Is Your Right to Vote In Jeopardy? Ocotober 12, 2011
When you see this type of headlines, what do you think? What underlying questions enter your mind? Do you say what? Or ask why? Maybe even ask who would do this?
All good questions, however, one question will answer all: Why would any state legislature, swing state or no, pass a law restricting voting rights (by restricting voting hours, requiring ID, etc.) when there is virtually no evidence of voter fraud?
Make no mistake:There is an organized, national partisan effort to restrict voting rights.Across the country, GOP-controlled state legislatures (since the 2010 mid-term elections) have passed measures to make voting arduous for certain citizens who have shown a marked propensity for supporting Democrats. The new laws could make casting a ballot "significantly harder" for more than 5 million eligible voters, according to a new report by New York University Law School's Brennan Center for Justice.
Republicans insist that they are only trying to prevent voter fraud, which has become a Republican cottage industry over the last 20 years because it justifies questioning the eligibility of thousands of would-be voters — often targeting poor and minority citizens in urban areas that lean Democratic, but that claim doesn't hold up to cursory scrutiny. While many Americans believe the oft-repeated tale that the ballot box needs to be protected from fake voters, in-person voter fraud is virtually non-existent and
the true aim of Republican efforts appears to be voter suppression.
As far as voter fraud goes: a major probe by the Bush's Justice Department between 2002 and 2007 failed to prosecute a single person for going to the polls and impersonating an eligible voter, which the anti-fraud laws are supposedly designed to stop. Out of the 300 million votes cast in that period, federal prosecutors convicted only 86 people for voter fraud – and many of the cases involved immigrants and former felons who were simply unaware of their ineligibility. A much-hyped investigation in Wisconsin, meanwhile, led to the prosecution of only .0007 percent of the local electorate for alleged. In Texas, where Governor Rick Perry used a highly unusual procedural maneuver to accelerate passage of a bill requiring a government-issued photo ID to vote, the state Attorney General found no cases of voter impersonation fraud. Zero.
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All good questions, however, one question will answer all: Why would any state legislature, swing state or no, pass a law restricting voting rights (by restricting voting hours, requiring ID, etc.) when there is virtually no evidence of voter fraud?
Make no mistake:There is an organized, national partisan effort to restrict voting rights.Across the country, GOP-controlled state legislatures (since the 2010 mid-term elections) have passed measures to make voting arduous for certain citizens who have shown a marked propensity for supporting Democrats. The new laws could make casting a ballot "significantly harder" for more than 5 million eligible voters, according to a new report by New York University Law School's Brennan Center for Justice.
Republicans insist that they are only trying to prevent voter fraud, which has become a Republican cottage industry over the last 20 years because it justifies questioning the eligibility of thousands of would-be voters — often targeting poor and minority citizens in urban areas that lean Democratic, but that claim doesn't hold up to cursory scrutiny. While many Americans believe the oft-repeated tale that the ballot box needs to be protected from fake voters, in-person voter fraud is virtually non-existent and
the true aim of Republican efforts appears to be voter suppression.
As far as voter fraud goes: a major probe by the Bush's Justice Department between 2002 and 2007 failed to prosecute a single person for going to the polls and impersonating an eligible voter, which the anti-fraud laws are supposedly designed to stop. Out of the 300 million votes cast in that period, federal prosecutors convicted only 86 people for voter fraud – and many of the cases involved immigrants and former felons who were simply unaware of their ineligibility. A much-hyped investigation in Wisconsin, meanwhile, led to the prosecution of only .0007 percent of the local electorate for alleged. In Texas, where Governor Rick Perry used a highly unusual procedural maneuver to accelerate passage of a bill requiring a government-issued photo ID to vote, the state Attorney General found no cases of voter impersonation fraud. Zero.
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