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December 30, 2011 in Opinion
GOP waging war on voters
All eyes are on Iowa this week, as the hodgepodge field of Republican contenders gallivants across that farm state seeking a win, or at least “momentum,” in the campaign for the party’s presidential nomination. But behind the scenes, a battle is being waged by Republicans – not against each other, but against American voters. Across the country, state legislatures and governors are pushing laws that seek to restrict access to the voting booth, laws that will disproportionately harm people of color, low-income people, and young and elderly voters.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund have just released a comprehensive report on the crisis, “Defending Democracy: Confronting Modern Barriers to Voting Rights in America.” In it, they write: “The heart of the modern block the vote campaign is a wave of restrictive government-issued photo identification requirements. In a coordinated effort, legislators in thirty-four states introduced bills imposing such requirements. Many of these bills were modeled on legislation drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) – a conservative advocacy group whose founder explained: ‘Our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.’ ”
It is interesting that the right wing, long an opponent of any type of national identification card, is very keen to impose photo-identification requirements at the state level. Why? Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP, calls the voter ID laws “a solution without a problem. … It’s not going to make the vote more secure. What it is going to do is put the first financial barrier between people and their ballot box since we got rid of the poll tax.”
You don’t have to look far for people impacted by this new wave of voter-purging laws. Darwin Spinks, an 86-year-old World War II veteran from Murfreesboro, Tenn., went to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get a photo ID for voting purposes, since drivers over 60 there are issued driver’s licenses without photos. After waiting in two lines, he was told he had to pay $8. Requiring a voter to pay a fee to vote has been unconstitutional since the poll tax was outlawed in 1964. Over in Nashville, 93-year-old Thelma Mitchell had a state-issued ID – the one she used as a cleaner at the state Capitol building for more than 30 years. The ID had granted her access to the governor’s office for decades, but now, she was told, it wasn’t good enough to get her into the voting booth. She and her family are considering a lawsuit, an unfortunate turn of events for a woman who is older than the right of women to vote in this country.
It is not just the elderly being given the disenfranchisement runaround. The Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law points to “bills making voter registration drives extremely difficult and risky for volunteer groups, bills requiring voters to provide specific photo ID or citizenship documents … bills cutting back on early and absentee voting, bills making it hard for students and active-duty members of the military to register to vote locally, and more.”
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recently spoke on this alarming trend. He said: “Our efforts honor the generations of Americans who have taken extraordinary risks, and willingly confronted hatred, bias and ignorance – as well as billy clubs and fire hoses, bullets and bombs – to ensure that their children, and all American citizens, would have the chance to participate in the work of their government. The right to vote is not only the cornerstone of our system of government – it is the lifeblood of our democracy.”
Just this week, the Justice Department blocked South Carolina’s new law requiring voters to show photo IDs at the polls, saying data submitted by South Carolina showed that minority voters were about 20 percent more likely to lack acceptable photo ID required at polling places.
By some estimates, the overall population who may be disenfranchised by this wave of legislation is upward of 5 million voters, most of whom would be expected to vote with the Democratic Party. The efforts to quash voter participation are not genuine, grass-roots movements. Rather, they rely on funding from people like the Koch brothers, David and Charles. That is why thousands of people, led by the NAACP, marched on the New York headquarters of Koch Industries two weeks ago en route to a rally for voting rights at the United Nations.
Despite the media attention showered on the Iowa caucuses, the real election outcomes in 2012 will likely hinge more on the contest between billionaire political funders like the Kochs and the thousands of people in the streets, demanding one person, one vote.
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily TV/radio news hour. Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
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JBlim on December 30 at 6:28 a.m.
Republicans are afraid of voters.
jimvw2 on December 30 at 7:52 a.m.
Apparently having one’s brother suppress the opposition vote in Florida and relying on a purchased Supreme Court won’t be enough to guarantee a majority of eligible voters can be persuaded to vote Repubican this time around. So the ALEC-trained, anti-American minions in purchased state capitals are busy with their campaign to suppress the vote.
