Disfranchisement
From Wikipedia
Disfranchisement (also called disenfranchisement) is the revocation of the right of suffrage (the right to vote) of a person or group of people, or rendering a person's vote less effective, or ineffective. Disfranchisement may occur explicitly through law, or implicitly by intimidation or by placing unreasonable registration or identification impediments in the path of voters.
I got to thank Ed Schultz for being all over this "below the Radar" story today:
Ohio House Passes Nation's Most Restrictive Voter ID Law
wegoted.com -- 3/25/2011
House Republicans in Ohio pushed through what could become the nation's most restrictive voter identification law.
The bill requires Ohio voters to show government-issued photo IDs at the polls.
The legislation would require voters to show one of four forms of ID when voting in person.
They must show an Ohio driver's license, state ID, military ID or passport.
Doesn't sound like that big of a deal, UNLESS you only find out about it, on the day of the Election; or UNLESS you don't have the means to actually acquire one of those "Acceptable Govt IDs" ...
(remember how many in New Orleans, didn't "have the means" to escape Katrina?)
Whatever happened to those "Voter Registration Cards"? -- I thought those were our Voter Ids?
What Gives!?
Well, I got to thank ThinkProgress too, for doing much of the heavy lifting on this latest Ohio Tea Party attack on our historic system of Democracy.
Ohio House Passes ‘Nation’s Most Restrictive’ Voter ID Law That Would Curb Rights Of Almost 900,000 Ohioans
By Tanya Somanader, thinkprogress.org -- Mar 24th, 2011
The bill sponsor, state Rep. Bob Mecklenborg (R) “said the bill is necessary to combat voter fraud and the perception of fraud.” But after failing to produce any actual evidence of such voter fraud [...]
Despite his belief, representatives from the Board of Elections, the League of Women Voters, and the former Secretary of State office “have never even heard of one” instance of voter impersonation in Ohio. As the Brennan Center for Justice notes, a statewide survey found four instances of ineligible persons voting or attempting to vote in 2002 and 2004 out of 9,078,728 votes case — “a rate of 0.00004%.” [literally less than 1 in a Million]
However, bills like HB 159 stands to severely restrict or exclude millions (at least 12%) of America’s voting population, most notably seniors, the disabled, low-income voters, students, and people of color. As Ohio Democrats noted, an estimated 890,000 voting age Ohioans do not currently have a government-issued photo ID, including significant numbers of blacks and people older than 65.”
What’s more, the GOP bill would actually cost the state “up to $20 million to implement.”
Let me see the New Ohio Photo ID law stands to block 890,000 from voting. How large is that number anyways?
2004 Presidential General Election Results - Ohio
2,859,768 2004 Ohio Votes for Bush
2,741,167 2004 Ohio Votes for Kerry
118,601 2004 Margin for winning in Ohio (a perennial purple state)
So the New Ohio Voter ID Law will effect 7.5 MORE people than was the difference in the 2004 Presidential Election. Incredible!
Kind of seems like the R's in Ohio, don't need anymore help, do they?
Of course after Kasich gets done dismantling their State, The Republican's will probably need "all the help" they can finagle.
And other states too, they are also looking to solve this "Voter Fraud" problem -- a problem that really doesn't exist in any meaningful way, if you look at the Voting stats.
REPORT: In 22 Statehouses Across The Country, Conservatives Move To Disenfranchise Voters
thinkprogress.org -- Mar 5th, 2011
In statehouses across the country, Republican lawmakers are raising the specter of “voter fraud” to push through legislation that would dramatically restrict the voting rights of college students, rural voters, senior citizens, the disabled and the homeless. As part of their larger effort to silence Main Street, conservatives are pushing through new photo identification laws that would exclude millions from voting, depress Hispanic voter turnout by as much as 10 percent, and cost taxpayers millions of dollars.
[...]
New Hampshire, Minnesota, N. Carolina, S. Carolina, Wisconsin, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Tennessee, Iowa [...]
OTHER STATES: The Montana House passed a voter ID bill last month and similar laws have been introduced in Connecticut, Maine, Alaska, Maryland, Virginia, New Mexico, Alaska, Illinois, Iowa, Montana and Nebraska. And in a number of states — including Colorado, Oregon, South Carolina and Tennessee — conservative lawmakers have introduced bills requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote.
About those Voter Fraud Stats. The call for Voter IDs has been studied before, in all seriousness, this is a GOP Solution, in search of a Faux Problem.
Of course, Imagine the bands of GOP wingmen out on the streets, demanding to see your "Photo Id" -- it could be the updated 21st century version of "Voter Caging" ... all under the guise of "Protecting your Right to Vote".
New Voter ID Laws Could Cost Millions Their Right To Vote, According to New Briefing Paper
By Timothy Rusch, Demos -- October 17, 2006
Research proves that strict photo ID requirements for voting
solve none of the real problems of elections in the United States,
and will actually prevent far too many eligible voters
from exercising their responsibility to vote."
[...]
Facts from the Voter ID briefing paper include:
* Voter fraud at the polls is minimal.
-- A recent survey of Ohio's 88 county boards of elections found only four instances of ineligible people attempting to vote, out of over 9 million votes cast in the state during the 2002 and 2004 general elections -- a fraud rate of 0.000044 percent.
[that's 4/100,000-th of a %]
-- The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reports that while 200 million votes were cast in federal elections since October 2002, only 86 individuals have been convicted of federal voter fraud -- and none for offenses that would have been prevented by a voter ID requirement.
-- An extensive analysis of election fraud in 2002 found that voter fraud is rare, that safeguards to prevent fraud are already in place, and that individual voter fraud rarely sways election results.
---------
* New voter ID laws are not based upon evidence and fail to address practices that are actually responsible for most reported incidents of fraud.
[...]
* Millions of Americans lack government-issued photo ID , particularly the elderly, people with disabilities, the poor and people of color.
Strict voter ID requirements will block thousands of legitimate votes for the one, rare fraudulent ballot.
-- According to the 2001 National Commission on Federal Election Reform, 6 to 10 percent of voting-age Americans have no driver's license or state-issued non-driver's photo identification card -- approximately 11 to 20 million citizens.
Those who lack photo ID are disproportionately poor, urban and elderly.
-- In 2005, the American Association of People with Disabilities estimated that more than 3 million Americans with disabilities do not possess a driver's license or state-issued photo ID.
---------
* Voter ID proponents commonly misrepresent the actual incidence of voter fraud or photo ID's ability to prevent it.
Like I said before ... What Gives!?
Kind of sounds like Bizarro World to me, where the R's have to Make it SO much Harder to Vote, for SO many People, In order to Protect the People's Right to Vote. Huh!?
WHO are "the People" they are trying to Protect? ... and Protect from What?
... that oddball One-in-a-Million Voter Fraudster?
I remember when we used to live in a MUCH simpler world. I miss those times.
Seinfeld - Elaine discovers Bizarro World
http://www.youtube.com/...
Jerry explains the Bizarro World for Superman:
Up is down, Down is Up. He says Hello when he leaves, and Good-bye when he arrives ...
Beware People, that is where the Tea Party Governors want to bring us ...
Deep into their own little Bizarro World kingdoms ... Citizens be damned!
(Where is Jerry's Wit and Wisdom, when we need it, BTW? I miss that too.)
