Does the Republican Party supress the minority vote?

Question

Bill Richardson said the GOP suppresses the minority vote during last nights "debate" or whatever that was.
Do you think this is true?
Did Tom DeLay do it by redistricting voting districts to break up the black vote? What about Florida in 2000?

Answer 1

Yes, they do. They've been doing it for a long time.

It's done through various methods. For example, in Florida in 2000, the state hired a company to remove from voter registration lists anybody who was a convicted felon. This is legal under Florida law (and the laws, when they were first passed by Jim Crow Democrats 100 years ago, were explicitly designed to suppress the black vote), but the company intentionally flagged any name that was close to a felon's name. resulting in thousands of legitimate voters, most of them black, being removed from rolls. In 2004, the Republican Secretary of State in Ohio used an obscure provision of the law to declare that forms registering new voters wouldn't be accepted unless they were printed on a specific type of paper. The rule was so obscure that even the registration forms printed by his own office didn't comply with it! Another trick used was to move precincts around, so that a person who had been voting at one location for years now had to vote at another location. But voting locations were still set up at the address they were used to going to, so they went to their usual location and voted, and the votes weren't counted. Another trick was to distribute voting machines so that the precincts which voted Republican had loads of machines and short waits, while precincts that voted Democratic had fewer - some people were still waiting in line to vote after midnight.

There were also suspicious problems with the vote counting. In one Ohio county, officials suddenly learned about a terrorist threat - one that no law enforcement agency confirmed - and therefore barred observers from being present while votes were counted. In several Ohio precincts, third party candidates got hundreds of votes and sometimes even won the precinct, although there's no evidence that the campaigns were especially active or had such strong support in those areas. Every single precinct this happened in was one that normally votes Democratic.

Yet another trick, for which senior Republican officials were actually convicted by a jury, was to flood the Democratic get out the vote lines on election day, so that the campaign to get Democrats to vote would be crippled.

Answer 2

In a round-a-bout way, yes.

If you ever asked a Republican politician they would flatly deny it and even say they are against that sort of thing.

However, when the Republican obtained the majority in Congress they did re-districting plans all across the US. The redistricting helps keep whoever is in power, in power. A good example of that was your Texas example. From what I heard, throuhg DeLay's efforts and money scheme it allowed several Republican state politicians to win elections they otherwise probably wouldn't have won. Those wins were enough to give the Republicans a majority in the Texas state legislature for like the first time in its state history or like 150 years. To see the Republicans pull off a feat like that is suspect all in itself. The first thing they did after they got control was have everything re-districted to the Republicans favor even though it was not the normal time when re-districting was to be done.

You have to remember that Republicans do bad among minority voters. So when they win they re-district the areas so that it splits the minority vote up over several districts. That helps prevent a large district with a large minority vote from affecting the voting results as much. Helping keep the party in control.

What DeLay did was against Texas state law. It wasn't against federal law as far as what I read.

Both parties are guilty of redistricting. And the one guy is right about Al Gore presidential run. The military normally votes mainly Republican. So he knew if those votes got counted that it'd hurt him. However, under Bush the military is starting to show they are leaning more Democratic than in the past according to many different polls.

Answer 3

How the fu@k could the republican party do that and why even bother? Redistricting is done any time another party takes control and if you don't think the Democrats aren't planning on doing it you just wait and see. What about Florida, every single investigation came up with the same conclusion, Bush won! Don't buy into this kind of Democratic crap. They are the ones that are trying to get convicted felons right to vote back to them, they are the ones trying to give the right to vote to illegal aliens, they are the ones that use the unions to try and suppress members from voting republican.

Answer 4

No, the Republican party just ignores it. Though to be fair the Republican party ignores pretty much everyone's vote, regardless of race or gender. The only way they listen to your vote is if your vote is for what they were doing already.

But they don't suppress it. That would mean they don't allow them to talk. The Republicans allow everyone to talk, then no matter what was said it supports the Republican path. Which is strange that though nearly 75% of the population now saying Bush has and is continuing to take us in the wrong direction everything being said somehow still supports the president killing all of our brothers and sisters.

Answer 5

No. The Republican don't supress minority votes. Both major parties are pandering to minority voters, especially the mexicans. How else do you explain the push from both sides on the amnesty bill?

Answer 6

Do Democrats suppress military votes? Why did Al Gore want to exclude the military absentee ballots in Flordia, just because they were a few days late. Every vote counts, right?

Answer 7

And exactly how did they do it? The republicans don't exploit the minorities like the democrats do to get their vote! In WI in this last election they found a bunch of fraud in the presidential election where a large number of the minority had voted democrat twice. It almost changed the statis of WI's outcome.

Answer 8

He is full of crap just like underground man if there were any proof or evidence of that the news media which is in the democrats pocket( 90% of them vote democrat) would have exposed it. This is just a statement for the ignorant which is a large portion of their consticuents.

Answer 9

Don't know bout' that. But I do know the Democrats were giving away crack for votes in Toledo, OH in '04

Answer 10

Yes. There have been cases of Republican intimidation campaign efforts targeting minority voters. Republican operatives have gone to minority neighborhoods and told them to go to the wrong voting stations.