The Height of GOP Stupidity, Part Nine: John Boehner Hopes Blacks and Latinos 'Won't Show Up' To The Polls

Down in Tampa, for the Republican National Convention, aka Hate-a-palooza, House Speaker John Boehner seems to have admitted that his party's strategy for winning in November doesn't suppose that the GOP can win over some black and Latino voters, but hopes they won't vote at all. 

Boehner wasn't talking about voter I.D. laws, which are being pushed by Republicans and criticized as disenfranchising minority and poor voters, but he did tell a luncheon hosted by the Christian Science Monitor in Tampa Monday that the Republican Party was counting on apathy from the Latinos and blacks who are choosing Democrats over Republicans by record margins in recent polls:

“This election is about economics… These groups have been hit the hardest. They may not show up and vote for our candidate but I’d suggest to you they won’t show up and vote for the president either.”

Not a big stretch for the GOP, if you remember that Doug Priesse, chair of the Franklin County, Ohio, Republican Party, allowed that restrictions on early voting hours and voter ID laws were meant to keep blacks from voting: 

"I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine… Let’s be fair and reasonable."

It seems pretty clear that this is the GOP. They aren't so much about winning the election on merit as they are about preventing the people who might vote for Barack Obama from doing so.

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The Height of GOP Stupidity, Part Three: Ohio Voting Process Won't "Accommodate" Black Voters

Jon Husted

If you don't believe the GOP is out to deny voting rights to minorities, and low income people, look no further than Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted’s recent decision to prohibit early voting on nights and weekends in all districts in the state. It's insane, and stupid, and totally in line with the GOP mentality of denying equality to people they deem "less than".

But one Republican Party chairman seems perfectly fine with suppressing votes in Ohio and his name is Doug Preisse. As chairman of the Republican Party in Franklin County, which contains the city of Columbus, he admitted in an email to the Columbus Dispatch that black voters would now have a more difficult time voting:

I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine. Let’s be fair and reasonable.

Fair and reasonable, in the eyes of the GOP, is keeping African-Americans from voting.

Doug Preisse

In fact, Doug Preisse worked hard to block Democratic efforts in Franklin County to expand voting hours to evenings and weekends, and when asked about the claims of unfairness lobbed against him, he said, “[B]ullshit. Quote me!”

So, will Doug Preisse's plans really stop people, minorities and low income people, from voting? Well, back in  2008, 8% of early voters in Franklin County voted on nights or weekends, so where and how will they vote this time?

Jon Husted defends the move to cut hours across the state by pointing to his initiative sending absentee ballots to every registered voter, but most black voters and Democrats prefer to vote in person, so this new bit of shenanigans affects the Democratic party the most.

Fairness, eh?

Speaking of which, Jon Husted recently suspended two Democratic members of the Montgomery County Election Board after they voted to allow weekend voting in spite of his directive to restrict hours.

What has the GOP so afraid that they want to restrict the rights of people to vote? Wouldn't it be fair, intelligent, and the right thing to do, to allow people more options for when, where and how to vote?

Or, is this just more GOP stupidity?

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