Allstocks.com's Bulletin Board Post New Topic  Post A Reply
my profile login | register | search | faq | forum home

  next oldest topic   next newest topic
» Allstocks.com's Bulletin Board » Off-Topic Post, Non Stock Talk » What States Are Doing To Restrict Voting Rights

 - UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!    
Author Topic: What States Are Doing To Restrict Voting Rights
raybond
Member


Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for raybond     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
What States Are Doing To Restrict Voting Rights

Oct 31, 2011 | By Scott Keyes

Perhaps the most nefarious legislation to pop up in states over the past year have been new laws intended to make it more difficult for people to vote. In an unprecedented move, Republican-controlled legislatures have passed a wide range of new bills in 2011 that will restrict, rather than broader, access to the ballot box. As a result, the Brennan Center for Justice estimates that as many as 5 million voters could be disenfranchised in the 2012 election. These new laws could be enough, Rolling Stone writes, “to shift the outcome in favor of the GOP.” Indeed, with poorer voters and minorities hit hardest by the new restrictions, Republicans could see an electoral windfall in 2012 simply by changing election rules. Thirty-one years after Paul Weyrich, co-founder of the Heritage Foundation and father of the modern conservative movement, told a Dallas crowd that “I don’t want everybody to vote,” Republicans are making good on his call to making voting more difficult in the United States. Let’s take a closer look at the different ways in which states are make voting significantly more difficult.

WAR ON VOTING: Perhaps the most sweeping change in voting rights since the 2010 election is the proliferation of state laws requiring citizens to present photo identification in order to vote. First introduced in Indiana in 2008, new “photo ID” laws have the potential to disenfranchise 3.2 million voters, mostly poorer residents and minorities. This was plainly evident when a group of retired nuns in the Hoosier State were turned away from voting in the 2008 primary election because they lacked proper photo identification. Three years later, half a dozen new states have followed Indiana’s lead: Georgia, Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. Rather than each state independently concluding that they needed a photo ID law, model legislation was pushed to state lawmakers by the right-wing corporate front group American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). In South Carolina alone, a new study warns that “nearly 180,000 voters – most of whom are elderly, student, minority or low-income voters – will be disenfranchised as a result of this discriminatory bill.” Meanwhile, a 96-year-old Tennessee woman named Dorothy Cooper attempted to comply with her state’s new photo ID law this month, only to be denied a voter ID because she didn’t have her marriage certificate. Cooper later told MSNBC that her experience now is worse than in the Jim Crow era. Unperturbed, some politicians like Herman Cain and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have thrown their support behind a national photo ID law. The war on voting isn’t just restricted to new photo ID laws; five states – Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Tennessee, and West Virginia – have reduced their early voting periods as well.

RESTRICTING REGISTRATION: The war on voting isn’t simply resigned to Election Day. Instead, a number of Republican-controlled states are making it more difficult to even get registered in the first place. Such restrictions generally come in three forms: new requirements for individuals attempting to register, onerous regulations on non-profit organizations that conduct voter registration drives, and restrictions on when people are permitted to register. In Kansas and Alabama, those wishing to register to vote must now provide proof of citizenship first. Other states like Florida and Texas have opted to make it significantly harder for groups like the League of Women Voters to register people to vote. Project Vote said the new Florida law, which requires “complicated, onerous filings” including a mandate to turn in completed voter registration forms within 48 hours of completion, will “make it next to impossible” for nonprofit voting groups to continue their work. As a result, the League of Women Voters chose to suspend its voter registration drives in the Sunshine State. Michigan is currently considering a bill similar to Florida’s, but with just a 24-hour window to submit voter registration forms. In Maine, the Republican-controlled legislature has taken a different path, choosing to repeal the state’s 38-year-old law allowing citizens to register to vote at the polls on Election Day. The law worked remarkably well for decades, making Maine the top state in 2010 voter turnout without benefiting either particular party. Fortunately, the repeal of Election Day Registration is now subject to a citizen’s veto and will come up for a vote on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

