Suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections. Black suffrage was granted to black men only after the Civil War, by the 15th Amendment. Women suffrage was granted by the 19th amendment in Aug. 1920, but excluded minority women. It wasn’t until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 did black and minority women of color get the right to vote. Today, Black Women have become a tornadic force in politics with overwhelming power to influence key political victories. Ask Joe Biden and Doug Jones.
People died for these rights. People bled for these rights including most notably the late, great, honorable John R. Lewis. They faced vicious attack dogs, water cannons, and brutal police beatings. Blacks and Civil Rights Advocates faced lynchings, murders, rapes, castrations, being dragged by horses or trucks, being burned alive, amputations, dismemberments, and other heinous, brutal acts by the KKK, and other white supremacist groups to discourage the civil rights movement. Don’t Jeopardize Our Franchise.
Black Codes
Though the Union victory had given some 4 million slaves their freedom, the question of freed blacks’ status in the postwar South was still very much unresolved. Under black codes, many states required blacks to sign yearly labor contracts; if they refused, they risked being arrested, fined, and forced into unpaid labor.
In the years following Reconstruction, the South reestablished many of the provisions of the black codes in the form of the so-called “Jim Crow laws,” and remained firmly in place until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Some black code laws required blacks to have written evidence of employment for the coming year each January; if they left before the end of the contract, they would be forced to forfeit earlier wages and were subject to arrest.
One law prohibited blacks from holding any occupation other than farmer or servant unless they paid an annual tax of $10 to $100. Blacks were given heavy penalties for vagrancy, or homelessness and arrested thereby being forced into plantation labor.
Blacks who broke labor contracts were subject to arrest, beatings, and forced labor, and apprenticeship laws forced many minors into unpaid labor for white farmers.
Passed by a political system in which blacks effectively had no voice, the black codes were enforced by all-white police and state militia forces. This was the beginning of mass incarceration and the birth of our modern-day prison system which has over 2.4 million residents. Don’t Jeopardize Our Franchise!
US Census
The United States Census is mandated by Article I, Section 2 of the United States Constitution, and must be done every 10 years. The Bureau of the Census is part of the US Department of Commerce. Earlier this year, they got caught lying to SCOTUS about the reasons why they wanted a citizenship question on the census. SCOTUS rejected their bogus argument. However, the Trump administration deftly effectuated extreme damage to the upcoming census. Many undocumented people are extremely afraid of participating for fear of deportation. So many probably won’t be counted.
In 2020, every household will receive an invitation to complete the census over the internet, by phone, or by paper questionnaire. Title 13 of the US Code, coupled with the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, provides for penalties of up to $5,000 for not responding or for willfully providing false answers to any question.
U.S. Census figures are based on actual counts of persons dwelling in U.S. residential structures. They include citizens, non-citizen legal residents, non-citizen long-term visitors, and undocumented immigrants, So, citizens or not, everyone must be counted by law.
Communities need an accurate count of children to meet the need for more schools, educational resources. As populations shift, counties, and cities across the country where the population is growing quickly, demand for new schools and educational resources is growing, too. EVERY DROP AND DROPLET COUNTS. BE COUNTED!
The Importance Of The US Census
The US Census helps decide the allocation of over $1.5 Trillion of government spending.
Responding to the Census will help plan healthcare programs for the next decade. Healthcare companies also can use population statistics to help plan where to build new hospitals and clinics or expand existing ones.
Hospitals, healthcare clinics, and healthcare programs such as Medicaid and Medicare are among the many public healthcare services that use population statistics from the census.
Results from the 2020 Census will help federal, state, local, and tribal officials plan funding for health care services for the next decade.
Statistics from the 2020 Census will inform how hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funds are spent every year for the next 10 years for these and other critical public services such as schools, libraries, emergency response, roads and bridges, and for hospitals and health insurance.
Many of these programs are the lifelines that communities are depending on today, as they work to protect the health and well-being of their populations during the coronavirus pandemic. These programs are feeding children even though schools are temporarily shuttered, providing health insurance for low-income people and those over 65, and supporting first responders.
Among these programs, are according to the Census Bureau:
⦁ Medicaid and Medicare
⦁ Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps.
⦁ The National School Lunch Program.
⦁ The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for low-income kids
⦁ Maternal and child health
⦁ Abstinence education
⦁ Violence Against Women
⦁ Preventative health services
⦁ Head Start Program for low-income preschool children.
⦁ Teacher training
⦁ Pell Grants.
⦁ Aid for land grants and historically black colleges and universities (HBCU)
⦁ Federal grants for vocational training, funding to improve vocational training in high schools, community colleges, and technical centers.
⦁ Child care, job preparation, and other temporary assistance programs.
⦁ Housing assistance
⦁ Grants for state special education programs.
⦁ Highway planning, construction, and other public sector investments
⦁ Help older people with home weatherization and grants for housing for low-income people over age 65.
Census statistics help policymakers make decisions about how to allocate billions of dollars in federal funds for critical public services such as hospitals, schools, road repairs, and emergency response services for the next decade.
Knowing how many children live in a community will provide the foundation for important policy and planning decisions over the next 10 years. For example, should a community build a new library? A new school? Should it expand Head Start for pre-K children?
That’s why it is so important to count everyone living in your home, including babies born on or before April 1, 2020. Be sure to count children of relatives, friends, or other people who live and sleep in your home most of the time. EVERY DROP AND DROPLET COUNTS. BE COUNTED!
US Census Matters To Everyone
Your community benefits the most when the census counts everyone. When you respond to the census, you help your community gets its fair share of the more than $675 billion per year in federal funds spent on schools, hospitals, roads, public works, and other vital programs.
