This week is the anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. But instead of marking progress, today we’re seeing legal challenges to this landmark law and new anti-voting laws that prevent eligible voters from voting.
If they can’t count on your vote, they want to keep you from being counted at all. Eligible voters should be able to vote.
Voting is a fundamental freedom — we need to protect our democracy by making sure all eligible voters can vote. Instead, state-by-state, Republican politicians are putting up hurdles that prevent law-abiding citizens from voting.
Anti-voting laws require photo ID that 20 million Americans don’t have, take away the flexibility that parents and workers need to vote early or on weekends, and block volunteers from helping others with their voter registration paperwork. These new anti-voting laws target people with the least time and money. But that’s not all: seniors and veterans whose existing ID used to be fine suddenly can’t vote either.
Politicians who can’t count on your vote want to keep you from being counted at all — no matter the consequences. They’re rigging the vote so the system stays rigged in their favor.
PERSONAL STORIES
To illustrate the impact of these new anti-voting laws on real people, here are stories you can use:
- In Tennessee, Dorothy Cooper, a 96 year old woman who has voted in almost every election since she was old enough to vote, couldn’t meet a new voter ID requirement because she didn’t have a copy of her marriage license.
- In Ohio, Paul Carroll, an 86 year old World War II veteran, was told his photo ID from the VA wasn’t good enough for the recent Ohio primary election because it did not include his address.
- In Pennsylvania, Viviette Applewhite, a 93 year old woman who has voted in almost every election for the last 60 years, can’t vote now because she lost her photo ID when her purse was stolen and state officials can’t find the birth certificate she needs to replace it.
- In Texas, Jose Zuniga, an 83 year old man who uses a wheelchair, would have to take two or three buses and travel 20 miles to reach the nearest state government office where he can get the new photo ID he’d need to vote.
ATTACKS AND RESPONSES
FALSEHOOD: "The Obama campaign is trying to end early voting for our military in Ohio."
RESPONSE:
- Actually, the Obama campaign is fighting to restore early voting. Thankfully, Ohio service members never lost their right to vote early, but Ohio Republicans took it away from almost everyone else — including more than 900,000 Ohio veterans.
- Romney’s claims are flat out untrue and even Fox News admits it, but he’s still trying to twist the truth into a falsehood for political gain. That’s shameful.
- Politicians should be trying to protect our democracy by making sure everyone eligible to vote can vote — not ending early voting just to keep voters they don’t like away from the polls.
ATTACK: "Democrats are trying to steal elections by registering dogs and dead people in Virginia."
RESPONSE:
- Americans can rest assured that if dogs show up at the polls and try to vote, even at the risk of jail, they’ll be found out and turned away. And if dead people are walking the streets, we’ve got a bigger problem on our hands.
- Protecting the integrity of our elections is hugely important. That’s why we have strict laws and protections in place. Anti-voting laws do the opposite and undermine our democracy by preventing eligible voters from voting.
- Here’s what’s really going on: Republican politicians love to make these false allegations and cry wolf because they know it drums up support for their anti-voting laws.
- But in case after case after case, it turns out clerical errors, people pulling pranks, or simple explanations are at the root of the charges. Republicans are blowing smoke but there’s no fire.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- Since President Obama was elected, many Republican-governed states have enacted new laws that make it harder for people to register and vote, such as —
- Catch-22 laws that require a photo ID in order to get a photo ID or the birth certificate you need to get a photo ID;
- Laws ending or reducing highly popular early voting, absentee voting, and Election Day and same day voter registration opportunities;
- Purges of citizens off the registration rolls just for having foreign-sounding names; and
- Requirements for voter registration drives that are practically impossible to meet.
- The new GOP voter suppression efforts will undermine the voting rights of as many as 5 million American citizens in the 2012 election — the margin of victory in two of the last three presidential elections.
- Over 20 million American citizens do not have valid IDs, including an even greater percentage of African American, low-income, and older citizens.
- In a study of 10 states with anti-voting ID laws, more than 10 million eligible voters — including 500,000 without a car — live more than 10 miles from their nearest state ID-issuing office open more than two days a week.
- The notorious poll tax — outlawed during the civil rights era — cost $10.64 in current dollars. In contrast, it can cost $25 for a birth certificate, up to $100 for a driver’s license, $97 for a passport, and over $200 for naturalization papers.
- Politicians trying to manufacture a conspiracy of voter fraud will only find incidence rates that are virtually zero — like 0.000002% nationwide; 0.0009% in Washington; 0.0002% in Wisconsin; and 0.00004% in Ohio. And virtually all the cases of "voter fraud" are actually due to clerical or typographical errors, mismatched record entries, and simple mistakes.
- During the Bush administration’s unprecedented years-long attempt to prosecute “voter fraud” cases, they were unable to find a single case of in-person polling place impersonation out of the 197 million ballots cast in the 2002 and 2004 federal elections — the only type of voter fraud such voter ID laws might address.
These are some of the things that are more common than voter fraud: The number of Americans who have a favorable view of North Korea, exploding toilets, death by being crushed by furniture or television, being set on fire by doctors during surgery, and death from your nightwear igniting or melting.
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