Voter Suppression 101
I hate to give Congressman Mark Green and the Wisconsin Republicans any more ideas about how to suppress voter turnout, but this Wausau Daily Herald story is fascinating:
Kids Voting a lesson in democracy
How many votes must a candidate receive in order to become president if an election is decided by the House of Representatives?
If the two houses of Congress cannot agree on adjournment, who sets the time?
Those are just two of the 68 questions that were asked of voters in the South before literacy tests designed to discourage blacks from voting were banned by the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Some eighth-grade classes will be answering those same questions this fall at Horace Mann Middle School as they study democracy, suffrage and citizenship through the Kids Voting USA program.
"That will be something new we will try as part of the program," said Al Betry, social studies department chairman at Horace Mann Middle School in the Wausau School District.
"I think what it does is it really brings history alive," he said. "It makes them put themselves in someone's shoes who was being discriminated because of racial or ethnic issues."
Whites did not have to take the test, even if they were illiterate, because they were "grandfathered in."
posted by xoff @ 11:14 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Republicans from a century ago would be Democrats now and vice versa.
I am much more interested in who is trying to disenfranchise black voters today, in 2006, by throwing up as many barriers as possible. We both know that's the Republican Party.
This comes from a mouthpiece for a party that made an effort to keep Ralph Nader's name off the last presidential ballot. As such, I'd say you have little credibility on this issue, Xoff.
No kidding. You have no stance to speak to electoral integrity Bill. Yours is the party of stolen elections.
The only votes the Republicans are not in favor of being cast are illegal ones. (your favorite kind)
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