I had posted this in the Florida front page story, but I think it's important enough to warrant a diary.
Last week I posted in an open thread about an attempt to sue my county clerk to demand her to require newly registered voters to show id at the polls.
The case was dismissed due to the fact that the New Mexico Supreme Court will be hearing a similar case today (never mind that the Repugs already knew this when the filed the case, but they hadn't expected local opposition).
This is all part of an effort to make it more difficult for newly registered voters in NM to vote.
Now Sen. Domenici (R-NM) wants to do to the nation what they've been trying to do in New Mexico:
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., has introduced federal legislation that would require more first-time voters, nationwide, to show identification before voting this year-- unless they registered in person with a government employee.
His amendment to the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 would take effect immediately and retroactively cover all people who registered since that provision of HAVA took effect in Jan. 1, 2003, Domenici spokesman Chris Gallegos said.
This would affect a a truly huge number of voters.
"It's tough to get it passed in time for this election," Domenici said Tuesday. "But I'm going to try my best-- very, very hard."
Right, Pete! If you are in New Mexico, let Domenici have a piece of your mind. Or even if you aren't in NM (but I think it has more effect if his constituents call).
If Domenici's amendment were to pass, it would cause massive chaos country wide. You can bet your bottom dollar that this wouldn't be happening if most of those new voters were Republican. Folks, they are scared of those huge numbers of the newly registered and how they will vote (and rightly so).
As a end note, a bunch of us troublemakers in Socorro, NM got together and wrote an editorial to the local paper about the attempts in New Mexico to keep new voters from voting (it's the second letter down called "Voting is a right"; they stick all the opeds on the same web page).