PHANTOM MENACE OF FRAUD: Conservatives’ justification for the new restrictions on voting rights is that they are necessary to head off voter fraud. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus underscored this argument, claiming that non-profit voter organizations like ACORN submitted 400,000 fraudulent registrations in 2008. This zeal to restrict voting rights in the name of preventing fraud was also evident in Maine last month, where the state Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster drew up a list of 206 University of Maine students with out-of-state home addresses and accused them of voter fraud. The Republican Secretary of State subsequently took this list and sent threatening letters to the students, complete with a form to cancel their voter registration in Maine. In fact, as the Brennan Center for Justice notes in two new reports, electoral voter fraud is largely a myth. In a heralded paper titled “The Truth About Voter Fraud“, the Brennan Center notes that “It is more likely that an individual will be struck by lightning than that he will impersonate another voter at the polls.” Indeed, most cases of voter fraud “can be traced to causes far more logical than fraud by voters,” including clerical or typographical errors, mismatched entries, and simple mistakes on either end. In Wisconsin, for instance, approximately 3 million votes were cast in 2004, of which just seven were ultimately deemed invalid – all from felons who were unaware of their ineligibility. Comedian Stephen Colbert recently mocked the need for photo ID laws, noting that fraud occurs in “a jaw dropping 44 one-millionths of one percent” of votes.

--------------------
Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.

Posts: 3827 | From: beautiful California | Registered: Sep 2008  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
CashCowMoo
Member


Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for CashCowMoo     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
I really dont understand why the left is so angry that you have to show your ID to vote. Makes sense to me. You need to show ID to buy smokes, beer, write a check, board a plane, and a multitude of other things. I guess when you are trying to win the backing of the Hispanic vote you need to fight for them any way possible even if it means easing anything that would make it difficult for someone who is in the country illegally.

--------------------
It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.

Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
The Bigfoot
Member


Member Rated:
4
Icon 1 posted      Profile for The Bigfoot     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
As long as ID's are widely available and free to obtain I have no problem with it other than it isn't going to change anything.

Last election it was accusations (without proof and without anyone being charged) that a bus full of unregistered illegal Somalians were brought to a polling place and coached on what to do to vote for a democratic candidate.

Next election it will be accusations (without proof and without anyone being charged) that a bus full of unregistered illegal Mexicans were brought to a polling place with fake ID's and coached on what to do to vote for a democratic candidate.

Even the officials who author these bills and fight for them cannot find more than a fraction of a percent of votes that they find questionable. And the percentage of those votes that actually result in charges of voter fraud are infinitesimal.

So much energy and time spent on a subject of so little value. That time and energy would be better spent on encouraging a larger percentage of the population to vote.

--------------------
No longer eligible for government service due to lack of tax issues.

Posts: 5178 | From: Up North | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
glassman
Member


Icon 1 posted      Profile for glassman     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by The Bigfoot:
As long as ID's are widely available and free to obtain I have no problem with it other than it isn't going to change anything.

Last election it was accusations (without proof and without anyone being charged) that a bus full of unregistered illegal Somalians were brought to a polling place and coached on what to do to vote for a democratic candidate.

Next election it will be accusations (without proof and without anyone being charged) that a bus full of unregistered illegal Mexicans were brought to a polling place with fake ID's and coached on what to do to vote for a democratic candidate.

Even the officials who author these bills and fight for them cannot find more than a fraction of a percent of votes that they find questionable. And the percentage of those votes that actually result in charges of voter fraud are infinitesimal.

So much energy and time spent on a subject of so little value. That time and energy would be better spent on encouraging a larger percentage of the population to vote.

i also am FOR positive ID by Voters.

the notion that Elderly African Americans are intimidated by having to have an ID is a straw man.

A person who has historically been denied the right to vote should be pleased that "the system" is welcoming them to "come in" and become recognised as "legit".

I am a transplant to the worst area in the country for this problem, and i still see ugly things.

BUT!
That ID card in someones hand should be like a sheild against those ugly things, not an obstacle to exersizing your rights.

