John Tanner strikes again!

A few days back, I shared with you a story about John Tanner, Chief of the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, in which he said that voter ID laws would actually be more advantageous for minorities because these laws disproportionately affect old people and minorities, generally, don’t live to be that old.

Now, he is is using more race-baiting to explain why black people were waiting in line so late into the night during the 2004 presidential elections in Ohio. According to Tanner, it’s because we were on C.P. time.

According to Tanner, black folks just got to the polls late in the afternoon, backing up lines and delaying the vote. Tanner wrote:

“…the principal cause of the difference appears to be the tendency in Franklin County for white voters to cast ballots in the morning (i.e., before work), and for black voters to cast ballots in the afternoon (i.e., after work). We have established this tendency through local contacts and through both political parties, and it accords with our considerable experience in other parts of the United States. Morning voters may wait in line several hours, as happened in white precincts, without keeping the polls open after 7:30 am; this is not the case, however, at sites where voters arrive after 5:30 p.m.”

Interestingly enough, I’ve lived in Ohio my whole life and I remember the 2004 elections quite vividly. I, like a lot of black folks, came quite early to cast our ballots (I got there at 6:45am). I live in a predominately-black suburb and witnessed people waiting 2 1/2 hours to cast their votes. My polling place, which was normally for my community only, was combined with two other polling places (thanks to the scheming of our former secretary of state, Kenneth Blackwell). Also, you had Republican challengers there basically intimidated people trying to vote and people casting provisional ballots, many of which, we now know, were never counted. At the time, we were voting on punch-cards and one of the booths was down due to mechanical error. I remind you, this was all before 9am, in a suburban voting area. Could you imagine what was happening in the inner cities around the state.

Tanner attempts to tell people (I contend he’s lying) that black folks were waiting because they got there late. However, this does nothing to explain why there were some folks (those in heavily-Democratic districts) who missed an entire day of work waiting to cast their ballots.

Tanner’s lies might play to the Fox News crowd but, for those of us who saw this firsthand, he’s going to have to come better than that.

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