klionbrains.blogg.se - 2018 midterm elections date

#2018 MIDTERM ELECTIONS DATE REGISTRATION#

King, according to reporting by Vox, “conducted interviews with alt-right outlets, attended events alongside far-right European groups with Nazi ties, and even kept a small version of the Confederate flag on his desk.” In other races, the candidates championed by white nationalists also earned a disturbing portion of their districts' votes. Voters in Louisiana’s first congressional district re-elected Steve Scalise, who has reportedly described himself as “ David Duke without the baggage.” In Iowa’s fourth congressional district, Steve King, who endorsed a white supremacist for mayor of Toronto, won his election. Far from rejecting Trumpism, the majority of white voters in the south again embraced Republicans, some of whom either directly or indirectly, overtly or in coded ways, espoused racism. In fact, election results also show the persistence of hate and white supremacy in America. Meanwhile, the 2018 midterm elections also showed us that candidates championed by white nationalists are viable candidates. This type of violence is not new but resembles other periods in American history when Black Americans in particular would press for racial equality and voting rights only to be met by intense, violent backlash from whites. The perpetrators in all three cases espoused views that mirrored white nationalist talking points, many of which have found their way into talking points of rightwing candidates and elected officials. Shortly thereafter a gunman entered Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue, shouting anti-semitic slurs while killing 11 Jewish worshippers. The mail bombings were quickly followed by the murders of two Black shoppers at a Kroger in Kansas by a man who had been heard making racist remarks and had reportedly tried to enter a predominantly Black church before going to Kroger. Some of those he targeted, like George Soros and Representative Maxine Waters, have both been targeted by people on the right with racist rhetoric (Trump himself echoed anti-semitic rumors that Soros is paying people to illegally enter the country, and he referred to Representative Waters as a “ low-IQ person,” in what has been described as racist dog whistling). First, a man mailed bombs to well-known Democrats and critics of Trump.

While all this was happening, the president used Twitter to threaten potential voters that law enforcement was watching for “illegal voting” and that “anyone caught will be subject to the maximum criminal penalties allowed by law.” This climate of fear was accented by a string of terror attacks leading up to the elections, many with racist motivations.

In Kansas (the “ epicenter of a national voter-suppression crisis”, per an article in Columbia Journalism Review), residents were required to provide documents that proved their citizenship in order to vote, which meant that potential voters who had registered to vote when obtaining their driver’s licenses (provided for by the “motor voter” law) as long as they provided proof of residence were required to show citizenship documents many didn’t have on hand.Īnd then there were the violent acts and threats leading up to the election that contributed to an environment that left many voters, in particular people of color and members of minority groups, increasingly disempowered.

Kemp's opponent, Stacey Abrams, refuses to concede until all remaining votes are counted in that very close contest. Voters there also dealt with long lines and broken machines on election day. The president of the NAACP, Derrick Johnson, said that Kemp engaged in "textbook voter suppression," using tactics "aimed at silencing the voting power of communities of color in the state."

Numerous people and organizations, including Barack Obama and the NAACP, have accused Kemp of engaging in voter suppression.

#2018 MIDTERM ELECTIONS DATE REGISTRATION#

In Georgia, Brian Kemp, who resigned as secretary of state last week, purged the voter registration rolls and put 53,000 voter registrations on hold (70 percent of which belong to Black Georgians) by enforcing the so-called “exact match” requirement in October, advocacy groups filed a lawsuit against him, claiming that the enforcement contributed to unfair voter suppression.

A new North Dakota law required voters to present IDs with a street address, which meant that Native voters in the state, many of whom live on reservations where street addresses are uncommon, were potentially disenfranchised.