“but you haven’t seen anything yet. Just wait until 2012 .”

[ProfessionalLeftist]

In early 2009, I had dinner with a prominent, conservative political operative. He calmly (and accurately) predicted that the 2010 mid-term election would see the largest Republican gains in half a century. He then leaned in and half-whispered, “but you haven’t seen anything yet. Just wait until 2012 .” I pressed him on specifics, but he would only allude to a campaign that would rewrite the political rules. With the revelation that a centralized, state-by-state voter suppression campaign is underway, I now know what he was alluding to.

The New Voter Restriction Laws

In 2011, a sudden wave of state-level voter restrictions in Republican-controlled states has swept the nation, just in time for the 2012 election, with 19 new laws and two executive actions on the books. Some of these laws reduced or eliminated early voting, while others did away with weekend voting and same-day registration. All 50 states require voters to prove their identification at the polls, but 17 states have pending or approved law mandating government-sponsored IDs in order to vote, despite the fact that approximately 11% of citizens don’t have such IDs (for various reasons). For some Americans, even those with ample resources, getting an ID can be quite a challenge (even for nuns!).

The Brennan Center for Justice estimates that 5 million eligible voters face disenfranchisement from these new voter ID laws.

MORE...

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/01/09/voter-suppression-the-new-disenfranchisement/

PeeEss: What is anyone, particularly the Democrats, doing to stop this (besides of course Bernie Sanders). This seems to be progressing pretty much unabated. Why isn't it loudly and daily called out (besides by Rachel Maddow and Bernie Sanders?) Is there anything more important leading into 2012 than thwarting this? I wonder...because many other issues will be decided by the outcome in November 2012. Why is the Democratic Party asleep at the wheel while Republicans are driving our electoral system into their shitter in order to suit the 1%?

Who’s Behind the New Laws?

The corporate organization behind the new spate of voter ID laws is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which claims to be a “nonpartisan public-private partnership” between legislators, the private sector, and the general public to promote “principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty.” (How is requiring government-issued ID to vote a promotion of “limited government” and “individual liberty”?) In actuality, ALEC is a hyper-conservative Republican organization that receives 98% of its funding from corporate entities, such as Exxon Mobil, Atria (formerly Phillip Morris tobacco), AT&T, Coca-Cola, and the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation.

And ALEC is more than just a corporate lobbying organization. They work directly with legislators (who are ALEC members) to craft model legislation that is then introduced in statehouses across the country without acknowledging that corporations drafted the bill. ALEC drafted model ID voter legislation, and every single new voter ID law was passed with ALEC member involvement. ALEC’s policy agenda for 2011 included bills to deregulate polluting industries, privatize education, eliminate unions, and voting restrictions.

[Uncle Joe]

1. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, ProfessionalLeftist.

[Frustratedlady]

2. We need to spend a lot of time fighting against ALEC.

They have a head start, but we know what can happen when people get busy on the internet. Just look at what happened with the attack on women. They aren't done with that yet, but neither are we!

We've made the Koch Bros. take notice that we notice them and are exposing them at every turn. We can do the same with ALEC.

[seeviewonder]

3. The problem of voter disenfranchisement is very real,

especially going into this general election. This is mainly due to the Repub controlled statehouses and of course they are doing the bidding for ALEC. However, I think the synergistic effect of having rampant disenfranchisement along with electronic voting machines will potentially seal the Repub wins. Unfortunately, I don't know that there is much the average person can do to stop both of these issues, especially in the short amount of time to the general election.

[FailureToCommunicate]

4. THEY have a plan, what are Dems doing?

Dithering, no doubt.

Color me pessimistic, despite the lousy apparent GOP candidates.

[dana_b]

5. Bernie is not a Democrat

and the Republican know that this is the only way that they can win. They've done it successfully before - why wouldn't they do it again?

[a kennedy]

6. I'm so afraid of what is happening with voter ID's etc...

terribly nervous.

[randome]

7. Not to dismiss the very real danger of ALEC but...

...you still don't 'know' what your friend was talking about, you're just guessing.

The Voter ID laws are clearly designed to disenfranchise potential Democratic voters but it's a very small margin of greasing the numbers.

