Talking Points Memo takes a long look today at developments in the surge of Republican legislative efforts to pass Vote ID laws transparently intended to suppress votes among Democratic constituencies. Civil rights in the Bush era meant suppression of vote by the wrong sorts of people (Tim Griffin, anyone?)
AS TPM notes, a conservative writer pretty well gave away the game recently:
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.”
The vote suppressors are at work in Arkansas. Give the Republicans a few more seats in the legislature and ALEC cookie cutter legislation will sail right through.
