Ari Berman Profile picture
Jun 2, 2021 6 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Memo to @SenatorSinema: in 1890s states like Mississippi rushed to disenfranchise Black voters, House passed bill to stop it but Senate filibustered legislation protecting voting rights & we got Jim Crow. Now history will repeat itself if Dems don’t act motherjones.com/politics/2021/…
"The same pattern that existed during Reconstruction—the enfranchisement of Black voters, followed by the manipulation of election laws to throw out Black votes, culminating in laws passed to legally disenfranchise Black voters—is repeating itself today"
In 1890 Mississippi rewrote constitution to disenfranchise Black voters

That year House passed bill to protect voting rights but killed by Senate filibuster

By 1907 every Southern state had changed constitution to keep Blacks from voting & Black turnout fell from 61% to 2%
Failure to pass federal legislation protecting voting rights at end of Reconstruction led directly to Jim Crow & disenfranchisement of Black voters

Similarly, failure to pass HR1 & John Lewis Voting Rights Act will allow GOP to undermine fair elections for next decade & beyond
"by 1907 every Southern state had changed constitution to disenfranchise Black voters, through poll taxes, literacy tests, property requirements, etc. # of Black registered voters in MS fell from 130,483 in 1876 to 1,264 by 1900; in LA from 130,000 in 1896 to 1,342 in 1904"
"We had a multi-racial democracy in the United States and it was taken away"

If Dems don't act to protect voting rights, history will repeat itself

Talking to @chrislhayes @allinwithchris about Jim Crow 2.0

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More from @AriBerman

Dec 7, 2022
Huge case before SCOTUS today: Republicans want to reinstate extreme gerrymander in NC giving GOP 71-78% of House seats in state where Trump got 49.9% of vote & grant state legislatures unprecedented power to pass new gerrymanders & voter suppression laws motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
Leonard Leo & Federalist Society engineered right-wing takeover of SCOTUS. Now they want court to give state legislatures king-like power to rig state & national elections. One anti-democratic system entrenching the other Image
A ruling that state legislatures could not be constrained by state courts or constitutions would eviscerate checks & balances, give heavily gerrymandered legislatures huge power to rig state & national politics & embolden them to attempt to overturn future election results
Read 5 tweets
Jan 28, 2022
SCOOP w/ @RyanLittleE: Georgia voters 45 times more likely to have mail ballot applications rejected & not vote in Nov 2021 vs 2020 after GOP passed new voting restrictions

That rate would've led to 38,000 fewer votes in 2020, 3x Biden's margin of victory motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
“States are not engaging in trying to suppress voters whatsoever” Mitch McConnell claimed last year

Here are facts: "During municipal elections in Nov, Georgia voters were 45 times more likely to have their mail ballot applications rejected—and not vote as a result—than in 2020"
Before he sided with GOP to kill voting rights bills Joe Manchin said: “​​We act like we’re going to obstruct people from voting. That’s not going to happen.”

4500% increase in rejected mail ballot applications in Georgia & 700% increase in Texas shows he is very wrong
Read 6 tweets
Jan 20, 2022
Stunning stat: 48 Democrats who supported reforming filibuster to pass voting rights bills represent 34 MILLION more Americans than 52 senators (all Republicans + Sinema/Manchin) who opposed it
48 senators who voted to reform filibuster represent 182 million Americans, 55% of US

52 senators who upheld filibuster represent 148 million Americans, 45% of US

This is why US Senate so broken

Data via @atausanovitch
“Manchin & Sinema allowed 41 GOP senators representing just 21% of country to block a bill they both supported that would protect voting rights for tens of millions of Americans, reinforcing how filibuster has historically been used to block civil rights” motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
Read 6 tweets
Jan 13, 2022
Sinema & Manchin represent 2.8% of US population but allowing 41 GOP senators representing just 21% of country to block voting rights bills supported by 70% of Americans that would protect voting access for tens of millions. US political system completely broken
“Sinema, by refusing to support changes to the filibuster, is now giving the anti-democratic party veto power over protecting democracy. She is saying it would be divisive and partisan to respond to a divisive and partisan effort to weaken democracy” motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
GOP states have passed new voter suppression laws, gerrymandered maps & election subversion bills through simple majority, party-line votes yet Sinema & Manchin demand bipartisan supermajority to protect voting rights. This is how coup succeeds
motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
Read 5 tweets
Jan 10, 2022
This week is one of most pivotal in history of American democracy. If Dems don’t pass federal legislation now to stop voter suppression, extreme gerrymandering & election subversion, GOP will make it impossible to have fair elections going forward motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
Republicans not just suppressing votes & subverting fair elections, but trying to enshrine anti-democratic system where they hold power no matter the views of a majority of voters

“They are basically signing off on a political apartheid system” says @ericholder
It makes no sense that Republicans can pass voter suppression laws at state level with simple majority vote & confirm right-wing judges to uphold those laws with simple majority vote but Dems can’t protect voting rights with simple majority vote

This asymmetry must end
Read 6 tweets
Dec 6, 2021
Breaking: Justice Department files suit challenging extreme gerrymandered Texas redistricting maps
Under extreme gerrymandered Texas US House & state legislative maps:

Whites 40% population but control 60% districts

Latinos 39% of population but control 20% districts

Blacks 12% of population but control 2% districts

Asians 5% of population but control 0% districts
95% of population growth in Texas from communities of color during last decade but gerrymandered GOP maps increase # of majority white districts & decrease # of majority Latino/Black districts. Incredibly brazen racial gerrymandering motherjones.com/politics/2021/…
Read 5 tweets

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