Whose Voting Rights is It OK For The Fascists To Take Away?

One would have to have been exceptionally naive to have believed it was only Wisconsin fascist Scott Brown who was taking Koch money to undermine democracy for their shared cause. The Republican drive to cut back drastically on voting rights for likely Democratic constituencies goes far beyond Wisconsin. And yesterday Ari Berman tore open the shutters that have kept the disgrace out of the public eye. Ari's easily proven contention that the GOP has "launched an unprecedented, centrally coordinated campaign to suppress the elements of the Democratic vote that elected Barack Obama in 2008" isn't something you hear about on TV or even read in the daily newspapers. But it's part of the right-wing effort not just to take over the government, but to disable democracy itself.

Just as Dixiecrats once used poll taxes and literacy tests to bar black Southerners from voting, a new crop of GOP governors and state legislators has passed a series of seemingly disconnected measures that could prevent millions of students, minorities, immigrants, ex-convicts and the elderly from casting ballots. "What has happened this year is the most significant setback to voting rights in this country in a century," says Judith Browne-Dianis, who monitors barriers to voting as co-director of the Advancement Project, a civil rights organization based in Washington, D.C. ... In a systematic campaign orchestrated by the American Legislative Exchange Council [ALEC]-- and funded in part by David and Charles Koch, the billionaire brothers who bankrolled the Tea Party-- 38 states introduced legislation this year designed to impede voters at every step of the electoral process.

All told, a dozen states have approved new 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 Maine repealed Election Day voter registration, which had been on the books since 1973.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.

...Come Election Day 2012, such problems will only be exacerbated by the flood of new laws implemented by Republicans. Instead of a single fiasco in Florida, experts warn, there could be chaos in a dozen states as voters find themselves barred from the polls. "Our democracy is supposed to be a government by, of and for the people," says Browne-Dianis. "It doesn't matter how much money you have, what race you are or where you live in the country – we all get to have the same amount of power by going into the voting booth on Election Day. But those who passed these laws believe that only some people should participate. The restrictions undermine democracy by cutting off the voices of the people."