Republicans Don’t Want You to Vote
21 September 2006 8:41 am by Taylor Marsh
Republicans Don't Want You to Vote
The photo ID push by Republicans in the House is shameful. It's been proven
unconstitutional in Georgia and Missouri, but on they press. It's not to keep
tallies legitimate and to keep people who don't have the right from voting.
It's to suppress minorities and the poor, but also women. Illegal immigrants
aren't the issue, no matter how the Republicans push it.
I'm currently involved in a project to help get out the women's vote. As most
know, in 2000, more than 22 million single women did not vote. There are a multitude
of reasons, which we are trying to turn around for 2008. A photo ID will make
that impossible, especially for poor women. That didn't concern the House yesterday.
One of the cornerstones of the Republican Party’s strategy for winning
elections these days is voter suppression, intentionally putting up barriers
between eligible voters and the ballot box. The House of Representatives took
a shameful step in this direction yesterday, voting largely along party lines
for onerous new voter ID requirements. Laws of this kind are unconstitutional,
as an array of courts have already held, and profoundly undemocratic. The
Senate should not go along with this cynical, un-American electoral strategy.The bill the House passed yesterday would require people to show photo ID
to vote in 2008. Starting in 2010, that photo ID would have to be something
like a passport, or an enhanced kind of driver’s license or non-driver’s
identification, containing proof of citizenship. This is a level of identification
that many Americans simply do not have.(snip)
The actual reason for this bill is the political calculus that certain kinds
of people — the poor, minorities, disabled people and the elderly —
are less likely to have valid ID. They are less likely to have cars, and therefore
to have drivers’ licenses. There are ways for nondrivers to get special
ID cards, but the bill’s supporters know that many people will not go
to the effort if they don’t need them to drive.
We'll see if the Senate takes up the House bill. If Republicans push this they
obviously are trying to suppress the vote in 2008. It's the only way they think
they can win.
The bill the House passed Wednesday, meanwhile, would require everyone to
present a photo ID before voting in federal elections by 2008. By 2010, voters
would have to have photo IDs that certified they were citizens. In response
to criticism that this would be a burden for the poor, the bill stipulates
that states must provide the identification cards free of charge to those
who can't afford them.(snip)
Rep. Ike Skelton (news, bio, voting record), D-Mo., said he was initially
denied a voter ID required under a Missouri state law because he doesn't have
a driver's license and couldn't immediately produce a passport or birth certificate.
His congressional ID card was not accepted. …
