Our Time Is Now: Power: on Government Reform
Brian Kemp:
Removed 107,000 voters via "use-it-or-lose-it" law
The "use it or lose it" [voter policy] presumes that a failure to execute a right justifies taking it away. In 44 states, voters who failed to respond to a notice will be removed from the registration list if they do not vote, update their registration,
or take some other action specified by law from the time of the notice through two general federal election. No other right specified by our constitution permits the loss of a vote for failure to use it, to wit-- I do not lose my Second Amendment
right if I choose not to go hunting and I still have freedom of religion if I skip church now and then. Georgia secretary of state Brian Kemp strongly favored the "use it or lose it" power in Georgia, where he removed over 1.4 million voters in a
state with 6 million registered users. In July 2017, he removed more than half a million voters in a single day, reducing the number of registered voters in Georgia by 8%. An estimated 107,000 of these voters were removed through "use it or lose it".
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p. 66
Jun 9, 2020
Brian Kemp:
2010: Overturned local election by arresting black winners
Mayor Nancy Dennard described how then secretary of state Brian Kemp justified why she and 11 others faced 120 felony charges for winning an election in Southwest Georgia in 2010. Dr. Dennard [recruited] black women who got elected to The Brooks County
School Board. Angered by the unexpected wins, the rejected incumbents and their cronies reached out to Secretary Kemp. He responded aggressively to the false accusations of voter fraud, the only excuse the opponents could come up with to explain their
defeat. Kemp took up the cause of the losers and the conspiracy theories. He authorized The Georgia Bureau of Investigation--the state's version of the FBI--to pursue the matter. Agents invade their homes and officers arrested the duly elected school
board members and their supporters. The governor removed them from office, and several lost their employment, their reputations smeared. Years passed before their criminal trials commenced, and in the end, no voter fraud had occurred.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p. 70-72
Jun 9, 2020
Republican Party:
NC 2008: Slashed early voting to fight "souls to the polls"
Republicans have targeted early voting operations that have helped increase voter participation, to their apparent dismay. In North Carolina, following Barack Obama's successful 2008 campaign, Republicans slashed early voting from 17 to 10 days and
curbed or eliminated Sunday voting due to popularity of "souls to the polls" campaigns that encouraged black voters to turn out en masse after church. Florida Republicans responded to the wide use of early voting by cutting from 14 to 8 days after the
2012 election. Wisconsin eliminated early voting hours at night and on the weekends: the precise times used by low income and minority voters. For Ohio's GOP majority, the cuts to access included chopping off six days of in-person early voting,
jettisoning Sundays and evenings, and eliminating early voting the day before the election.Policy makers who propose these cuts have a standard playbook. First, point to the costs of early voting and then appeal to the fear of voter fraud.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p. 88-89
Jun 9, 2020
Stacey Abrams:
We don't lose gun rights by non-use; why voting rights?
The "use it or lose it" [voter policy] presumes that a failure to execute a right justifies taking it away. In 44 states, voters who failed to respond to a notice will be removed from the registration list if they do not vote, update their registration,
or take some other action specified by law from the time of the notice through two general federal election. No other right specified by our constitution permits the loss of a vote for failure to use it, to wit-- I do not lose my Second Amendment
right if I choose not to go hunting and I still have freedom of religion if I skip church now and then. Georgia secretary of state Brian Kemp strongly favored the "use it or lose it" power in Georgia, where he removed over 1.4 million voters in a
state with 6 million registered users. In July 2017, he removed more than half a million voters in a single day, reducing the number of registered voters in Georgia by 8%. An estimated 107,000 of these voters were removed through "use it or lose it".
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p. 66
Jun 9, 2020
Stacey Abrams:
Incumbents abuse system to keep out black election winners
Dr. Nancy Dennard was an African American speech pathologist who had run twice for the school board in Quitman, Georgia. But when a special election came up in 2009, Dr. Dennard studied the rules and put them to use to increase absentee voters for the
black voters, and it worked Dr. Dennard won a special election to the board. For the 2010 primary for other available schoolboard seats, she recruited more black women to run, and she trained them and a committed group of organizers on the laws of
absentee ballots. Once again, the strategy succeeded. A handful of black women got elected to The Brooks County School Board, and control of the board flipped.
Angered by the unexpected wins, a vanquished school board banded together to challenge
the legitimacy of the new states electoral wins . They simply tried to undo the election [by pressing charges]
Years passed before their criminal trials commenced, and in the end, no voter fraud had occurred [and Dr. Dennard ended up as Mayor].