I do beleive that illegal immigrants vote, and i do see clear evidence that both political parties beleive this too. It appears to me that there is a significant amount of illegal voting by immigrants. Neither side wants to risk dienfranchising these voters so they do not do anything about it. Looking at the Constitution? I see that gun ownership was granted to the "the people". Not to citizens... it was considered a basic human right, but voting was not.

Voting rights are granted only to citizens above the age of 18.

I have never had any problem with a Citizenship card, i was required to register (and apparently still am) for the draft,and i never had problem with that.....

“Three years ago, Candidate Obama promised to address the problems of illegal immigration in America. He failed. The truth is, he didn’t even try,” Romney said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Republican National Hispanic Assembly in Tampa, Fl

At that time that Romney made those remarks at the start of the month, deportations under Obama had just passed the 1 million mark. At the current pace, Obama would pass Bush’s record over two terms by the end of his first term. If that pace kept up in a second Obama term, deportations would total over 4 million. If that’s not trying, then I’d hate to see what trying actually looks like.

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/immigration-deportations-under-obama-on-pace-to -far-exceed-those-under-bush-administration/

--------------------
Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.

Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
raybond
Member


Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for raybond     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Wisconsin Recall Walker Website Hit With Cyber Attack | The effort to recall Wisconsin’s unpopular Gov. Scott Walker (R) kicked off last night with activists planning 100 events across the state in pursuit of more than 540,000 signatures required to get the recall on the 2012 ballot. But right out of the gate early this morning, one group leading the recall campaign was hit with a cyber attack. The website of United Wisconsin was “subjected to a distributed denial of service attack.” The Democratic Party of Wisconsin slammed the attack, noting that “the laws of Wisconsin and the United States were clearly broken tonight in a desperate and illegal attempt to stifle the voice of people” and demanded that the “criminals that launched this attack must be apprehended.” They also called on Walker and the state GOP to “immediately condemn” the attack and call on the state Attorney General “to launch a full investigation with the assistance of the FBI” to prove they “are really concerned with protecting the integrity of the recall process.”

--------------------
Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.

Posts: 3827 | From: beautiful California | Registered: Sep 2008  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
raybond
Member


Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for raybond     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Ohio Voters Have Nearly Enough Signatures To Block Gov. Kasich’s Anti-Voter Law

By Ian Millhiser on Nov 15, 2011 at 10:40 am


Earlier this year, Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) signed a sweeping voter suppression bill which shortens the state’s early voting period, bans in-person early voting on Sundays, and prohibits boards of election from mailing absentee ballot requests to voters. In 2008, four in 10 votes in Ohio’s capitol city were cast using methods that would be eliminated by this anti-voter law.

It is now almost certain, however, that Kasich’s war on democracy will not impact the 2012 election. According to the Ohio Democratic Party, the secretary of state just certified that Ohio voters submitted nearly all of the signatures they need to suspend this law until after it is ratified or rejected by the entire state electorate in November 2012:



Under Ohio law, if about 231,000 voters submit signatures seeking a referendum on Kasich’s anti-voter law, the law is automatically suspended until the next election and it is repealed permanently if the law fails that referendum. Indeed, that is exactly what Ohio’s voters recently did to another one of Kasich’s signature bills, his sweeping attack on workers’ rights. With more than 221,000 signatures already certified and more than 150,000 more signatures on the way, it is all but certain that Kasich’s attempt to suppress the vote in 2012 will fail.


Tags:
Election 2012
John Kasich
Ohio
Voter Suppression

--------------------
Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.

Posts: 3827 | From: beautiful California | Registered: Sep 2008  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
   

Quick Reply
Message:

HTML is enabled.
UBB Code™ is enabled.

Instant Graemlins
   


Post New Topic  Post A Reply Close Topic   Feature Topic   Move Topic   Delete Topic next oldest topic   next newest topic
 - Printer-friendly view of this topic
Hop To:


Contact Us | Allstocks.com Message Board Home

© 1997 - 2021 Allstocks.com. All rights reserved.

Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classic™ 6.7.2

Share