COAST: We Demand a Vote, Except If You Vote Democratic

In an attempt to help Republicans, the Hypocritical, anti-government, and anti-everything group COAST has joined the Conservative movement to disenfranchise Democratic voters. They are part of the Conservative movement, so this is really just the local shock-troops making a call to arms in the fight against Democracy.

Yes, COAST and other Conservatives are trying to prevent Democratic voters from voting in this election. What are they mad about? They are mad because the Hamilton County Board of Elections is going to be open for early voting on Sundays. I guess drinking beer and watching football is good on Sunday, but doing your civic duty is not, in the eyes of the extreme right-wing. Alas, local control of elections appears to be a bad thing. Nothing stops other counties from doing the same thing Hamilton County has done, but that type of self-determination is a COAST way of thinking.

Yes, Sunday voting would benefit every voter, Republican-Democratic-Independent-Other, but that doesn't matter. COAST and other conservatives believe that the more difficult we make it to vote, the more difficult it will be for working and middle class people to vote, who trend Democratic. Why stop voters from voting on Sundays? Well, many employers and corporate managers don't like giving people the required time off to vote, unless they are voting the way they want. In the case of Employers and corporations the voting preference would traditionally be more Republican than not. Republicans have been against all efforts to make it easier to vote, including early voting and voting by mail.

In reality most middle and larger size companies do a good job overall of staying out of the voting lives of voters. Individual managers and supervisors are hit and miss, along with smaller companies that rely on the attitude of the owner. Early and mail voting have been a huge success and I would bet most companies think it works far better than having to give workers any time to vote on Election Day.

COAST should be asking why other counties are not doing the same thing! If the issue is that other counties don't have the population to warrant the additional hours on Sundays, then complaints should be dismissed.

This shouldn't be a partisan issue. Republicans should be in favor of helping foster every opportunity for our citizens to vote. It clearly shows their intent when they fight to make it more difficult to vote for those more likely NOT to vote for their candidates. That is not Democracy. The problem is that today's conservative Republicans are not interested in Democracy.

Finally, in case you missed it: COAST is the group that spearheaded the effort behind "We Demand a Vote", the coalition demanding the public vote on various local issues, instead of elected officials. This was, on its face, an effort to make our local government more "democratic" in a non-representative and more mob-like manner. I wonder if the local Green Party or the Local NAACP, who also worked with COAST, will denounce COAST and local Republicans for efforts to disfranchise voters? Mr. Smitherman, this is your cue to issue a press release. I'd ask the Green Party, but I can't expect a political party that can't field a basketball team to have the time to issue press releases on voting rights.