Mount Vernon Insider: Statement from Richard Thomas Democrat for Mount Vernon City Comptroller: GA Voter SUPPRESSION used by Democrats in Mount Vernon?

 

GA Voter SUPPRESSION used by Democrats in Mount Vernon?

Dear Mount Vernon, Georgia passed new voting laws which President Joseph Biden considers “Jim Crow in the 21st Century” style voter suppression. Coincidence? Absolutely not. Thanks to Stacey Abrams - Georgia cemented President Biden’s victory over former President Donald Trump with the highest Democratic turnout ever. The high voter trend continued in January’s runoff for U.S. Senate – where Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock became Georgia’s first "Blue Team" U.S. Senators since the early 2000’s. Republicans are not happy with these results. At the state level, the Republican controlled legislature decided to prevent new voices in democracy by passing “SB 202” into law. The worst provisions empower Republican officials to unilaterally “take over the process of disqualifying ballots across the state.” A lawsuit brought by the New Georgia Project, Black Voters Matter Fund and Rise was filed on March 25, 2021, challenging several provisions of the Georgia voter suppression bill. The case claims that the bill’s voting restrictions include: new identification requirements for absentee voting, limits on the use of absentee drop boxes, banning mobile polling places, invalidating ballots cast before 5:00 PM in the wrong precinct, banning any non-poll worker from giving food or drink, including water, to voters waiting in line and more. One of the most notable provisions allows for “any individual Georgian citizen to file an unlimited number of challenges to the eligibility of particular voters, effectively increasing the number of opportunities for newly centralized election authorities to exercise their powers to disqualify Democrats.” The lawsuit holds that the provisions violate the Fourteenth Amendment and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Recall that in 2020, many voters had to wait in hours-long lines to vote, especially in heavily Black areas. So now it is illegal to help people with refreshments who are waiting on long, slow, hot, humid, chaotic lines to vote in Georgia. Worse – it is now legal to harass voters by challenging their eligibility to vote in its entirety. The same tactic of “challenging voter eligibility” is a proven practice by Mount Vernon Democrats to stop people from voting at all. Specifically, the following people appear to have objected to the “eligibility” of your 1,000+ signatures on our petition for Mount Vernon Comptroller: Kenneth Plummer John Carlo Baptista Melissa Munoz Patterson Troy DeCohen Norina Clowney What is the difference between the new Georgia voter suppression law and the actions of a select group of Mount Vernon Democrats in challenging voter eligibility? Nothing really…

What we do know is that there have been serious issues with “voter purges” and “ballots disappearing” before in Mount Vernon; however, new laws prohibit those tactics from being used again in Mount Vernon and across New York. While we certainly hope the voter suppression laws are overturned in Georgia, we also hope that REAL Mount Vernon Democrats remember who is trying to suppress your vote right now by denying your eligibility to vote. We want ALL Mount Vernon Democrats to know that the voter suppression threat is not just isolated to Republicans in Georgia... the attack on Democracy is happening RIGHT NOW in Mount Vernon by certain Mount Vernon Democrats! Their "voter eligibility challenge" aims to undermine the election before it even happens. Their goal is to eliminate your ability to vote for your candidate of choice by disqualifying your petition signature! The elimination process is wholly controlled by the Westchester Board of Elections and the Democratic Elections Commissioner is Reginald Lafayette who is also the Mount Vernon Democratic City Committee Chairman. We are hopeful that the unionized Civil Servants who work under Commissioner/Chairman Lafayette defend democracy from personal politics by championing the policies of equal protection under the law. We will update you on the outcome of the challenges to your petition signatures once we receive specific information. Stay tuned. Stay updated. Get ready to defend your ability to vote in Mount Vernon! We stand with you and know that Richard Thomas Will Always Stand Up FOR YOU!