THERE IS NO EVIDENCE that there was fraud on a large scale in ANY state that used mail-in balloting this year. In fact, Trump’s own officials called it the most secure election in many years.
Don’t buy into the Utah hype that Utah’s balloting works, but the same thing doesn’t work in other states. That’s Mike Lee and all of those guys talking. It works everywhere.
Well said. Despite denouncing mail-in balloting, Trump used it himself.
The commission came out against early voting and no-excuses absentee voting for reasons I don’t understand. See pp 43-44. Both are important in my view for maximizing voter participation. http://web1.millercenter.org/commissions/comm_2001.pdf
It also came out for provisional voting, which meant people could vote without ID and provide it later. And any form of ID was considered acceptable, such as a hunting license. It was not looking for reasons to restrict voting.
Diane I think that’s the point . . . that the coincidence of (1) tightening-up voter regulations; (2) Trump losing and (3) Biden winning is NOT a mere coincidence. Things were fine UNTIL . . .
I’m fine with tightening-up voter systems . . . like NOT leaving votes in an accessible-to-anyone place at Post Office. However, we’d all have to live on another planet to believe THAT’s what’s really at the heart of the present push. CBK
Thanks for this history. I never realized this commission existed. If the elders Carter and Ford cannot lead a country into harmonious ways, how can we ever hope for rational solutions?
I always argued that states voting as close as Florida should split their electoral vote, but I have recently despaired of an electoral college reform method that would be fair to all concerned.
From the rural areas, government has perhaps always looked suspect, but moreso now that one party has become the opponent of all but military government.
I remember this commission. Didn’t know you served on it, Diane. It was definitely a step in the right direction.
Distant past, now. What’s happening is criminal and I’m appalled that Trump is still a free man.
Btw: how can we get rid of these spammers?