[Voter Suppression]
NAACP\Dr. Anthony: “The Republican representatives on the Wayne County Board of Elections…Monica Palmer and William Hartmann stood in the doorway, attempting to block democracy from finding its way.”
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Detroit’s NAACP President Dr. Wendell Anthony says 2020 is also the year of the Republican pandemic to suppress Democratic (and Black) votes in an attempt to help Donald Trump–as Republicans Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, above, both tried to do.
2020 will not only be the year noted for the attack of the coronavirus throughout the nation, but the Republican election pandemic that has spread around the nation. If it were not so tragic, it would simply be pathetic. Thomas Jefferson said, “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
This latest election debacle occurring in Wayne County, in the city of Detroit, is another example of people trying to take away from those who have worked hard, voted right, and counted efficiently. Our eternal thanks for the vast number of workers and volunteers who risked their very lives during this COVID-19 period to count the votes, endure the insults, harassment, and intimidation by Trump operatives seeking to invade their space.
The Republican representatives on the Wayne County Board of Elections, by their stalling, rejection of the will of the people, until folks from around the city weighed in with their objections area case in point.
This is the deadly political virus attacking our election process. Monica Palmer and William Hartmann stood in the doorway, attempting to block democracy from finding its way. This occurred for several hours promoting outrage and legitimate dissent. It should not take such actions on the part of the people to get our public officials to adhere to the expressed will and intent of the people.
Donald Trump lost the general election by nearly six million votes. He has lost the Electoral College in what he called a landslide for himself in 2016 by 306 to 232 in 2020 to President-Elect Joe Biden. Yet we see an onslaught of attacks from Republican operatives from state to state, trying to turn back the results and reverse history. This will not work. Michigan turned out and fired Donald Trump in 2020. The people corrected the error of 2016. He lost Michigan by almost four times the amount he won in the last election. Now the virus is spreading. It spread from the attack on the post office by Commissioner Louis DeJoy attempting to slow down and stop the vote. It spread by President Donald Trump calling it a rigged election, voter fraud, and telling his followers to not trust the mail-in ballots. Instead he said, “Go to the polls on election day and vote.”It spread by gerrymandering long voter lines at the polls and the elimination of drop boxes in cities and counties around the country.
This virus is taking its toll on the people by a President refusing to accept the outcome of the election unless he wins. Now it has even infected the counting and certification process. It is being spread as Trump operatives do not want to certify the election. Lawsuits are being filed all over the country by a grifter from New York formerly known as America’s Mayor named Rudy Giuliani. He now can be described as democracy’s nightmare. As the lawsuits are being tossed out and withdrawn by Trump’s own lawyers, one by one, from Michigan to Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada and Georgia, these operatives have become even more desperate. Senator Lindsey Graham, Chairmanof the Senate Judiciary Committee, is from South Carolina, not Georgia. He called the Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. The call was made, according to Raffensperger, to see if he could eliminate legal ballots on the basis on a lack of so-called signature matches.
Mr. Raffensperger is no Biden-Harris supporter. He gave Stacy Abrams election challenges in her bid to become Georgia’s first woman and African-American governor. He dismissed Graham’s unethical and immoral inquiry as being out of order. This is the same Lindsey Graham who said in 2016,“I have every confidence in our election system. If Trump loses it will not be because the system is rigged but because he failed as a candidate.
”This infectious disease continues to spread as Trump and his allies refuse to acknowledge and accept Joe Biden as the President-Elect. They have refused him the normal access of information and finances expected during a normal transition of power. Even the head of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Chris Krebs, has become a victim of this virus. He was fired for simply telling the truth. His department declared, “The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.” One might say if this were a different nation, we would be witnessing an attempted political coup. Persons in the highest offices of the land are being fired, military officers are being discharged, and the head of the nation is refusing to acknowledge his successor. Do the people need the intervention of the United Nations in our own nation? Well, the good book says,“you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free,” John 8:32.
The election canvassers must stand up for the truth. The truth is some come to the election certification process with a racial and social bias. On the Facebook page of William Hartmann, one can see pictures of former President Barack Obama being portrayed as a pirate, thief, and Muslim, even though he is a devout Christian. This reflects the disdain of Mr. Hartmann for the first African-American President. One must ask how such people can be allowed to serve on these most important boards?
As we move forward to the final certification, we must be very careful and concerned about the conclusion. It appears that some are simply looking for a solution that is in search of a problem. Perhaps the state of Michigan needs to look at the posts of all of those engaged in the certification of democracy, who are content to remain on the stage of hypocrisy. The people have spoken. The late Congressman John Lewis said, “Your vote is precious, almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have to create the most perfect union.” We in the city of Detroit do not ever intend to relinquish our right to cast our vote. We expect the votes that we cast to be counted and certified. This is the ultimate vaccine for the political pandemic of the many Republicans that are currently on the scene.
By Dr. Wendell Anthony
