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“VOTE CAGING" – YET ANOTHER DEPLORABLE REPUBLICAN PARTY TACTIC TO SUPPRESS PARTICIPATION BY THE POOR
By Bill Cavala
A veteran of over 30 years in Sacramento
It is really the fault of the mainstream media. Reacting to critical pressure from the right, editors everywhere caution reporters not to be “partisan” in their coverage – which means not to favor the Democrats or Republicans.
Republicans know this – and exploit it to their advantage.
Typical is the latest outrage revealed in the hearings on the Justice Department’s firings and their relationship to Republican Party efforts to intimidate poor and minority voters out of exercising their right to vote.
Ohio Republicans sent thousands of letters with first class postage, “return requested – do not forward” instructions to minority voters. If the voter does not sign the “receipt,” the postman brings with the letter (because he’s not home or doesn’t want to sign for a letter with Republican Party stamped all over it), then he’s “challenged” at the polls for residency fraud.
Labeled “vote caging”(for locking up a likely Democratic vote),
The tactic has been tried and blocked by Federal Courts – in Louisiana, New Jersey, North Carolina and now Ohio.
As the Court weighed the merits in a lawsuit to “open the cage” brought by Democrats, Assistant US Attorney General Alex Acosta wrote a letter to the judge siding with the Republicans. His action was characterized as “cheerleading for the Republicans” by the former deputy chief of the Justice Department’s Voting Rights Section – who served under Acosta.
Acosta’s punishment for this egregious action was to be awarded the position of US Attorney in Miami – perhaps in preparation for next year’s Presidential election?
This effort to suppress participation among poor people and minority voters is unique to the Republican Party. Democrats don’t engage in it.
It’s past time for the media to call a spade a spade. The Republican Party should be condemned as a Party for the exploitation of fear and the use of bigotry in their campaigns.
Bill Cavala was Deputy Director of the Assembly Speaker’s Office of Member Services where he worked for over 30 years.
He attended undergraduate and graduate school in the 1960’s and received a doctorate in political science at UC Berkeley. He taught political science at UC Berkeley during the 1970's while he worked part-time for the State Assembly.
Cavala left teaching at UC Berkeley and went to work for Assembly Speaker Willie Brown in 1981 until his tenure as Speaker ended in 1995, and he has worked for his five successors as Speaker up to and including Speaker Fabian Nunez.
Mr. Cavala manages election campaigns for Democratic candidates.
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