Voter Disenfranchisement By Attrition

Although it was election day in most places last week, it wasn't in New Orleans, and it ain't getting any better says my piece on In These Times:

Voter Disenfranchisement By Attrition

With Friends Like FEMA, Who Needs Jim Crow?

By Benjamin Greenberg

When Hurricane Katrina came ashore in New Orleans, it destroyed half the city’s voting precincts and scattered 300,000 of the city’s residents, most of them black, across the country. With citywide elections still scheduled in February and March for 20 key public offices—including mayor, criminal sheriff, civil sheriff and all city council members—restoring the city’s democratic capability might seem an urgent task to some, but not to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

(Read the rest.)