I am NOT saying to be complacent but your friend is wrong because 2012 looks very much like a Democratic landslide about to occur. He may have been right once but not this time.

The Internet blackout and the protests against Komen were the most effective protests we saw this year. How can we use similar methods against ALEC?

[lastlib]

15. It WON'T be a landslide if a percentage of our electorate are DENIED their RIGHT to vote!

I believe this is TERRIBLY important, and we need to unite strongly to stop it!

[Canuckistanian]

17. These laws only work when election results are close

They won't do the WHOLE job of targeting and disenfranchising Democratic voters.

And right now, 2012 ain't looking like a close race.

[snot]

8. Not to mention the problems with electronic voting.

The Dems' inaction on these issues is one of the things that's made it hard to believe they're not complicit.

[geek tragedy]

9. The DOJ has been all over these laws. Nt

[lovelyrita]

16. That hasn't stopped them though.

The laws are up and running in Florida. This can easily change the outcome of the presidential in a huge swing state like Florida.

[snot]

19. I think you're replying to the O.P.? 'Cuz Dems certainly have NOT been all over

electronic voting.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

10. At least Occupy is trying to spotlight ALEC

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002353545

To respond to a couple of the comments here: And I know Bernie isn't a Dem. He's an independent. And I didn't write the article, someone else did, thus the link and the excerpts, so it isn't my friend but rather the author's friend that is being referred to. That Sanders isn't a Dem even more strongly begs the question I originally asked: WHERE are the Dems on this?

I sent a 30+ page expose to Obama about a year ago about ALEC along with a letter that concluded with the statement that we (the poeple ie: 99%) have no voice in our own gov't anymore (we don't). I got no response. Actually I did get a response but it had to do with social security (?). Maybe that response was to something else though I had not written him about anything else in the timeframe surrounding sending him that packet. Of course I'm not so naive as to believe he ever saw the packet or the letter, but I sent it anyway. Certified mail. Can't hurt. Didn't help, but didn't hurt.

Obama of course can't do much anyway, it's up to Democrats collectively and the rest of us, including Occupy, to scream bloody murder about these ALEC assholes.

One commenter here is right: most people, if you asked them who ALEC is, they'd assume it's some hot-headed, wife-abusing liberal actor (ie: Baldwin). They dont' have a damn CLUE.

I'm admittedly a cynic. And with good reason. I don't care how pathetic the Repub candidates are and how bad it "looks" for them. Because if they have 15 million people disenfranchised with their damned "Voter ID" laws and the damn voting machines are (still) rigged, Obama and by association the rest of the country - the 99% - can STILL lose. Easily. Nothing has been done about any of this for the past decade, at least. Nothing.

I won't forget what happened in 2001 and again in 2004. It can happen again - and worse. Because 2001 was just the initial test of their tactics. By now, they've been refined and they've been emboldened because they KNOW how well they work - mostly because no one has done a goddamned thing to stop them, least of all the Democrats. So now the problem is even worse and will continue to get worse until someone DOES something to stop it.

Our electoral system, our media, and therefore our entire Democracy has long since been flushed down the 1%'s toilet. They're only becoming more blatant and emboldened with their tactics. And most people (present company excluded) largely sit there complacent, ignorant of most of it, and fiddling - especially the Democrats.

The media (part of the 1%) effectively blacks out what they don't want the general public to hear or see - Iraq war protests, Occupy protests (except what they can use to smear Occupy and their efforts and define them negatively), and certainly ALEC. So people are largely ignorant. Still, with YouTube, Ustream, Facebook, Twitter and the internet, I can't figure how they could be, nevermind the media.



Yep. I'm frustrated. And very worried.

[Tennessee Gal]

11. What was the opinion of this Republican operative about the tactics being used?

Hope I am wrong, but I bet he didn't care about ethics or legalities. Just grab that power!

[annabanana]

12. ALEC needs to become as familiar as Romney's dog.. . It needs

to be "water-cooler" vernacular.

[pubsrpigs]

13. Anyone who thinks that change will happen via the ballot anymore

is incredibility naive.

[geek tragedy]

14. Vote suppressing nonsense.

Ask the people of Iraq if American elections matter.

[Hutzpa]

18. I'm kicking this

This needed to be acknowledged.