Opinion: By Jonathan Capehart
Can’t believe I’m going to share this story to get into a considered opinion on voting rights, but . . . here goes. Back in the day, when you had to go to a store to rent movies on VHS tapes, a certain hormonal teen approached the counter with four or so G-rated titles. As I handed them to the clerk, I prayed he would make no mention of the racy movie mingled with them. No such luck. The clerk rattled off each title aloud. And when he hit that smutty film, he not only raised his voice, he turned a one-syllable title into a multi-second public comeuppance. Shamed but undeterred, I took the movie home.This embarrassing episode came to mind after reading John C. Ackerman’s op-ed in The Post entitled “Are our election laws here in Illinois also ‘21st century Jim Crow?’” No Republican president has won Illinois since 1988, thus defining it as a blue state. Ackerman, a Republican and the county clerk in Tazewell County Ill., uses that status to hammer away at Democratic criticisms of new voter (suppression) laws in Republican-controlled states. He compares and contrasts Illinois’ restrictions on vote-by-mail, third-party ballot collection, ballot drop boxes, and bans on distributing food and water to folks waiting in line to vote to those being rushed through in Georgia, Texas and Florida. The spirit of John Lewis lives on in the voting rights fight Most notably, Ackerman took issue with President Biden and other Democrats who call the current cluster of restrictive laws “21st century Jim Crow.” And he especially took offense at the president, in his powerful defense of voting rights last week, asking aloud of Republicans, “Have you no shame?” In response, Ackerman says it is the Democrats “and their media allies” who are shameless. Nope, not by a long shot. What Ackerman seems to hope no one will notice is the equivalent of that naughty VHS tape I hoped that clerk would overlook. Leave aside, for the moment, Republican objections to how and when votes are cast and by whom. Focus on this: Ackerman has nary a word to say about the moves by Republican governors and legislatures to rig who gets to count the votes and whether said votes count at all. The Georgia law strips the independently elected secretary of state of their role as chair of the state’s election board. Instead, the chair will now be elected by the General Assembly, which is controlled by Republicans. This galling change came after Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who declared “the process was fair and accurately counted,” resisted the demands of then-President Donald Trump to “find 11,780 votes.” “To me, this is simple: This is election subversion. It’s the most dangerous threat to voting and the integrity of free and fair elections in our history. Never before have they decided who gets to count — count — what votes count,” Biden correctly assessed in his speech. “Some . . . state legislatures want to make it harder for you to vote. And if you vote, they want to be able to tell you your vote doesn’t count for any reason they make up. They want the ability to reject the final count and ignore the will of the people if their preferred candidate loses.” On the filibuster, ‘stop being afraid of Mitch McConnell ’cause he’s not afraid of you' This is the threat that looms large over next year’s midterm elections and the 2024 presidential vote. This is why there is such urgency around passage of the For the People Act, which continues to languish in the evenly divided Senate. And this is why the calls are growing louder for reforming the filibuster to allow passage of that vote-protection bill by a simple majority. But the onus is not just on Democrats or the president to protect the integrity of our elections and, therefore, our republic. It is on local officials like Ackerman. As Biden said: “We must ask those who represent us at the federal, state, and local levels: Will you deny the will of the people? Will you ignore their voices?” So far, if Ackerman is any barometer, the Republican response is an undeterred and shameful silence.https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/22/democrats-defense-voting-rights-isnt-shameless-republicans-silence-is-shameful/
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