Bees beware? Based on the logic of voter suppression advocates, all bees should be exterminated because we have a one in 75,000 chance of being attacked by a swarm of them. It is a dangerous world out there--for democracy. If we never looked at the odds fear mongering would tear the seams of our most valued activities and principles.
The same logic, tearing at the seams of our democracy, is behind new laws and unlawful actions that could disenfranchise more than 23 million voters because there is a one out of 2.3 million chance that a person would commit voter fraud. The ends do not justify the means.
In conjunction with Brave New Films Foundation, the NAACP has launched a short film exposing the impact of rare events versus the impact that false claims of mass voter fraud have on the voting age population.
Watch the video here:
In August, News21 found only 10 cases related to alleged cases of voter impersonation fraud in more than 10 years--the kind that voter ID legislation would address. Additionally, News21 analyzed the oft-cited 375 cases of voter impersonation fraud and found no evidence of voter impersonation fraud.
This evidence does suggest that there is a need for voter registration modernization that has largely been neglected on the state level. The evidence also suggests that states extend efforts to educate voters on their election rules and procedures--reaching marginalized voters across the state.
Fortunately, these are mandates provided in HAVA, the Help America Vote Act. Unfortunately however, the lack of federal and state funding for HAVA has further delayed full enactment.
Circumstances and evidence aside, unnecessary and disenfranchising voter ID laws are just the tip of the voter suppression iceberg. Reducing or cutting early voting days, placing unnecessary burdens on voter registration, and instituting proof of citizenship on top of unlawful voter purges, felony disenfranchisement, voter deception and intimidation are all suppressive measures that impact the American right to vote.
These efforts stray far from helping Americans vote. Following the historic voter turnout in the 2008 Presidential election, which helped elect the Nation's first black president, a string of states began introducing laws that actively suppress the vote. Consequentially, these laws target voting blocs that showed a marked increase in turnout--minorities and youth in the 18 to 24 year old age group.
To paint a picture, cuts to early voting could have an adverse impact for populations who rely on those hours to vote when they are unable to take off from work--a luxury for those who have access to paid leave and other exceptions. In 2008, about 30 percent of Ohio's voters casted ballots before Election Day according to the Associated Press. For populations that have statistically been harder to mobilize and turnout on Election Day, the attack has been mounted on third-party registration efforts and community efforts like "Souls to the Polls" that were overwhelmingly successful in Florida.
The video exposes shear numbers, and if you dig deeper and divide the more than 23 million voters further the impact is still startling. Felony disenfranchisement laws alone, referring to laws that strip the rights of voters who have been convicted of a felony offense, disenfranchise more than 6 million otherwise eligible voters.
The video asks if we should stop going outside, stop taking baths, kill the bees, and prepare our family and friends for impending death in response to freak incidents. The most important question, however, is should we stop the vote of those wholly eligible to vote in the face of nearly non-existent voter fraud? If the bedrock of this nation's democracy is the right to vote, then the answer has to be no.
Follow Benjamin Todd Jealous on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BenJealous
Doug Kendall: Conservatives Seek to Celebrate the Constitution by Undermining It
Please add the "REGISTER TO VOTE" apps above all your comments sections for each article. Thank you for trying to make it easier. This is the mopst important election of my lifetime - and I have voting for 40 years. This election is our last chance to stave off a Citizen's United OLIGARCHY funded by 5 multi-billionaires. Equal rights for all, choice for woman, inclusion of gay people as opposed to No equal pay for women, No Abortion rights as opposed to back into the closet for gays and back into the kitchen barefoot and pregnant for woman.
I prefer that our nation move FORWARD. OBAMA 2012
Writing for the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens said any political issues considered by the state were mitigated by its desire to stop voter fraud.
"The state interests identified as justifications for [the law] are both neutral and sufficiently strong to require us to reject" the lawsuit, he wrote.
What about voter suppression at the DNC? I think God lost.
Obama 2012. Democrats forever. Moving forward.
The Democratic Party officially adopts the Gay and Lesbian Lifestyle but God and Israel is booed!!!
What does the NAACP really stand for?
The Voter ID issue is a loser as it consistently polls with voters overwhelmingly in favor of it.
Below are the most recent polls for Voter ID laws in swing states.
Georgia Congressman and civil rights hero John Lewis just gave a speech at the Democratic convention attacking voter ID laws. A recent New York Times/CBS News/Quinnipac poll asked voters about voter ID laws in three key swing states and found the following result:
As you may know, there have been efforts in some states to require voters to show a photo identification card to vote. Some people say this is needed to prevent people from voting who are not eligible to vote. Other people say such efforts are designed to suppress voting by low-income people and minorities. What do you think, do you support or oppose efforts to require voters to show a photo identification card to vote?
LIKELY VOTERS....
FL OH WI
Support 78% 75% 66%
Oppose 20 23 32
DK/NA 2 2 2
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/swing-state-voters-overwhelmingly-support-voter-id-laws_651890.html
Who is organizing the resistance? Where do folks go to help get citizens registered? They only win here if we let them.
Let's not let them.