Your Independent Journal from the Heartland
In 1965, LBJ signed into law The Voting Rights Act. This eliminated voter suppression tactics, mostly in the former Confederacy, such as literacy tests, grandfather clauses, poll taxes (also killed by the 24th Amendment), and various means to deny voting rights.
Before Trump/MAGA, both parties encouraged supporters to exercise their constitutional rights at the polls. Since 1977, Florida expanded voter participation by allowing numerous forms of voter ID. These included Florida driver’s license, ID card from the DMV, passport, debit/credit card, student ID, military ID, concealed weapons permit and/or public assistance ID. If one form couldn’t be provided, the person could cast a provisional ballot that he/she did not have to be in attendance for its review.
I am a former deputy sheriff for elections and witnessed the efforts of Florida voting officials to ensure the right to vote.
Enter Trump/MAGA, riding their false claim of fraud in his 2020 election defeat. The only fraud then and now is Donald Trump.
In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court in 2013 overturned the Voting Rights Act. Since then, Team Trump has tried conning the public with The SAVE Act, falsely claiming protection against voter fraud by suppressing the vote of older Blacks and women whose birth and current names don’t match.
Federal Senate cloture rules have saved us from The SAVE Act with the threat of filibuster and a three-fifths majority requirement to end it. Not so on the state level. Florida’s current HB 991 proposal is active in setting unreasonable voter requirements. Florida state law already requires only citizens can vote. Violations mean up to five years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine. Almost all driver’s licenses contain a Real ID Star (adopted 2010) in the upper right hand corner identifying the owner as a citizen. Check yours.
Only 48% of US citizens have passports. Many Blacks in the Jim Crow South have no birth certificate because they were born at home, banned from Whites-only hospitals. Even Whites might find it difficult accessing a birth certificate from decades-old county files.
Requiring paper ballots? Machines reduce mistakes, not increase them.
Trump/MAGA will hoodwink the public into believing their fantasy about a problem that doesn’t exist. Federal conviction means deportation of noncitizens. Studies reveal that voter fraud is extremely rare.
Except in the deluded minds of Trump/MAGA/Project 2025 sycophants.
ED ENGLER, Sebring, Fla.
