Democracy continues to slip away. After Republican lawmakers, especially at the state level, have recently rammed through widely unpopular legislation, states are now looking at ways to reduce the likely political fallout from the coup. During the past few weeks, 32 states now have introduced some sort of election reform laws, targeting groups that are more likely to vote Democratic.
The three main kinds of reform legislation proposed are eliminating same day voter registration, eliminating pre-registration, and creating mandatory voter ID cards. These reforms would most affect young voters, poor voters, and minority voters. Not surprisingly, all of these efforts are Republican led. In recent years, higher youth voter turnout has favored Democrats and the Republicans know this. In the 2008 election, 66 percent of young voters cast their ballot for Barack Obama. These new voting legislation laws would particularly make it difficult for young voters. In the past, college students have always been allowed to cast their ballot in their college town. Some states want to take this away or make it tougher for college students to vote. In New Hampshire, a recently defeated bill would have prevented college students to vote in their college towns unless their parents had been residents there. In supporting this bill, William O’Brien, the speaker of the New Hampshire State House, called young voters “foolish” and added that they were not qualified to be voters as they had no “life experience” and that they “just vote their feelings.” I don’t think that universally applies to just young voters.
In 2007, Florida governor Charlie Christ moved to restore voting rights for ex-felons who have completed their terms of probation or parole. As a result of that 154,000 people have had their voting rights restored. But, new governor Rick Scott is going to change that. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has not revealed a specific proposal but her office said the plan would likely eliminate the near-automatic restoration of rights, pushed by Crist for most ex-offenders. Bondi wants to add a waiting period of up to five years after a felon serves his or her sentence before rights can be restored. Minority voters and poor voters also overwhelmingly vote Democrat. Florida’s original felony disenfranchisement law was enacted during Reconstruction, as an effort to limit the political power of newly freed blacks. Felony disenfranchisement laws serve no civic purpose — no one ever stopped themselves from committing a crime simply because they might lose the right to vote. It is only a political game. Florida, a swing state, is seeking to reduce the likely Democrat voters just in time for election 2012.
Many states, for instance, do not require identification to vote. Measures being proposed in more than half the states would add an ID requirement or proof of citizenship, according to an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. In Texas, the measure requiring ID has two major exemptions that give away the true intentions of the bill. Those born before 1931 and people who have a permit allowing them to carry a concealed weapon will not have to show ID. Why? Senior citizens and gun owners are much more likely to vote Republican.
These proposed laws are allegedly to deal with the voter fraud that Republicans maintain exists. It doesn’t. Voter fraud is virtually nonexistent. The cases that happen are innocent mistakes not devious voters tried to cast votes all over town. Voting rights groups recognize the attack.
“It’s a war on voting,” said Thomas Bates, vice president of Rock the Vote, a youth voter- registration group mounting a campaign to fight the array of state measures. “We’d like to be advocating for a 21st-century voting system, but here we are fighting against efforts to turn it back to the 19th century.”
On The Web
- Assault on student voting: Just the latest GOP overreach (dailykos.com)
- “Student Voters Are Fools” (abitofeverythingnow.wordpress.com)
