Does 'Ryan' Rhyme With 'Suppression'? by John Nichols
"Van Hollen is actually asking the high court to bypass the appeals process and make what would, in effect, be an emergency intervention to force voters to show photo identification in order to cast ballots. Lower-court judges have determined that more than 300,000 Wisconsinites do not possess forms of identification that would meet the standards of the law, which campaign watchdog and good government groups have identified as one of the strictest in the nation.
Coming at the same time as pitched battles over Voter ID legislation and changes in early voting and election-day registration rules in other battleground states, the move appears to be the latest gambit in a national strategy by Republican officials to erect barriers to electoral participation that critics such as the American Civil Liberties Union have identified as a "voter suppression" strategy.
President Obama and the Democrats had been seen as leading in Wisconsin. But with Mitt Romney's selection of Congressman Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, as his vice presidential running-mate, the GOP has refocused its attention on the state. Additionally, the state's open U.S. Senate seat race pits Republican Thompson against Democratic Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin in a contest that could help to define control of the Senate."
"Van Hollen's late-stage intervention—coming at a point when many observers believed the Voter ID issue was settled for the 2012 election cycle—is highly significant, as it could give Republicans an upper hand in a state that until recently had generally been seen as leaning toward President Obama and the Democrats."http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/08/21-6
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