I don't know how to get people more engaged and more outraged about this. Many states around the country have enacted "Voter ID" laws that are really nothing more than an attempt to suppress voting by aged individuals and racial minorities, in other words, the return of Jim Crow.
While no one, or at least no one but Michelle Bachman, is willing to make direct appeals to racism anymore, the use of code words is rife, and "voter fraud" is one of those codes. It means "people who vote Democrat." Because the percentage of minorities and aged individuals who don't have valid state issued ID is higher than that of white males in middle age, Republicans gain from these laws.
The situation in Pennsylvania is instructive. Republican office holders there have boosted their Voter ID law as ensuring that the state's electoral votes will go to Mitt Romney. When this law was being enacted, the stated rationale was the prevention of voter fraud, which was described as widespread and a threat to honest elections. Now, in defending the law against a lawsuit, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has stipulated in a legal statement that there is NO documented history of voter fraud in Pennsylvania and that there is no evidence that fraud would occur in the absence of this law. In the absence of proven fraud and with the concession that there is no likelihood of fraud, what rationale remains?
Similar things have happened all around the country. Republicans put a lot of effort into electing the Secretary of State in many states and it's really paid off for them. These officials have made a lot of noise about voter fraud, but in laboring mightily, they have brought forth little.In New Mexico, for example the Republican candidate was electing promising to find "thousands" of fraudulent votes, and finally found 104 illegal registrations and 19 actual votes cast by those not entitled to vote. Is that a crime? Yes. Should the perpetrators be punished? Yes. Do we need to purge voter lists and enact Draconian legislation? I would say no. http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/gop_new_mexico_sec_of_state_finds_tiny_fraction_of_the_voter_fraud_she_alleged.php.
Meanwhile, the states which have enacted these laws that require state-issued ID have also, apparently systematically, closed or restricted hours for the offices that issue that kind of ID. For example, in Wisconsin there is one office that is open on the 5th Wednesday of each month, so it's open 4 days a year. In Alabama, a cluster of mostly black counties are served by one office that more than 100 miles from some of the people it supposedly serves. These are mostly poor people with no driver's license, remember. All the states have "free" ID--they have to because of a court order--but all require birth certificates, which are not free. Many states also have a policy of offering no help whatever to anyone who does not present with the correct documents.
All this is reminiscent of the various laws used in the "old" south to suppress voting by African-Americans, such as so-called literacy tests. The tests were administered by county officials in person and anyone with dark skin failed, literate or not.
Documented voter fraud is extremely rare. In 2004 in Washington, when the Governor's race was microscopically close, a detailed investigation by a Republican Secretary of State found 0.0009% of votes were case illegally. Even in that election, not enough to change the outcome.
I'm appalled and I'm outraged. I remember the voter marches of the 1960's with Bull Connor and the dogs of the Alabama police forces, the bombs of Mississippi, the violence and hate. Seeing the gains people worked so hard and suffered so much to attain stolen by the "Party of Lincoln" (makes me gag to write that about the modern Republicans) just makes me ill.If the Republicans can't win honestly, maybe they should just accept their loses--or (better yet) change their policies so they're not just servants of the very rich and powerful.
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