Hightower Lowdown

Let's be blunt: The Republican Party made a determined effort by to keep people who tend to vote Democratic from voting at all. I don't just mean the notorious efforts in Florida by First Brother Jeb Bush to purge the voter rolls of thousands of eligible African Americans, but also tactics employed all across the country.

On election day itself, GOP officials who presided over the election in key states like Ohio simply shorted many Democratic precincts on the number of voting machines made available. The result was that voters faced interminable waits—lines snaked around city blocks, forcing people to stand for seven, nine, or more hours for their turn at the machines. Uncounted thousands of people who have jobs and families to deal with were driven away from the polls by this deliberate logjam.