On February 12, 2012 at 10:02 pm The New York Times on The Opinion Pages, posted an article by Alexander Keyssar entitled, The Strange Career of Voter Suppression.
In this article, Mr. Keyssar made the following comments:
THE 2012 general election campaign is likely to be a fight for every last vote, which means that it will also be a fight over who gets to cast one.
Partisan skirmishing over election procedures has been going on in state legislatures across the country for several years. Republicans have called for cutbacks in early voting, an end to same-day registration, higher hurdles for ex-felons, the presentation of proof-of-citizenship documents and regulations discouraging registration drives. The centerpiece of this effort has been a national campaign to require voters to present particular photo ID documents at the polls. Characterized as innocuous reforms to preserve election integrity, beefed-up ID requirements have passed in more than a dozen states since 2005 and are still being considered in more than 20 others.
Opponents of the laws, mostly Democrats, claim that they are intended to reduce the participation of the young, of the poor and of minorities, who are most likely to lack government-issued IDs — and also most likely to vote Democratic.
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In 2009, Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth College, The Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences,prepared a white paper on Voter Suppression: New Hampshire’s response to a National problem.
This collaborative effort by Professors and students, leaves little doubt that voter suppression is rampant in the United States. Below is the very brief, but succinct, Executive Summary:
Voter suppression, defined in this report as any behavior intended to deter an eligible voter from casting a ballot, has been an ongoing concern in the debate surrounding election law and election administration. This report outlines the history, practices, and legislation surrounding major suppression tactics in four categories: direct threats or intimidation, disinformation or scare tactics, disruption of an opponent's lines of communication, and challenging some one's right to vote.
The report attempts to acknowledge the blurred boundaries between lawful campaigning and fraud prevention activities and voter suppression. A brief discussion on policy recommendations focused on ways to deter and mitigate the damage associated with suppression concludes the
analysis.
The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) believes that this practice started almost 50 years ago,
When the Voting Rights Act was passed 46 years ago, poll taxes and literacy tests were among the tactics used to prevent African-Americans and other racial and language minorities from voting. Modern day efforts to suppress voter turnout and registration have taken many forms including photo ID requirements; proof of citizenship requirements for registration; reducing the number of days for early voting; restrictions on third-party voter registration activities; limiting the opportunity to make an address change at the polls on election day; systematic purges of registered voters; challenges to student voters as non-residents; unfounded allegations of voter fraud; and moving or closing precincts in minority communities.
If the GOP prevails in the Sunshine State on November 6, it won't be because of hanging chads—though there have been plenty of issues with Florida's paperless digital machines. Instead, it might owe something to Gov. Rick Scott's now infamous voter and the restrictive new voting laws Florida passed last year. Or the fact that about a million voting-age Floridians will be sitting on their hands this Election Day—permanently stricken from the voting rolls because they were once convicted of a felony. Read more
More than 2.5 million voters have left the Democratic and Republican parties since the 2008 elections, while the number of independent voters continues to grow.
According to the 2011 article, the trend is acute in states that are key to next year's (which is now) presidential race. In the eight swing states that register voters by party, Democrats' registration is down by 800,000 and Republicans' by 350,000. Independents have gained 325,000.
Democrats still dominate with 42 million as compared to 30 million for Republicans and 24 million for Independents.
SO, I ask you who has
the most to gain by the tactic of
VOTER SUPPRESSION?
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