Thread: GOP legislators nationwide move to tighten rules on voting

GOP legislators nationwide move to tighten rules on voting


By Lizette Alvarez
New York Times / May 29, 2011


MIAMI — Less than 18 months before the next presidential election, Republican-controlled state houses around the country are rewriting voting laws to require photo identification at the polls, reduce the number of days of early voting, or tighten registration rules.

Republican legislators say the new rules, which have advanced in 13 states in the past two months, offer a practical way to weed out fraudulent votes and preserve the integrity of the ballot box. Democrats say the changes have little to do with fraud prevention and more to do with placing obstacles in the way of possible Democratic voters, including young people and minorities.

Governors Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Rick Perry of Texas signed laws last week that would require each voter to show an official photo ID to cast a ballot, joining Kansas and South Carolina.

In Florida, which already had a photo law, Governor Rick Scott signed a bill this month to tighten restrictions on third-party voter registration organizations — prompting the League of Women Voters to say it would cease registering voters in the state — and to shorten the number of early voting days. Twelve states now require photo IDs to vote.

The battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania are among those moving ahead on voter ID bills, part of a trend that seems likely to intensify the kind of pitched partisan jousting over voting that has cropped up in recent presidential races.

Democrats, who point to scant evidence of voter-impersonation fraud, say the unified Republican push for photo identification cards carries echoes of the Jim Crow laws — with their poll taxes and literacy tests — that inhibited black voters in the South from Reconstruction through the 1960s.

Election experts say minorities, poor people, and students — who tend to skew Democratic — are among those least likely to have valid driver’s licenses, the most prevalent form of identification.

Republicans argue that the requirements are commonplace.

“If you have to show a picture ID to buy Sudafed, if you have to show a picture ID to get on an airplane, you should show a picture ID when you vote,’’ Governor Nikki Haley said this month when she signed the bill into law in South Carolina, using a common refrain among Republicans.


www.boston.com

Democrats, who point to scant evidence of voter-impersonation fraud

Probably because there is hardly anyone (if anyone) checking into it.

In CA all one has to do it check a box that they are a citizen.

Protecting the integrity of our voting system should be high priority but it obviously is not with the Democrats. They seem to be willing to do anything for votes.

[quote="jean"]GOP legislators nationwide move to tighten rules on voting


Yes, in EVERY State! The Dem's are just P.O.ed cause the illegals won't be able to vote for them!!

Originally Posted by jean

Democrats, who point to scant evidence of voter-impersonation fraud

Probably because there is hardly anyone (if anyone) checking into it.

In CA all one has to do it check a box that they are a citizen.

Protecting the integrity of our voting system should be high priority but it obviously is not with the Democrats. They seem to be willing to do anything for votes.

Or that the Dems are responsible for a portion of voter fraud. In my town ACORN was very active. The clerk of courts found a goldfish registered to vote - don't know if the fish showed up though. In this area, juries are called from voter rolls, and a significant number of jury notices are returned with "not a citizen" written across them.

Here is a link to a related story that I'm going to quote from.

http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/2012Ele ... ode=C5BA-1

“There is not one documented case that has been presented to us, and we had numerous hearings,â€