NAACP Calls Out Assault on Voting Rights

When African-American, Hispanic and young voters come out in huge numbers to elect a Democratic president, how do the Koch Brothers, American Legislative Exchange Council and other right-wing officials respond? According to an NAACP report released today, they make multiple national legislative efforts to restrict the votes of these groups. The civil rights organization is sounding the alarm and says the restrictions are tantamount to a coordinated assault on voting rights.

The Rev. Williams J. Barber II, a member of the NAACP national board of directors and chair of the NAACP Political Action and Legislative Affairs Committee, compared the restrictions to Jim Crow laws, telling reporters on a call today:

"In some ways, these tactics are not Jim Crow. They do not feature night riders in sheets terrorizing black voters with physical threats and overt messaging, poll taxes and other disenfranchising tricks. This is, in fact, James Crow, Esquire. Jim Crow prevented African Americans from participating at all. James Crow, Esquire, says we can't stop participation per se -- that's illegal now. But we can work to nullify the minority vote ... Jim Crow used blunt tools. James Crow, Esquire, uses surgical tools and high-paid consultants and layers to cut out the heart of black political power."

The NAACP will send copies of the report to various federal and state agencies, including the Department of Justice, the Federal Election Commission, attorneys general in all 50 states and justice committees in the House and Senate. They will also send the report to the United Nations, which is also the site of the NAACP's Stand for Freedom rally in New York on Saturday, Dec. 10.

Read more at Politico.

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