Hillary Clinton addressed black Democratic leaders in Hoover, Alabama on Saturday about the state government’s “harmful” decision to close DMV offices in predominantly African American neighborhoods, CNN reported.
The Democratic presidential candidate’s remarks to the Alabama Democratic Conference, a group founded in the 1960s to encourage black Alabamans to vote Democrat, were previewed by CNN.
In her speech, Clinton railed against the Cotton State’s decision to shutter 31 DMV offices across the state soon after implementing stringent new voting laws, including a requirement to provide proof of citizenship. She reportedly called the strict laws “discriminatory and demeaning” and asked Gov. Robert Bentley (R) and other state lawmakers to “listen to their constituents” and keep the offices open.
The satellite DMV locations allowed residents in rural areas to obtain or renew their licenses. As TPM previously reported, all of the offices in counties where African Americans make up over 75 percent of the registered voters would be closed.
When news of the closures first broke in early October, Clinton said it was “a blast from the Jim Crow past.”
The Republican-led legislature denied that the closures disenfranchised black voters and said they were made strictly because of budget cuts. The state faced a budget shortfall of $200 million this year.
Gov. Bentley dismissed Democrats’ outcry over the issue as “race politics at its worst” in a recent closed-door meeting with state Republican leaders.
Saturday’s visit marked Clinton’s first trip to Alabama as a 2016 presidential candidate.
I think we should have Taxpayer ID - when you go to pay taxes of any kind, you need to provide ID. And whatever the ID requirements are to pay taxes, that’s what the voter ID requirements are as well. If I can pay my taxes with a copy of my utility bill, I can vote with a copy of my utility bill. If I need a picture of my grandmother, dressed in red, during a lunar eclipse to vote, then I am not allowed to pay my taxes until I come up with that exact same form of ID. I’m sure that Republicans will agree with a common sense, Tea Party endorsed solution like that one (no taxation without representation means the same requirements for taxation and representation, right?).
I have really appreciated Clinton’s relentless approach to courting people of color this cycle. Some will claim this has something to do with Sanders, even though she’s been actively pursuing the minority vote since before she formally announced.
I love that she understands that the key to a successful run for a Dem is to get minority voters to the polls, to engage on our unique issues and keep us engaged.
She also appears to grasp that her path to victory requires respecting President Obama and his many accomplishments. She seems to have a learned a great deal from her mistakes in 2008. I hope she stays on this path.
The south will never change.
Good for Hillary for saying this.
Somehow, the sound of crickets has kept me from hearing Bernie’s equally stinging indictment of this voter suppression tactic.
I was right there with you until…
jw1