At first glance, it seems appropriate to require voters to show photo ID cards. But stop and think: What sort of person is unlikely to have a driver license or similar card? Answer: the poor, young blacks, the aged, Hispanics, teens — all groups who tend to vote Democratic. That’s why Republican legislators across America are waging an all-out drive to clamp restrictions on voting. They claim they’re doing it to stop “vote fraud,” but that’s a smoke screen. In reality, the new laws amount to vote fraud themselves because they’re designed to block left-leaning people from the polls. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University estimates that 5 million Americans could be prevented from voting this year because of GOP-passed state laws requiring picture IDs, halting election-day registration, curbing early and absentee balloting, etc.
“To put that number in some perspective, it is larger than the margin of victory in two of the last three presidential elections,” Brennan Center leader Lawrence Norden testified before Congress. He said about 11 percent of Americans lack driver licenses — and the lack is enormous among low-income groups who generally vote Democratic. “For instance, according to one study, 78 percent of African-Americans in Wisconsin aged 18 to 24 do not have a driver’s license,” he testified.
Brazenly, Texas and Tennessee allow voters to show pistol licenses at the polls, but not college student IDs. Guess which group leans right, and which leans left? Florida threw so many obstacles in the path of registration drives that the League of Women Voters quit such efforts — until a federal judge stopped the obstruction.
Full Article: Vote fraud: Nationwide effort – Editorials – The Charleston Gazette – West Virginia News and Sports –.