Conservative Cowards and Voter Intimidation

It's a growing issue with this election.  Voter intimidation and suppression.  We've seen it in telephone calls being placed to voters urging them to vote by phone so they don't have to go to the polls on election day.  We've seen billboards placed in minority neighborhoods warning that voter fraud is a felony.  We've seen employers threatening layoffs if President Obama wins another term.  We've seen the development of "poll challengers" who are intended to discourage people from voting under the guise of protecting the integrity of the election.  And we've seen numerous laws and proposals requiring unreasonable voter identification and changing voting regulations right before the election.  Fortunately most of these have been struck down or delayed by the courts. 

We live in a country that was founded on the idea that we can get up on election day and cast our vote for the people that we want to represent us in government.  This is a basic principle of our nation, yet we have groups that are working very hard to ensure that some people are misinformed, discouraged, intimidated, or disqualified from exercising that right. 

I try not to deal in absolutes.  I know that this kind of behavior can occur in any group.  However, it seems that the overwhelming majority of these problems are coming from Republicans.  These are generally the people passing the restrictive laws (smaller government, right?).  These are the people threatening employees (see my article about the American Aristocracy for more on that).  These are the workers who were caught giving false information to volunteer poll monitors that would specifically target minority voters. 

As with all of the other idiotic and bigoted behavior that these conservatives display, Republicans dismiss these as isolated incidents.  Well how many isolated incidents does it take to become a pattern?  I'm not talking about one or two...I'm talking about dozens. 

It's pretty obvious that Republicans are trying to suppress the vote.  The question we have to ask is, why?  The only reasonable answer is that they are afraid of the aftermath if people were allowed to vote freely without many votes being discouraged or changed due to intimidation and misinformation.  If these cowards can't face everyone in the nation and win an election, then they have no place in our government. 

It's our job to block out all of the noise from these outside groups.  If you want true voter information, contact your state's Secretary of State or election division.  Don't take the word of any activist group.  If anyone outside a polling location is trying to intimidate you or give you information don't listen.  The only accurate source of information is the polling location volunteers.  No one can stop you from voting if you are legally registered to vote and meet the requirements in your state.  If you see anyone trying to intimidate voters, including yourself, there are people in place to help you.  If you see this behavior contact The Election Protection Coalition at 866-OUR-VOTE or 888-VE-Y-VOTA or tweet the information to @866ourvote. Include a hashtag, your zip code, and a brief description of the issue. 

Even though we have the duty to stand up to these people, it is time that our government got involved to ensure that no person who wants to cast a vote is denied.  Regardless of the Citizens United Ruling that allows employers to directly express their political beliefs to employee, threatening the jobs of your employers based on their vote is unlawful and should be prosecuted.  We can't allow these people to control our elections.  We can't allow cowards to run our country.