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p. 70-72
Jun 9, 2020
Stacey Abrams:
Voter impersonation found 31 cases out of a billion
Voter fraud has been debunked as exceptionally rare by multiple reputable organizations. Voter fraud refers typically to:- impersonating another voter or
- a non resident or ineligible voter effectively casting a vote.
The former almost never
happens; in fact, an American is more likely to be struck by lightning than to impersonate a voter. To be more specific, out of 1 billion votes cast between 2000 and 2014, only 31 instances of voter impersonation occurred. As to non-resident voting, the
most reasonable explanation is voter confusion. In the US, we have 51 different democracies in operation between individual state laws and federal laws. For example, if a person moves from Maine to Oklahoma, the rules change dramatically with regard to
registration timing, eligibility, and remedies. National experts barely understand the complexity of local voting laws-how would the average person? Fraud is a crime of intent. Most accusations of voter fraud are best described as misunderstandings.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p. 74-5
Jun 9, 2020
Stacey Abrams:
Souls to the polls: Sunday early voting
Republicans have targeted early voting operations that have helped increase voter participation, to their apparent dismay. In North Carolina, following Barack Obama's successful 2008 campaign, Republicans slashed early voting from 17 to 10 days and
curbed or eliminated Sunday voting due to popularity of "souls to the polls" campaigns that encouraged black voters to turn out en masse after church. Florida Republicans responded to the wide use of early voting by cutting from 14 to 8 days after the
2012 election. Wisconsin eliminated early voting hours at night and on the weekends: the precise times used by low income and minority voters. For Ohio's GOP majority, the cuts to access included chopping off six days of in-person early voting,
jettisoning Sundays and evenings, and eliminating early voting the day before the election.Policy makers who propose these cuts have a standard playbook. First, point to the costs of early voting and then appeal to the fear of voter fraud.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p. 88-89
Jun 9, 2020
Stacey Abrams:
Holiday for Election Day, or paid time off to vote
One option is to make election day a national holiday. Of the 36 nations in the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development, a consortium of democratic countries from around the globe, the US is one of only 7 nations that hold national
elections on a day when most of the country is at work; 27 of those countries hold national elections on the weekend, and both Israel and South Korea designate election day as a national holiday. Only 22 American states offer paid leave for voting.
Low income voters could lose pay on that day if they are not otherwise compensated for holidays. Likewise, disabled voters may have difficulty securing support to get them to the polls. Another option is guaranteed paid time off on election day, with
employees having the option to choose when they cast their vote, including during early voting periods. A minimum of five hours of paid time off for voting purposes would guarantee compensation for travel time and long lines at polling sites.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p.134-5
Jun 9, 2020
Stacey Abrams:
Electoral College protected slaveholders, not small states
The Electoral College was never meant to protect the small states against the tyranny of larger ones--not at its inception and not today. Instead, it served to protect slaveholders from a loss of power then and to advantage a small coterie
of states deemed competitive today.[In 2016], I cosponsored a bill to include the state of Georgia in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Under the system, each state agrees that all its electoral votes will be allocated to the winner of
the popular vote, but the compact only takes effect after a certain number of states--comprising the majority of the electoral votes--agrees. As Georgia is one of the states long ignored by presidential contests, my Republican cosponsor and
I moved the bill successfully through the statehouse on a bipartisan vote, but the bill died in the state senate. Later that year, Donald Trump won the electoral college vote while losing the popular vote by more than three million ballots cast.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p.184-5
Jun 9, 2020
Stacey Abrams:
Restore our public administration infrastructure
Convincing Americans not to trust the government was the first step. For decades, Congressional Republicans have executed the second step by stripping crucial bureaucracies of funding. The third step has been replacing scientific fact with profit-
driven opinion. [For example, with] climate change deniers, modern conservative ideology has rejected research as a necessary ingredient for decision making. The weakening of our public administration infrastructure has reached its pinnacle in the
Trump administration. Trump and his cabinet have consistently derided the very institutions they lead. Americans have become inured to the churn of cabinet officials and staff officials and staff departures. Trump's steady stream lies has half
of the country turning a deaf ear and the other half ingesting false information. Trump's actions have built on the GOP's intentional destruction of institutions, and has left America weakened in a time of international crisis.
Source: Our Time Is Now, by Stacey Abrams, p.256-7
Jun 9, 2020
Page last updated: Oct 09, 2021