Conservative “investigative reporter” Matthew Vadum caused a real stir last week. As one of the many individuals who proselytizes about the threat of voter fraud and the need for restrictive measures to protect the ballot box, he’s generally expected to stick to a predictable script.
The argument usually goes like this: everyone should be able to vote and that voter ID isn’t supposed to make it harder for anyone to vote. Also, voter ID efforts aren’t partisan, but rather about good government, and that if you have to show your ID to buy liquor or rent a movie from Blockbuster you should have to show it to vote.
But Vadum — who wrote column upon column and even a book about the community organizing group ACORN — published a piece last week that really gave away the game, writing that groups that want to register poor people are un-American and are essentially “handing out burglary tools to criminals.”
Voter ID legislation in the states has been getting a lot of attention lately, with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) announcing a hearing examining the issue this week.
It all started in January, as many new Republican state legislators who had been swept into statehouses across the country in the 2010 elections started pushing like-minded legislation soon after they took office.
Full Article: Legal Battles Loom In Fight Over Voter ID Laws | TPMMuckraker.