))
Episode 103: ADM for Sept. 16, 2022: A New ProPublica Report Chronicles One Women's Quest to Assist Low-Literacy Voters - And the Attempts to Stop Her
Manage episode 341303165 series 3338100
コンテンツは American Democracy Minute によって提供されます。エピソード、グラフィック、ポッドキャストの説明を含むすべてのポッドキャスト コンテンツは、American Democracy Minute またはそのポッドキャスト プラットフォーム パートナーによって直接アップロードされ、提供されます。誰かがあなたの著作物をあなたの許可なく使用していると思われる場合は、ここで概説されているプロセスに従うことができますhttps://ja.player.fm/legal。
A New ProPublica Report Chronicles One Women's Quest to Assist Low-Literacy Voters - And the Attempts to Stop Her
Today’s Links
Articles:
ProPublica - The Fight Against an Age-Old Effort to Block Americans From Voting
Groups Taking Action:
ACLU Georgia, FairFight, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, New Georgia Project
You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.
An investigative report just released by nonprofit news organization ProPublica follows the story of one woman’s quest to provide assistance to low-literacy voters in her community. It also shows the efforts by local and state government to stop that assistance, which is guaranteed by the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
The article chronicles the efforts of Olivia Coley-Pearson from Coffee County, Georgia, where one-third of the population reads only at a basic level. Coley-Pearson helps those needing assistance at the polls with voter registration and ballots, as affirmed by Congress in Voting Rights Act changes in 1982.
But ProPublica’s reporting shows that while the literacy tests used to suppress Black voters in the 1960s may be gone, literacy is still wielded as a weapon in some polling places. Ballots and registrations are sometimes invalidated for misspellings in addresses and names, or for errors in dates.
Some state legislatures have even passed laws which require illiterate voters to explain in a WRITTEN affidavit as to why they need assistance. Other states prevent from bringing sample ballots to the polls, and limit the number of volunteers providing assistance.
Coley-Pearson herself has been reported by election officials, investigated, brought up on baseless charges of improperly assisting voters in what smacks of an effort to intimidate her from her work.
That literacy would still be a barrier to Americans who make the effort to exercise their constitutionally-guaranteed right to vote demonstrates just how far we are from a free and fair election system. Find a link to ProPublica’s excellent article at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.
For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl
509 つのエピソード
シェア
