We've come a long way?
Faye Anderson, voting rights
evangelist, is sounding the alarm on a huge segment of the voting population that hasn't been focused on by voting rights advocates:
women. She's very representative of the women in question:
A middle-aged New York transplant living in Philadelphia, who commutes up and down the East Coast, traveling without a driver's license. Like many New Yorkers, Anderson doesn't drive so she doesn't need one. She has a non-driver's photo identification from New York, and other than that she has a passport. It wasn't easy getting a New York ID, Anderson told me, and she's concerned chiefly with women like her who might also have troubles getting the ID they need to vote, especially if they've been recently married, divorced or if they've moved, all of which could lead to name and address mismatches on Election Day.
That's middle class, working women who don't need to drive, or who've had a name change or have moved for a job. In her case, where she now lives in Pennsylvania, the new voter ID law requires that all voters have photo identification. The name must be an exact match to what's on the voting rolls. The ID must have issued by state or federal government, a state university or a nursing home. No other photo ID, such as a passport, is acceptable.
Anderson correctly says, "It's unreasonable that women, with all that's going on in their lives, will then have time to sit down and Google 'where do I get my birth certificate,' 'where do I find my marriage certificate,' 'where to find the closest social security office,' the hours they're open, how to get there, and once there do they have all the documents they need."
This is how Republicans intend, in part, to blunt the massive gender gap. Voting rights advocates have, rightly, bemoaned the targeting of African Americans, Latinos, college-aged people, and the elderly—all disproportionately Democratic voters—but keeping women out of the polls would certainly give the Republicans the most bang for their voter suppression buck. Particularly in a year when women have been targeted economically by Republicans.
The women who have the most at stake could have the hardest time fulfilling voter ID requirements. And they have been directly targeted as undeserving of the right to vote by conservative activists like the deplorable John Derbyshire—who has actually written a chapter of a book titled "The Case Against Female Suffrage"—and Matthew Vadum, who regularly rights about voter fraud and welfare as intertwining issues, arguing that low-income Americans (disproportinately female) shouldn't be voting. It's a perception that has to be fought in more than just conservative thinking, unfortunately.
Anderson, an African-American woman, has seen this kind of contempt for low-income citizens not only from conservative white men like Derbyshire and Vadum, but also from otherwise privileged women.
"The subtext is that people without ID are irresponsible," said Anderson. "For some of these middle-class moms, they are thinking 'This voter ID issue is not about me, it's about those low-income minorities, those irresponsible women.'"
Anderson tells me she's even heard this from some black well-off women. But according to the Brennan Center, she reminds me, only 48% of voting-age women have ready access to a birth certificates that reflects their current legal name, and only 66% of voting-age women have proof of citizenship documents reflecting their current name.
Women could easily decide this election. That is, if they can and do vote. To make it easier for women and for all would-be voters to navigate the new voter ID requirements in dozens of states, Anderson is developing the
Cost of Freedom Voter ID app. It will help voters in any state navigate the process of getting everything necessary in order to register and vote. The app will make it easier for civil rights organizations, churches and community groups to assist voters.
For more of the week's news, make the jump below the fold.
In other news:
- While women are a large target for voter suppression, voter ID laws could have a serious impact on transgender voters as well, a new report warns.
This goes beyond just trying to get ID for voting purposes. Transgender citizens have problems obtaining and updating their identification cards for any reason, especially when dealing with the government. The National Transgender Discrimination Survey—the largest survey on transgender issues in the nation—shows that 22 percent of respondents said they had been denied equal treatment by a government agency or official, with another 22 percent saying they had been harassed or disrespected in the same setting. Respondents without ID reflecting their correct gender: 41 percent. That’s also about the same percentage who said that when they presented their non-gender-matching ID when asked to show it (at a bar, airport, etc.) were harassed afterward—3 percent said they were attacked or assaulted.
- Republicans in Florida picked a fight with the League of Women Voters in Florida, and the organization was basically forced to stop its voter registration efforts or face constant challenges and potential fines from the state. How much do you want to bet the state ignores this:
The venues for a series of recent Christian political rallies couldn't have been more different — one night at the Marks Street Senior Center in downtown Orlando; the next at McKenna's Place, an Irish pub inGreenacres; the next at Calvary Chapel, a megachurch based in Fort Lauderdale — but the purpose was the same:
Enlisting Florida Christians in a high-tech outreach program by identifying and signing up tens of thousands of area Christians who aren't registered to vote so they can cast ballots this fall and beat President Barack Obama in November.
- There was mixed news out of Arizona this week. An 11-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a new law requiring voters to show ID at the polls, but struck down a proof-of-citizenship requirement for people registering to vote. Groups representing Latinos, American Indians and women had challenged the law, arguing that the voter ID requirement essentially constituted a poll tax, an argument the court rejected. The next stop, should they appeal, it the Supreme Court.
- Citizenship requirements might have been struck down in Arizona, but it's under consideration in Michigan, where the Secretary of State says she's "received reports of a handful of noncitizens who are registered voters," reports that have apparently not been verified. The legislature is now considering adding proof-of-citizenship at her request. Michigan is in the 6th Circuit, but they might consider what just happened in the 9th before going forward with this one.
- In 1993, the National Voter Registration Act (Motor Voter) was passed to make voter registration easier, requiring that states give people the opportunity to register to vote when getting a driver's license or applying for social services. This week, in 2012, the State of Georgia finally agreed, grudgingly, to abide by the law in a settlement reached with a coalition of civil rights groups who had brought suit against the state.
- And finally, we had one small victory in that ALEC announced it was going to be halting its voter suppression work. But, of course, another right-wing group is going to pick up where ALEC is leaving off.