They’re not even moral enough to want to conceal this Fascist tactic. Let’s hope the Justice Department sends a clear message that these unconstitutional infringements are the real election fraud we need to worry about.
It must be embarassing to long-time Republicans to see what these corporate thugs and their Tea Party handmaidens have done to their once proud party.
What a shame.
citizenX on December 30 at 8:20 a.m.
This is what has always irked me about the GOP machine. It’s all about ideology and protecting wealthy corporates, who use whatever tactics big money can buy to maintain their power. If it means costing voters their constitutional rights, it’s okay, because those voters arent GOP anyway. Gerrymandering and disenfranchising is just a necessary evil for the GOP machine to retain their lust for power and wealth, and they’ll always prey on the unsuspecting apathetic public to not pay attention.
ManleyPointer on December 30 at 8:34 a.m.
Oh, yeah, it’s unconscionable to require someone to present photo ID in order to vote. We have to do it to cash a check, pick up a prescription or get a passport, but somehow when it comes to the franchise, such a requirement becomes a “barrier” to voting? Please. And spare me your teary-eyed anecdotes, Amy; I’ll see your 93 year-old janitress and raise you a couple thousand Chicago dead people (I’ll even throw in a few cartoon characters for good measure). The integrity of the electoral system demands that voters identify themselves. How about if the states are required to issue photo IDs free to those who can’t afford them?
gmorton on December 30 at 8:59 a.m.
ManleyPointer wrote,
“How about if the states are required to issue photo IDs free to those who can’t afford them?”
Sounds like another free lunch.
There are a number of costs involved in voting – the cost of transportation to the polls, the cost of reading glasses to read the ballot, even the cost of clothes to wear to the polling place. Taxpayers have no duty to cover any of those costs. If you can’t afford them, tough – stay home.
crikey on December 30 at 9:01 a.m.
The incendiary headline says it all for yet another obummer media sheep. I don’t recalll seeing a similar headline when obamao’s pals the Black Panthers, were intimidating voters away from polls, or each time the current regime rips yet another freedom from Americans as it steamrolls over us with it’s socialist agenda. Voters are terrified of demrats and the corrupt ‘justice’ dept. it’s created, JBlim ~ it’s disheartening to see so many of you right here in Spokane. Vote for your pal again, and you won’t recognize your own nation in a few more years.
detroitdude on December 30 at 9:10 a.m.
@crikey:
I haven’t recongnized this nation since 9/11/2001, you’re a little late.
ManleyPointer on December 30 at 9:22 a.m.
I think that voting is a pretty important aspect of citizenship, and I think that everyone who wants to vote should be assisted in voting (note that no one would be ‘required’ to get this ID, only to have photo ID in order to vote).
You are right, gmorton, that issuing free photo ID is “another free lunch” but one that is at least arguably beneficial to our nation and our society, more valuable than costly.
valleyman on December 30 at 9:31 a.m.
@gmorton: Mandating every American have an ID card issued by their state doesn’t seem to be too outrageous at all. If indigents can obtain one (an ID only) for free, then we can enforce voter ID laws without worrying that some poor, decrepit, old retiree like Mitchell can’t afford the 10 bucks to get an ID to vote.
This might seem to be a free lunch, but let me ask you this: If I would gladly pay an extra $1.50 for my driver’s license to make sure every LEGAL citizen had an ID in order to ensure we have free and fair elections (which is a duty the government SHOULD be involved in), what violates conservative principals in that? I’m paying for this service, and we are enshrining elections.
Win-win.
mtharves on December 30 at 10:24 a.m.
I say that we convert to vote-by-mail in every state. No photo ID needed. It has the added bonus of keeping the USPS in business,
no more hanging chads, and no more expensive voting machines that are prone to breaking down.
david on December 30 at 12:40 p.m.
For crikey: I pray to God each day that I won’t rocognize this country. I’m tired of the greed, the me first attitude of wall street and the military industrial complex. Bring back the draft and see how many wars we get into.
richard on December 30 at 3:33 p.m.
jimvw2 has outdone himself this time; blindly swallowing the propaganda from the left.
