Voter ID requirements being pushed under false pretenses

[struggle4progress]

Posted: Wednesday, September 11, 2013 12:00 am
By Rudy Dalpra columnist

The effort to disenfranchise eligible voters is continuing unabated, driven by Republican Party zealots who are aghast at trends that show that their constituency is under siege ...

... The so-called “election reforms” being proposed and unfortunately passed on the state level where Republicans have taken control are a farce in that the various legislative offensives are predicated upon a trumped-up notion that there is widespread voter fraud. The foundation of the reform movement is made of sand because, in every case where independent study of the fraud notion has been undertaken, no evidence of a problem can be found. Random cases are being held forth as justification for a raid on democracy, which in today’s fractured atmosphere is going virtually without effective challenge, although the U.S. Attorney General’s Office has recently shown signs of becoming restless over the trends.

What are the manifestations of this partisan power grab? To name a few that come to mind instantly: reducing the number of early voting days; reducing the number of polling places; requiring specific voter identification cards; shortening hours that polls are open; understaffing polling places to generate delays; continued promotion of touch screen voting devices that intimidate the unsophisticated electorate and that provide no paper trail for verification and legitimate recounts; designating polling places that create a considerable inconvenience to those who will have to find them in order to vote. These are the basics. There are nuances to most of the vote-suppression initiatives listed ...

http://www.eacourier.com/opinion/dalpra-voter-id-requirements-being-pushed-under-false-pretenses/article_ee61065c-1a67-11e3-bacd-001a4bcf887a.html

[Mnemosyne]

1. K&R, because it matters. nt

[Bluenorthwest]

2. Pointless to speak of this without naming the States that are guilty of it

so that residents might take action. There are States that seek to increase voter access, States without ID cards or the need to line up like good kids for hours at some 'polling place'. No 'touch screen voting'. No polling places, paper ballots, two weeks to read and return them. States who do it right should be lauded and patterned after, not simply lumped in with the rest of the fools.

[struggle4progress]

3. ... Lawmakers proposed 62 photo ID bills in 37 states in the 2011 and 2012 sessions,

with multiple bills introduced in some states ...
Flurry of Voter ID laws tied to conservative group ALEC
By Ethan Magoc
News21

[Uncle Joe]

4. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, struggle4progress.

[area51]

5. The only voter fraud I'm hearing about

are where republinazi party members like Anthrax Coulter and Lizard Cheney are guilty of it.