aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Lock up the vote
Six prisons in my town; felons can’t vote in Georgia.
Is felony disenfranchisement racist?
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, one-third of black men in Florida cannot legally cast a ballot, either because they’re in prison or once were.
Or just partisan?
In Alabama, which maintains strict restrictions on ex-felons’ voting, the chair of the Republican Party Marty Connors said in 2003: “As frank as I can be, we’re opposed to [restoring voting rights] because felons don’t tend to vote Republican.”
SEE ALSO: The Sentencing Project.
Bus beef
A city bus driver who complained about a gay-themed ad got official permission not to drive any bus that carries that ad, according to an internal memo confirmed Tuesday by Metro Transit.
Transit authorities call it a reasonable accommodation to the driver’s religious beliefs.
Amalgamated Transit Unit Local 1005 officials at the bus company say it condones intolerance; besides, drivers never have been excused from other buses carrying ads they found objectionable - from political candidates to pink bras.
Apple shines
The company said it shipped 1.6 million Macintosh computers, up 30 percent from a year earlier. Revenue from desktop and portable Macs increased 37 percent, to $2.2 billion.
Apple’s chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, said: “This strong quarter caps an extraordinary year for Apple. Selling more than 39 million iPods and 5.3 million Macs while performing an incredibly complex architecture transition is something we are all very proud of.”
They wrote us a letter
A block the vote update:
Georgia’s State Election Board on Tuesday approved a letter that will inform more than 300,000 voters that they can cast a ballot on Nov. 7 without presenting a photo ID.
State officials acknowledged last Thursday that nearly 200,000 voters—not the 20,000 initially reported by Vice Chair Claud “Tex” McIver—were told by letter that they would need to get a photo ID at the polls, even though Fulton County Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford had previously declared that requirement unconstitutional.
The new letters will tell voters they can still use 17 forms of identification at the polls. [...]
Supporters of the law—primarily Republicans—have said it is needed to prevent voter fraud, despite the absence of examples of in-person voter fraud. Opponents claim the photo ID law is intended to discourage minorities, the poor and the elderly from casting ballots.
This in a state that’s as safely Republican as they come.