The left is again treating blacks as if they are less capable than other citizens. Oh the horror of requitring voters to prove they are registered and citizens!!
With that logic, why isn’t it “burdensome” and “oppressive” to require that black voters somehow make it to the voting booth? Perhaps the state should take the voting booths to each of their homes?
The state will give them photo ID’s for free! But that is still considered “oppressive” by the left and this pandering administration.
The left and the Democrat Party does will allow blacks and other minorities to be treated as all other Americans; that is “too burdensome”.
It is ironic that many states have voter ID laws that were instituted prior to the 2008 election … when a record number of voters went to the polls in America and in most of the stats5es with voter ID laws.
It is ironic that the Supreme Court upheld the voter ID law in Indiana - the same law being proposed in South Carolina. Even more ironic, that liberal icon Justice Stevens wrote the majority opinion saying that requiring photo ID to vote … “is not discriminatory”.
Since then, georgia’s identical law was upheld in the state Supreme Court and a federal appeals court, where the ruling quoted Justice Steven’s logic that in a democracy, “it should not be considered burdensome for voters to prove they are eligible to vote.”
Cries and howls of “voter suppression” is just another duplictous act by this corrupt administration in its attempts to follow the historic pattern of Democrat voters (ironically so favored in Chicago where BO cut his baby teeth in politics) of “vote early and often”.
There is nothing more shameful than the left’s treatment of blacks in this country as incompetent, immature and irresponsible. But that treatment has been long favored by those who use groups to maintain their political power.
One of these days, a majority of blacks are going to turn their backs on the Democrat party as the true oppressors.
Orphan on December 30 at 4:42 p.m.
Very well said Richard.
gmorton on December 30 at 6:40 p.m.
valleyman wrote,
“If I would gladly pay an extra $1.50 for my driver’s license to make sure every LEGAL citizen had an ID in order to ensure we have free and fair elections (which is a duty the government SHOULD be involved in), what violates conservative principals in that?”
I’d agree that assuring free and fair elections would be worth $1.50. But assuring them at even less cost would be even better. You do that by refusing to allow persons who cannot demonstrate their citizenship to vote. Like paying taxes, obtaining the necessary credentials is a cost of citizenship. Others have no duty to pay those costs on your behalf, and no duty to assure that you vote.
JBlim on December 30 at 10:48 p.m.
The ONLY reason Republicans care about it is suppression of the poor and black vote, which never vote for them. Republicans have to suppress and propagandize because they are a minority party representing the interests of the rich.
richard on December 31 at 10:10 a.m.
JB … requiring voter ID does NOT suppress voting by minorities or anyone else. The burden of proof in this issue is the left making that claim. Where is your proof, JB?
As I stated above, the 2008 election brought out a record number of voters - most notably in states such as Indiana which had a law requiring such ID.
More - not less - voters came cast their ballot.
This is simply another issue of vilifying those who pursue more order in our political process (making it more difficult for election-tampering).
Using the same logic of Eric Holder, our government should STOP the “repressive” requirement that photo ID be required to fly an airliner.
Just think of how many “oppressed” minorities have been denied the opportunity to travel by air. Oh, the horror!!
And WHY, pray tell, must Americans possess a photo ID just to drive to the grocery store? Does that not mean that many blacks are starving to death because they don’t have “equal access” to food?
The true oppression occurs - not when minorities are subject to the same requirements of citizenship as all others - but when they are given the message that they are less capable and less responsible.
A notion that every good, responsible parent understands.
WillyPeter on January 01 at 9:21 a.m.
Fun….I think that Al Franken and Chris Gregoire won because of illegal, non-citizen ballots. So there!
JBlim on January 01 at 10:11 a.m.
richard says: “The burden of proof in this issue is the left making that claim. Where is your proof, JB?”
That’s funny, richard. Are you arguing that Republicans routinely spend their time and resources on non-existent problems? There are few, if any, cases of actual voter fraud.