Recently, the NAACP and People for the American Way jointly released a study, titled "The Long Shadow of Jim Crow," showing the tactics of voter suppression are still alive and well and being practiced by Republicans trying to reduce the Black vote. For example, a Michigan legislator, John Papageorge, admitted, "If we do not suppress the Detroit vote, we're going to have a tough time in this election." Blacks in Michigan are not the only targets. Black voters in Louisiana and Maryland were given flyers that they were not eligible to vote if they owed back taxes or auto fines. And some were urged to show up to vote on the wrong day. Republicans in Pine Bluff, Ark., and Louisville are planning to continue their program challenging the voters' identifications in predominantly Black precincts. But Attorney General John Ashcroft has raised these projects to the national level, all in the name of preventing "voter fraud." Ashcroft enacted a so-called voter integrity program in 2002 that has done little more than federalize the state-based ballot integrity programs traditionally run by Republicans in many sections of the country. [more
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