GOP still trying hard to make voting harder?!!

[signalmankenneth]

By Jonathan Alter
Bloomberg News

Mitt Romney campaigned in Michigan last week, where he faces a steep challenge because of his opposition to the auto bailout. But Romney has a strong ally there: legislation being pushed this month by his fellow Republicans aimed at preventing the League of Women Voters from undertaking the voter-registration drives it has sponsored for nearly a century.

Across the country, Republicans are carefully orchestrating plans to make voting harder – let’s call it the Voter Suppression Project – in order to help them win elections.

The Republican effort to restrict voting isn’t just anti-Democrat; it’s anti-democratic. No fair-minded person believes the tall tales of voters pretending they were someone else, which have been debunked by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law and others. What fool would risk prison or deportation to cast a single vote?

This isn’t about stopping vote-stealing and other corruption, for which there already are plenty of laws on the books. It’s about rigging the system to keep power.

First we saw the efforts during the George W. Bush administration by Karl Rove and Justice Department officials to get rid of U.S. attorneys who refused to pursue bogus voter-fraud cases.

Then came Crawford v. Marion County, the 2008 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that mandatory photo-identification laws were constitutional on the basis of ballot protection. The evidence presented included not a single case of in-person impersonation fraud – the only fraud that photo-ID laws can prevent. And the millions of Americans – mostly less-affluent seniors – without driver’s licenses? Good luck.

The big Republican victory in the 2010 election was essential to the Voter Suppression Project. With the help of the American Legislative Exchange Council, Republicans moved with lightning speed to implement their scheme. Since 2011, 18 states have enacted voter-suppression bills, with similar ones pending in 12 more.

In the presidential race, it’s hand-to-hand legal combat, with almost every battleground state embroiled in a struggle over voter eligibility.

Michigan’s bills attack the League of Women Voters by requiring some volunteers to attend state-approved training sessions before they can register voters.

The catch is that the bill makes no provisions for such sessions. It does threaten them with penalties for registration offenses that aren’t specified.

The bill is modeled on Florida’s, parts of which a federal judge invalidated May 31 because he said they had “no purpose other than to discourage” constitutionally protected activity.

In Ohio, the Obama campaign helped collect enough signatures to put a referendum on the ballot repealing restrictions on absentee voting. Preferring not to face the voters directly on voter suppression, the Republican-controlled legislature repealed its own law, although it left intact a related measure that prohibits early voting on the three days before an election. That’s designed to discourage the tradition in black communities of busing worshippers from church to the polling place.

Several battleground states have new photo-ID requirements. Pennsylvania’s law allows valid student ID, but with a number of restrictions. Same in Wisconsin, which attached a series of bring-me-the-witch’s-broomstick demands for students looking to use a school ID. Fortunately, a state judge ruled against the Wisconsin law, although it’s being appealed.

The Obama campaign is obviously concerned about these ballot-access issues for political reasons. But even those with no dog in this fight should recognize that a great democracy doesn’t sully itself by suppressing the precious right to vote.

[Howey]

At least one Republican is being honest about it.

http://www.politicspa.com/turzai-vot...-win-pa/37153/

House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny) suggested that the House’s end game in passing the Voter ID law was to benefit the GOP politically.

“We are focused on making sure that we meet our obligations that we’ve talked about for years,” said Turzai in a speech to committee members Saturday. He mentioned the law among a laundry list of accomplishments made by the GOP-run legislature.

“Pro-Second Amendment? The Castle Doctrine, it’s done. First pro-life legislation – abortion facility regulations – in 22 years, done. Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”

The statement drew a loud round of applause from the audience. It also struck a nerve among critics, who called it an admission that they passed the bill to make it harder for Democrats to vote — and not to prevent voter fraud as the legislators claimed.

[NOVA]

It only makes it harder for illegals....

[Howey]

It only makes it harder for illegals....

It has nothing to do with illegals. It's got lots to do with the poor, elderly, students, and the military.

[christiefan915]

At least one Republican is being honest about it.

http://www.politicspa.com/turzai-vot...-win-pa/37153/

Yeah, how about that! He's really trying to spin his way out of it but it's too late, the horse has left the barn.

This guy's from PA so he should remember that we only got photo ID driver licenses in 1980. Before that your photo ID was the LCB card you got on your 21st birthday. There is just no long history of requiring photo IDs to take care of business in the state, and everyone here knows it. So Turzai is just another fearmonger and Republican shill worried about the blue state vote.

[NOVA]

It has nothing to do with illegals. It's got lots to do with the poor, elderly, students, and the military.

Poor citizens won't have any problem
Old citizens won't have any problem
Student citizens won't have any problem
and
Citizen Troops won't have a problem......

I'm old and poor....I'm not worried about it.....I'm a citizen

Only illegals will have a problem.....

[Rune]

Poor citizens won't have any problem
Old citizens won't have any problem
Student citizens won't have any problem
and
Citizen Troops won't have a problem......

I'm old and poor....I'm not worried about it.....I'm a citizen

Only illegals will have a problem.....

Poor people don't have high speed internet Blabo.

Poor Blabo

[leaningright]

I am not necessarily for any type of legislation like I have read about but I have always failed to see how voter ID's make it harder on only the poor, elderly (my dad is 80 and he is all for voter ID), minorities and such. Could someone please explain?

[Phantasmal]

I am not necessarily for any type of legislation like I have read about but I have always failed to see how voter ID's make it harder on only the poor, elderly (my dad is 80 and he is all for voter ID), minorities and such. Could someone please explain?

Accessibility, cost, two of the things I have heard that make it harder.

[leaningright]

Accessibility, cost, two of the things I have heard that make it harder.

Thanks Rana. I'm not sure about the accessibility part but if they do pass such a law the ID's should be free. Otherwise I'm absolutelymgonna be against it.

[Phantasmal]

Thanks Rana. I'm not sure about the accessibility part but if they do pass such a law the ID's should be free. Otherwise I'm absolutelymgonna be against it.

It is hard or a lot of people to get to the DMV, the ones who issue picture IDs in Alaska. Voting is usually within walking distance, so that is why they are able to vote, but our DMV branches aren't in neighborhoods.

If the government offered free rides, I wouldn't object about picture IDs, either.

[cawacko]

(leaving voting aside) This comment probably makes me out of touch but it seems hard to do many things if you don't have an ID. Now if you are dirt poor you may not have a credit card, a car or a bank account. But don't people need ID's to receive government assistance or no?

[Phantasmal]

(leaving voting aside) This comment probably makes me out of touch but it seems hard to do many things if you don't have an ID. Now if you are dirt poor you may not have a credit card, a car or a bank account. But don't people need ID's to receive government assistance or no?

SS card or birth certificate, but young don't get government assistance. In Alaska when you register to vote, you get a voters iD card which you can use to vote.

[PostmodernProphet]

It has nothing to do with illegals. It's got lots to do with the poor, elderly, students, and the military.

it has to do with the dead, the people who no longer live where they are registered to vote, felons and other Democrats.......

[Rune]

it has to do with Democrats.

We know PiMP. That is the point of the OP.