{"id":14990,"date":"2015-04-02T12:43:30","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T19:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=14990"},"modified":"2015-04-02T12:43:30","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T19:43:30","slug":"will-they-turn-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/02\/will-they-turn-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Will They Turn Out?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The failure of American voters to turn out on election day has done more to contribute to the loss of freedom at the hands of Republicans and a few DINOS.  In few places, if any, has this been more apparent than it is in Ferguson, MO, where official racism runs rampant to victimize the majority of the voters.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"0402Fergeson\"Next week, Ferguson residents have the opportunity to vote for three city council members and alter the racial makeup of local government. To do that, they\u2019ll have to clear one major hurdle: historically low voter turnout among the city\u2019s African American majority. <\/p>\n

Today, five of the six standing council members who represent the city\u2019s three wards are white, while 67 percent<\/a> of Ferguson\u2019s population is African American. Three of the five are stepping down, and four candidates<\/a> vying for the positions are black (Ella Jones, Adrienne Hawkins, Wesley Bell, and Lee Smith). Due to the ward breakdown, only two black contenders can be elected, although such a victory would secure half of the council seats and triple African American representation in the office. According to Fusion<\/a>, the city has only elected two black council members in the past, including Mr. Dwayne T. James<\/a>, who represents Ward 2. <\/p>\n

But to shake up the predominately white government, black voters actually have to show up at the polls \u2014 something they don\u2019t usually do in the small municipality. During the last municipal election in 2013, only 6 percent of eligible black voters<\/a> cast a ballot. After Michael Brown was killed, many believed voter registration would skyrocket ahead of the St. Louis County executive election, but those hopes were shot when Director of Elections Rita Heard Days erroneously claimed<\/a> that 3,300 people registered in the weeks after Brown\u2019s death. In actuality, 128 people did so. <\/p>\n

Several factors<\/a> explain why so few African Americans vote in Ferguson. For example, city council elections occur in odd-numbered years, meaning they don\u2019t align with presidential, gubernatorial, or state legislative elections. With an absence of big names on the ballot, voters aren\u2019t drawn to the polls en masse on municipal election days. The black population is also younger than the white population, and older people tend to vote<\/a>. Additionally, homeowners with lasting ties to the community are usually more inclined to vote, but most of Ferguson\u2019s black voters are renters who haven\u2019t lived in the city for long periods<\/a> of time.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, organizers in the area strongly believe that next week\u2019s elections will be different, because of the virtues and failures of the candidates on the ballot\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Think Progress<\/a>><\/p>\n

I have been an activist for most of my life, so beating my head against the brick wall of apathy is not new to me.  I cannot remember a situation in which a community of people has seen a more obvious demonstration of the need for political change.  Will they turn out?  If not, they will have earned treatment they have received.  The punishment for apathy is living in as victims in a Republican Reich.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The failure of American voters to turn out on election day has done more to contribute to the loss of freedom at the hands of Republicans and a few DINOS.  In few places, if any, has this been more apparent than it is in Ferguson, MO, where official racism runs rampant to victimize the majority […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14990\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}