News

Activists in Florida say Black voters have seen their political power curtailed : NPR


A voter leaves after casting his vote in a special congressional election on January 11 in Miramar, Fla.

Rebecca Blackwell / AP


hide captions

switch captions

Rebecca Blackwell / AP


A voter leaves after casting his vote in a special congressional election on January 11 in Miramar, Fla.

Rebecca Blackwell / AP

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. The combination of new election laws and congressional redistricting has made it harder for Black communities in Florida to organize and vote, activists say.

Florida, which ends Tuesday’s primaries, is among the Republican-led states that have passed legislation since the 2020 election that places new restrictions on voters – as well as on with third-party groups that play a large role in the registration of racial minorities in Florida.

Ben Frazier and his small civil rights organization, the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville, recently spent an afternoon in the city helping a group of older Black voters update their voter registration.

That way, Frazier said, it doesn’t matter when they go to the polls.

“We don’t want your voter registration form thrown out for any reason,” he said. “They’re doing a lot of different things to suppress the Black vote in this city and in this state.”

Last year, Republican lawmakers in Florida passed Senate Bill 90a far-reaching law request people registered to vote by mail more often. It also sets new limits for drop boxes. And this year, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 524this creates new and harsher penalties for voter registration organizations for things like filing late.

And notably, Frazier said, the following law create a new police unit focused on crime voting.

“I think all of that has a chilling effect. People are afraid of the police,” he said. “We know that this is one of many attempts to suppress the Black vote.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks during a news conference Thursday in Fort Lauderdale, where he announced that the state’s new Office of Election Crime and Security is in the process of arresting 20 individuals statewide. for voter fraud.

Joe Raedle / Getty Images


hide captions

switch captions

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

On Thursday, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis announced the new police unit was charging 20 people with voting illegally in 2020. He said those individuals had been convicted of felonies that made them unable to vote. regain the right to vote. However, some details were not made public at the time, including that some of the accused had Talk to Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald that they are not informed that they cannot vote. Their races are also not revealed.

DeSantis said at a news conference that the charges and investigation by the new agency mark the start of seriousness for the state in fighting allegations of voter fraud.

“Before we propose this [unit] Only examples of these seem to fall through the cracks, he said. So this is just the opening rally, this is not the total for 2020. “Experts find voter fraud to be extremely rare.

Black activists say the response to the 2020 election from Republican leaders in the state is part of a larger effort to reduce black voting rights.

Earlier this year, a federal judge rule In particular, SB 90 is part of the state’s long and “odd” history of racism. Immediately after the ruling, an appeals court order that the law be upheld while legal challenges have made their way through the courts. Ministry of Justice in recent days agreed that the law is intentionally discriminatory.

The dynamics of change in Duval . County

Reginald Gundy, pastor at Mount Sinai Mission Baptist Church in Jacksonville, says that all of these new regulations in Florida have deep personal implications.

Gundy spent a lot of time registering voters in communities of color – mostly Black voters – in North Florida. As of 2018, Gundy estimates he has enrolled more than 80,000 people in Duval County alone, which is the county that includes Jacksonville.

Gundy also works to put out the ballot, ensuring that the people his team registers actually vote in elections.

“If they don’t go to the polls, we’ll say, ‘Hey, look, you’re registered to vote, you haven’t voted, you need to go vote,'” he said. “We can’t tell people who to vote for, but we’ve been very good at it. So as a result it has brought about a change in Duval County.”

In 2020, Joe Biden wins Duval County. It was the first time in decades that a Democratic presidential candidate won there.

Gundy says the change isn’t something that hasn’t gone unnoticed by Republican leaders in Florida. In fact, he argues, that’s why DeSantis recently redrawn the state’s congressional lines in a way that halved the number of opportunity zones for Black voters.

Prior to the redistricting, the state had four seats where black voters had enough votes to elect their candidate. Now the state has only two seats like this. Some of those lost seats include the Black communities of Jacksonville.

“The way they have reconfigured — redrawing the district in Duval County — has taken away Black voting and representation in Congress,” Gundy said. “We will have a congressional leader without a proper representation of who we are.”

Gundy says that black people’s voting power and organizational power are the weakest in decades.

“It’s sad and we have to find a way to fix it,” he said.

In a statement, DeSantis’ office said his decision to redistrict had nothing to do with politics. A spokesman said the governor’s priority is “to ensure that congressional maps are constitutional and withstand the anticipated legal challenges.”

The argument DeSantis made to the state legislature when he vetoed their map and submitted his own was that he held that the minority-majority county that includes Jacksonville was unconstitutional. In a letter to lawmakers, he said the area is not compact and “does not fit within conventional political or geographical boundaries.” He argued that the school district was written to favor one race over another, which DeSantis argued violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

Michael Sampson II, with the Jacksonville Community Action Committee, said he’s not buying DeSantis – who is reportedly considering running for president – hasn’t done a political calculation here.

“It’s an obvious choice to dilute black suffrage, black political power in DC, especially when the governor is planning to run for president,” he said.

Sampson added that what is happening in Florida is the equivalent of a “black and white sign” in response to a summer. protest against civil rights after the murder of George Floyd.

Christina Kittle with Florida For All agrees.

“There’s been a clear attack on organizers and protesters in the Black community, especially since 2020,” she said. “When there are blatant attacks like that, it makes it’s hard for us to move. But I don’t think… it doesn’t stop us. We’re still out there doing the work. I see other people as well. It’s just more difficult.”

Meanwhile the state has major elections coming up this fall. DeSantis is preparing for re-election. And Representative Val Demings is vying to oust Senator Marco Rubio. If she wins the uphill battle, Demings will be the state’s first Black U.S. senator.



Source link

news7f

News7F: Update the world's latest breaking news online of the day, breaking news, politics, society today, international mainstream news .Updated news 24/7: Entertainment, Sports...at the World everyday world. Hot news, images, video clips that are updated quickly and reliably

Related Articles

Back to top button