I recently read a book titled “One Person No Vote,” a detailed account of how some Republican politicians are essentially corrupting our democratic process (elections) by suppressing the vote of people of color and other minority groups. The book’s author is Professor Carol Anderson, the chair of African-American Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

She describes several tactics used in suppressing the vote. One tactic is called gerrymandering, a process which employs redistricting or moving the boundaries of districts in order to isolate them farther away from voting booths, making it more difficult for people to vote against them.

Another ploy is to eliminate or sharply curtail early voting. Still another one is to close voting booths early in the day to make it more difficult for people who work during the day to be able to vote after work.

More than two centuries ago, our Founding Fathers established our Constitution, giving certain freedoms among these: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion and allowing us as free men the right to vote. Sadly, in those early days only those who owned property had that right.

Fortunately, during the decades that followed all men were given that right. Then, finally women were granted that right. Eventually, even the black men and women were included to have this special right.

Now, currently you certainly wouldn’t expect the people who are very successfully suppressing the votes of these same people to be transparent about it. No, they are very subtle concerning their activities. They wouldn’t want the general public to see any evidence of their devious activities. But it wouldn’t take a genius to make the connection.

Therefore, these people are violating the U.S. Constitution by denying people of color and other minorities their constitutional right to vote.

Finally, I believe it is our patriotic duty to purge these who are suppressing voters from our government by exercising our right to vote. I think our Founding Fathers would enthusiastically endorse this action if they were able to do so.

Ed Cunningham

Danville