Memorial to Hmong service in Fresno, CA. Source.
From a new report by Leah Aden of the N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense and Educational Fund on tactics used to prevent voting by citizens of color:
Hmong people first came to the U.S. after working with our military in Vietnam against the Communist victors. Early immigrants often worked in agriculture as they had in southeast Asia, though today there are significant Hmong populations in U.S. cities.CALIFORNIA
Local Level:
In June 2016, in Siskiyou County, the Sheriff visited Hmong property owners and allegedly questioned them about their voter registration status and told those owners that they were believed to have registered illegally and could be arrested if they tried to cast a ballot.
Because Hmong people live in a rural area of the County, their property is given a parcel number rather than a street address, which was why the voter registrations were allegedly called into question. In California, parcel numbers can be used when registering to vote. Purportedly, while registrations of new Hmong voters were allegedly scrutinized, those of white property owners in the same area who also used parcel numbers were not.
5 comments:
Did they have ID when they registered? Who is representing them? Any legal counsel?
The thing to look at is who registered them and how it was done. Was that all on the up and up? Can the registration process be improved there? And can the sheriff be impeached or voted out of office?
We are so careful with registration, down to the last dotted "I" and crossed "T." Of course here we bear no ill will toward anyone who is qualified to vote and don't want to impede the process.
The law's the law and has nothing to do with preferences for one group of voters over another.
There are many Hmong in Oregon and Southern Washington. I wonder about this population, having worked with them as an ESL teacher when they first started coming here. I thought of them as being the most likely of any group to have a terrible time getting along in this country.
I'm confused. Are these people who have no street addresses? When we do community association vote counts for
Sorry for the extra comment. I meant for just the first one to be posted.
Hi Hattie -- didn't see these comments until hours later because the wifi went wonky. California tends to allow some quite sketchy addresses for the purpose of deciding which geographical ballot a person should get. In cities, homeless people can claim an intersection for this purpose. But people also need a viable mailing address. I can imagine these folks fell into that sort of thing.
These people undoubtedly have advocates or LDEF would not have heard of them.
Did you know that when the Voting Rights Act pre-clearance system used to exist (pre-Shelby) that there were a few California counties under scrutiny because of discrimination, mostly against Latinos? As you certainly know, once you get out of the California liberal bubble, California can be thoroughly racist.
"[O]nce you get out of the California liberal bubble, California can be thoroughly racist."
What areas do you define as the "liberal bubble"? I would think San Francisco, the Bay Area in general, parts of LA, etc. And what areas represent the opposite of that?
Post a Comment