The GOP is a mastermind coalition of terrific genius. Seriously. They are like the one true faction in identifying a problem, but not looking to solve it fairly and amicably or perhaps with honor and nobility. No, not at all. Instead of taking their message to the streets by producing the best campaigns they can muster, and letting the voting chips fall where they may in November 2012, the GOP plans to put Rick Perry, or Mittens Romney, or that crazy corndog, Michele Bachmann in the white house by basically taking the ability to vote away from millions of people in the next presidential election.
How do they plan to do it? Simple. They plan to surreptitiously use refurbished tactics from decades ago in order to disenfranchise the voting public. Has it been difficult to set this up? Not even a little bit. You see, a new crop of GOP governors and state legislators have passed a series of measures that could prevent students, minorities, immigrants, ex-convicts, and the elderly from voting in the next presidential election, by making the voting process prohibitive, difficult, and taxing on a large swath of the nation.
Ari Berman writing for Rolling Stone has produced one of the most comprehensive accounts of what’s happening today. He recounts how a dozen states have set up obstacles to voting.
Kansas and Alabama now require would-be voters to provide proof of citizenship before registering. Florida and Texas made it harder for groups like the League of Women Voters to register new voters. Maine repealed Election Day voter registration, which had been on the books since 1973. Five states – Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia – cut short their early voting periods. Florida and Iowa barred all ex-felons from the polls, disenfranchising thousands of previously eligible voters. And six states controlled by Republican governors and legislatures – Alabama, Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin – will require voters to produce a government-issued ID before casting ballots. More than 10 percent of U.S. citizens lack such identification, and the numbers are even higher among constituencies that traditionally lean Democratic – including 18 percent of young voters and 25 percent of African-Americans.
So in effect, the GOP studied Barack Obama’s stunning win in 2008. They took note of who was coming out in droves to vote for the young senator, and have decided that this is the demographic they will target this go round, but not with their message, but with laws that stifle their voice. Nice way to court those young people who’ll be in charge of your life in twenty years when you’re no longer able to make decisions for your well being. But, in a manner of short term thinking that is obese with the GOP, nothing matters but a win in 2012. Nothing at all. Not raising the debt ceiling, not job creation, not saving the economy, and certainly not preserving the democratic process.
Republicans say that the measures have nothing to do with “voter suppression.” They categorize their new efforts under the paltry reasoning of “cracking down on voter fraud.” The problem with this logic is that there have been very few instances of voter fraud, since well, they managed to seize the White House in 2000 after losing the popular vote, and that whole debacle down in Florida. So yeah, voter fraud is now running rampant, now that the whole Recount in Florida business is over. Berman reports that, “A major probe by the Justice Department between 2002 and 2007 failed to prosecute a single person for going to the polls and impersonating an eligible voter, which the anti-fraud laws are supposedly designed to stop. Out of the 300 million votes cast in that period, federal prosecutors convicted only 86 people for voter fraud – and many of the cases involved immigrants and former felons who were simply unaware of their ineligibility. A much-hyped investigation in Wisconsin, meanwhile, led to the prosecution of only .0007 percent of the local electorate for alleged voter fraud.”
Yet and still, these are the tactics they’re now employing to initiate this crackdown (read: stop Democrats from going to the polls)
- Barriers to Registration: Since January, six states have introduced legislation to impose new restrictions on voter registration drives run by groups like Rock the Vote and the League of Women Voters. In Florida, a new law requires anyone who signs up new voters to hand in registration forms to the state board of elections within 48 hours of collecting them, and to comply with a barrage of onerous, bureaucratic requirements. Those submitting late forms face a $1,000 fine, as well as possible felony prosecution.
- Cuts to Early Voting: After noting the success of early voting in Obama’s 2008 win, Republicans who once backed the process, now are turning their back on the option. Florida and Ohio – which now have conservative Republican governors – have dramatically curtailed early voting for 2012. Next year, early voting will be cut from 14 to eight days in Florida and from 35 to 11 days in Ohio, with limited hours on weekends.
- Disenfranchising Ex-Felons: Republican governors in Florida and Iowa have recently overturned decisions by their predecessors to restore voting rights to thousands of ex-prisoners. Bill Clinton questioned this move. “Why should we disenfranchise people forever once they’ve paid their price?” he asked during a speech in July. “Because most of them in Florida were African-Americans and Hispanics and would tend to vote for Democrats – that’s why.”
- Requiring Photo IDs: This is the biggest change and the most essential tactic the GOP will use. Several states now require a government-issued photo ID in order to vote. Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin are among them. Berman notes, “In Texas, under “emergency” legislation passed by the GOP-dominated legislature and signed by Gov. Rick Perry, a concealed-weapon permit is considered an acceptable ID but a student ID is not.” In addition, Republicans in Wisconsin mandate that students can only vote if their IDs include a current address, birth date, signature and two-year expiration date – requirements that no college or university ID in the state currently meets.
It’s worthwhile to note that according to Berman, “Half of all black and Hispanic residents in Wisconsin do not have a driver’s license, and the state staffs barely have as many DMVs as Indiana – a quarter of which are open less than one day a month. To make matters worse, Gov. Scott Walker tried to shut down 16 more DMVs – many of them located in Democratic-leaning areas.”
In South Carolina you may obtain a free state ID which is now required to vote, but if you lack one, you must first pay for a passport or a birth certificate, which to some sounds an awful lot like the poll tax during the Jim Crow era. Or if you’re in Wisconsin, perhaps you won’t get your free ID if you don’t inquire, since as HuffPo reports, Republican state Senate aide, Steve Krieser told staffers they “should refrain from offering the free version to customers who do not ask for it.”
Many voting-rights advocates are prepping for chaos and attempting to get the word out early so whatever can be done, will be done, in addition to imploring that the public see what’s going on so they may prepare themselves accordingly. This is a thinly veiled attempt at suppressing voting rights, combined with employing potentially race-driven exclusionary tactics from generations ago. Like most things we’re learning about our current political climate — the devil is in the details. And that devil is attempting to remove the voice of millions from the electoral process.
Image via ColorLines.com
