The Republican War on Voters
Republicans and their Tea Party contemporaries have consistently shown a disdain for the rights of people of color especially in the voting booth. Ari Berman reports on the concerted effort of Republicans throughout the United States to find ways to stop the wrong type of people from voting.
All told, a dozen states have approved new obstacles to voting. Kansas and Alabama now require would-be voters to provide proof of citizenship before registering. Florida and Texas made it harder for groups like the League of Women Voters to register new voters. Maine repealed Election Day voter registration, which had been on the books since 1973. Five states – Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia – cut short their early voting periods. Florida and Iowa barred all ex-felons from the polls, disenfranchising thousands of previously eligible voters. And six states controlled by Republican governors and legislatures – Alabama, Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin – will require voters to produce a government-issued ID before casting ballots. More than 10 percent of U.S. citizens lack such identification, and the numbers are even higher among constituencies that traditionally lean Democratic – including 18 percent of young voters and 25 percent of African-Americans.
Tags: Voting Rights
The complaint is:
There is a very simple compromise solution: have voter registrars issue the proper voter identification cards when people register to vote.
Of course, I find it curious that so many of my friends on the left object to measures to prevent people who are ineligible to vote from voting. It’s almost as if they depended on fraud . . . .
But not so curious that a hardened wingnut would actually believe that there is extensive fraudulent voting. Even after the BushCo Justice Dept spent most of 8 years looking for it and they came up with nothing.
There’s a reason why the right needs voter suppression to win anything.
voter fraud doesn’t exist in the way of people coming to a polling place, saying they’re someone else, and voting. It just doesn’t.
http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/policy_brief_on_the_truth_about_voter_fraud/
AND even if, say ACORN, was registering thousands and thousands of imaginary people to vote those imaginary people would have to show up at the polls and vote. Mickey Mouse has never shown up. period.
I find it curious that people on the right are so concerned with this imaginary issue all of a sudden. I didn’t see this sort of push for voting restrictions in the 2000 and 2004 elections which both had more than their share of electory shenanigans (even though they were also not the kind of fraud described above, but more systematic/courts related).
And here is the straight-up deal on why wingnuts don’t want poor people to vote:
Notice what’s missing? Any acknowledgement that these same poor people are American citizens. But somehow this fool thinks that it is OK to deny poor Americans their right to vote.
Can you say Poll Tax?
When I vote in Delaware, I show ID.
Delaware must be one of those evil conservative wing-nut states.