It is evident to me that the tactics being used by Republicans ie Florida Governor's purging of minority voters is the beginnning of the same tactis used by the South to destroy Reconstruction.
After the Civil War, the Congress had set up a system in the South to enfranchise the slaves. Of course, the slaves had no experience at governoring themselves and absolutely no financial basis at all. They were released into the nation with no way to help themselves and no national help at all. They had not the educational ability nor experience other than plantation life to help themselves.
Most of the help they did receive was through certain philanthropic whites and others who concerned themselves with education and welfare of exslaves There were some blacks ie Fredrich Douglas, Harriet Tubman and Booker T Washington who applied themselves to help their people all they could. The one thing they lacked was MONEY. In order to help great numbers of blacks they needed money and they didnt have it.
There were some white people of note who did all they could by writing and taking the story of the suffering of the black people and opening their eyes to their conditions in the nation.
We are back at that point again, the Republicans specifically Southern Republicans have reintroduced the Old Resistance back again. Instead of the overt KKK they are now using Wall St moguls and Nevada casino owners money to support reintroduction of those arcane methods of resistence to federal government policies.
They passed their own Jim Crow laws and got the Supreme Court to justify them. The made slaves out of black prisoners to farm and work for influential white. They even arrested blacks on trumped up charges to get the manpower for working the fields of influential whites. I believe they still do this in Texas and other southern states. THE IDEA OF FREE LABOR IS LIKE CATNIP TO THEM.
Instead of flat out lynching and beating blacks, they resort to imposing standards they know is too hard for most to meet ie birth certificates. MOST BLACK PEOPLE BORN BEFORE 1940'S [in the south] DO NOT HAVE BIRTH CERTIFICATES.
I know this for a fact. My brothers and sister who were born in 1940's could not obtain a birth certificate from Alabama. There were NO records. It was said the Court House burned down twice with all the records. They had to use baptismal certificates from the 50's. Other older relatives had to have relative even older to verify their identities for Social Security because of lack of records.
So, to ask black people 70 and 80 years old to find birth certificates or even marriage licenses from years past in southern states is an impossibility. THEY DONT HAVE THEM BECAUSE THE SOUTH DIDNT BOTHER TO KEEP ACCURATE RECORDS OF BLACKS AND THESE GOVERNORS ARE WELL AWARE OF THIS DISPARITY OF RECORD KEEPING. If photographic ID is demanded then the states ought to pay for every resident to get one. Send someone into the home to take the photograph and make one right there for the people who are disabled or debilitated.
It wasnt until this year that the 1940's Census was released did my sister find out that she is nearly 4 years older than she thought. She thought she was born in 1942 but found out this year that she was listed 1 year old on 1940 Census. She is now sending papers into Social Security to see if she can correct her time in Social Security. She retired from teaching and thinks she might be entitled to a higher amount of benefits. Imagine this type of mess up multiplied by thousands of people without accurate records because of state record keeping.
To get back on point, all these old methods being re-used in todays election to violate minority rights in order to challenge federal policy is going to create massive issues as unintentional consequences.
There is no reason to alter voting PROCEDURES. There is every reason to alter voting machines to insure there is a written record of every vote. There is every reason to monitor the people who make these machines and the people who man the voting places. This where the jeopardy lies.
I feel that the nation is going to see ever more of these states especially southern states defying federal policies. This is deliberate. They plan to push hard enough to be able to make the laws they please for designated people. To claim dead peoples names on the rolls {left there because of their own system failures} are being used to vote. To remove or nullify any federal law protecting Voting or Civil Right to in effect have second class citizenship in effect over certain areas of the nation to keep minority voters status in an uncertain state. They intend to keep the games going until minorities have NO ability to vote at all.
We may see ourselves back at the point of another Civil War very soon and as John Quincy Adams said. "Let it Come"