As the Republicans have been eliminating drinks of water for voters standing in the hot sun for hours and every other discriminatory anti-voter action they can imagine, something in the air is new. And it smells like freedom.
Judges have been upholding up lawsuits for a free and fair election and against the not-so-grand Old Party. They have restored about 56,000 voting rights, to those who are on parole or probation for a felony, according to The News Observer.
People in the state of North Carolina sued their state and won. The ruling could still be appealed by a higher court or the Republican legislators if they were in the majority. Of course, Senate Minority Leader Mitch “Grim Reaper” McConnell (R-KY), his words not mine, has been trying to steal the election from Americans.
If we do not implement the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the For the People Act, H.R. 1, shortly, our democracy will be out the window, literally. Then, people will see how they like to live under a dictator, say for example, Donald Trump.
Should the GOP not take it to a higher court or if a higher court upholds it on appeal, then North Carolina will take back an important voter-rights decision, according to The Carolina Public Press. People convicted of felons could vote immediately upon leaving prison with no waiting period.
Attorney for the plaintiffs, Stanton Jones, announced via a text:
‘Everyone on felony probation, parole or post-supervision release can now register and vote, starting today.’
Those who sued included several individuals who had lost their voting rights, the North Carolina NAACP, and the Raleigh-based Community Success Initiative. The latter helps people adjust to society after prison.
They argued that the law had been drawn up after the Civil War to keep freed Black peoples from voting. In addition, the law affected Black Americans disproportionately.
In his opening remarks last week, Jones said that Black people are up to 21 percent of North Carolina’s voting population. Yet, they are 42 percent of those who lost their voting rights due to the antiquated law:
‘[W]hich is no surprise because that’s exactly what it was designed to do.’
The judges have not yet written up the ruling, but they announced they voted two to one in favor of the plaintiffs, The Carolina Public Press reported.
Three White Lions podcast, Gloria Christie reads her week’s most important news/ commentary stories in the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Gloria Christie Report her newsletter for people on the go. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor in a briefer version of Bipartisan Report. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery. Find her here on Facebook.
