It is long past time to play hardball against the voter suppression and systematic disenfranchisement that the GOP has spent decades putting in place. The Clinton campaign was energetic during the campaign cycle in going to court to fight individual battles to extend voting hours and stop some dirty tricks with voter rolls. It’s not enough. This is war, and it’s time we start fighting with a permanent, well-financed effort.
Dems need to create a new voting rights organization whose entire existence is dedicated to bringing lawsuits against Secretaries of State and any other organizations (or companies) involved in voter disenfranchisement. And it needs to be heavily financed in exactly the same way a Presidential campaign is financed … a combination of nationwide, crowdfunded small donations plus major heavy weight donors (looking at you Soros, for example) creating a fund with hundreds of millions of dollars to legally fight and stop voter suppression.
Will this succeed in every case? Will it stop every Voter Integrity Project? No. But it will win cases. It will create legal limits on what is permissible (eg, preventing any State or county from scrubbing a voter without proof that same person voted in different states). It will re-enfranchise thousands of people … And it will dramatically raise the costs for those who seek to suppress voting and voter registration. Time to put that motherf@*$ker Jay DeLancy (who runs VIP in NC) out of business for violation of people’s constitutional right to vote.
We can’t only play this “game” in the 8th and 9th innings (i.e., during election season). This fight needs to be waged every day. It needs to be organized. It needs very deep pockets to finance legal teams and lawsuits nationwide.