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Democracy, Voter Rights, and Federal Power

1,766 bytes added, 19:52, 7 September 2012
adding new voter id in place of wi
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<h3h2 style="margin:3px; background:#000000; font-size:140%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #000000; text-align:left; color:#ffffff; padding:0.2em 0.4em;">Some of this Corporate Agenda Has Already Become LawALEC Inspired Voter Suppression Measures Take Off</h3h2>[[Image:Wisconsin.png|left|90px]]Taking a page from the ALEC corporate playbook, After Barack Obama swept into office in May 2011 Wisconsin Governor and ALEC alumni Scott Walker signed into law one November of 2008 with the most restrictive Voter ID restrictions in the country. Wisconsin's bill would allow a narrow list energized support of IDs for votingyouth and African Americans, including driver's licenses and state-issued ID cards. According to suddenly "voter fraud" became a University of Wisconsindeep concern for many in the Republican party -Milwaukee study, about 177,000 Wisconsinites aged 65 and older do not have state-issued IDsdespite no evidence fraud occurred in any statistically significant way. Statewide, only 45 percent of African American males and 51 percent of females have a valid drivers license. The bill makes it particularly burdensome for college students to voteWhen Republicans emerged from the November 2010 elections with new majorities in statehouses across the country, a group who overwhelmingly supported Obama in 2008. The Wisconsin bill is a more detailed version total of ALEC's [ [http://alecexposedwww.brennancenter.org/wcontent/imagessection/dcategory/d9/7G16-VOTER_ID_ACT_Exposedvoter_id 37 states] saw strict voter ID laws introduced in 2011 and 2012.pdf Voter ID Act] Many of those proposals contained elements of 2009. To pay for the Voter ALEC "model" voter ID billact, which imposes new burdens on the Wisconsin Joint Finance committee raided the money set aside for the public financing of campaigns, ending a 34right to vote by requiring voters show state-year tradition of public financing for elections in Wisconsin -- in conformity with ALEC's issued ID cards that [http://alecexposedwww.brennancenter.org/wcontent/imagessection/acategory/ae/7G9voter_id approximately 11 percent] of voting-Resolution_Opposing_Taxpayer_Financed_Political_Campaigns_Exposedage American citizens do not possess.pdf Resolution Opposing Taxpayer Financing of Political Campaigns]That number is even higher for students, African Americans, low-income, and older citizens. Learn more Though the ALEC "model" provides for free ID cards, the Brennan Center for Justice [http://www.prwatchbrennancenter.org/newscontent/2011resource/07the_challenge_of_obtaining_voter_identification/10880/alec has found] that the process of obtaining an ID presents significant difficulties, with voters lacking access to transportation, living dozens of miles from the nearest ID-issuing office (many of which have irregular and limited hours), and facing costs and headaches in obtaining supporting documentation like birth certificates. Additionally, the in-person voter fraud these laws might prevent happens at an infinitesimally small rate -bills-wisconsin here]meaning that on balance, the purported benefits of the law (stopping voter fraud) do not outweigh the costs of disenfranchising as many as 21 million American citizens.
Photo voter ID bills were signed into law in eight states — Alabama, Kansas, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania — and passed by referendum in Mississippi. Additionally, Minnesota's legislature approved a ballot measure to amend the state constitution to require ID at the polls.
 
Though the number of states with strict voter ID laws [http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/2012_summary_of_voting_law_changes/ quadrupled in 2011], there has been some pushback. Under Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, several states with a history of racially motivated voting rights discrimination require federal pre-approval for changes to voting procedures and practices, and the U.S. Department of Justice has refused to approve voter ID laws passed by South Carolina and Texas. In Wisconsin, [http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/07/11649/second-judge-finds-wis-voter-id-law-unconstitutional two state judges] have found the law violates the state constitution's express protections for voting rights. A Pennsylvania court upheld that state's law but it is being appealed to the state's supreme court. Other challenges to the laws are pending.
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'''This information is available for download as a one-page fact sheet [http://alecexposed.org/w/images/a/a7/ALEC_on_Democracy.pdf here].'''
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