In Wisconsin, the Associated Press profiles voters whose votes were stripped from them by the state's new Republican-instituted voter ID law. There were many.
By one estimate, 300,000 eligible voters in the state lacked valid photo IDs heading into the election; it is unknown how many people did not vote because they didn’t have proper identification. But it is not hard to find the Navy veteran whose out-of-state driver’s license did not suffice, or the dying woman whose license had expired, or the recent graduate whose student ID was deficient — or Harris, who at 66 made her way to her polling place despite chronic lung disease and a torn ligament in her knee.
She had lost her driver’s license just before Election Day. Aware of the new law, she brought her Social Security and Medicare cards as well as a county-issued bus pass that displayed her photo.
Not good enough. She had to cast a provisional ballot that ended up not being counted.
While 300,000 Wisconsin citizens were blocked from voting due to insufficient paperwork, the state is investigating "86 reports of possible voter fraud, of which 70 involved felons who may have voted before having their rights restored." The Trump administration on Thursday announced a new voting integrity commission to be headed by Mike Pence and notorious Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach; Kobach has long used the specter of rampant voter fraud to push voter ID laws throughout the nation, despite no evidence that more than a handful of such cases have taken place during any given election.
TOP COMMENTS • HIGH IMPACT STORIES • THE WEEK’S HIGH IMPACT STORIES
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
At Daily Kos on this date in 2003—Osama’s back:
Let's get to the heart of the matter, the Saudis are scared to death of Osama and even more scared that we will find out how deeply supported Al Qaeda is in Saudi society.
The Bush Administration can neither protect the Saudi princes from themselves nor destroy Al Qaeda.
In the same year that the US devoted its entire military and intelligence apparatus to finding and destroying Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, which has now boiled down to a mobile brewery and some scrapings from a tank, Al Qaeda is not only not destroyed, but nearly as strong as it was on September 10, 2001.
Stories of the return of the Taliban ran in the papers during the Iraq war and were ignored by most people. The pronouncements from Osama have been treated like a trick from the last couple of episodes of 24 and not a real and ongoing threat to national security.
Throwing hundreds of people into our Cuban gulag at Gitmo may have been able to prevent some immediate attacks, but it clearly has not killed the Al Qaeda organization, much less the driving force of Islamic revivalist thought (the proper name for what we call fundamentalism) rampant in the region. Tossing out thousands for minor immigration violations has only caused hardship and resentment in Pakistan and around the Arab world.
And given the absolute ineptness of US policy in Europe over the last year, we find ourselves more isolated and alone than ever.
Monday through Friday you can catch the Kagro in the Morning Show 9 AM ET by dropping in here, or you can download the Stitcher app (found in the app stores or at Stitcher.com), and find a live stream there, by searching for "Netroots Radio.” |