©Scott Sines, Green Rocket News
This election could tell us a lot about who we really are. Which is why a large, diverse voter turnout is so important. Which is why voter registration is so important. Which is why the drive toward stricter and stricter voter ID laws works against the whole enterprise.
Which is why the finding by the Brennan Center that ¬– “From early 2011 until the 2012 election, state lawmakers across the country introduced at least 180 restrictive voting bills in 41 states” ¬– is discouraging. This interactive map gives new voting restrictions by state. Some are pretty severe.
Why? Did we have too many people trying to vote? There is little to no credible evidence to support suspicions of widespread voter fraud. Or maybe a new Republican majority in Congress recognized an opportunity to guarantee their own longevity in power by making up new rules for the credentials necessary to vote, namely a driver’s license. So the voting rights of poor Americans who do not having the means or the need for a driver’s license got thrown under the very bus they ride to work.
In 2011 Alabama passed one of the strictest Voter ID laws in the country. Faith leaders sued for Civil Rights violations. In 2015, Gov. Robert Bentley reacting to budget cuts closed 29 of 67 driver’s license offices across the state. The majority of the closures were in predominantly black counties.
Editorial pages thundered away and relentless community pressure forced Bentley to reopen some offices on certain days and at certain times. Still the damage was done and the message was sent – The voices of black voters are not welcome here.
So good for Iowa on their record turnout. But understand that voting rights in the South is still, after all these years, not close to a settled issue. A record voter turnout in the South? Good on them. But until they quit rigging the rules about who can and can’t vote, turnout will mean very little.