Businesses use census data to decide where to build factories, offices, and stores, and this creates jobs.
Detailed population information is critical for emergency response in the wake of disasters. Demographic details from the census assist epidemiologists and public health personnel in everything from tracking disease outbreaks, to combating the opioid epidemic, to improving child health. EVERY DROP AND DROPLET COUNTS. BE COUNTED!
US Census And Politics
Redistricting is the key to political power in the US. Whoever controls the state senate and house legislatures get to draw the district maps for the next 10 years. This allows for gerrymandering.
In June 2019, SCOTUS ruled that courts can NOT stop partisan gerrymandering by states. Here’s how bad gerrymandering is. In NC, 50% of people voted for Democratic representatives and 50% for Republican reps. The Dems got 3 seats and the GOP got 10. So, now the Dems must start gerrymandering too to even the playing field even though they have been fighting against it for years. EVERY DROP AND DROPLET COUNTS. BE COUNTED!
Congressional seats are apportioned among the 50 states based on the 2010 Census population counts. No state has a permanent claim to their current number of assigned House seats. After the 2020 Census, southern and western states are expected to gain seats—and political clout—at the expense of states in the Northeast and Midwest.
Gerrymandering is bad, but voter suppression is worse. In 2016, Georgia Secretary of State, Brian Kemp, and state legislature purged 1.4 million registered voters from the rolls. He won the Governorship by 55,000 votes. In 2020, they are purging 313,000 voters in GA. In Wisconsin, they are purging 234,000 this year. In Texas, in 2018, they closed 87 DMV’s after imposing strict voter ID laws, this left 78 counties without a DMV office. But wait there’s more. In March, they closed all DMV’s due to COVID, so they said.
Republican-controlled states, on average have purged 20% of registered voters from the rolls. So, even Biden might be winning in polls among registered voters surveyed, when they go to vote and find out they have been purged it will be too late to change the outcome. They only have to be successful in a 5 or 6 battleground states and TRUMP WILL WIN.
So, Republicans have used their political advantage in the state houses granted to them by the 2010 US Census to not only gerrymander but to:
⦁ Enact Strict Voter ID Laws
⦁ Purge Voter Rolls
⦁ Close DMVs
⦁ Limit Powers Of Democratic Governors
⦁ Limit Early Voting
⦁ Limit Mail-In Voting
⦁ Limit & Close Polling Places
⦁ Change Voting Locations To Confuse
⦁ Demand In-Person Voting During A Pandemic
⦁ Kill ACA & Refuse Medicaid
⦁ Promote Disinformation About Mail-In Voting
⦁ Discourage Confidence In Security Of Election
⦁ Spread Rumors About Legitimacy Of Outcome
EVERY DROP AND DROPLET COUNTS. BE COUNTED!
US Census And The Presidency
The Trump administration originally asked Congress for an extension of the 2020 US Census until the spring of 2021 due to the pandemic. With the possibility that Trump may lose, the GOP has suddenly decided to end the 2020 Census survey next month on September 30th. I repeat they are ending the Census in less than 30 days on September 30th with only 60% of the people counted to date.
This means that even if Trump loses, the GOP will maintain enormous political power for the next 10 years. EVERY DROP AND DROPLET COUNTS. BE COUNTED!
Remember, Trump isn’t trying to win the election, he’s trying to STEAL the election by:
⦁ Voter suppression
⦁ Spreading lies & disinformation claiming the election is rigged
⦁ Claiming Mail-in Voting Is Illegal & Fraudulent
⦁ Getting Kanye West On The Ballot To Siphon Dem Votes
⦁ Allowing & Encouraging Russian Interference
⦁ Using Social Media to Spread Lies, Misinformation & Propaganda
⦁ Whatever October Surprise They Have From Bill Barr’s Investigation or Dirt On The Bidens from Ukraine
⦁ Installing His Donor As Postmaster To Slow Down Mail
⦁ Refusing $25 Billion Proposal From Dems To Help USPS
⦁ Refusing To Spend The $10 Billion Loan To USPS Already Approved
⦁ Causing Mail Delays By Cutting Overtime, Forcing Hand Sorting Instead Of Machine Sorting
⦁ Suing Colorado For Sending Out Mail-In Ballot Applications Citing USPS Mail Delays (which he caused) As Reason
⦁ Suing Pennsylvania To Stop Them From Putting Up Drop Boxes All Over The State To Allow People To Drop Off Mail-In Ballots Due To USPS Mail Delays
I said all that to say two things:
Don’t Jeopardize Our Franchise.
And,
EVERY DROP AND DROPLET COUNTS. SO, BE COUNTED!
Remember, it’s important to be registered to vote. Confirm and verify your registration hasn’t been purged. Verify your proper polling place if your state requires in-person voting. All this can be done on our website at VIPPUSA.Org/resources
Go to our website: Vippusa.org to request a mail-in ballot. Fill it out and return it ASAP. If you receive a Mail-in ballot fill it out immediately and return it to beat any USPS delays.
But, more importantly, you must fill out your census and be counted. Again visit Vippusa.org for more info. Because:
EVERY DROP AND DROPLET COUNTS. SO, BE COUNTED!
And, Don’t Jeopardize Our Franchise. Too many people died for it.
I’m really surprised and disappointed that the Democrats, the DNC, Democratic PACs, liberal and progressive donors, activists, and billionaires have not launched a massive advertising and public relations campaign to amplify this crucial Public Service Announcement. I implore you. PLEASE! Let’s get on this.
